Why is the WHMCS support so slow

[Infopro]

Please bear with me here a second if you would, I want to make sure I understand your issue clearly. You've waited for over a month for Matt to restore the proper configuration.php to get you back up and running, and you're still waiting. Is that correct?

 

Thanks in advance for clarifying.

[invictus]

Hi Infopro, thanks for the response.

 

When Matt uploaded the blank configuration file to my server I saw it within a couple hours and responded in my ticket asking him if he was going to fix that or if he wanted me to. He never replied so I restored a backup I had of the config file and database link was restored. I added a note to my ticket that I had done this.

 

The original issue I was having (and still am having) was never fixed, the only thing it appears Matt tried when he said he was going to look at fixing it was to upload fresh files. It didn't work but I have heard nothing else from support since then.

 

It's been over a month sinc ethe last response in my ticket, and over two months since I opened it.

 

So far I haven't gone into details here about the bug I reported, just the responses I have received from WHMCS support. I did post the original issue in another thread but it seems that was deleted, so I'll post it again here if you want to know what is going on.

 

My issue is that there seems to be a bug in the 5.1.2 version of the file cart.php where it is trying to access something it does not have permission to or that does not exist. This causes an error during checkout and the result is that my products which are supposed to activate on payment confirmation do not get activated. I have to manually accept each order for the products to activate.

 

My host has been very helpful in working out where exactly the error is coming from and it's confirmed to be in cart.php - but because the code is all encrypted there's no way for me to troubleshoot this myself.

 

All permissions and possible issues with mod security on my server have been checked many times, there's nothing amiss that we can find. My host even set all permissions to full access and tried running it, but the result was the same.

 

We have been running older versions WHMCS for more than a year without any problems, this error only started happening in 5.1.2 and has persisted ever since.

 

Sorry if I went into too much detail or this is off-topic to the original thread, I'm just sharing the facts of the situation because you asked.

 

Thank you for any help you can provide.

[Infopro]

Are there other users on this forum having the same issue as you, or is this unique to your installation? And if it's unique, why?

 

Thanks again!

[invictus]

Are there other users on this forum having the same issue as you, or is this unique to your installation? And if it's unique, why?

 

Thanks again!

 

Great question!

 

There seem to be all manner of bugs that users are experiencing in 5.1.2 - you can just browse through the forum and see that many users are having problems with this release who never had problems before. Some issues sounds small, some issues sound critical, the common theme seems to be that this release has some bugs to work out.

 

I posted a report of my particular issue in the "Bugs" section but it seems to have since been removed. I'm not sure why that happened, but I think it's difficult to know exactly what issues other users are experiencing or how many others may be having the same problem as I am.

 

Without being able to view any of the code it's difficult to say why all these bugs appeared or for any of us to diagnose the issues on our own. A little help from support would be amazing, or even just the chance to see who else has this problem by allowing it to be posted in the proper section and leave it up would be great.

 

Thank you!

[Infopro]

Here's the thing though, I have read your other comments, and again here this morning, you have yet to state the actual problem other than to say there are bugs. I'm gonna need more coffee if we keep going this way.

 

Lets try this, state the actual problem you're having in 10 words or less. Abbreviate, leave out some words, whatever it takes to state the problem.

 

Without being able to view any of the code it's difficult to say why all these bugs appeared or for any of us to diagnose the issues on our own.

 

Not going to happen I would think. But I cannot speak for WHMCS on that, of course.

 

A little help from support would be amazing, or even just the chance to see who else has this problem by allowing it to be posted in the proper section and leave it up would be great.

 

You've had this problem going on months now. You've stated you're losing business over this. Can you point me to one other existing thread stating clearly the problem that you are having?

 

We're not really getting anywhere yet, but for the sake of understanding all this better, on both sides here, yours and mine, lets keep going and see where it takes us!

 

Thanks

[invictus]

Hi Infopro, thanks for the response. If nothing else, it's very refreshing to have someone interested in finding out what is going on with my WHMCS.

 

I did state the problem in this post, but maybe you are right I need to be more succinct.

 

Here is my issue in as few words as possible:

Products which are set to activate on payment are not doing so. They don't activate until each order is manually accepted.

 

I can go into more detail, but that is the problem summed up.

[Infopro]

No need for more details, that works for me, thanks. Can you link me to one other post, by another user having this same issue with cart.php, or is this unique to your setup for some reason? And if it is unique to your setup, what makes it unique?

[invictus]

No need for more details, that works for me, thanks. Can you link me to one other post, by another user having this same issue with cart.php, or is this unique to your setup for some reason? And if it is unique to your setup, what makes it unique?

 

Without access to deleted posts and with a lot of users not fully explaining their issues it's hard for me to find out who else may have this issue. There were a number of posts which sounded like they might be the same issue as mine, but I can't find them now. I found one posted today:

 

http://forum.whmcs.com/showthread.php?58782-New-client-status-as-inative-by-default

 

This sounds like it may be the same problem, new client orders are showing as "pending" and not "active" on my WHMCS until I manually accept them.

[Infopro]

Without access to deleted posts and with a lot of users not fully explaining their issues it's hard for me to find out who else may have this issue.

 

I would think that if this issue you're having was not at least semi unique to you, that there would be plenty more threads started on the same topic. Would you agree with me on that point? I'm not suggesting you're the only one with this problem, but were are all the other users having the same exact issue? You've stated that you've had a ticket open for over two months now on this. Surely someone else has had a sale since then and noted the same behavior.

 

Not fully explaining something in any forum thread (in this case I think) shouldn't be a factor, really.

Orders are pending, not active. Need to manually accept order. These are things almost anyone using WHMCS could be up against right now I would think, running the same version of WHMCS as you. I'm going to take a closer look at all forums here for clues and more posts that are similar to your issue myself tomorrow and see if I can locate some.

 

There were a number of posts which sounded like they might be the same issue as mine, but I can't find them now. I found one posted today:

 

http://forum.whmcs.com/showthread.php?58782-New-client-status-as-inative-by-default

 

This sounds like it may be the same problem, new client orders are showing as "pending" and not "active" on my WHMCS until I manually accept them.

 

Thank you for the link.

I'm going to see if I can find more background on this and will get back to this thread when I find out more, it won't be long.

 

If you have the time please feel free to dig up a few more thread links on the same topic if you would.

To help you get going in the right direction, use this google search, editing the words I used with whatever you think will be helpful. Note the search is set to be in only the past year.

 

site:forum.whmcs.com pending order - Google Search Past year

 

That particular search yields 48 results for me. Here's another:

site:forum.whmcs.com manually accept - Google Search Past year

 

26 results there. And in fact one of the results leads me to a post by you, warning people not to take the plunge and upgrade due to issues you mention right there, 2 months ago.

Too Many Issues with 5.1.2 - WHMCS Forums

 

One last question for you from me for tonight on this, if you'll indulge me just a little more. TIA!

 

When you took this to Matt, you mentioned he wanted to re-upload all files. I might assume there that he thought there might be some issue with your files, and wanted to make sure all files were proper. Makes sense, I might think the same thing. But your configuration.php got overwritten and your cart went dead on you, as you describe.

 

Then, you said you re-uploaded your own backup and got things back up and running that way. IIRC.

 

So my question is this: Why wouldn't you just leave all those new files on the server, and only upload the backup of the configuration.php, sticking with the original idea that (I'm assuming) Matt had, and try and refresh the software files to make sure all was proper? You know, just to see if that was helpful or not.

 

That last question has been on my mind here thru all this so far, so I'm asking. Or did you do exactly that, and the issue persists?

 

 

Thank you for your time here, invictus, much appreciated.

 

 

Sorry for the long post.

[invictus]

Hi Infopro, thanks so much for the support and helpful responses!

 

We have got a bit off-topic to this original thread, feel free to move this to it's own thread if you think it would be a good idea. It would make it easier for others who may have the same issue to find also.

 

I would think that if this issue you're having was not at least semi unique to you, that there would be plenty more threads started on the same topic. Would you agree with me on that point? I'm not suggesting you're the only one with this problem, but were are all the other users having the same exact issue? You've stated that you've had a ticket open for over two months now on this. Surely someone else has had a sale since then and noted the same behavior.

 

Yes, exactly my thoughts as well. Is it possible we can consult with someone who reads support tickets to find out? There seem to be a lot of users here in the forums who are stating that they have ongoing issues with open tickets since 5.1.2 but many times they are not stating what the problem is. Whoever is reading all the support tickets should know if this is widespread or isolated, even if no action was ever taken on the tickets.

 

I'm going to take a closer look at all forums here for clues and more posts that are similar to your issue myself tomorrow and see if I can locate some.

 

Thank you very much indeed. I'll do the same. I know there was at least two other threads I read by other users but I can't seem to locate them now.

 

When you took this to Matt, you mentioned he wanted to re-upload all files. I might assume there that he thought there might be some issue with your files, and wanted to make sure all files were proper. Makes sense, I might think the same thing.

 

Yes, it does make sense and I thought the same thing as well. Before Matt replaced all the files with fresh ones I also re-downloaded all the files and did the same. Unfortunately that wasn't the issue.

 

But your configuration.php got overwritten and your cart went dead on you, as you describe.

 

Then, you said you re-uploaded your own backup and got things back up and running that way. IIRC.

 

So my question is this: Why wouldn't you just leave all those new files on the server, and only upload the backup of the configuration.php, sticking with the original idea that (I'm assuming) Matt had, and try and refresh the software files to make sure all was proper?

 

Yes, that is exactly what I did. I didn't touch any other files, I simply re-uploaded a backup of the configuration.php file. All the other files Matt replaced are still on my server to this day.

 

Thank you for your time here, invictus, much appreciated.

 

I am happy to help in any way I can, I would love to get to the bottom of this.

 

THANK YOU for taking the time to look into this seek some resolution. It's been extremely frustrating to have the ticket ignored with support for so long, and very nice to get some input on it from someone who truly sounds interested in figuring it out.

[easyhosting]

I GIVE UP. Say something negative about WHMCS and your post gets deleted....

 

WHMCS is starting to filter repeated tickets when users just keep repeating already know issues

 

If users would read blogs when told about these then they would be aware.

 

http://blog.whmcs.com/?t=57970

[stormy]

easyhosting > let me break it down for you, because after this monster thread, you don't seem to be grasping a very big issue.

 

There are certain tickets and jobs that can only be done by Matt (apparently). I'm talking about big bugs and _paid development_, which is the case for both ITSNev and me. Matt used to be great at this, and every WHMCS user is enjoying certain features that were paid for by users like us, as "sponsored development". Matt has been more or less absent since January. I have a ticket open since January. He doesn't even reply, and I don't bump the ticket more than once every couple months. It looks like ITSNev is in the same boat.

 

Everytime someone says his tickets are handled promptly, they are talking about a different kind of ticket, solved by a different person in the team.

 

Now, on top of this, WHMCS had a problem with regular tickets and lack of staff, that I believe has already been corrected. I've gotten great support for everyday issues lately.

 

Lastly, customers are NOT supposed to read blogs, know how a support system works, know about ticket autoclose, or how tickets are sorted, or if they are supposed to bump tickets or not. That's not the customer's problem.

 

It's the seller's problem to make sure they can deal adequately with support request, whatever that means. If WHMCS customers have a problem with the way WHMCS handles support, it's WHMCS's problem. If you don't have a problem with WHMCS support that's great news, but it doesn't make it less of a problem for customers that do have problems, and it doesn't help them in any way.

[outeredge]

@stormy you've nailed it on the head!

[easyhosting]

easyhosting > let me break it down for you, because after this monster thread, you don't seem to be grasping a very big issue.

 

There are certain tickets and jobs that can only be done by Matt (apparently). I'm talking about big bugs and _paid development_, which is the case for both ITSNev and me. Matt used to be great at this, and every WHMCS user is enjoying certain features that were paid for by users like us, as "sponsored development". Matt has been more or less absent since January. I have a ticket open since January. He doesn't even reply, and I don't bump the ticket more than once every couple months. It looks like ITSNev is in the same boat.

 

Everytime someone says his tickets are handled promptly, they are talking about a different kind of ticket, solved by a different person in the team.

 

Now, on top of this, WHMCS had a problem with regular tickets and lack of staff, that I believe has already been corrected. I've gotten great support for everyday issues lately.

 

Lastly, customers are NOT supposed to read blogs, know how a support system works, know about ticket autoclose, or how tickets are sorted, or if they are supposed to bump tickets or not. That's not the customer's problem.

 

It's the seller's problem to make sure they can deal adequately with support request, whatever that means. If WHMCS customers have a problem with the way WHMCS handles support, it's WHMCS's problem. If you don't have a problem with WHMCS support that's great news, but it doesn't make it less of a problem for customers that do have problems, and it doesn't help them in any way.

 

Yes but Matt and the team have stated that if posts are made repeating the same issues over and over again then these will be removed as these posts offer no new info or serve any purpose. At least they have support agents from cpanel so they can work their way through the backlog, but yes their will be some issues that Matt can only handle, but he is only 1 bloke with 1 pair of hands

[outeredge]

Yes but Matt and the team have stated that if posts are made repeating the same issues over and over again then these will be removed as these posts offer no new info or serve any purpose. At least they have support agents from cpanel so they can work their way through the backlog, but yes their will be some issues that Matt can only handle, but he is only 1 bloke with 1 pair of hands

 

It's a public community forum, whatever happened to free speech.

[easyhosting]

It's a public community forum, whatever happened to free speech.

 

nothing, but if an issue is constantly being repeated by the same users then what purpose does this serve?

 

Its the same as sending duplicate support tickets in that it serves no purpose but to slow things further down. look at other forums like WHT they will also remove threads/posts that repeat the same issues over and over again as these server no purpose

[wise]

it's nice that some staff are trying to help on the forums especially with tickets that have gone unanswered for months - but I beleive this is the problem and the solution:

 

"Is it possible we can consult with someone who reads support tickets to find out"

 

Forums are a good way of getting quick help, but trawling through posts to try and prove (or disprove) if a problem is unique or not - is still not going to get the support issue sorted.