NerdCore

Hello everyone,
I thought a couple of times about the possibility of not writing this message, but I finally made up my mind, and I am doing it.
I am paying IPS for support. I need them to support me because there are many times where I just can't fix something, I find a bug, I report an issue that I just can't fix, not even my webmaster. I am happy to pay for that extra help.
However, the guys at IPS have decided to change the way support tickets are created.
It no longer is possible to send an email with the ticket. There is no option (I couldn't find any) in my Client Area to see an archive of all support tickets opened, not even the newest ones. Maybe there is such an option, but I just can't find it. It should be easy to locate it The new support ticket in the client area DOES NOT have an option to upload screenshots and documents. How am I supposed to report a problem in detail if there is no option to upload images/documents? I am not receiving any email with a ticket number that I can refer to if I want to add something or reply. No archive in the client area either. And on top of this... I was NOT informed by IPS that the support system was going to change. I am a paying customer paying for this extra service, and they didn't even send me a simple email. A simple email saying, "Our support ticket feature will change from Date X. Please read this article or watch this video to learn how to create a new support ticket".
It's a very simple thing. I created a couple of tickets in the client area because I have an important issue with duplicate payments. It is a bug in the system. Nobody contacted me. No reply from them in 10 days and I'm getting more and more complaints.
It's as if they were doing this on purpose and auto-sabotaging their business since they are not treating their loyal customers the way they should, not even sending them an email with updates.
Yes, IPS explains what they are going to do next in the community blog. They announce this and that feature many won't use (like badges), instead of focusing on very simple concepts and ideas to keep loyal clients. It's like having a relative at the hospital and not being informed of the patient's progress personally.
I want to be informed of what's happening or what will happen to a service that I'm paying for. You just cannot change the policy and how it works without letting your clients. That's a basic 101 customer support policy.
Support has helped me a LOT. I am not saying that they aren't helping. Understand me. The software is a piece of art. It's great. But I am not happy with how they manage it, how they report, and often the type of answer they are giving me.
They always blame "others" before blaming themselves for a potential bug that I've found. It's as if it was my fault for having a buggy feature. It's not my fault, maybe I am missing something, or the feature is not explained correctly. It could obviously be my fault, and sometimes it's been the case. But others, I've reported a bug, and they told me that it was "my fault", I repeatedly insisted, until they finally agreed. 
Right now, there is a critical bug or problem with the payment system. This is essential for anyone monetizing the community. 
Renewal payments are duplicated. My clients are charged twice every month, with PayPal or Stripe.
What did they tell me? Initially that it was my problem, then I insisted, and they agreed that there was a problem. It's been a few weeks, and the problem is still there.
Recurrent payments with a renewal fee smaller than the initial price
ACP allows you to create such a membership. Let's say, charge $100 as the initial price and then $50 a month. The feature is there. It does NOT work. It will not work. I reported it, and they said that it was not possible. So, if this feature is not possible, why is it even available? You are telling me that IPS creates functionalities and that they do not test all the combinations.. Ooops sorry, that precise combination of this feature is available but it just doesn't work. You are not warned, you deploy it and you are f***.
ACP should not allow you to create such a plan if it's buggy and it doesn't work. It will let you do it. I warned them, nothing has been done. I even asked them, "hey, add a message in the product creation process where at least you show a warning about this feature. If someone wants to do that, warn him! Otherwise, they will end up like me with failed payments, duplicate payments and losing clients. 
There has been a couple of updates, and these problems have not been solved. The suggestions have not been accepted. However, they keep on adding features instead of fixing and improving the ones that are already available. They want to add more and more features. Yes, some of them are great. But what about something as simple as making the payments and renewals WORK?
They also blamed PayPal for not processing renewal correctly, that PayPal is charging the renewal fee whenever they want. Again, they were blaming someone else, not accepting that there was a problem or a bug. I've used vBulletin and amember software for payments for 8 years. I did not have a single issue with renewals, neither with Stripe nor with Paypal. But they told me that the problem lies with PayPal. That cannot be true. Why? Because I would have had similar issues in renewals charges in 8 years, but I had ZERO issues with renewals. There is definitely a problem with the way IPS is handling some of these issues. They are not being fixed.
Hopefully, someone will hear me out and help fix these critical issues because I am losing clients. I've reported the problems. These problems should exist for any other client, not only me.
Thanks a lot
 

Another idea,

Setting for auto-send the chatbox message once the member logins the next time after approval. Now it is useless, because the user might login the next day and he will miss the chat message.

It would be amazing, we would be ready to pay for these two features :)!

We love this.

It would be amazing if you made it possible to add profile fields to the "new topic".
Example:
Hello %member_name%,
Welcome to %board_name%. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
%member_name% joined on the %joined_date%.
%profile_link%
%profilefield1%
%profilefield2%
 

Edit forums -> front -> index -> index
Find:
<li data-categoryID='{$category->_id}' class='cForumRow ipsBox ipsSpacer_bottom ipsResponsive_pull'> Change it to:
<li data-categoryID='{$category->_id}' class='cForumRow ipsBox ipsSpacer_bottom ipsResponsive_pull cForumRow_hidden' data-hidden="true">  

@Mark HI was one of the early proponents for improving the Release Notes - Invision Community.
An area that could benefit from improvement is to highlight "everything" that is deprecated and to give us some advanced warning so that we can take any necessary steps to mitigate their absences.
Maybe you could create an entry for "Upcoming Deprecations".  You list out any that will be made in the next 4.x.x release and those that might happen further down the road.  
 

Would it be possible to add option that after xx post send welcome message? OR only certain groups receive welcome message? 
 
We have initial group of less then 10 post who don't get PM or status message. So auto welcome doesn't work in the initial grp because PM and status is disabled. 

We love this.

It would be amazing if you made it possible to add profile fields to the "new topic".
Example:
Hello %member_name%,
Welcome to %board_name%. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
%member_name% joined on the %joined_date%.
%profile_link%
%profilefield1%
%profilefield2%
 

This post could be helpful if I know ahead of time if updating to 4.6.3 is going to mess up my forum!  If so, I am not going to do it just yet!!