Alidropship in Questions

[mangomarey]

Hi Yaros..

Here is what i did regarding the latest update:

- I backed up my site
- I updated Alidropship plugin and i said i ll update the theme after.
- The whole site messed up to the degree i can not even restore. because i did not have access to the admin area.
- i sent you a help message here on the forum and on your Skype. and that was on Saturday Morning.
- Sunday and after receiving no reply from you i restored the whole site from Friday backup which was on my host.
- i said may be i should have updated the theme first. i did that and again.. it was a disaster.
- Went back to the Host restore (Friday one).
- Today Monday i got this reply from you here: have you updated the theme also? !!
and this on on skype: Hello, could you send me your wp-admin access?

Let me say this:
Alidropship plugin is an amazing tool and i really like it but i think the service is not up to our expectation and let me explain why.

When i first bought the plugin i had a very hard time try to get it installed, not because i do not know how to install a plugin (i installed a lot and tough ones) but because the plugin itself (Alidropship) and its documentation was not clear at all, i spent the whole day with the Host Company engineers tried to get it fix, i even sent them your documentation and your recommendations and still could not get it to work although they have done everything you said.

I contacted you and after long wait you said" I sincerely apologize that you have to wait for a long time, but please note that our working hours 3am-12pm GMT" and you asked for the Wordpress login details and you fixed the problem and when i asked what was the reason you told me because the version i got is not working and you (Alidropship) got 2 versions and you installed the second version (ioncube version).. BIG QUESTION IN HERE?

Now, i tried to update and i lost the whole site and thank GOD i bought backup option from my host company, although i have a backup plugin but not working because i lost access to the admin area.

I noticed that most of the problem here you always ask for the Wordpress Access so you can fix the problem. why do not you ask for the log? the error messages?
i did not have any problem giving you my login details and i do not mind even now giving it to you again ... but this should not be the case always and for every related problem. because now we are just starting business with this plugin but later on we wont like anyone even the plugin developer to have access to our site. please do not get me wrong.

Also i noticed that you guys do not answer any question during the weekend and i may understand that may be because you are a small firm or just a small group of developers and you also have your own life liek us but we are talking business in here. 2 days my site was down and this is a big deal specially if you run a lot of paid ads.

I have a Shopify stores and have a very similar plugin like yours (Shopified app) and they answer any question any time weekdays, weekends, days and nights.
I am not here to compare you to them but what i am saying is:
You developed a great product and it is BUSINESS product and that requires a better service than what we have now.

As for the update, i do not want to update now, i am worry a lot about losing more data and more visitors to the site. i ll keep the version i have (.8) until a major release from your side.
I love this Plugin, i really do and i'd love to recommend it to all my clients and friends but those things are holding me back.
Sorry for the long message, i choosed to post it here cause i think there are some other people who may face the same issue.

Also, i only have 2 plugins installed beside your plugins:
Contact Form 7 and bloom .. that is all ..

Thanks for your time.
Regards
M

 

[neeraj89]

i am bit surprised.. my installation and update went smoothly. and i have no experience in web things at all.. dont worry. they will sure help you out..

 

[hunybuny2]

Well, the plugin and theme update went smoothly for me "EXCEPT" 2 issues.
1. Page titles were not showing on site properly and it basically messed up all pages a bit. This issue was resolved by Support.
2. I can not update orders of almost all the products after the plugin update. Once I add new value in order field and save, it does not actually saves and previous values come back.

I agree with the thread starter, that this is business and should be treated like a business. I purchased this plugin almost 21 days ago and still I could not setup my site because of various issues. Once I set up all products and then all images messed up because of moving towards SSL. Support told me there is nothing they can do to solve this. So, what then ? I had to start the whole process from scratch. Now once I am near completion, I still can not launch my site because of order bug. How can a starting site have 15000+ order of 1 product ?

In my personal opinion, it will be better if they stopped updating this plugin and released the woocommerce version. This way, lots of customization and functionality issues can be solved using 3rd party plugins.

 

[Yaros]

Yes, you are absolutely right, that we need a weekends support and more clear instructions. It is something we are working on. We have launched the product only three months ago, so need some more time to polish everything.

I understand that sometimes users come across with difficulties, because when we deal with importing modules for WordPress and sites that need payment integration we have to go through some additional steps and settings.

For example:
Zend Guard Loader installed on your server or Open incoming connection - we can't do nothing here if your server does not support it. That's why we have a list of recommended hosting providers, and offer our own hosting service to provide with an easy and smooth installation process.

SSL setup is also not an easy task sometimes, because you deal with images that are taken from another site and of course you need to to save them on your server, sometimes one by one, it is not the task for our support team. Try to check knowledge base more often and follow the instructions there in order to overcome difficulties. Here is instruction for SSL setup for example: https://alidropship.com/codex/7-ssl-certificate-installation/

 

[mangomarey]

Thanks Yaros for you Reply ..

Regarding the HOST issue .. when i bought the plugin i tried to install it first on my localhost with a fresh copy of Wordpress and the install process was fine but plugin menu did not appear and that was the exact issue with the Host too.

To prove my point i went a head today and installed again another fresh 2 copies of Wordpress on my localhost (IMAC & Macbook pro 2015) and tried to install your plugin and same issue. . no menu .. yes no trouble no errors but no menu at all for the plugin. so is it the host?!!!!!

Also my Host is Siteground which is well known for its full support for Wordpress and was recommended but most of the internet and web magazines and i have many other site with them with many installed plugins.

As for the other issues i think i got your answer for them ..

Regards
M

 

[Yaros]

Yes, the problem is with your local host, because when I install the plugin on my host I don't have such issues.

 

[dezigna]

Almost all hosts easily support ioncube. Hence, I think you should have the ioncube version readily downloadable on purchase and also for existing customers. I had to mess with my box because of the zend guard stuff initially also. It doesn't offer more source protection over ioncube anyway.

 

[mangomarey]

dezigna ..
When i bought the plugin i got a download link and i did not know that there are 2 versions until i faced a problem, i had no choice.

Yaros
I attached a screen shot form my fresh installation of Wordpress and Alidropship.. (notice the error at the top)
If it is working fine on your system then if you do not mind share with us your your local host configurations (or recommendations)
I am using MAMP on my MAC..

 

[Yaros]

dezigna ..
When i bought the plugin i got a download link and i did not know that there are 2 versions until i faced a problem, i had no choice.

Yaros
I attached a screen shot form my fresh installation of Wordpress and Alidropship.. (notice the error at the top)
If it is working fine on your system then if you do not mind share with us your your local host configurations (or recommendations)
I am using MAMP on my MAC..

Take an updated version of the plugin 0.8.2.3 and set the plugin on a domain. There is no option to activate the license on localhost. The license should be connected to the live domain.

 

[mangomarey]

I do not want to activate the License on the local host, i just want to install it, that is all.

Anyway..
- Which one should be installed first: the plugin or the theme update? or it does not matter?
- i can see from your site donlwoad page that now there are 2 versions. if i choose to update from my WP dashboard and my Alidropship plugin is ION version does the update knows which version will take? because may be the problem is the conflict between the version i have and the updated version the WP download?
- If i deactivate Alidropship ver .8 then delete it then installed the latest version does all my products stay the same or i ll lose them?

thanks
M

 

[Yaros]

- it's better to install plugin first, then theme.
- yes, the update system knows what version is installed - Zend or ionCube.
- You can remove the plugin and install it again, no data will be lost.

 

[Shays]

I tend to agree with the OP on many things, Yaros I think you've done something really great with Alidropship but it require better support and customer service to make it a great product that you can tell your friends about.

The support on skype and emails is really bad, I would suggest having a closer look on who it is you're hiring for it cause they either ignore messages for days, say they'll do something but never do (when I had issues with stripe or requested to reset a license), or just not being helpful to the point of me saying "ok i'll write in the forum so Yaros could see".
The support is not dedicated, not helpful, and very slow...

I think this feedback is very important for you to see, eventually it's the clients who determines the business and not the software although its brilliance

 

[Yaros]

Thank you for your feedback, working on improving.