[quote name='orangegirl' timestamp='1335503443' post='135469']
Hello, Zazaqaz.
It is a bit strange to here this from you. As far as I can see in your Help Desk account, your license date was changed by our license manager in order to allow you to upgrade to the earlier versions. And she asked you (on January 20, 2012) to contact us when this upgrade is completed so that we can change the license date back. But we have not received the reply from you yet. Please contact us in your Help Desk account.
[/quote]
I was never given proper access to the files needed to do the proper upgrade. I have repeatedly asked… check the help desk log.
[quote name=‘Chris’ timestamp=‘1336416115’ post=‘136013’]
Hi,
I was looking at buying cs-kart but I have to say the way their support staff seems to not care about the negative image they have in this thread is disturbing. I guess it would be fair to say that I have been warned - and need to continue looking for a shopping cart.
[/quote]
Hello Chris, apparently you only focused on the negative responses and overlooked the many positive responses. It is a known fact in that “you can’t fix stupid”, it truly is impossible! 
[quote name=‘Chris’ timestamp=‘1336416115’ post=‘136013’]
Hi,
I was looking at buying cs-kart but I have to say the way their support staff seems to not care about the negative image they have in this thread is disturbing. I guess it would be fair to say that I have been warned - and need to continue looking for a shopping cart.
[/quote]
Wow, it really sounds like you ONLY read the main title of this thread! I see a lot more positive for CS than negative.
Actually, my guess is “Chris” works for a competitors cart. 
Forum members better than support guys 
My experience with support was more than satisfactory. Nearly perfect with regard to time zones. Every time I asked a question the answer came through a day or two and the mass of things can resolve themselves with little attention and study guide.
If you can make them understand your problem, they will do anything to fix it. The trick is putting into words problems that are typically very complex. And that's on you. If you know the right terms and lingo, CS Cart Support can work wonders.
Anastasia is especially awesome.
Strange that the guys that knock CS here are Guest/ guests/ blah blah.
CS have always done well for me and trust me, I was completely green.
[quote name='johnbol1' timestamp='1338501026' post='137783']
Strange that the guys that knock CS here are Guest/ guests/ blah blah.
CS have always done well for me and trust me, I was completely green.
[/quote]
Yes that is weird. I've also seen the same negative post about support on about 100 forums and every shopping cart website I can think off. I don't believe a normal customer would go through these lenghts and assume it's a competitor, just like some of the guest posts here.
@ plinkplink - this is so true. Customers can mail the craziest things and expect you to understand. I've had people mail me stuff like:
"“Hiwhen i press sned things dont' go to and think problems smtp.php”
No kidding!
As I wrote earlier in this thread I recently bought the CS-Cart and I am now setting things up.
I discovered a bug and reported in it in the Bug Report section.
A few days later there was a fix andI could continue setting things up.
CS has always delivered for me. 100% Good support.
My only advice is, if you buy the software buy a support package. You can rely on the forums but sometimes I've had questions go unanswered or if I do get an answer, the answer comes a week or two later. The actual helpdesk is wonderful but you have to be willing to pour a few hundred bucks extra each month, if you want somebody on call.
Overall I have been pleased with CS-Cart. I started off with 1.3.5 and I am working with 2.1.2 now, waiting on 3.0. I like the improvements over the years but my only complaint has been with new carts comes the fact that particular themes or modules or addons may or may not work anymore. I feel like updating the cart is a HUGE questionmark. Like now, I love my theme but it doesn't work with 3.0 so if I upgrade to 3.0, I need to buy a brand new theme plus other modules may or may not work.
BUT when you look at what you get for your money, it's well worth it. I have tried other one-time fee shopping carts like x-cart and often feel that a lot of companies charge you for addons that CS-Cart offers for free. For instance, one cart (may have been x-cart) charged extra for real time shipping rates which CS-Cart included. In the end, size for size, nobody touches CS-Cart.
Well I'm setting up v3 now and I think the support is good if you can get it.
Problem is the cost of getting even basic support. The choice is you pay for periods that you may not use or you buy credits and hand over to the company to charge you whatever they like for any question you ask. And I don't see why basic “how do you do this” questions have to come under the support payment at all. Fine if your using the free version but paid version need some sort of customer service provided to them. Each new version must bulk up their bank account by a great deal with people asking questions.
Because I've had my license a few years and it's cost me money for doing next to nothing with it I don't intend paying for support if in the end I go back to my old shopping cart again. And once again I'm questioning if I can use this cart because I can't get answers to basic questions unless I put my hand in my pocket again.
Each person has to evaluate the value and cost related to their business. Giving cs-cart $25 increments to purchase credits doesn't seem like a huge burden. Generally they are responsive and once they have things like an admin account and/or FTP credentials, they are pretty good at resolving issues. I've found their credit charges to be fair and when I think they're not, I push back and we usually arrive at an equitable solution.
Time is money in any business. It is for the merchant as well as the vendor supporting them. Being a supplier of addon products, I get all kinds ot merchants requesting help. Some are competent and we get things diagnosed and resolved quickly and effeciently. Others are simply a pain. Every piece of the puzzle is a struggle and the time spent with one of these merchants far outweights the cost of providing support to 5 competent souls.
So when someone has to figure out how to manage the cost of support, all those factors have to be taken into account.
If you want a cheap way, just put your questions out here on the forums and when people have the time, they will help to the best of their ability. But if you run a real business and your cart is a key aspect of that business, I would factore in an ongoing support cost as part of the cost of doing business.
Developing and supporting software is a business. Find me one major-tier software provider who provides free support beyond an initial purchase period. None do because they would be out of business if they did.
My first step is always the forum, I've managed support departments servicing 30,000 desktops worldwide so I understand the problems and situation very well. I'm not talking about real problems I'm talking about finding out things that are not in the support documents or covered on the forum but are in the software use.
My last question was simple enough, a customer adds items to the cart till the weight of that order goes over the maximum weight entered for any of my shipping services I have loaded. What should happen is the system should understand that limit. Two parcels will be needed. But that doesn't happen - if it's not built in to cs-cart that's a major problem but not one I can't deal with some way.
All I needed from the support desk was an answer to that situation, I don't intend paying $25 for asking question like that. And I'm pretty sure if that was a pre-sale question it would have been answered very quickly.
I've taken the time to report real bugs to the company recently, I didn't charge them for my time they wasted with their bugs did I ? no because I understand all software has bugs and I'm happy to help if it means others don't have their time wasted. As far as I'm concerned you can't have a product and say if you bought this you can't talk to us about it unless you pay for our time. They are not solicitors or lawyers, they should find the time to talk to their clients and be more flexible.
Further to the above, the support staff have now answered the question as an exception.
Seems cs-cart does not handle shipping on weight across more then one package. 25 years I've being doing this, I've installed 100s of carts and this is the first time I've noticed a cart that doesn't do it out the box, suppose the must be others.
That's strange that they are charging for questions like that. I've asked stuff like that many times and always got a friendly reply without any talk about charging money for an answer.
There is a lot of history with cs-cart shipping…
It will break a single item down into the appropriate number of packages. But you are correct, it will not look at the total shipment and see that 3 items that are within their package limits (individually) exceed the carrier limit (combined) and should therefore not be 1 (3 product) package, but instead, 2 items in one package and 1 in the other.
tbirnseth, yes I think it shows a complete lack of understanding of the issues shop keepers face.
It's clearly a bug but cs-cart don't agree - ie - shipping options upto25kg in weight, customer's total weight for order is 25.01kg so no shipping options or explanation for no shipping options are shown to the customer.
Support is excellent - you have to be very clear about the problem - but if they understand and replicate it then the development of a solution is lightning fast (next day) - but if it needs more work you get an update (I have never gone 24 hours without a reply).
Also impressed with their good English - given it is not their first language, you would not know this.
What's more - I get the “warm fuzzy feeling” that they do take on board the suggestions / comments i.e. you are likely to find that someone is trying to understand your requirement and see if it can be implemented rather than just ignoring the idea. They are trying to use their resources for the best way to improve the cart for all users - so if they can do it they will. It is more like working with them as a partner.
Most impressed with both the product and the culture there.
Regarding the shipping query it may be difficult for them to understand the problem (I didn't understand why you cannot have the same or multiple shipping methods covering all weights your customer is likely to order). This wouldn't really be the thread to discuss this problem in detail - You could try creating a new thread discussing this particular issue as support and other forum members will generally help and someone is likely to have a solution if it is a common problem. It sounds like it could be a lack of understanding of the particular question rather than the lack of understanding of the “issues that shopkeepers face”. I haven't come across any problems with shipping and we have comprehensive shipping methods for each country including postage, courier and pallets with larger items having a higher “weight” setting so that volumentric weight is taken into account. You can have multiple shipping methods so when over 25kg another method takes over (with another name - say “courier - 2 boxes”). The problem you will have with this is when the weight is 25.01kg you decide to ship in 1 box when it says 2 boxes on the shipping method the customer will ask for their money back for the difference (believe me it happens!). You are much better hiding the actual number of boxes from the customer and configuring the method for all weights your customer is likely to order.
I have come to the conclusion that as CS Cart is so open that there will be a solution there by somebody and if it does effect shopkeepers then it will have already been resolved.
What happens if you submit a ticket within your allocated support days, and before it's resolved your support days expire?
Because i've been waiting over a week and only reply to a problem i had was
“[color=#555555][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=3]it seems that this issue is caused by a minor bug. Our engineers are working on it and we will contact you as soon as we get any result.”[/size][/font][/color]
Thank goodness it wasn't a major bug.I'm just hoping it will be fully resolved before support days expire.
On the plus side i did have another problem (which turned out to be hosts problem) which was answered within a day.
[quote name='b88' timestamp='1343909093' post='142038']
What happens if you submit a ticket within your allocated support days, and before it's resolved your support days expire?
Because i've been waiting over a week and only reply to a problem i had was
“[color=#555555][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=3]it seems that this issue is caused by a minor bug. Our engineers are working on it and we will contact you as soon as we get any result.”[/size][/font][/color]
Thank goodness it wasn't a major bug.I'm just hoping it will be fully resolved before support days expire.
On the plus side i did have another problem (which turned out to be hosts problem) which was answered within a day.
[/quote]
If it's a bug it will be fixed for free anyhow. Whether you have support days or not. You might want to add you issue to the bug report, just to be sure and so you can follow it.