Community advise

I own a commercial site and paid my developer, Rho Solutions (RS), who after purchasing the CSC Pro License for us under his company name, left with no respond/contactability from email/co. phone/mobile etc.



Unfortunately our site was hacked on Nov and I had to get another developer to bring back our site to LIVE from our stored datatbase. We got the CSC Trial License. I have been in contact with CS Helpdesk requesting them to transfer the Pro License to us, the rightful owner, but seemed CSC will not budge, stating RS as the rightful owner.



We made a police report and also discovered RS has cease operations on 18th July 2010, but still quoted and invoiced us on 27th Aug 2010. I have no issue with the company closing down, but please be responsible and transfer the License to us, since he has already billed us for it.



What can I do now besides paying for another CSC Pro License?

This issue have to be resolved by CS-Cart team. They have to contact the license owner. Maybe it would be helpful to send CS-Cart team the invoice of the license you paid for.

Dude, that sucks.



I doubt there really is much you can do. My guess is that the only way to keep your store going is to purchase the license from CS-Cart.



Maybe if you have invoices and stuff, CS-Cart might work something out, but I doubt it. Rho Solutions is still the owner regardless of if you paid him or not. It might be one thing if he registered the license to you, but I doubt he did.



Unfortunately there are some piece of crap developers out there that, I feel, get in over their heads on a project and instead of owning up to their mistakes, they just take off with your cash.



Where is Rho Solutions out of anyways?



I could be wrong about my statements above and I hope I am. I guess, just chalk it up as a learning experience.



One thing to keep in mind is to check here on the forums for someone that can do the work for you. There are some excellent developers on here and most of them have high post counts and are well known within the CS-Cart community.



Good luck,



Brandon

Thanks for the replies guys. I have sent the Invoice from RS to me to CSC, and hope they can be flexible, after reading this post. Do they even get in here anyway? :confused:



Here’s some eyeballs for Rho Solutions: [url]Welcome rho-solutions.com - BlueHost.com :wink:



Imagine the account manger went off to do his Oxford degree and there is no respond from any of his colleagues after days/weeks of emails/phone calls etc. I tried to be amicable with him and requested via email to have him transfer our paid CSC Pro License to us (how difficult is that?) and he would not even respond :frowning:



So I guess CSC wants me to get another New CSC Pro License, and at the full price?

Since cs-cart will send letters from their attorney’s when you operate a store without a valid license to your hosting provider with a demand that they shut you down, I would assume they would respond to the same coming to them (demand for the license to be transferred to the rightful owner). Have your attorney fax them a letter and follow it up with a snail-mail version (will take 2 weeks for delivery from US).



The license should actually be listed by your domain versus your company.

[quote=NFFT;104312Here’s some eyeballs for Rho Solutions: [URL]Welcome rho-solutions.com - BlueHost.com



They say:


[QUOTE]Don’t have a professional website yet? Launch an affordable, professional website or upgrade your existing website in 3-4 weeks.[/QUOTE]

…I think they aren’t abel to make their own site complete. Just visit the links in the top menu:



home | services | projects | clients



…same content.

[quote name=‘brandonvd’]Dude, that sucks.



I doubt there really is much you can do. My guess is that the only way to keep your store going is to purchase the license from CS-Cart.



Maybe if you have invoices and stuff, CS-Cart might work something out, but I doubt it. Rho Solutions is still the owner regardless of if you paid him or not. It might be one thing if he registered the license to you, but I doubt he did.



Unfortunately there are some piece of crap developers out there that, I feel, get in over their heads on a project and instead of owning up to their mistakes, they just take off with your cash.



Where is Rho Solutions out of anyways?



I could be wrong about my statements above and I hope I am. I guess, just chalk it up as a learning experience.



One thing to keep in mind is to check here on the forums for someone that can do the work for you. There are some excellent developers on here and most of them have high post counts and are well known within the CS-Cart community.



Good luck,



Brandon[/QUOTE]



Good advice. I’ve not been in the exact same position but have used some less than perfect developers in the past that got in way over their heads. We learned from our mistakes and now stay strictly within the Cs community. Best piece of advice that you can get around here. Lots of capable people here to do just about anything.



However, I’d try and get your license transferred, then I’d find out as much as you can about this guy…pay a good hacker and destroy what’s left of his finances:evil:



Oooops, got carried away a bit:rolleyes:



Stu

This is the reply from CS CART:


[quote]

We see the situation. Unfortunately we can not transfer the CS-Cart Professional Edition license to you.



We can advise you to request a refund or charge back your money you payed to Rho Solutions for the license. When you have your funds back, you will be able to purchase a new license for your webstore from us directly and register it under your own name.



Unfortunately we do not see any other way to resolve the issue.



We rely on your understanding and look forward to hearing from you.



Thank you.[/quote]



How do CSC think I can “request a refund or charge back your money you payed to Rho Solutions for the license” when the said company is not even responding to their email/phone for weeks :rolleyes:

[quote name=‘tbirnseth’]Since cs-cart will send letters from their attorney’s when you operate a store without a valid license to your hosting provider with a demand that they shut you down, I would assume they would respond to the same coming to them (demand for the license to be transferred to the rightful owner). Have your attorney fax them a letter and follow it up with a snail-mail version (will take 2 weeks for delivery from US).



The license should actually be listed by your domain versus your company.[/QUOTE]



Hmm… I was thinking about this. The License has our domain name, My company registered name and the domain name is the same. My email conversation with CSC has my signatory and website listed as the same, yet CSC refused to transfer the License, citing Rho Solutions as the rightful owner, even after I attached an invoice from Rho to CSC, showing that we have paid for the license, and Rho is but a middle man :rolleyes:



I think CSC probably tries to gain double payment and do not want to exercise any flexibility. :???:

Look at it from CSC’s position, how do they know you aren’t trying to scam a free license from them. Your only proof is an invoice which anyone can forge. Without contact from the person holding the account with CSC (the only way for them to prove ownership is that you can log into their site), you can’t expect them to be able to do anything. I know it sucks and I feel for you but they are doing exactly as any other company in their position would.

[quote name=‘tbirnseth’]Since cs-cart will send letters from their attorney’s when you operate a store without a valid license to your hosting provider with a demand that they shut you down, I would assume they would respond to the same coming to them (demand for the license to be transferred to the rightful owner). Have your attorney fax them a letter and follow it up with a snail-mail version (will take 2 weeks for delivery from US).



The license should actually be listed by your domain versus your company.[/QUOTE]



Oh and the cost for an attorney’s letter is almost similar to a CSC Pro License, so probably not the best solution. If only CSC can be more flexible and recognize who is the real victim and owners :rolleyes:

[quote name=‘whiplash13’]Look at it from CSC’s position, how do they know you aren’t trying to scam a free license from them. Your only proof is an invoice which anyone can forge. Without contact from the person holding the account with CSC (the only way for them to prove ownership is that you can log into their site), you can’t expect them to be able to do anything. I know it sucks and I feel for you but they are doing exactly as any other company in their position would.[/QUOTE]



I understand. That is why I asked CSC to tell me whatever info they require from me to prove we are the site owners. Also, they can definitely verified if I have used their offered license for another domain/site? They can always remove our right to use if the license is used other than the domain as registered by our company name. Correct me if I am worng?

NFFT, make a claim with your bank or credit card company stating that Rho did not follow through with their contractual obligations and that you would like to file for return of all funds made to Rho. Whether you paid by check or credit card, the bank can get a return on your funds.

Hello Brandon,


[quote name=‘brandonvd’][SIZE=“3”]the only way to keep your store going is to purchase the license from CS-Cart.[/SIZE][/QUOTE]



Once more, you give us another good advice, thank you.



Don’t listen bells and whistles. Buy at the source, it’s safer.





Lee Li Pop

[QUOTE]I own a commercial site and paid my developer, Rho Solutions (RS), who after purchasing the CSC Pro License for us under his company name, left with no respond/contactability from email/co. phone/mobile etc.[/QUOTE]



And, as soon as you have a few moments to think this through, realize that you made a very big mistake by not immediately verifying that the license had actually been transferred into your name, and at that time performing a chargeback on the credit card payment to get your money back if the license was not transferred. Without the license, you own absolutely nothing! Learn from your mistake & move on to better things! :wink:



Can’t blaime CS-Cart for this mess & expect them to spend time sorting it all out, it wasn’t their fault.

Hmmm… that’s strange! You are the owner of the domain name, you paid for the CS-Cart license by a third party company and now you can’t use it? Where is the logic?



Imagine one situation: A reseller will buy some CS-Cart licenses with domain names which currently use the CS-Cart trial license. Then after the trial expires the domain owner decide to buy a full CS-Cart license, but he can’t because the domain name is alreday registered in the CS-Cart help desk by another person. And the ‘person’ would tell you, you can get the license ‘with your own domain name’ for e.g. $500… What would (can) you do? And imagine, your domain name is established on the web with a good ranking, PR, etc.



What will then happen? Would you buy another (new) domain name which has no traffic, no PR, nothing? Or would you buy it from the ‘person’ for $500 who owns the CS-Cart license with YOUR domain name?

[quote name=‘Struck’]And, as soon as you have a few moments to think this through, realize that you made a very big mistake by not immediately verifying that the license had actually been transferred into your name, and at that time performing a chargeback on the credit card payment to get your money back if the license was not transferred. Without the license, you own absolutely nothing! Learn from your mistake & move on to better things! :wink:



Can’t blaime CS-Cart for this mess & expect them to spend time sorting it all out, it wasn’t their fault.[/quote]


[quote name=‘indy0077’]Hmmm… that’s strange! You are the owner of the domain name, you paid for the CS-Cart license by a third party company and now you can’t use it? Where is the logic?



Imagine one situation: A reseller will buy some CS-Cart licenses with domain names which currently use the CS-Cart trial license. Then after the trial expires the domain owner decide to buy a full CS-Cart license, but he can’t because the domain name is alreday registered in the CS-Cart help desk by another person. And the ‘person’ would tell you, you can get the license ‘with your own domain name’ for e.g. $500… What would (can) you do? And imagine, your domain name is established on the web with a good ranking, PR, etc.



What will then happen? Would you buy another (new) domain name which has no traffic, no PR, nothing? Or would you buy it from the ‘person’ for $500 who owns the CS-Cart license with YOUR domain name?[/quote]



Depending on how much ‘history’ you have with your webdeveloper - sometimes it’s necessary to become the gatekeeper.



I own six license, only two which are wholly my own. Putting this into layman’s terms I hold these licenses in trust for the organizations along with a large amount of domain names. These day’s its best to have a trusted developer maintain your online assets than ‘own them’ and have them depreciate.



My opinion - You’ve been scammed by a fly-by-night and I highly suggest that you purchase your own license, request CS-Cart provide the ‘new license’ to you at the discounted rate that all previous store owners are entitled.

Sorry to ask this but, how your site was hacked? Did you contact your host provider asking for help? who is yur host provider? were your files deleted? Did you have any backup copy to restore? How this affected your cs-cart sop? Who recommended you rho solutions?



I ask you this because I’d read other cases of cs-cart hacked stores and we should know more about it. Could happen to anyone.