Posted by Justin Koivisto on 09/26/05 20:17

smorrey@gmail.com wrote:

> Hello everyone, just wanted to share my experiences with Zend "the php
> company".
> I decided to do the test drive of the Enterprise grade developer
> studio.
> Big mistake!
>>From day one I had nothing but problems.
> After realizing that something terrible had happened to my webserver
> during the install process, I figured WTF maybe I did something wrong.
>
> I wiped my hard drive and started again, this time using the
> Apache/MySQL/PHP that comes with it, rather than pointing it to my own.
>
> Same result, but this time I realized the installer had fubared some
> scripts and locations. It also missed a few permissions that it should
> have set.
>
> I tracked them down, repointed some scripts to the right sockets, and I
> was off.
> At that point I decided to install the Developer Studio Client on my
> workstation.
>
> That thing just crapped out saying it couldn't find some libraries.
>
> So I created a support ticket to ask what I should do.
> They kindly pointed me to an obscure knowledge base article, that
> didn't appear when searching ANY of the keyword errors.
>
> This article told me, that I needed to hexedit the installer, then
> after it installed I had to hexedit the ZDE binary!
>
> What the hell kind of installer requires you to hexedit it, before it
> can work?
> Furthermore the article claimed the binary was in a place that didn't
> exist, so I had to updatedb and do a search on the filename, cross my
> fingers and hope against hope I had picked the right one.
>
> Fortunately I did.
>
> After I installed the client, I decided to double check developer
> studio server, and make sure everything was going fine.
> Thats when I ran into this error.
>
> "ini_modifier error: ini_modifier was not set"
>
> It was the sole content on EVERY page!
>
> I created a new support ticket asking what it meant.
> They emailed me asking me to send them a file generated by thier
> troubleshooting utility. So I ran the utility, and sent them the file.
> Another day passes by, this time they ask for access to the server.
> I give them the access they request and the password.
>
> It's now been a week. I have updated the ticket daily asking if
> anything has been done. They are completely silent.
>
> Tonight I decided I had enough, told them thanks for showing me what it
> must be like to be a real paying customer, and asked them to close the
> ticket. I'll watch and wait and see how long it is until they get back
> with me, or close the ticket.
>
> And to add insult to injury, when I emailed my sales person who said in
> his initial email to me, that he would be happy to answer any questions
> I may have, etc and so forth. I got my message back in seconds,
> stating that the email address was incorrect, the email was sent to
> mark@zend.com same as the letter was sent from, same as he said was
> his email! He's supposed to be the Director of Inside Sales, but it
> appears in the 5 days I took to evaluate the product he has been fired,
> or re-assigned or something.
>
> Ok well I'm not out anything but a lot of my time, however I just
> wanted to warn any developers considering Zend products, that they
> didn't care about me when I was supposed to be evaluating the
> enterprise grade product. So I hope you have better luck!

It is interesting to hear these kinda of support horror stories. I have
this type of situation before. However, I must say that my experiences
with Zend have been great. They've always gotten back to me with at
least a point in the right direction. Granted, their response time could
be a bit faster, but I never had to wait more than 3 working days for an
answer on an evaluation period, and never more than 1 for something I
had purchased. I will consider myself lucky for now. ;)

--
Justin Koivisto, ZCE - justin@koivi.com
http://koivi.com

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