Pre-Sale Questions

[goin4savvy]

Hi - seriously considering your product, but have a few questions.

1. If I purchase the just the 68 Classifieds Hosted does that allow me to make design changes or would I need to purchase the 68 Classifieds Designer ALONG with the hosted to make design changes? What if I purchase a template AND the hosted version? Would I need Designer to make changes?

2. If I purchase the hosted version, is this billed monthly? If so, can it be paid for yearly or quarterly as well? 6 months at a time?

3. Is there a contract for the hosted version?

4. If I decide at any time to upgrade to the Developer version, is there a discount?

5. This has probably been asked but I couldn't find it on the forums, can I add a Blog or a Forum to my site if I choose the hosted version?

6. I am also a little nervous about the support. I have been through the forums and there seems to be an almost equal mix of people that are happy with the support and people that are not happy (i.e. no response to questions). What IS the support that you offer? What is the average response time to a problem?

Thank you in advance for your time.

[Lhotch]

Originally Posted by goin4savvy

Hi - seriously considering your product, but have a few questions.

1. If I purchase the just the 68 Classifieds Hosted does that allow me to make design changes or would I need to purchase the 68 Classifieds Designer ALONG with the hosted to make design changes? What if I purchase a template AND the hosted version? Would I need Designer to make changes?

There are actually only 2 versions of the software, designer and developer. The designer version allows you access to the smarty templates to change all the layout aspects of the scropt. The developer edition give you access to the php script files themselves to mace code changes if you need to do more than just change the looks/basic layout.

The "hosted" version is basically the designer script plus web hosting and they install it for you.

Originally Posted by goin4savvy

2. If I purchase the hosted version, is this billed monthly? If so, can it be paid for yearly or quarterly as well? 6 months at a time?

This I am not sure about will have to wait for a 68c employee to answer that one.

Originally Posted by goin4savvy

3. Is there a contract for the hosted version?

See answer above.

Originally Posted by goin4savvy

4. If I decide at any time to upgrade to the Developer version, is there a discount?

I dont beleive there is a discount, you just pay the difference between the price of designer and developer.

Originally Posted by goin4savvy

5. This has probably been asked but I couldn't find it on the forums, can I add a Blog or a Forum to my site if I choose the hosted version?

My understanding if its a full functioning web host, just like many others and you are free to add additional content such as forums and blogs.

Originally Posted by goin4savvy

6. I am also a little nervous about the support. I have been through the forums and there seems to be an almost equal mix of people that are happy with the support and people that are not happy (i.e. no response to questions). What IS the support that you offer? What is the average response time to a problem?

Thank you in advance for your time.

I think this is largely due to the differing opinions people have about what "support" is.

The free support that is offered is to get your software running and the official channel for this support is through the problem ticket system. This includes issues like problems with installation or certain features not working.

This support does not include questions like....

how to I change the color of my site?
how do I add a new table "insert location here"?

In short there are many people who expect support to spend hours, days, or even weeks hand holding and teaching people how to use basic HTML or CSS and other that expect people to spend their time getting a site to work that has been extensively modded where the site owner broke something themselves. when trying to modify their site.

Now, thats not to say this type of support isnt given, it is and thats what these forums are for, 68C users to share and help other users with mods and changes. It is also used as an unoffial method for the 68C developer to help customers with these modification questions, which is something they do from time to time.

But lets face there are people who make a pretty good living doing HTML, CSS and PHP work and its a little presumptuous to expect someone to spend all their time teaching others and modifying their sites for free when they could be doing the same for someone else and getting paid for it.

So, the point I am trying to make is that many who are complaining do so because someone isnt holding their hand and modifying their site for them.

[goin4savvy]

Thanks for answering my questions! I completely understand your description regarding the support issues. I will be making a decision this week.
Thanks!