It seems to becoming clear that aMember is being abandoned and left for dead. I (like many of you last year) were told multiple times that an update was going to be released with different necessary and requested features. I began emailing these questions in January and was told that it would be out in May. This continued again and again. Until now, the date just keeps being told "UNANNOUNCED". The most disturbing problem, however, appears to the fact that aMember has abandonded support for the product. I have put up the same problem in the Forums for the last 6 months, as well as sent Alex an email about it as least 3 times, and it has never been resolved. I decided I would try one last time, and I have YET to receive a response. I don't know about the rest of you, and if you have been having the same treatment/experience over the last year, but am I wrong that we should start looking for another product ? And on that subject, maybe we can start sharing some possible alternatives, to help one another out...
I'm not sure why it is clear. Support for aMember is not abandoned, and new version will be complete rewrite of the code. Yes, there really is a delay with releasing new version, because of development mistake. It is all already in past and work in progress. There was no public beta available, because I saw no reasons to release a version that have additional features but will have no updates in future, because of serious aMember core changes. I have to say sorry for big delay, so I would prefer to not share any plans yet. It does not mean that work stopped. If there are any other unresolved problems, except the unreleased update, please let me know ticket numbers or forum thread urls. Regarding sharing alternatives - this forum is not the best place to do that. There are many forums in the net where you could discuss it freely.
Well personally, I can say that all of my support tickets got answered in a reasonable time frame and what is more important - the answers actually made sense Just my personal experience... Tomas
I tend to agree with tomfra, while I would like a more upfront stance on a time frame for when to expect to see the new feature rich version (30 / 60 / 90 days), any support issues I had with the existing version were handled to my complete satisfaction.
I think it gets to a point in software development when you realize that the product has grown beyond the scale that was first thought of, then a complete rewrite would be the only solution to carry on ( Windoze??). Having got to that point myself with my own website I know how hard it is to rewrite it all and stay compatible with what you already have. I think how hard this would be for amember to bring out a new product that would not leave out customers with the old version, and write the software in the same rock solid way that encompasses all the latest trends in market movement. It should also be remembered that Amember must be suffering from lack of software update revenue, rather bringing out an update here and there to bring in a bit of revenue, Amember is being honest enough to keep back any versions till it is at the same standard as we have enjoyed in the past. I would not want any more versions if it hadn't any benefit, an old saying is if it ain't broke don't fix it ! and I can Imagine the uproar if a new version wasn't exactly right. Never had a problem with support
Hey.. I'm sorry but some of you are way out of line. Do you pay for unlimited support from aMember. Nope. Most companies will not offer you an unlimited amount and support and development beyond what you've gotten. Yet Alex goes above and beyond. Ricknap, if you run a big subscription base. Hire a programmer to help you. Its really simple. There are people that can run circles around the amember code. Alex has said the new version is coming, there was a delay. End of story.
I whole heartedly concur with your post Eleven. Sounds to me that a great deal of the people on here want something for nothing. You have a great script already and of course it doesnt do everything you want. No script ever does and like you stated nobody is charged for support so what's the gripe. The software in terms of costs is as cheap as chips and I'm sure youd all be whining like stuck pigs if Alex charged you extra for support. If you want "Free" with constant updates go find something in Open Source. If not stop wasting the forum bandwidth whining. The majority of you probably have never undertaken a major commercial software project, whilst at the same time giving free support to a large existing community. The update will be done and delivered when its done and delivered, so either you are happy with what you've already got and will wait till the new version is ready or you aren't happy and then your alternative is go find something else and stop complaining. If I've offended anyone ...... TOUGH ! But Im sick of these "I want, I want, I want and I want it now for free posts", you are always free to go pay a contractor to make whatever changes you want. Steve PS I'd like to note that I am not an employee or contractor for a Member but a happy user
Again I apologize if this sounds like a flame, it is not my intent. I can't speak for everyone, but I am by no means saying "I want now for free", I actually feel like I *give back* a lot of development and support for the community asking for nothing in return. Most of our memberships are on 6 month intervals (I think the product name is listed as "6 months of upgrades") as such I suspect a number of us have not renewed for a while as there is no pressing urgency to do so given the lack of upgrades that have happened in the last 24 months. (I have to imagine this hurts Alex's bottom line).Long story short, updates are not free and I am not suggesting that they should be. To that point, I also believe that a number of us have praised the support efforts of Alex and team for ongoing support of the current version. No question as to the quality of effort put into it. {insert comment on how this threads title is a bit suggestive and probably not one *I* would have picked myself} Where I believe the differences in opinion are is in regards to the differences in customizations and modifications of core code. At risk of repeating myself from a previous thread, for various reason based on technical derisions made with the current version, there are a number of things that are NOT possible to customize with even the best contractor without modifying core code. A secondary issue is communication, on two fronts: 1) A balance of industry based choices AND communication with community regarding product planning on what should be included in the next version. Perhaps there is an elite set of users that are involved in providing feedback that are under NDA that are feeding into the cycle and if so great. If not, development in a vacuum is not very often, in my experience, a harmonious situation in the long run. (for the record, I do not believe that support tickets and personal email exchanges are a proper mechanism for this type of communication) I started this thread with the intent of at least providing an open forum to let us socialize what "we" felt was important to be included in a new release. This was not meant as a "give me for free" thread, nor was it meant as a "this software sucks" thread. It was intended as a dialog. While not everyone will agree that all features are necessary, that is the best thing about a transparent dialog.. consensus of the community can drive standard features and niche requirements make themselves visible and in some cases allow for like minded customers to co-finance enhancements. 2) Communication regarding a road map and time lines of some kind. While it is always tough to post dates and features as a result of promising more than you can deliver, operation silence is an extreme to far on the opposite side. As someone that has a number of clients and customers and is constantly juggling business requirements and feature requests, it helps to understand even basics like "these features" MAY be released in "this time frame".. {insert rant on yes but you'll be the first to cry foul when a delivery date is missed </snarky>} I'm not suggesting low level details and specifics with exact dates and times of releases, but is it unreasonable to get a "shopping cart in Q2" projection? Given the suggestion of a hired contractor let me paint a picture of a perfect storm brewing: "I hire a contractor to hack the core code to provide Add to Cart shopping cart style functionality for Amember, only to have the same features released the following week and since I modified core code, not having a clean upgrade path." update: couple of things just hit me on a job that seemed relevant to the conversation. Due to, what I'm assuming is a smarty limitation (?!) we are unable to embed amember variables within a javascript entry in Amember pages. For me, this impacted 1) the ability to use the new google analytics tracking code 2) ability to apply a name to a user session for getclicky, a 3rd party web service we are integrating with. This is an example of something core that, unless I'm missing something obvious (which is very possible), would be a major change in core functionality to make a simple integration with a current application work. If Google decommissions their old tracking code, I'm at a loss.. example of what I'm talking about in the footer.html (could be applied to member, signup, etc) As one of the big changes that have been discussed (some 2 years ago) is the removal of smarty as a templating engine.
As a new member I can honestly say that all my issues, queries and problems were replied to and sorted very fast. In fact that is one of the main reasons I chose this script. Can't tell you how many other companies never bothered to reply at all. Now on this forum things are generally very slow, however like it says in red at the top, Official support is not provided through this forum.
I disagree. I have purchased a license, yet I cannot get anyone to respond to my requests for support. It has been two days.
In another thread on this topic about the new version not arriving as fast as some would like I had a rant about people wanting everything for nothing. The previous post is the reason why. Refer to shaferatsrynet's post http://www.amember.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7729 for his/her problems and how quickly he/she wishes to now contact the FTC (although it will be without ANY CHANCE of being successful but will tie up Alex for some time and expense fighting such frivolous suits. Now is there a problem with requesting a refund. Absolutely not, but an FTC report with all the crap that is involved absoultely not. One can be assured that the poster is terribly inexperienced by the post I mentioned above by his quoted post http://www.amember.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7729 and everybody will lose out by the cost and time involved by Alex in defending himself with the FTC over a nonsense claim
No problem with the support either. Personally, I prefer if it takes 3 days to get the support tickets replied to if the replies make sense than to get an instant nonsense reply like it's so common with way too many companies. Tomas
cali: Agreed... shaferatsrynet is totally out of line. There is no "false advertising", in fact, Alex gives you a FREE TRIAL. At present aMember does every thing and more than is advertised. My only concern has been with the lengthy delay or lack of info on a new version. But Alex recently assured me they are still working on it, and that's good enough for me. Good luck on getting any FTC action. I doubt Alex is located in the USA and the FTC will do nothing to intervene. Shaferatsrynet needs to RTFM and get a life.
I'm going to post here in agreement with all the people who have NOT had support respond to them. My assistant & I have been waiting 4 days now for Alex to answer our simple questions so we can get this up & running. We have spent countless hours setting things up over the last month, if this can't be handled, then YES, I want a refund too! Is anyone going to refund us for all the money we've invested in this????? Our time is worth money, not to mentions spending tons of fees from Net Billing b/c USAepay wasn't integrated into Amember, something that would have taken 20 minutes. We waited 4 months for him to install USAepay when he told us it would take 2 weeks. Finally he installed it last week or thereabouts. Now we can't even get USA epay running properly because we have some clients attached to Net Billing & Alex is ignoring our tickets AND e-mails. So I really don't care what the other people in this thread say, if you SELL a product & you say you will address issues with your product, than THAT'S what you should do. That's called RUNNING A BUSINESS! I'm running a biz here, I don't have time to wait days, weeks, months for something to get fixed. I believe in customer service & I care about my clients. Had I known that Alex didn't, I would have NEVER purchased this software to begin with. Alex I'm asking you once again nicely to address the questions we have asked you. This is NOT the proper way to run a business. As for what I paid for it, that is the price Alex charged, if he undercharged, that is his problem, & if he's by himself, he needs to hire staff like any other real business. I can't believe how we are being treated here! Michelle P.S. What does a FREE TRIAL have to do with what anyone is talking about???? Geeze, brains people. I am NOT on any free trial, I paid money for this thing.
Personally, all my support issues were answered, if not always promptly, but effectively. Support after purchase has been really good, so no complaints from me. Just my 2 cents.