Free Products
We're sorry but we can't provide free support for free software. We need to spend our time earning a living like everyone else. We make every effort to ensure that our free software works in as many environments as possible and that the documentation is adequate for the majority of users, but we can't guarantee success for all users in all environments. Having said that, if you are an experienced Joomla user and feel that you have identified a problem that we need to know about, please do report it. We do need to know about real problems and will fix them promptly.
Paid Products
Our paid products come with either Basic Support or Full Support.
Basic Support
With these options we offer basic help and clarifications to help you over the learning curve and get you started. If you can't get the product to work, we will help you until you are up and running. But given the low prices we charge there has to be a limit, so if your issues become complex or time-consuming, we will ask you to buy the Full Support option. Basic Support specifically excludes help with language issues on multi-language sites, and the more advanced features in some products.
Full Support
With this option you have our full attention. You have top priority and will receive more detailed responses. Officially there's a limit of five support incidents but we rarely need to mention it. This option tells us that you recognise and value our expertise, and that makes a big difference to us. We are much more inclined to "go the extra mile" for people who have demonstrated their appreciation this way.
Scope of Support
You can use our software on as many sites as you wish, but support is only for a single website. Support is provided by email only.
Reasonable Support
We like to help, but unfortunately some of you would like more help than is reasonable. It's difficult to define exactly what is "reasonable" and what isn't, but we'll give a few examples.
- It's not reasonable to ask basic questions that clearly show that you haven't even opened the user guide. Please read the user guide before you buy the product. If you are unable to read the user guide, or don't think you can install or configure the product, please don't buy it.
- It's not reasonable to buy the Basic Support option of a product and then ask complex questions about a complex integration. If you have a complex site or need to use advanced features, please buy the Full Support option.
- It's not reasonable for multiple members of your team to ask us overlapping or duplicate questions. Please designate one person to liaise with us.
- It's not reasonable to ask for advice about making custom modifications to the code, or ask us to describe the internal workings of the code or data structures. That isn't support, that's consultancy.
- We can't generally help with CSS customisation, custom Javascript, or custom SQL. Again, that isn't support, that's consultancy.
Most of our customers need little or no support. If you do need help, please try to be "reasonable".
After your subscription expires, we continue to value your comments and suggestions, but you no longer have support.
Limited Support for Localhost
When you ask for help, we sometimes need to see the actual page with the problem. A screenshot does not convey anything like as much information. When we can access the actual page, we can use the browser tools to look at the HTML, CSS, Javascript, console errors, and more. On the actual page we can often test solutions and respond to you with a complete and tested solution. Screenshots can show that a problem exists, but they are not much help with finding solutions.
Sometimes, it's easier and quicker to solve a problem if we can have Joomla admin access to your site. Of course we understand that is not always possible and we will try to find other solutions. Please note, though, that if you ask for support for a problem on a localhost site, it can make support much more difficult and in some cases, impossible.
Why We Don't Have a Forum
In the Joomla world, forums are often used as a substitute for proper documentation - an approach that we profoundly disagree with. Users must search through endless irrelevant or out-dated posts, and staff must answer the same questions over and over again. We believe it is far better for everyone if we spend our time improving our code and our documentation so that you don't have to waste time searching a forum or waiting for answers. Our approach has been a resounding success. We are frequently complimented on the quality of our documentation and we continue to update and improve it. We don't need a forum and have no intention of implementing one.
Please Read The User Guide
Our goal is for our user guides to be a complete, well organised reference to everything there is to know about our products, including examples and troubleshooting. Our documentation is always fully updated, checked, and where appropriate, tested, before a new version of a product is considered ready for release. Sometimes the documentation review shows up potential improvements to the code, in which case we go around the loop again until we are happy with both the code and the documentation as a complete system. Then we release the product, and not before. We put a huge amount of time and effort into our documentation. We welcome your feedback on it and we are always happy to add additional details, explanations, and examples.
Despite our efforts, about half of all support emails could be answered by reading the user guides. For the free products, we don't answer those emails. For paid products we can't do that, but if the answer is in the user guide, that is the answer you will eventually receive so you could save yourself some time by checking first.
Language Translation Submissions
We accept translations of our products and integrate them into our products. To submit a translation, please use this contact page where you can attach your file. We maintain some of the French translations ourselves, but we are far from fluent and are always grateful for corrections.
We Like Getting Reviews!
If you'd like to do something to help us, please leave us a review at the Joomla Extensions Directory. Nothing lifts our spirits more than a nice review. But please don't use a review to report a bug or a problem - contact us first!