Trial period for marketplace add-ons.

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I read the Concrete5 return policy and it doesn't allow any room for trying out an add-on. I am tired of writing all my own blocks for specific page applications. This is a waste of time, especially if that function can be handled by an add-on in the marketplace.

My thought is to quit wasting time coding blocks myself and using marketplace applications for my customers. Is there a possibility of adding a trial period to add-ons before they have to be purchased? Otherwise, I would have to buy a copy of every add-on that I have no familiarity with which that may be relevant to each project that I am working on and hope that my client accepts their functionality.

ThomasJ
 
PineCreativeLabs replied on at Permalink Reply
PineCreativeLabs
Most marketplace items have a live demo, so you can see them in action.

The problem with a trial period for marketplace items is that it would be much too easy to keep them and never pay for them (of course, this wouldn't matter for the free items).

I have a number of themes and addons in the marketplace - some paid, some free. Understandably, there is a risk to buying a paid addon, only to find out it may not be what you needed. The reason the refund policy is rather vague is because if you buy the license, you also have access to the source code, and the same idea applies if there would be a trial period, and so there is risk to me as a developer to never see any benefit.
ideasponge replied on at Permalink Reply
ideasponge
As PineCreativeLabs mentioned, most addons have a Live Demo. If they don't have a Live Demo or the URL for the Live Demo is no good, chances are the support you will get from that developer will be poor, so use that as an indicator.

If you aren't seeing what you are looking for in the Live Demo's, use the "Get Support" option and post a Sales question.
PineCreativeLabs replied on at Permalink Reply
PineCreativeLabs
Also, you could post a pre-sales question in the "Get Help" section for each marketplace item.

Plus, you could contact the developer directly and request a private demo, or perhaps login access to the live demo.
ThomasJ replied on at Permalink Reply
ThomasJ
Thank you, all for your responses. These are suggestions that I will consider when grouping together a package for a client. As I stated, I find that I am just wasting time trying to code everything myself. Up until now, I have been creating my own customized blocks but this doesn't work when you need to create a website for a client and He or She is waiting to see it go on line. If I can make the marketplace work for me in this capacity, it is a much better approach than contracting programmers to generate untested code at a much higher cost to the project.

I just set up a test environment and loaded 5.7 into it and will use it to check out Vivid's functionality while waiting for eCommerce to be ready. What I will be looking for is a gateway to PayPal and a gateway package that is easily adaptive to most clearing houses.
mhawke replied on at Permalink Reply
mhawke
If I purchase an add-on 'on speculation' that doesn't end up getting used in a clients website then I include that cost in my hourly rate somewhere. If an interior designer spends gas money and time running around town researching fabrics and goes to 5 stores before they find the right fabric, they certainly charge the client for the time it took to visit the 4 other stores that didn't have the ideal fabric. Same thing here. I think of it as 'research' into solutions for that specific client so I feel it's justified to add it to their bill (within reason of course). If I build out a site for a quoted price, there is almost always some additional work that clients will need to pay for over and above the quote so I will add the cost at that point. If I buy an add-on that I know I will re-sell in short order on another site then of course, I don't charge the first customer. No 'double dipping'.