I was in contact with Elearningforce for a client of mine for whom I am designing a website for, using the free open source script, Joomla.
I let Elearningforce, who makes a subscription management component for Joomla, know that I was looking for a component that could be used with the Community Builder component. This is critical. The community builder component is running the site!
They told me they were releasing a new version of their subscription component that works with the new version of community builder. We waited until they released this new version which cost $95. This was an outrageous price for any component for Joomla but they insisted it was "Huge" and had all the features I was looking for. So I advised my client to purchase it.
When I finally got the component I installed it and began to work through it.
Right off the bat, I was disturbed that on the help in the first paragraph about the component, it said it does not support rebilling! This is a crucial feature and they obviously knew this or they wouldn't have made made it a stand alone sentence in the first section of the help file.
Then why wasn't this on the page of the website describing the abilities of the component? Actually why didn't they put the entire help file on the page describing the component? It tells all about what you are really buying! It's terrible to give customers that information only AFTER they have bought the product.
It was conveniently left out. I worked passed that to learn the only way to use the component was to use its login screen. This was it! This fact renders a key use of Community Builder useless.
Community Builder is used to manage users on joomla and mambo sites. This component allows you maximum control over your user accounts and profiles. If you have any required fields set up using Community Builder, You can no longer use them because this subscription component won't allow you to use community builder to register users. So it is NOT integrated with Community Builder.
When other components have community builder integration, that means, they allow CB to manage the username and passwords to access that feature. This component did not do this which to me, means it doesn't work with community builder.
I have since gone ahead and installed another subscription component and it works as it should.
I requested a refund the same day my client bought the script and have not gotten a response from the company. Of course they were quick to reply when they thought they would have a sale.
I'm requesting that my client have his money refunded and that this company lists exactly what this component is capable of doing as well as what it is not capable of doing (things they know people may expect it to do, like rebilling).
This isn't a case of me or my client not doing enough research, it's simply a misleading product description and dishonest Elearningforce representatives.
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