PHPLD price change - You need to pay $20 every 6 months

I don't think it is up to us to contact you about not being able to access downloads we paid for.
I think it is up to you to fix this and I notice you are full of apologies and free scripts to some of your customers but you just choose to ignore my post and others.

 

We are making some important changes to the account structure as we move toward the more "free" model, which you will be seeing more about soon. There may have been a technical glitch in which some accounts were blocked, and that is why I do appreciate you contacting us so we can help. I don't know your specific phpLD username (discover?) but if you will check a little later today, I think you and anyone else that might have been temporarily not able to access downloads will now have access.That would of course exclude banned accounts. This problem did NOT affect everyone, but it does appear there was a glitch. That is part of the reason we appreciate people contacting us directly so we can help you and others. Sometimes with progress comes problems, but we've got a lot more we'll be announcing throughout the year that should come as a surprise to many. Thanks for your persistence about the problem!

 

"Personally, PHPLD is too heavy in my opinion, but some people might not care. If you want something that you just put up and run, it is ok. But if you want custom and I mean layout and widgets, not a few tiny changes real fast, it might not be the best option."

- This quote was by someone on the previous page and I think it's wrong. I've tried many scripts but I found PHPLD the EASIEST and most user friendly script to make changes internally and layout wise. Checkout my sig and you'll see...

Anyways, if you want a business to grow you always have to make changes. David is doing just that and he's definitely not going to please everybody... I'm not even sure how I feel about it yet, but I think it might be a good move for his business...

Besides, what did Bill Cosby say?
"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."

 

Saving this to bookmarks. Thank you for your thoughtful reply, and I very much love your sites. You have made several different variations of phpLD that are quite amazing. A little over a year ago we were fortunate to interview you about the directory innovation you brought.

Indeed, it is what people do with something that matters most. If your goal is to simply upload our script and wait for people to buy links from your site, I would suggest you do not buy our script. If your goal is to take our script and do something special, then you are more likely to find success. We have some very successful customers, and then we have some that are still searching. And of course, we are also still searching for ways to build on the success we have found so far with phpLD, so even more people can benefit. We appreciate people critics and fans alike. Some of our worst critics been wonderful motivators!

 

Agree, My phpld download area has been blocked many times whenever I used different IPs to log in. This is definitely annoying.
And I don't think it's a technical glitch. They (phpld) just don't care too much about it.

Regarding the price change, it's unfair for the existing license owners because there wasn't such a policy when they bought the licenses. I have no problem if the script price is increased to the amount at whatever you want (new customers will judge and decide whether to buy), but to increase the support fee is simply milking customers that have already FULLY paid for the product and service.

 

It sounds like PHPLD is making changes in the right direction and taking customer feedback into account. I give them a "bravo" for that. They might be competition for me, but I have to say that it does take time to change from one way to another from reqriting policies to site revamping.

 

I respect that, I am not saying it is total crap, not at all. However, in my opinion it could be cleaner. I am refering to a coder's stand point, not end user.

 

We could ALWAYS improve on the coding. This is a very dynamic environment where we have to balance updates with platforms, existing user needs, and requests from new users, as well as taking advantage of new technologies and coding practices. There is always "one more thing" that can be done and we apply changes quite frequents, and even rewrite large sections of code at least a couple of times per year.

As for users, it is always good to hear from users like this. He says he tried 4 different scripts first. I am not sure which 4 but great to see he is happy with us. That said, it is always important to talk to those who give negative feedback, and rather than argue back, try to see what we can learn from them so we can keep improving.

 

It has been more than 180 days since your last purchase. You no longer have access to the Downloads Area and to our Supporter's Forum. In order to regain these rights please click below to get a renewal. It will cost you $20.

Still not fixed.

 

Okay so you have reinstated access to the downloads but now I cannot get access to the support forum and all I see is this:
Atention: Your access to Support Tickets expired. To buy more access days you can purchase new license, or Renew Your Account

Since I paid for access to the support forum with no mention of recurring fees I would like this access restored
You want to change the way you charge for support for new customers that's up to you but don't try and push a recurring fee on me when I already paid for the support to begin with.
And as for support I seem to remember a lot of the support I received was actually from an0n in your forums anyway.

 

Once you give me your phpLD username, I will make sure you have support. It does not seem to be "discover". We appreciate your feedback. Though it is negative, its good to have people banging on our model for weaknesses, as that helps us improve, and for that we are grateful.

I will pose one question to you, and see what you think....
Supposing someone bought our script for $25 and then paid an additional $10 for the support forum back in 2007. How many hours of support do you think they should be entitled to before we tell them we need more money?

I don't think it is unreasonable to place limits. As I mentioned earlier, if we just gave people unlimited support for a lifetime, there would be a downside of that curve where we were paying more to support people than we were receiving for the product. That would impact ALL users negatively.

As for the supporters forum, we don't charge for it anymore, and people who own a license get access to it for free. If you go a long time without visiting, there may be a chance you need to ask to get back in, but it is free now.

As for the support tickets, the main purpose is where we actually need to login to FTP or the admin panel and provide direct help on your site. We most certainly do have a limit on this type of activity that we will do for free. We really always have had this limit. It is just the ticket system makes this more official.

Again, thank you for your feedback, and if you will give me your phpLD username (PM is fine) I will be happy to make sure you are receiving support, and have access to the supporters forum. This applies to everyone, not only you.

Best Wishes to All

 

And again, I appreciate all the attention phpLD has been getting here on DP again. I know there has been some negative feedback, but we need to hear that too. This thread has been getting a lot of views and we are getting traffic from DP like the "old days". Thanks everyone for visiting our site (DP referrals/conversions are up quite a bit!).

 

This is one of the few threads worth reading and replying in Directories Forum (nowadays ...)

Its important to admit any mistakes and make necessary improvements.

No script is perfect. Even Google labeled all websites as "This site may harm your computer" in their search results couple years ago.

Give this guy a chance as long as he is taking the steps to make the necessary adjustment.

I have to say, great job handling this PR nightmare.

+1 to you dvduval

Good luck!

 

Well one good thing I see is this will probably get rid of tons of junk PHPLD directories that just sit stagnant on the internet.

95%++ of directories out there are just pasted up by a clueless fool(or a clueless fool with a support ticket and free install) so after 180 days they should realize they are not going to make any money and will not pay more money after bad. The other small percentage of directory owners who Do Not need support more then once every year or 2 will just go to another script with a one time fee.

I have only used PHPLD a few times i found it ok but I would not pay for the type of support it has, for that kind of money someone better pick up a phone by the 5th ring and fix some problems.

 

Thank you very much! As I mentioned earlier, we are getting more traffic and conversions now from Digital Point as a result of this thread. We have a great customer base, and a large percentage of our sales are repeat sales. The great thing about that is people have developed ways to create quality sites, and are repeating that model. phpLD is not used only to create link directories any more. With Link Types and Submit Items, people are creating all kinds of interesting directories.

People that just put up a cookie cutter site are not good for us either, and it might be just as well they choose another script. We have far fewer people who fit that description these days.

A significant percentage of our customers are seeking now to customize their directories, and I believe that to be a great sign of things to come. It is leading to more creativity, and wider array of uses for phpLD. Our jobs area is now the busiest section of our site. We've had to increase the size of our staff to manage the increasing requests there.