Ask HN: What to do when companies lie?

1 points by dpeterson 7 years ago | 2 comments

I recently purchased (September) a number of marketplace extensions from Webkul for Magento. A new version of Magento just came out and I asked if my recent purchases will be compatible with the new version. The response I received: "Hi Dean Peterson,

Greetings of the Day!!

I would like to inform you that as of now, the Marketplace Module is not compatible with the Magento 2.3. We are upgrading all of our Magento 2 Extensions to Magento 2.3 version. Once modules are available, we will provide a free upgrade on modules purchased after 30 November 2018.

Thanks for contacting Webkul. Please feel free to contact if you have any query, we are just a ticket reply away.

Thanks & Regards"

I purchased the extensions because their own documentation says they provide updates for life for free: https://marketplace.webkul.com/knowledgebase/provide-module-updates/ I also took a screenshot for when they inevitably scrub that: https://d1lu8vbgap5ai0.cloudfront.net/webkulscreenshot.png

What is the best way to report this kind of false advertising?

oblib 7 years ago |

"Updates" and "Upgrades" are not the same thing so this is not necessarily "false advertising".

I've learned that implementing an "upgrade" isn't always necessary or even a good idea. Sometimes it's a bad idea because it breaks things that work and doesn't provide any real benefit.

This has happened to me enough times that I generally wait to upgrade until a few point updates have been released to let others suss out any bugs.

So, if the version of the modules you're using are stable and provide the functionality you require then just use those and don't worry about the "upgrade".

If there's something you need in the upgrade ask them if they'll give you a discount on the new version, or just purchase it and consider it a cost of development and take advantage of the new features you're getting.

Either way you might want to ask them how long they'll support the version you're using. If they'll be supporting it for a few more years than I'd almost certainly not upgrade in the middle of development. I would not add features to the spec just because a package I was using has been upgraded unless there was a very compelling reason. I'd save it for my next "upgrade".

"if it ain't broke don't fix it" - Bert Lance

whynotboth1 7 years ago |

You could report that but I have a hard time imagining a court sorting this update/upgrade stuff. It's one thing to update an extension so it keeps working with the Magento version it was released for, and it's another thing to upgrade it to work with a newer version of Magento.