I have had the pleasure of using Virtueplanet Merchant template on 2 sites now including a revision of my own J1.5/VM1 site. In the past, I had a preferred template provider for all the sites I build and work on and own 3 or 4 of their Pro, lifetime subscriptions. When it came time to update my own site, I went out looking for a Virtuemart template to use with my existing preferred template provider's template. I ended up paying $135 for a VM template and set out to put it to work. There were a number of things that just did not play well together so I decided to look for a different VM template. I did a long and exhaustive search and decided to change direction and go with a Joomla template that was designed for Virtuemart rather than two templates, one for JM and one for VM. I found 3 different ones that were of interest to me and put them through their paces with the demo sites. I just kept coming back to Virtueplanet Merchant so I took the plunge and paid for a base subscription for just the template. Remember, this was all after spending hundreds of $$ on other templates for JM and VM. I just liked what I saw enough to go ahead and jump in buy the subscription.
I am SO glad that I did! The template is FANTASTIC and has all kinds of great features built in that really make my site very professional. My customers LOVE the new site and how easy it is to navigate and use. Actually, I liked it so much that I decided to purchase a general subscription so I could also use the VP One Page Checkout as well. At first, I was a little miffed that Virtueplanet did not offer an upgrade option to upgrade my single item subscription to a full subscription but I quickly got over that with how great it all works together!
However, the ABSOLUTE BEST part about this template is the PHENOMENAL SUPPORT provided by Jumbo, the developer. I have used Joomla! since version 1.5 and always prefer to pay for extensions and templates to reward the folks who help make my business easier. I have spent thousands of $$ on templates and extensions over the years and worked with a lot of Joomla! developers but Jumbo is heads above all others with his super support. Not only does he go out of the way to make sure you are happy, he also does it very fast! I personally have had him fix issues with other developer's extensions because the other developer refused to do so. This was all at no cost to me. I have also seen it in his support forum. There is a fairly recent post by another user who was having problems with another developer's extension. Jumbo asked for credentials to get to the site and ended up fixing the other extension for the customer, all without asking to be paid!
I have also had the need for some customization of certain template functions and Jumbo never hesitated to write the code for me and tell me how to install it, all without asking for any payment. As a result, I have actually sent him unsolicited Paypal payments to thank him. I know that if I have an issue, I can post it on his site in the evening US time and will have an answer from him right at 10:00pm which is when his support service opens. I can almost set my watch by it! I just can not say enough good about his ABSOLUTELY STELLAR customer support. There is NONE BETTER ANYWHERE IN THE JOOMLA! WORLD!