[freeside-users] 4 Problems With Freeside

[Bowen, Peter]

Kyle,
	The first three issues should be pretty straightforward to test
- but every install is different.  Here are my quick thoughts...

	1. Check your invoice events
	2. I would look at the errors that your bank gives back - is it
declined or is a field missing.  There's just not enough information to
know what's going wrong.
	3. This sounds like a problem with the way the packages are set
up on your side.  Ivan is right... this works other places.

	4. If you send Ivan money to do this, you'll have to merge in
the changes by yourself - since Ivan doesn't want to be responsible for
your custom install.  Most people want to pay for an end-to-end solution
- which, I'm sure, is why Ivan said no.

	You have a good point about Rodopi and some of the others.
Nothing is free - open source still requires some care and feeding, and
if your system goes belly up and you can't bill, Ivan's only liability
is for your purchase price - in this case... nothing.  Once he gets
involved, he becomes responsible for a system that he didn't scope,
install, or populate.  Getting it to a good state can be time consuming
and hence expensive.  Billing is hard.  Many companies have taken this
for granted, and it catches up with them.  Phone billing/rating systems
can cost in the millions of dollars.  I know because I've bought them.
If you're not comfortable with the care and feeding of open-source,
Rodopi might be a good fit.

	The good news is that all is not lost.  You have a couple of
options:

	1. You can pay Ivan a couple of grand to install for you, and
you get his support.  He does have to feed his family and this is his
full-time job.  Rodopi will NOT give you access to the main developer.

	2. You can join the IRC channel, and see if someone will help
you.  The server and channel information is on the Freeside home page.
There is MUCH more traffic there than on the mailing list.

	3. You can find a technology guy to help with some of the perl
stuff.  Most good sysadmins are comfortable with perl as part of their
day-to-day and the code is easy to follow and understand.  If you expect
to have a successful ISP, VoIP, Webhosting, whatever business you're
going to need a good technical nuts and bolts guy, so take this
opportunity to find one. 

	Well, my 2 cents is looking like a buck and a quarter - so I'll
stop. Freeside is really good, and in the hands of a competent tech guy
it will do almost anything.  Good Luck...

-Peter



*Ivan* - I wonder if it wouldn't be worth putting together a list of
guys that are running Freeside and would be willing to moonlight on some
of these non-Ivan installs.  I understand your business model, but maybe
there's a way to help some of the small entrepreneurs and help some of
the guys in IRC make a little money on the side.  As this is your baby,
I'll suggest the list, but the decision is yours.



-----Original Message-----
From: freeside-users-bounces at sisd.com
[mailto:freeside-users-bounces at sisd.com] On Behalf Of Kyle Leissner
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 12:40 PM
To: Freeside users mailing list
Subject: Re: [freeside-users] 4 Problems With Freeside

Ivan,

I would love to contribute a patch, but unfortunately I can not program.
I 
would also love to pay you to work on parts of my system, but according
to 
your last email you are not willing to work on my system unless you have

installed it yourself. Plus, last time I got a quote from you it was in
the 
thousands of dollars range. If I wanted to spend this kind of money I
would 
have gone with Rodopi or another paid software provider. I can not seem
to 
justify why I would spend thousands of dollars on opensource software to

have it be complete, whereas there are other programs arlready out there

completed for the same price.

If you are willing to adjust your rates I am will to work with you.

Thank you,
Kyle
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ivan Kohler" <ivan at 420.am>
To: "Freeside users mailing list" <freeside-users at sisd.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2006 6:36 PM
Subject: Re: [freeside-users] 4 Problems With Freeside


> On Wed, Feb 08, 2006 at 04:13:09PM -0600, Kyle Leissner wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I am having four problems with freeside:
>> 1. It is not sending email invoices to users. It is only sending
payment
>> receipts.
>> 2.E-Checking on the online signup script is not working, and users
get a
>> processing error when the online form instantly tries to process
their 
>> bank
>> account. But then if I login to freeside, find the now cancelled
account
>> since it never set it up, and press process, it works?
>> 3.Credits for referred customers don't seem to work?
>
> Works for me...
>
>> 4. It RT supposed to link tickets to customers according to what
email
>> address the ticket is from?
>
> This is planned but not yet written.  Perhaps you are interested in
> contributing a patch.
>
> -- 
> _ivan
> _______________________________________________
> freeside-users mailing list
> freeside-users at sisd.com
> http://420.am/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freeside-users
> 

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