Bad Experience with VM2 FedEx Shipment Providers

[JasonDeeFL]

Sigh, it is with great regret I post this message to let others know about my experiences with the limited supply of VM2 plugin providers available.

1) Alan Hartless (HartlessByDesgn)
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Nice guy, but his module is full of errors such as the shipping amount not changing when you edit the quantity via shopping cart, as well as the Global Handling Fee not working at all.  When he sent his latest version it did fix the refresh problem but there were other strange errors such as the Shipment not showing up after you select it and layout problems.  Strangely after mentioning the few problems with the new one he deleted our account and made a new one for some reason...still not sure as to why.


2) MadeForJoomla
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Tried these guys when Alan's solution wasn't going to meet our deadline.  Plugin had a problem with auto-selecting shipment even though there was only 1 shipment method configured (which they did fix with their 30 days of free service, I provide login criteria).  I was satisfied and then found out that when the shipment reaches 151 lbs or more, the cart breaks.  It's due the FedEx's Ground shipment limitations and I figured we'll just code the packages to break up in 150 lb increments.

But this is where is got weird, their customer service rep informed me that FedEx does not provide a solution for Freight (over 150 lbs) and that there are no other plugins on the market that currently do.  After calling FedEx and doing some research, I found both of these statements to be false.  FedEx offers Express Freight through their default API without any special freight account.  When I tried to ask the developer about it he got defensive and unprofessional.  They also told me that other clients dealt with it by displaying a message "Cart over 150 lbs, call for quote" which would cost me an additional $255 to implement.  Knowing PHP, I know this is a minimal amount of lines to accomplish (simple if() statement with existing variables) and was offended.   The whole support ticket is here (reverse chronology):
http://imgur.com/9sKDzxQ

...And the proof of a VM2 FedEx Freight provider:
http://imgur.com/tUXPXZD

I do have one positive note though, the provider that uses the prefix Alatak was prompt and efficient at his job, for which I am thankful.


Note:  This thread is not for speculation of why this or that happened.  This thread is for fellow developers who have their reputation on the line and don't want to ask their clients to be patient endlessly.

[alatak]

Hello

I am alatak, and i have not done Fedex for VM2.
Who is using this prefix also ?

[JasonDeeFL]

The plugin for you in particular was for Offline Credit Card, I just wanted to include something positive among all the negative.

[alatak]

Hello

ah ok.
Then it's me

[Milbo]

Okey JasonDeeFL, just that you know. We did not the FedEx, because others did already, but when you say that did it bad, then we should write a good one for Fedex.

[harty83]

Hi Jason and others reading,

So this post was just brought to my attention. I'm Alan Hartless (HartlessByDesign).

I just want to add to the record, that I replied to the tickets submitted regarding the issues mentioned in the post requesting more information in order to debug.  None of which I received a reply (if I remember correctly, it was under a different name/account though).  Thus, I assumed the latest build I sent was satisfactory, which obviously from this post must have not been. If I had received replies to my questions, it may have been a very different outcome for you.

As for the closing and recreation of your account, I'm afraid I have no idea what you are referring to.  I have not manipulated any user accounts.  Unless you are referring to tickets?  Tickets are autoclosed after inactivity and so the system closed the ticket due to a lack of response.

I apologize if I wasn't able to meet up to your expectations.  But in all fairness, I'm not a psychic (although my wife would love it if I could read her mind) and thus could not address what I did not know.

For any one else reading this, as far as I know, all known issues have been resolved in v2.  But if you find an issue, please report it to me, reply to the tickets if I ask for more information, and we'll get it resolved.

Thanks!
Alan Hartless
HartlessByDesign

[911websiterepair]

I would like to respond for MadeForJoomla.com

Unfortunately, it is not possible to please all customers, although we certainly do try our best.
Our promise is to make sure that our extensions work as designed, and as he pointed out, we did.
And actually, the problem that we did resolve was not an issue with the plugin, he had just incorrectly set his parameters in VirtueMart. No one has had any issues with the module and it has worked for all.

Unfortunately he needed features that the module did not offer.

Our plugin handles the following shipping options
"FedEx Priority Overnight"
"FedEx SameDay",
"FedEx First Overnight"
"FedEx Standard Overnight"
"FedEx 2 Day"
"FedEx 2 Day am"
"FedEx Express Saver"
"FedEx Ground"
"FedEx Home Delivery"
"FedEx International Next Flight"
"FedEx International First"
"FedEx International Priority"
"FedEx International Economy"

The FedEx shipping module for VM2.0 does not handle freight, create bill of lading, invoices, labels, split shipments or multi-box shipments.

We also have this disclaimer on our site:

We built each of our components for our internal use based on our clients and our specifications. After many requests, we prepared releases of each component to the public! Our components are sold AS IS. Any features and functionality that are not currently part of these components that you need can be developed for an extra fee or as these are all open source, you can use the components as a basis to build your version on.

Often our customers come back to us and want features and functionality added that is not currently built into the components. Although we do our best, and we are constantly developing our components, there is no way to foresee what every one of you want, need, or expect. A function that you want is not an omission or a bug. The components work AS IS based on the original specs. Refunds are not given because you want a feature or function that is not included, and we do not do further development specifically to meet your specs for free, as we need to pay our staff.

We use all of these extensions on our own sites as well as clients sites, so we find bugs before any of you do, but, if you find bugs (and a bug is not a feature or function that you want but is not available), please let us know about them as we are constantly working on improving our components for their next releases.

Short of developing a new shipping module, there was not much we could do. The modules take considerable time to develop. No one should expect any developer to develop a new module from scratch, or do a redesign of the current just to meet his need.

We were also aware of his deadline of which he contacted us just before it was up. Although we do not work nights and weekends, one of our programmers did go in on Saturday and tried to help him. There was so little time left for him, there was no way we could help him.

As for pricing, we value our time and skill sets. We are not freelancers and have a staff of professional experienced programmers. We have a right to charge our rate. He stated he is a PHP programmer, and if these task were indeed quick and easy remedies, than why did he not make the changes so he could make his deadline without the customization charge.

We responded daily, immediately, respectfully and courteously when we were at work. But we could not give him the answers he wanted. With the pressure he appeared to be under, no answer was going to suffice. It is interesting to note that none of the other developers of FedEx components were able to satisfy his functionality needs or make him happy. What happened between the customer and Madeforjoomla.com is not an isolated issue as he has severely attacked them also. No developer was able to please this customer. We are happy to hear that he did find a component with the functionalities he needed. We were not aware of its existence. It is interesting to note that 90 percent of the tread from out ticket system is missing from his post and what he did show is out of context.

Jason also cut off contact with us, and did not reply to emails and calls. We believed that his lack of response indicated that he was done. If he had stayed in contact the resolution could have been quite different,.

To date, this is the only complaint we have had during our 7 years as extension developers. We maintain an excellent standing in the Joomla developers community. I invite anyone who has any questions about our products to call us (860-294-2444) or skype us at mjones1256. We are happy to warranty our products and services, as well as provide references from our thousands of happy customers.

Thanks
Mike and the programming team
Madeforjoomla.com