Support Policy

Limited interactive troubleshooting support from the support team is included with your Shopp support key purchase on activated sites. Basic troubleshooting support is provided as long as resources are available and the support request is reasonable.

Delivery

All support services will be delivered exclusively through the Shopp Support Help Desk. Troubleshooting requests submitted through any other communication channel will not be addressed.

Customers Only

Support services provided by the Shopp support team will only be provided to verified shopplugin.net account holders (the customer) that have purchase receipts for the supported products that the support request is for. A developer or designer hired by a shopplugin.net account holder is not a verified customer of shopplugin.net. To make support requests, they must, at least in a temporary capacity, use a verified customer account login to make support requests.

Use

The support services provided by the Help Desk support team are not intended for use as a replacement for business critical operational support staff. The customer agrees that support services will not be used when failure of the support services to attain a desired result could lead to significant loss of business.

Hours of Operation

Troubleshooting support services are provided during business days (Monday through Friday) from the hours of 9 AM to 5 PM Eastern time (GMT-5 Standard, GMT-4 Daylight Savings). Support hours of operation exclude all United States Federal Holidays as well as the following days:

  • Good Friday (the Friday before Easter)
  • The day after Thanksgiving
  • Christmas Eve
  • The day after Christmas (2nd day of Christmas)
  • New Years Eve

These exclusions are subject to change. Changes to the hours of operation will be amended as a notice here at least 30 days before the new exclusion rules will go into effect.

Response Times

Response times are limited to the hours of operation. There is no guarantee of a specific response timeframe. Responses are provided on a first come, first serve basis. Adding posts to a ticket before the initial request is answered by an authorized support agent will add further delays by moving the ticket to the end of the line.

Supported Products

Ingenesis Limited (Ingenesis) will provide support on the official, unmodified, public current release of the software developed by Ingenesis and distributed on the Shopp Store:

Official & Unmodified

Official and unmodified refer to software developed by Ingenesis without any modifications to the source code from that which is distributed through the official update channels directly from shopplugin.net.

Support Ticket

A support ticket is a support request posted to the official, web-based Shopp support Help Desk located online at https://shopplugin.net/support/. Shopp support services are provided for a qualified support ticket.

Qualified Support Tickets

A qualified support ticket is a request for support by an authenticated customer detailing a clear description of a single, distinct, technical problem with a supported product on a Shopp installation that is actively registered to a support key.

Ingenesis will, at its sole discretion, determine what constitutes a qualified support ticket. The general guidelines for a qualified support ticket include:

  • Authenticated Customers Only
    Support services on the Help Desk are only provided for tickets posted from an authentic customer account.
  • Reproducible Bugs
    Problems or issues that can be recreated in a known configuration and/or known environment.
  • Admin Use
    Clarification of the Shopp admin screens
  • WordPress Support
    General help with WordPress is provided, not ground-up training for beginners
  • Tips & Tricks
    Simple site optimization tips and customization tricks
  • Third-Party Compatibility Identification
    Diagnosing compatibility problems for third-party plugins or themes interfering with Shopp functionality
  • Hosting Troubleshooting
    Diagnosing problems related to the hosting service provider configuration

Ingenesis will not provide support services until a support ticket has been qualified by an authorized representative of Ingenesis.

Access

When required for the purposes of diagnostics, troubleshooting, qualification of support tickets, and patching bugs of the customer copy of supported products, the customer agrees to provide the necessary level of access to customer computer systems, software, and hosting environment in order for Ingenesis to perform support services. This access includes but is not limited to:

  • File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or equivalent remote read and write filesystem access to all files directly related to the operation of the supported product
  • Direct or indirect access to all log files produced by the web server software or supported products
  • Access to the WordPress administrative interface of customer website, with WordPress roles and capabilities equivalent to the site Administrator
  • An account with all privileges and a software client interface access to all MySQL databases and tables that directly affect the operation of the supported products

Failure of the customer to provide reasonable, timely access to these systems necessary for Ingenesis to carry out its duties will result in the automatic resolution of the support incident.

Rejected Support Tickets

Support services may be denied for reasons including, but not limited to, the following:

  • The support team can not confirm the purchase of the supported product by the customer account used to open the support ticket
  • The supported product is modified or customized by the customer or a third-party hired by the customer, or downloaded and installed from a third-party source
  • Questions or problems related to how to develop or customize Shopp that would require custom written source code to resolve the support ticket
  • Software development or web site design
  • Deployment of supported products in an unsupported hosting configuration or operating environment
  • Problems caused by third-party software products including themes, WordPress modifications/customizations, or are not supported products
  • Use of a WordPress version that is newer than the publicly released stable version
  • Use of a WordPress version that is older than the supported product requires (stated or unstated).
  • Design or styling troubleshooting not directly a result of styles applied by a supported product
  • Shopp/WordPress administrative interface problems with any specific web browser or version of a web browser
  • Shopp storefront problems for supported products occurring in unsupported web browsers or unsupported versions of web browsers
  • Limited access to the Shopp installation on the registered website for the support ticket
  • Uncooperative, unprofessional, or abusive conduct by the customer

Resolved

A support ticket is resolved when the customer receives one of the following:

  • information that resolves the problem;
  • information on how to obtain a software solution or service that will resolve the problem;
  • notice that the problem is caused by a known, unresolved issue or an incompatibility issue with a supported product;
  • information that identifies the problem as being resolved by upgrading to a newer release of the supported product; or
  • information that identifies the problem as being caused or related to the customer server, hosting, or operating environment or other software that are not supported products.

Customization Help

The Shopp support team can not support issues related to designing and developing a custom store or help with the Shopp APIs. For these issues, you will need to work with a website designer or developer. If you don’t already have one, you can try contacting an experienced Shopp developer listed in our Professionals Directory.

You can also try to post your job requirements at any of a number of technical/programming job listing sites:

In the right hands, Shopp offers limitless customization. Being proficient with HTML, CSS and even JavaScript & PHP are all essential to getting the most out of what Shopp can do. Instead of hiring a professional, you can teach yourself these technologies using any of the many guides available online. You can also learn about the Shopp APIs by using the examples available throughout the online API reference documentation.

There are also a number of helpful Shopp designers and developers in the Community Forums that you can reach out to. Be detailed and patient when you ask a question, and remember to include a link to the site you are working on. Also keep in mind that people helping you on the Community Forums are not paid, so make it easy for others to help you. While you’re there, think about giving back by sharing your snippets of code, ideas and discoveries about Shopp.


© Ingenesis Limited. Shopp™ is a registered trademark of Ingenesis Limited.