I'm curious as to if anyone has any experience with FMWebschool and their products.

I ask because last summer we purchased their Ultimate Guide to FX PHP which was darn useful until an error was found in the book. Of course this stopped production on a project that was coming due soon.

There were no email returns from FMWebschool, no phone call returns, in their forum it took a week for someone to answer our questions and then they were nasty because we weren't happy about their support.

Ouch!

Otherwise, it was a useful book but that experience really soured me on them and I'm hesitant to buy again, but they do have a few new items I'm interested in.

Anyone have any other experience with them?

R

Ricardito,

The FMWebscool team are well respected and highly recommended in the FileMaker community. I personally know them and advocate their expertise and services.

I am sorry to hear of your experience. Perhaps they were traveling? or I would imagine you caught them on an off day (a Monday perhaps) - it happens to the best of us.

I would recommend you give Stephen Knight a ring or email I am certain he will assist you with the best of service.

Thank you Stephen for your kind words.

Ricardito, I am quite sure that if you emailed me, you would have received a response. I send out over 60 emails a day. I respond to every email that I receive. Yes, if I am traveling it may take a day, but I make it a point to respond. I also return phone calls as well as help on various email lists, and forums. I checked your many posts on the FMWebschool forums and saw that many of them were answered - many immediately.

Looking at the stats on our forums, Michael and I have posted nearly 2500 times this year alone. If you have a problem with any of our products feel free to call us - I give my 800 number and even my cell number in my emails. You can reach me by email, and our online provide support service is on from 9-5 during weekdays.

If anyone is anyone is unsure as to how aggressively we support our products, read this post from Harry Gloss - http://filemakertoday.com/com/showthread.php?t=15571

In Kindness

Stephen Knight

http://www.fmwebschool.com

800.353.7950

Thanks for the replies but I'm looking for others experiences with them regarding support.

We found an error in their book that was not addressed on their web site (we couldn't find a fix listed anywhere), that stopped production on a deliverable and their response was lacking. I'm not saying they are not professional and I'm not passing judgement, I'm simply stating what our experience was and before we purchase anything else was wondering if others have any experience with them they would care to share.

R

If you have existing issues with FMWebschool, you should resolve them in private with them. I don't see any purpose of trying to locate someone else that has had a bad experience with them. It would appear that you have accomplished your major goal, in that Stephen Knight, the owner of FMWebschool, has stated:

If you have a problem with any of our products feel free to call us - I give my 800 number and even my cell number in my emails. You can reach me by email, and our online provide support service is on from 9-5 during weekdays.

Why not see if you can't resolve this in private, instead of in an open forum.

Thank you,

Lee

" I don't see any purpose of trying to locate someone else that has had a bad experience with them."

Seeking others experiences translates to "bad" experiences to you?

Where did I say that? My goal? My major goal? What might that be? I thought it was pretty clear, I'm interested in a few of their products and am wondering about others experience with them. That confuses you somehow?

Do you have any experience to share, good or bad? Yes? No?

Let me clarify this. I've used forums to find plumbers, mechanics, gardeners... peoples experiences are priceless and I learned that a bad experience is not always true for everyone. So I'm not quick to judge.

I had a plumber come by and was convinced this guy was way over priced and I didn't trust him but some research found that he had really high marks and after getting a few other quotes he did turn out to be fair and did a fine job.

I've stated my experience and was curious about others experience. But if this is not the place to ask about Filemaker companies or products then I got no problem with that and won't do it in the future.

Hi ricardito,

It seems to me that, if I wondered about the quality of an organization, I would post. For sure!

But I would post, not with my experience but rather simply saying ...

We are considering using (bla bla) and I would like to know if others have used them and whether they would recommend them. Please feel free to email (or private message) me with your opinions.

Because, let's face it ... one opinion does NOT a reputation make. Truly good people would NOT post something bad about someone. And those people who WOULD defame publically aren't to be trusted anyway.

That's my personal opinion and I am not speaking as a Moderator here on FM Forums when I say it but I agree totally with Lee - some things should be discussed and disclosed privately.

LaRetta

Edited February 15, 200818 yr by Guest
Corrected typo and added sentence 8*/

Thanks for your thoughts LaRetta but that's not my experience at all. If I'm looking for the lowdown on a company or a product and all anybody does is post questions and no one posts their experience then how am I to find out anything?

Every forum I've ever went to to find out about such things has lists of people posting their experience, good or bad. It's very helpful.

A company's interaction with it's customers should be private? No one should praise good service or complain about bad in a public forum? I can go to any commercial site and read the positive quotes that they put up but it's much more valuable to get unsolicited experiences from actual customers.

My experience is what it is, why should I hide that? I have a small Filemaker business with several thousand customers, I visit the trade forums and people love it and people don't, some people don't like some service I've provided. I don't get my knickers in a knot over it, I try to do better. I'm happy to read it, it's always instructive. But of all the posts no one has ever suggested that others issues should be kept private and taken up with the company. That position is simply beyond me.

And at no time, ever, do I feel that if they're posting negative comments they are not truly good people. I run a company for crying out loud, they're talking about a product and service. It has nothing to do with good people/bad people, it has to do with whether I've met their needs or not.

Clearly, this site isn't one of those types of forums and I'm spending way too much time defending a position that shouldn't be an issue.

I came here to get some feedback, to actually hope to read some positive feedback to counter my negative experience to give me a warm and fuzzy about purchasing again, instead I feel like I've insulted somebody's uncle.

I withdraw my request for any others' experience with them. The powers that be can delete this thread.

Edited February 15, 200818 yr by Guest

Ricardito,

I appreciate your clarifications. Your intent is admirable and I too have taken your stance in many public fora. Your initial post however unintentionally tainted the entire thread in one direction - In the context to the negative experience.

This only naturally bringing out the defenders or past customers who value their experiences with the vendor or product.

You know, the 'ol adage "once bitten twice shy", we've all been there with vendors and merchants. And become hesitant to patronage them again.

What you have to do is compare the current product you are interested in purchasing and compare it with others on the market, determine if the features and benefit out way past misgivings or experiences. Or even if there is a competing product that exists or meets your requirements.

Also you now have something you didn't have before - you have the ear of the president of the company - who is going to make certain your next experiences is above and beyond. If you were to purchase a competing product from a vendor you never purchased from before you are back at square one.

There was a study done in the past and basically it showed that people who had a bad experience will tell up to 20 others about it. But a truly wonderful and pleasing experience only gets around to 7 others. It's human nature I suppose.

I wish you the best in your decision and hope you find a solution that meets and exceeds your expectations. :

I've used forums to find plumbers, mechanics, gardeners...

I would say, this is not one of those ... this isn't about purchase decisions at all but instead one where you can get your reasoning challenged, where you can attend if you're willing to reconsider previous used approaches and obtain new methods.

It seems like your focus is if the provider is a bona-fide, and not if the services provided have any relevance at all. In my book isn't there any bad tools at all, but if you pull it out of its realm - are you asking for trouble. You should humble yourself to get the gist of the tool and learn the limitation and premisses it's supposed to work under.

I have recently read a book where tradeoffs were put in perspective. What would happen if bees were perfectly happy with the first flower they would land on??? They would never fly on to the next - this means the flower which is too sweet is doomed away from further reproduction.

--sd

Thanks Ocean, but, well, this is nothing less than astounding to me. "Hey, I had a bad experience with A COMPANY, what was your experience?"

What do I get in return? Accused of having an agenda, accused of being a bad person, a truly bad person, who cannot be trusted because I made a statement - about A COMPANY!

Wow. Truly. Wow.

Like I said, no knowledge to be gained here, so I'll just be on my way.

For what it's worth, I don't think there's anything wrong with your posts. I just have had no experience with FMWebSchool so I haven't commented.

It's true that there are times on this forum when you need a certain amount of fortitude.

Accusations? LOL.

Truly good people would NOT post something bad about someone. And those people who WOULD defame publically aren't to be trusted anyway.

Sorry but it simply cracks me up ... how you start a thread using volotile tone and words such as "and then they were nasty" and then you continue after you receive three nice posts. You twist my words into meaning I must have been talking about YOU in the above sentence ...well, talk about funny.

Let me straighten it out a bit:

As Stephen said, you'd get a poor ratio of responses which is what I meant in my quote above - that truly good people would not respond badly about someone and those who would publically badmouth couldn't be trusted! And that was my reference to good/bad people and you assumed I was talking about you.

I said I'd post too!! Did you overlook that sentence!?? I simply suggested that, to get honest impressions, I wouldn't open the post with what I thought about the company because that sets a tone and bias (and yours sure DID set a tone). A thread without flame would have set a neutral tone and all of this would be moot.

What is the problem with having the information sent to you privately? I didn't demand you do that - I suggested it - good grief!! I have just as much right to make a suggestion on this thread as you do to start it. Not everyone would respond privately - some will post publically good or bad and that's all okay too. But the option is nice because it avoids emotions and some people would be more honest if they did't need to worry about a law suit because of words in print.

If you don't want opinions, don't ask questions on a public forum because you may not always like the answers you receive; I know I don't. And if you get hot because you misinterpret, don't feel alone - I've done it too. And, just as probably happened with your experience with fmwebschool, misinterpretation abounds and everyone should be given the benefit of the doubt.

To answer you question: fmwebschool is a very good organization and I have experienced nothing but the utmost professionalism and personal service from them.

Edited February 16, 200818 yr by Guest
Corrected typo :^)

Hi Ricardito,

I am replying to your opening request regarding use of FMWebSchool's products and services as you state at the end you are interested in some of their new products.

As the founder of FMPug and having a website that is entirely powered by FileMaker I am always looking for ways to speed up the development time and remove some of the tediousness of coding in PHP. This tediousness in respect to FileMaker revolves mainly around making the queries.

When it came time to look at converting our site from FX.PHP to the new FileMaker API I decided to utilize FMStudio by FMWebschool.

I have found this product to be extremely valuable in removing some of the monotony of coding the FileMaker queries for me. And yes, while it can be used to write all your PHP code I have found its uses mainly for doing the simple tasks as many of the things we do on FMPug extend beyond the basics. Now onto the matter at hand and FMWebSchools support of this product.

The first time I used it I was creating a query that needed to push data to a fair amount of fields. After about a minute I was thinking how tedious it was to keep selecting a field and setting its attributes for the query. I emailed FMWebSchool and told them my frustration and also gave them an idea. I stated that when I was querying a form I was usually pointing to a layout in FileMaker with just the fields I needed to interactive with. I asked if it was possible to add an "add all" option to the query builder enabling me to speed up the query writing process. I did follow this email up with a call directly to Stephen of FMWebSchool.

Low and behold an update was made available with my suggestion on. I have been fortunate to offer my opinion on more than one occasion as to enhancing this product and it has always been met with welcome response.

I have also been able to watch as this product grew with many add-ons being created to speed the development process, such as their PDF Creator.

I do stand behind FMWebSchool and their products. I stand behind them so much that I requested they join the FMPug Vendor Discount Program, a program that offers FMPug members savings on valuable tools in their day to day FileMaker lives.

That does not mean that they are not without mistakes. I have myself spotted some errors but they have been quick to fix anything I have spotted and are always pleased for the information.

If you need any further information from me, please don't hesitate to ask.

I am by no means an advanced FileMaker user so my opinion may not be that highly regarded, but being in the rental business for many many years has made me a great judge of human behavior.

I have purchased several products from FMWebschool, their book on FileMaker web publishing and FMStudio. I must have driven Mr. Knight crazy with emails and multiple phone calls. Each time he spoke with me on the phone he never acted as if I was interupting him, he always made me feel welcome and he encouraged me. All in all I believe I emailed him about 20 times about my project. He never asked for $ he always gave helpful advice, and he even sent me suggestions for other books to read.

I wish all companies were as giving as FMWebschool.

Regards,

Thomas Beasley

When I was first learning PHP with FM (after already buying the FMStudio plugin) and before my relationship with FMWebschool grew, the first book I read was their FM API book.

I did find a few sections in the book that had error's in them because the code just refused to work as it should - when i hit these road block's I sent an email off to Stephen and simply moved on with the rest of the code until I got a response. Unlike with a large publishing company, I actually got a response from Stephen that acknowledged the error, he told me how to fix the issue and a fix was incorporated almost immediately in to the book.

In my history as a developer, yes I do sometimes miss email's, but thankfully people know that if i don't respond i'm either physically unable to do so at the time or their email has somehow been overlooked. In most cases people will resend them and receive a response within a day as is per usual. Please give the FMWebshool team the same sort of leeway here, and if you do need something urgently, as Stephen says, and has offered - give them a call.

in their forum it took a week for someone to answer our questions and then they were nasty because we weren't happy about their support.

http://fmwebschool.com/frm/index.php?topic=526.0 -3 hrs 15 minutes

http://fmwebschool.com/frm/index.php?topic=1192.0 - a week

http://fmwebschool.com/frm/index.php?topic=367.0 - 1hr 10 minutes

http://fmwebschool.com/frm/index.php?topic=499.0 - 2hrs 40 minutes

http://fmwebschool.com/frm/index.php?topic=623.0 - 2hrs

http://fmwebschool.com/frm/index.php?topic=533 - 6hrs

Hi Michael, the field in question did not have a limit set, it was unchecked, however by setting the limit to high number it worked.

thanks!

r

Thanks, I'll have a look.

yep, created some new tests and they worked fine so checked the mac priv's on manager and they were set to read only on the last two.

thanks!

thanks for the reply,

I had a typo so my code was ok but still I took yours and created new files with it. Same results, worked in existing folders, did not work in new ones.

So I played around and had the thought to try a different layout and it worked. Renamed my original working layout and it still failed so created a new working layout and it worked.

Don't know if that helps anyone, but that's what it took for me to get it to work.

Thanks again.

Above::the "nasty" and non supportive forum topics and Ricardito's dissatisfaction with FMWebschool's service and support.

For everyone's reference, Michael, the one replying to many of the posts, is the architect behind FMStudio and FMWebschool's main technical contact - giving up his time to provide contributions to forum topics at no cost that have little, if anything, to do with the content of the book in question or often with any of the products FMWebschool is responsible for.