Service is EXTREMELY poor.

[Eyenovation]

I am writing to say, that while I believe the vBulletin product is superior to others out there, that the service is an absolute joke at best. It make me so frustrated, I am ready to cut my losses and go with a more reliable forum software package.

How can you honestly sell a product such as this and offer NO phone support? This is very unlike any company I have ever dealt with

Also, how can you offer such limited documentation with a product such as this? I would expect screen shots, detailed step by step procedures, troubleshooting and more.

This is very saddening, as I was looking forward to finally setting up the vBulletin software on a client's site. Furthermore, as a web development professional, I was hoping to be able to confidently recommend this forum software to other clients my firm will no doubt do work for.

Not only do I not have a working version of your software, but I am out the $160 I spent trying to get it. My delayed responses from your 'support' department have done little to help me.

I socialize with many designers and other creative professionals and will sadly have to relay my horrible experience with your company.

[Andrew111888]

I am writing to say, that while I believe the vBulletin product is superior to others out there, that the service is an absolute joke at best. It make me so frustrated, I am ready to cut my losses and go with a more reliable forum software package.

How can you honestly sell a product such as this and offer NO phone support? This is very unlike any company I have ever dealt with

Also, how can you offer such limited documentation with a product such as this? I would expect screen shots, detailed step by step procedures, troubleshooting and more.

This is very saddening, as I was looking forward to finally setting up the vBulletin software on a client's site. Furthermore, as a web development professional, I was hoping to be able to confidently recommend this forum software to other clients my firm will no doubt do work for.

Not only do I not have a working version of your software, but I am out the $160 I spent trying to get it. My delayed responses from your 'support' department have done little to help me.

I socialize with many designers and other creative professionals and will sadly have to relay my horrible experience with your company.

vBulletin is extremely reliable. There seem to be about 25,000+ happy customers; they must be doing something right.

Offer phone support? They offer very nice forum support, as well as the support ticket system.

I assure you that their software works, it's not their fault if you don't get it to work right.

What procedures do you need? http://www.vbulletin.com/admindemo/ has everything you can explore before buying.

http://www.vbulletin.com/manual/ has an excellent documentation.

Also, having one post, being this one, it doesn't seem apparent you asked any questions before this one, unless via the support system.

[filburt1]

How can you honestly sell a product such as this and offer NO phone support? This is very unlike any company I have ever dealt with

Jelsoft is a very small company compared to most others out there. It would make vBulletin far more expensive to offer 24/7 (required given the international nature of the customer base) phone support.

[Scott MacVicar]

Phone support should be implemented during September. Its currently having the interface implemented at the moment.

I responded to your ticket and even offered to do the install for you.

[Wayne Luke]

Actually, we offer escalated phone support at this time. If the need merits it the technician handling your support ticket will give you the phone number.

I do this 50-60 hours a week at this time with a lot of our customers from the worlds largest multinational corporations to our everyday customers. However since more people are available to handle email support, you will most likely get a faster response that way than over the phone. We also offer live chat support and sales information on this site.

In the future we hope to offer more comprehensive priority support to those customers who need it, most likely for an additional fee.

[Eyenovation]

vBulletin is extremely reliable. There seem to be about 25,000+ happy customers; they must be doing something right.

Yeah, yet with 25,000 @ $160, they can't afford to put someone on a phone, even if only for a few hours to answer routine questions? Even doing rough estimates, that's: $4,000,000. How much does it cost to have a guy manning a phone or two?

Offer phone support? They offer very nice forum support, as well as the support ticket system.

That's fine, if it worked! I even gave my service rep access to my site via user name and password. THEY (the experts) still couldn't fix the problem. They blame my hosting company (which happens to host hundred os vB installs), and Verio (my hosting company), blames vB. Either way, my client has all but fired me.

I assure you that their software works, it's not their fault if you don't get it to work right.

No one's saying their at fault if I don't understand something. But god damn, I am a customer. I would think that my not understanding would be of great concern to vB. i would think they would want to do whatever possible to assist me... So that I could get the software up and running, so that my client could enjoy their forums.... so I could recommend the software to hundreds of others.

What procedures do you need? http://www.vbulletin.com/admindemo/ has everything you can explore before buying.

Except how to install the thing, right? Or the processes in which it takes to do so.

http://www.vbulletin.com/manual/ has an excellent documentation.

How do you rate excellent? Because you were able to understand it? Do you think it's simple enough for any random person (a potential customer) to understand it? If it isn't then the documentation suffers from SERIOUS flaws and needs attention. Since I can't call, I'll be sure to email that.

Also, having one post, being this one, it doesn't seem apparent you asked any questions before this one, unless via the support system.

I probably strike you as the aloof type who unzipped the program and wondered why it didn't just magically appear on my client's site. I assure you I am no idiot, and I wouldn't come on here and blast a company's good name unless I had tried to resolve my problem through other means.

I have years of html experience. Does that make me a CGI, PHP, or SQL guru. No way. But where on the features or purchase page does it say you have to be? It doesn't.

I have been very detailed with my problem, even going as far as to host screen shots for my service 'technician'. I am still... without... a forum that works. BUT, vBulletin has my hard earned money.

Jelsoft is a very small company compared to most others out there. It would make vBulletin far more expensive to offer 24/7 (required given the international nature of the customer base) phone support.

IMHO, companies who excel in customer service seldom stay 'small.' Size is no excuse for service.

[filburt1]

IMHO, companies who excel in customer service seldom stay 'small.' Size is no excuse for service.

That's your opinion, of course, but it probably applies best to products of a different nature. vBulletin, being a purely virtual product with no physical aspects, requires far fewer people to produce and sell. I believe Jelsoft has around 20 employees; I also believe most of them are web support given that they seem to have their Jelsoft jobs as second jobs.

But of course I can't speak for all of them. Perhaps if you posted your problems in one of the forums here, the developers or one of the other
31,522 members could assist.

[tgillespie]

Considering the fact you neglected to get help via the forums, I have no pity for your troubles. There are over 380,000 posts that contain information about the product. That’s a hell of a lot of documentation.

Also, I can assure you that if you would have came to www.vbulletin.com with a request for help; there would have been numerous users that would have helped you with every step (chat, email, pm, post). Hell, some of them probably would have install/fixed it for no charge.

This company has an excellent reputation. I for one, think its one of the best supported commercial software products on the market.

[Eyenovation]

If you think, in 100% honesty, that having software with no 'live' person to talk to is 'one of the best supported commercial software products on the market,' then you must think companies who offer real human voices on the other end of a telephone, in addition to their support forums are anomalous.

[Attrox]

The service? I think it has been great. I have no need for phone service. Whenever I submit a trouble ticket, or email for support, I recieve service with in minutes. Like others have mentioned, these are very active support forums. If you post a thread, chances are you will recieve help with in minutes of your question. Not to mention the resource these forums are.

I mean if I ever run into a problem, all I have to do is click the search button, search for my problem, and I've found the solution. It is that easy. I don't see why you are bashing the support forums, that is rather ignorant in my opinion.

[Wayne Luke]

We have acknowledged that we need to add phone support. We are in the process of implementing that as soon as possible.

Having people argue about the level of support is not going to help it move along any faster. Different people require different levels of support. As such I am closing this thread because it isn't going anywhere and we have already acknowledged the issue.

Eyenovation,
If you are dissatisfied with the product contact me in private with the customerid and password and I will talk to the business manager about a refund and cancellation of your license.