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I think it might change a bit between now and the beta and it seems reasonably stable and although not recommended for commercial use yet I hope it is not long before the beta is released.
The Support is excellent and I like the product enough to suggest I might actually buy the commercial product when its finished [although I think the community one is VERY good enough for most joomla fans].
This is the neatest and most comprehensively laid out newsletter subscription service I have seen so far. I have only used the FREE one so far but believe me that is more than enough for most sites.
I think they can continue to add bells and whistles but, for me it's currently number One.
I will shortly be handing over some of my hard-earned PayPal for the next level up which in my book is likely to be money well spent.
I like the simple idea of turning on and off of the features and the changing of colours and fontsize proved simple and unfussy.
If you want an unsophisticated rolling news service this will do the job - no fuss.
Working on the premise that the system is designed as a form of family tree then one would assume that it would have some means of showing it as such. It doesn't.
I didn't like the limitations of the fields [reverse dates only] and the inability to add fields or even images. There is scarcity of fields in the component and the data that you can record does not show up on the lists.
All in all a very poorly presented product with very limited userbase
I installed the plugin, which didn't work, I tried to uninstall it but, it wouldn't delete the xml and php files and I also had to remove the database entry.
The support/FAQ page was virtually non-existent and there is no forum. Admittedly I did not email the developer but was so unimpressed with the product install and functionality that I couldn't be bothered.
There seems promise in the way the product should work but the developer needs to get to grips with explanations on how the product will work, what the pricing structure represents and how the plug-in links to his site and what support he intends to provide and guarantees of uptime.
My view is this is very expensive (£6 a month) and I might be inclined to use this if a] the product was fully committed to my own site, and b] the price was fixed as a one-off license.
Put my business in this persons hands? no way!
Misrepresentation of dialogue and truth always spoils the integrity of the reviewer, I shall do no more than post the unabridged email the reviewer did send to me with regards to the plugin and his successful installation of it.
If you can be bothered to read it.
Hi Les,
Thanks for your comments. I have tried to address these with comments in your email below:
best regards,
- Chuck
[removed]
> Hi Chuck
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> I have been evaluating your plug-in but I’m not happy with some of the concept behind it.
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> Firstly, I want a system that I have control over - what is to stop you hiking the charges once the
> customer has installed your product, got used to using it for a period of time and becoming dependent
> on it and cannot afford to move away and take another product (If we sell a site where we control
> everything they [and we] are much happier) - what happens if your server goes down and what happens
> if you go out of business. £6 a month is a lot of money to absorb on a small B&B or holiday let.
All of the above can be applied to your business model, what are your guarantees?. I am only trying to provide a service at a competitive price and get rewarded appropriately. Like all businesses a certain level of trust is required.
What happens to your customer if your server goes down, or you go out of business? £6.00 is not a lot of money if the system saves a few administrative hours a month and also engages the new popular idiom of booking on-line. If people wish to move, they can download all their bookings using the CSV download facility and shut their account.
Also one calendar cannot function properly for a B&B, you would have to take out a calendar for each room. In the case of mill haven house, it would need 4 calendars at £13.00 per month for the 4.
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> Now, operationally I would have thought your system would also add the price of each day rather
> than the user just having to input the total accumulative - it allows for a daily rate to be
> shown much simpler than what you have.
One daily rate is simpler, but more restrictive. If you do want this facility, I can easily create this for you.
However a 4 night stay can cost less than the accumulative, no bedsheets to change etc. The way the input is designed, there are rates for seasons and long stays etc. Very flexible and already being used by a few clients. I run this product for my own accommodation and this is the way it naturally turned out. One night stay is more expensive than a two nights stay. Stay for a week at the B&B and you can configure an automatic 10% discount.
Of course it is easy to cut and paste each accumulative price to emulate exactly what you need, so best of both worlds.
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> The cost of a daily newspaper for example, set at £1 can only be £1, you have not set a
> time period, the same might be said of towels, which might be per week.... Most customers
> would want a daily paper throughout their stay so it needs to reflect a period rather than
> a set figure. A house might offer with and without breakfast and that needs to be daily too.
> The idea of a reduction for continental breakfast almost fits your table but, only if it can
> be set to daily etc., (I think you see where I am coming from on this).
You have not configured the above correctly, if you place a per in the value text or a % in the value, or a + or - , as per the config instructions, then it is adjusted accordingly, check out this demo to see what I mean.
http://www.bookingwizard.net/demo1.html Please excuse the French :-)
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> There is no per person rate, most holiday lets will be per person or a price per let. We
> mainly have guest houses that are let on a room basis, with one or two occupants and that
> is reflected in the price per room. Single room occupancy might be £35 and two person
> occupancy might be £25 each.
The system has been designed for holiday let accommodation and not for a guest house. But again the extras/supplements above should be able to accommodate the above request very nicely (single person supplement?).
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> I can see where you are coming from on the development side but, confess to not being happy
> with the lack of information on the site and it is definitely a minus with the rate you have
> set, I purchased hot property from mosets and was happy to do that, I have also purchased other
> products and am happy to do that any time if I can see the work going into supporting it and
> continued development with a feedback forum to compare issues with other users.
You only get what you are prepared to pay for. I am confident in this booking system and what it offers and it's cost effectiveness, ease of use, installation and flexibility.
What information would you like to see? What is missing?
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> As it stands and whilst I like the product, it has no viability for me to introduce it to
> my customers where I have ZERO control over its use, cost or availability. - I think most
> site developers are going to feel the same way. That’s okay if you intend to sell direct to
> holiday let owners, but generally their knowledge of joomla and web development tends to be
> limited.
The other developers who have sent me their comments on the product don't agree with what you have stated above. In fact one of the great assets is that they have no responsibility in the functionality of the system, therefore it is deferred to me.
Also I endeavour to help integration to those that need this free of charge. Joomla is only a plugin, the Booking Wizard can be added to any site, even a simple DIY html site.
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> Anyway, I thought you might appreciate the feedback, let me know if you intend to change
> the focus of the product.
All comments are appreciated. Thank you.
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> Regards
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[removed]
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> From: Chuck [removed]
> Sent: 2009-12-03 17:01
> To: [removed]
> Subject: Joomla Plugin
>
>
>
> Hi There,
>
> Thanks again for registering with the new server. Since your last registration I have found a
> bug in the plugin software running on Linux systems. It was to do with file naming
> uppercase/lowercase. This bug prevented proper configuration of the plugin.
>
> This has now been resolved and you can now download the latest plugin, v1.3 from the
> website which addresses the above problem.
>
> If you have any problems using the software / plugin then please do not hesitate to drop
> me an email
>
> Best regards,
>
> - Chuck
The product does EXACTLY what it says on the tin and is being updated all the time.
tip: run the logging file to see the full details and DO sign up to BotScout.com although the local blocking also works really well too.
This product is now a MUST for standard installs.
The plug-in does exactly as designed and whilst I have not yet implemented it into the site I downloaded it for, I'm certain it will work perfectly.
Nice and tidy install, simple setup and ease of use.