Upgrade + poor support = lost income

[VAS]

Last week I upgraded from v5.1.4 to the latest WHMCS release. A day later a client tried to pay an invoice and was not able to. The payment process got stuck on creditcard.php. The page says something to the effect of please wait while we process or forward you. Nothing happened. This also happened with two new orders. Needless to say, I lost those sales.

 

I tried everything I could think of, including using all default templates. Same results. Credit cards could not be processed.

 

I got in touch with Quantum Gateway and after extensive checking, my processing settings were correct. Of course they were correct. I hadn't changed anything there. Only upgraded to the latest "stable" version of WHMCS.

 

I submitted a high priority ticket regarding this. WHMCS replied after 36 hours without an answer, only more questions, even though I was very specific about the issue I was experiencing.

 

In the meantime, I had found the answer to my question on another forum. Code needed to be changed in the 3dsecure.tpl file.

 

When I responded to WHMCS that I had found a solution, they asked what my solution was. I replied with the code that works. The next response from WHMCS was that I shouldn't have had to do anything that drastic, that instead I could have just moved a div tag. This tag doesn't even exist in the templates for classic and portal.

 

The response from WHMCS makes me believe that they were aware of this issue. If this is the case, why the long delay in responding to my support ticket and why not give the solution straight away?

 

I lost income from this incorrect code. Had my ticket been responded to in a timely fashion, I would not have lost those two orders. This is unacceptable. We're not talking about a color not showing up right in a custom template. We're talking about the basic function of processing credit cards.

 

Again, I lost sales because of faulty code that WHMCS was apparently aware of along with poor support.

 

Unless WHMCS is willing do to something to make up for this I will cancel my account and go with one of their competitors. The question is, does WHMCS care about keeping long standing loyal customers happy? Or will I be another customer WHMCS loses due to issues such as this?

 

I am extremely upset.

[vec]

and you just had to post that on the forum... I hope you feel better now..

[merlinpa1969]

Just curious what competitor you would use,

Hostbill is just too damn expensive, WHMAP and awbs Suck,

[Infopro]

Hi VAS, can I have the ticket ID please? I'd like to look into this for you if I could.

 

 

Thanks in advance!

[WHMCS Chris]

Hello,

 

When you performed the update, did you update ALL the files - or just the core files excluding the templates?

 

In our release notes we indicate a change in 3dsecure.tpl ( http://docs.whmcs.com/Version_5.2_Release_Notes ), and as programming the core functions depend on input from the template files, updates to any 5.1.x templates upgrading to 5.2.x would need to be applied.

 

I'm very sorry that you had an unpleasant experience during the upgrade process. However we do provide development licenses so users can test their installations in a test environment prior to pushing live which is very useful if users do not want to update the template due to customizations.

[DavidBee]

Did you not test this out before upgrading? If not then You lost sales because you never tested before updating.

[VAS]

and you just had to post that on the forum... I hope you feel better now..

Isn't that what this feedback forum is for? Posting experiences?

 

 

Just curious what competitor you would use,

Hostbill is just too damn expensive, WHMAP and awbs Suck,

I'm testing Blesta and hoping v3 has the features it promises.

 

 

Hi VAS, can I have the ticket ID please? I'd like to look into this for you if I could.

 

 

Thanks in advance!

It is ticket GUM-122849. After not receiving an answer I submitted a second ticket (didn't bump the first one) and they were merged into this ticket.

 

 

Hello,

 

When you performed the update, did you update ALL the files - or just the core files excluding the templates?

 

In our release notes we indicate a change in 3dsecure.tpl ( http://docs.whmcs.com/Version_5.2_Release_Notes ), and as programming the core functions depend on input from the template files, updates to any 5.1.x templates upgrading to 5.2.x would need to be applied.

 

I'm very sorry that you had an unpleasant experience during the upgrade process. However we do provide development licenses so users can test their installations in a test environment prior to pushing live which is very useful if users do not want to update the template due to customizations.

 

When I performed the update, I did update all the files including templates.

 

 

Did you not test this out before upgrading? If not then You lost sales because you never tested before updating.

You're right, I didn't test before upgrading. I normally do but this was a critical security patch so I rushed the upgrade. My bad for assuming that WHMCS had worked out all issues from the previous version. But I still think it's WHMCS bad for putting out software with such a glaring problem.

[WHMCS Chris]

Isn't that what this feedback forum is for? Posting experiences?

 

You're right, I didn't test before upgrading. I normally do but this was a critical security patch so I rushed the upgrade. My bad for assuming that WHMCS had worked out all issues from the previous version. But I still think it's WHMCS bad for putting out software with such a glaring problem.

 

Hello,

 

5.1.4's security update didn't require an update to 5.2.4 as it had an available update to 5.1.5: http://blog.whmcs.com/security.php

 

Just to clarify.

[VAS]

Thank you for the clarification Chris. Since I was updating, I thought it prudent to go with the latest stable release.

 

My support ticket, referenced above, still has not been replied to after I submitted it on 5/8. This was the latest response from WHMCS:

 

"Hi,

Such a drastic change shouldn't be necessary, I have seen instances where moving the </div> tag from line 7 to line 9 does the trick."

 

I responded with the following question which has not been replied to yet:

 

"Hello, there are no </div> tags at all in classic and portal templates for 3dsecure.tpl. What is the correct fix?"

 

Is there an answer to this question please? Thank you.

[WHMCS Chris]

Hey Vas,

 

Unfortunately I cannot answer that as you're correct - there is no div tags in that particular file. I've asked the individual who assisted in that ticket to reply to your question however.

 

That being said, again I apologize you had trouble during the upgrade process. If you'd like a development license, please submit a ticket so we can issue you one to avoid problems during the upgrade process in the future.

 

Best Regards,

[VAS]

Thank you Chris.

 

After all is said and done, I just wish that WHMCS support was as quick as it used to be. In the past I never waited more than a few hours for a response to a support ticket. Lately, myself and others have waited days and in some cases weeks for a response. I hope that prompt customer support once again becomes a priority for WHMCS.

[Infopro]

WHMCS support has always been a priority. The team handling support are fast and efficient as well.

 

Lately, myself and others have waited days and in some cases weeks...

 

This is not a lately thing though, exactly. In many of the cases I've seen this past year where someone was waiting for an answer for too long, each ticket was indeed responded to, (or bumped, depending on the term you chose) multiple times, but by the user though, before Support did. You yourself did so here in this ticket you mention as well.

 

The next time you open a ticket, on the form where you'll type in the issue, please take a moment, scroll down and read the alert below that editor window mentioning not responding before being responded to, and why. The why is quite well known on these forums and by the WHMCS Community I think.

 

You are free to provide feedback in this forum and I'm quite sure it's appreciated, but in cases like this, the facts matter.

 

I hope that prompt customer support once again becomes a priority for WHMCS.

 

When you make a comment like this, I feel for you and want to help you. I think anyone would. But to assume that WHMCS doesn't think supporting it's users fast and efficiently any more is just plain not true.

 

You did wait, but why, exactly? I don't recall you mentioning the why here (multiple posts you made in your ticket) in any of these many replies you made in this thread.

 

The WHMCS support team continues to grow to meet demand as I understand it. And, the same friendly, reliable and very knowledgeable support team that long time users of WHMCS know, are still here supporting users every day as they always have.

 

For whatever reason a ticket does not get answered as quickly as you'd wish it did, if you post back to it multiple times, you're slowing response time. When you post on these forums about a slow response, please be sure that you're waiting on an initial response, or reply to a response you made. If that ever happens, I'll personally do my best to help you and make sure it's handled.

 

In the past year most every ticket that I've looked into since beginning to monitor this, the user who opened it, responded multiple times slowing the response. It was not WHMCS being slow, or ignoring the ticket.

 

You can be sure that the WHMCS Technical Support Team wants to help. Open a ticket, wait for a reply. There are many others just like you that use WHMCS every day and may have tickets open as well. Most of those users are getting proper response time on all their tickets.

 

And, I'm very sorry to say, they are getting help ahead of you.

 

 

If you have additional comments to make, but you've already opened a ticket, take some notes instead, and save those notes until you've heard back from Support.

[VAS]

When a customer opens a ticket and it is not responded to within a reasonable amount of time (in this case it was around 11 hours), is opening another ticket considered "bumping"? This counts as multiple responses?

 

I did not make another response to my initial ticket because I am aware of the multiple reply issue. After not being able to process credit cards while waiting for a response, in desperation I opened a new ticket. The subject and message in the ticket was different than the first one. I was not aware that this action would send my original ticket down to the bottom of the list again.

 

Again, I did not respond to a ticket multiple times between responses from staff. I opened a new ticket after eleven hours of no response to my original high priority ticket. Is it unreasonable to expect a response to such a ticket in less than eleven hours?

 

Why did I wait for a response? Because I couldn't process credit cards and could not find the cause.

[And then there was one les]

I was not aware that this action would send my original ticket down to the bottom of the list again.

 

To my knowledge that does not happen. Each ticket is listed on its own merit, this is determined by the last response time and will be listed in the order it was received, Be it ascending or descending is all dependant on the system set up of the whmcs installation.

 

In the case of WHMCS i believe they have an order where oldest come first as is often the case. I believe what actually sent your ticket to the back of the queue was the merge of the tickets which gave the ticket a new response time.

 

I have actually submitted a feature request to handle this issue of the ticket delays in a better way. If anybody would care to look at the request on it let me know and I will post the link on here. otherwise you can always search my profile on the requests area requests.whmcs.com and you should see all the requests i have submitted.

[SeanP]

VAS,

I believe this is a web browser compatibility issue. I reported it to WHMCS on 2/26/13, but I don't think they ever understood what my issue was. I have since converted from the Quantum Gateway module to the Quantum Vault module, so it is no longer an issue for me.

 

Here is how I fixed it, when I was experiencing it:

 

------------------------------

I just made the following change to 3dsecure.tpl:

 

replaced this:

 

<script language="javascript">

setTimeout ( "autoForward()" , 1000 );

function autoForward() {

var submitForm = $("#submitfrm").find("form");

submitForm.submit();

}

</script>

 

with this:

 

<script language="javascript">

setTimeout ( "autoForward()" , 1000 );

function autoForward() {

document.forms[0].submit()

}

</script>

 

This was documented here: http://www.bitagility.com/knowledgebase/42/3D-Secure-Form-not-appearing-in-WHMCS-512.html

 

Making that change seems to allows all clients to be able to pay invoices. Before making the change, it worked with some web browsers, but locked up during the payment process on other web browsers. So, it appears to be a web browser compatibility issue with the javascript being used.

------------------------------

 

Is that what you did to correct your issue?

 

Sean

Edited May 13, 2013 by SeanP

[WHMCS Chris]

Certain queues, or tickets take longer - for example reporting a legal issue. There are only certain times during the week these are handles as there aren't as many as standard tickets.

[CavalloComm]

Wow - reading this .. is quite nauseating..

 

1. I would think that if you are providing SUPPORT for your product, regardless of how many times someone responds to a ticket, it SHOULD NEVER bounce you to the end of the line. Some people start to troubleshoot on their own, and are kind enough to say.. "Well I did this and it got better, but I still need help.." - IN NO WAY should that ticket be bumped to the end of the line. This is not a call center is it where your call is answered in the "Order in which it was received"?? Of course not.. it's an online system because there IS NO telephone support.

 

2. WHMCS has been good to us, responding quickly. I even had a tech upload code to my site, breaking the site where it was unreachable, then left. Never even went back to the live site to see if it even was online! NOT ACCEPTABLE. Although, I did get apologies a few days later because I restored my site from a backup myself after realizing it was down.

 

All in all.. support was not always the best, and probably never will be what everyone expects... try calling Microsoft.. HAH! At least you are getting support. Best thing always is to BACK UP your site.. if they mess it up.. or you mess it up.. at least you can restore.

 

If you are in the hosting business.. using this software.. you must have a little knowledge to be able to do that... Heck, I enter my billing right in the MySQL database directly because I cannot find anything that works faster than that!