Helpdesk Support is super slow!

I have not used another paid cart before, so there is no comparison I can make. But I think CS-Cart’s Helpdesk support is very very slow!



Every time I submit a ticket, it will take a day for them to reply… and even if I replied back almost immediately after they have replied me, usually I will need to wait for the next day, only then I will get another reply. It seems to me that they are only reading the tickets once a day and after replying all the tickets, they will not read them again.



I am facing tonnes of problems with the cart. A customization I asked them to do months ago is still giving me problems. They fixed problem A, then problem B will appear. They fix problem B, but problem C will appear… never ending…!



There are problems with the existing code too:

  • Act on behalf of doesnt work
  • Googlebot cannot see the products section
  • Print orders to pdf doesn’t work
  • and many more



    In order to fix those problems, I have purchased support credits.



    I am now waiting for them to reply my support tickets! This is a painful thing as my live store is having problem due to the customization they did for me!

[quote name=‘alanpro’]

I am now waiting for them to reply my support tickets! This is a painful thing as my live store is having problem due to the customization they did for me![/QUOTE]



Perhaps you should remove the customization and have them fix it on a test server of your store and not on the live store. This way all those other issues should be gone and they can get your new features working before you try and deploy them into a live environment.



I’m not defending their response speed but remember that CS Cart is in Russia so they are, I believe, 5 hours ahead of me and I’m EST. So it’s 12:14pm here atm and they are 5:14pm and most likely gone for the day.

alanpro:

We have similar problem. We ask cs-cart for design integration and there are not so much questions and details to discuss, because we have ready design and detailed description. But they answer only once a day, so our conversation lasts almost 2 weeks and we don’t know exactly when it will finish. All they need is to pay attention to their customers because we are seriously thinking about faster developers than cs-team.


[quote name=‘adodric’]

I’m not defending their response speed but remember that CS Cart is in Russia so they are, I believe, 5 hours ahead of me and I’m EST. So it’s 12:14pm here atm and they are 5:14pm and most likely gone for the day.[/QUOTE]

It’s not time zone problem, because we are also from Russia and have the same time as they have.

adodric,

Just like breezee said, it’s not timezone problem. Regardless what time you post a question/remark to them, you will mostly only get one reply in a day. Even if you immediately replied to them after you have got their reply, you will mostly need to wait for the next day (after 20-24 hours) to get another reply.



For the customization, they did provide a test server when it was in testing phase. But when it was installed on the live server, we found more and more bugs which never really get tested on the test server!



Warning to users who might need to get them to do customizations for you: You will need to do ALL testing from A to Z. They NEVER did any test for you, all they do is programming and they NEVER test even the simplest thing after they have programmed it. I could find a new bug after 2 minutes, for many times after they claimed it was all fixed.



I have no idea why they will need my live store to test it. Just today only, they made my live store’s homepage into a mess for a few hours!

I have a few tickets with issues still pending replies from them, since 15 hours ago (in other words, I have been waiting for 15 hours).



A couple of these issues screw up my homepage. I have to hide the “add to cart” buttons on the homepage because of these problems.

Still waiting for replies from CS-Cart support in Helpdesk.

I am satissfied with hel desk support. They answered my questions in few hours. Even they answered me with code modifications. Helpdesk is great in my opinion.

[quote name=‘kocalka’]I am satissfied with hel desk support. They answered my questions in few hours. Even they answered me with code modifications. Helpdesk is great in my opinion.[/QUOTE]



Yes, months ago, they were a little faster… maybe can get 2 replies in one day:-


  1. I post them a request/question
  2. They reply
  3. I post a reply
  4. They reply

    … then that’s it. You have to wait for 20 hours at least to hear from them again.



    With a speed like this, it will take a week or 2 to get the message across!



    For a simple problem, usually I have to type lots and lots of explanation with lots of screenshots to get my message across as clear as possible. Otherwise it will ding-dong forever!



    Status: finally I get a reply from them to 1 of my message/problem. But it doesn’t solve any problem, it just says they have forwarded my message to the support department.



    So more waiting…

Still no replies from them in Helpdesk.



What is the time now in Russia? I suspect I will get a reply after a few more hours… well just before they call it a day, and these replies mostly will just ask for more details and thus my problems will remain for 1 more day and my website will still be in a mess for another day!

[quote name=‘alanpro’]What is the time now in Russia?[/quote]

You can see their current time on the help desk page after you log in in the top right corner. It shows 15:57 right now, that is +3 hours for me.

[quote name=‘indy0077’]You can see their current time on the help desk page after you log in in the top right corner. It shows 15:57 right now, that is +3 hours for me.[/QUOTE]



Yes, you are right. I am aware of that. Usually they reply late in the afternoon (their time).



NOW, I have been getting some replies from them for the messages I posted some 20 hours ago. I have replied them all… now let’s see if there are replies from them to those (my replies) TODAY or TOMORROW.



But, the most serious part of the problem is still pending… not a word from them about that. There are 5 or 6 messages sent to them, they have replied some of them, but the most serious ones are still not replied!



Stay tuned for my updates.

Hi,



I suppose it could be down to how complex some of your issues are as I’ve used Support in the past and am currently using them right now.



Raised support request yesterday, code modifications done and applied yesterday. Further modifications done today and finished.



Compared to some paid support, BigCommerce, CS Cart is very good but can appreciate that everyone experiences are diffrent and I hope you do get your issues resolved soon.

Dear alanpro,



We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the delay in answering.



We work Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. at our local time. Our local time is GMT+3.

We guarantee you a reply within one business day and usually if you ask us during our working hours we answer within a few hours.



As we can see some of your requests required the detailed investigation on your server. As you understand it takes some time that is why some delay in answering occurred.



Sorry for possible inconvenience.

I am satissfied with the support. It is normal to wait for the answer a little. I am sure they have many questions from the cscart users. My opinion is, they answer very promptly. And also send be how to change the code. Really, support can be better but is better than many other commercial supports.

Finally, I get some replies and one of the problem seems to have been resolved. That’s pretty good.



But due to the problem above in the first place, now my live data is in a little mess. “Quantity” is a little mixed up… they didn’t seem to have noticed this although I have spefically asked them to check. I have thus send them another message regarding this… and as usual need to wait for another 20 hours for a posslble reply.

[quote name=‘Unregistered’]Shocking trail of super slow slow response for a product you have paid for…



Is this normal for other users of this product or a one off!



I am thinking of investing(long term, that is…) in this product, but now I think twice after reading this.



What is going on with support. Is this what you pay to get this kind of support.?[/QUOTE]





Having this attitude towards CS people, you should definitely look for another cart and don’t ever bother to come back.

As I have said in my first post in this thread, I have not used another paid cart before, so I cannot do any comparison with another paid cart. But to me, their support is simply way too slow… maybe my expectation is too high.



Maybe I should never ever compare to other support services… for example, web hosting, where I usually get a reply within 1-2 hours, and they respond 24 hours a day, even on public holidays.



For CS-Cart, you can expect to get one or two replies in a day. Or maybe the most, 3 replies on a VERY GOOD day.



Note: Yesterday, their support apologized and admitted that they are overloaded with work, thus the slow reply.



One thing with support like this is… if you have a problem with the cart. The following steps are quite likely to happen:-


  1. You submit them a question, explaining the problem
  2. After 20 hours, they replied asking for more details
  3. You replied
  4. You waited for 20 hours before they replied you again
  5. You replied, explaining the problem further
  6. Again, you waited for 20 hours before they replied you again. They also told you that they cannot help you with that problem because your support period has ended


  7. You purchased support credit
  8. You waited for 60 hours because they do not work on Sat and Sun
  9. They replied, telling you they are working on it
  10. After 20 hours, they tell you the problem is fixed
  11. You checked, after 5 minutes, you found that the problem is fixed but another problem surfaced


  12. Repeat steps 1 and 11 above 5 times
  13. After 1 month… perhaps, your problem is finally fixed!



    Takes time and a lot of patience…

Yep, Nomans reply is very ironic considering he is so adament about webhosting having phone support so that he can get a hold of them as quick as possible.



If your deciding factor on CSC is quick support, then you might as well move on.

To one point though, application support is very different from server support. Most server issues can be resolved with a restart, small config change and/or have occurred to many other people therefore there is a knowledgebase to seach in for resolution. Most hosts use the same or similar OS and Hardware configurations so there is also a much larger pool to add to that knowledgebase. Software in general, involves much more detailed troubleshooting and testing once the issue is found. I work in IT for a major electronic manufacturer on the application development/support team and can tell you response times like you are seeing from cs-cart aren’t that unusual. Try working with large companies like IBM, EMC, Oracle or Microsoft on a software issue and you will think cs-cart’s resolution (not response) time is world class. Sure you may get an email from one of those companies mentioned above within an hour but resolution most of the time will take much longer. My only wish is that they offered support in the US since so much time is lost due to the time difference.

[quote name=‘Noman’]Having this attitude towards CS people, you should definitely look for another cart and don’t ever bother to come back.[/QUOTE]

Hmmm… I hope you’re not saying that on behalf of CS-CART, but as an individual.

Perhaps CS-CART are ok with you losing them potential customers :???: