Episode 2: "I was using Memberships Pro... and it was just a really bad experience."
LARRY WYMER
South Africa
Founder: United Promotions
![](https://wclovers.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/themes/blade-child/images/icons/Globe.png)
Migrated from :
Paid Memberships Pro
Top reasons for disappointment:
![badsupport](https://wclovers.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/themes/blade-child/images/icons/support.png)
Bad Support
![bug](https://wclovers.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/themes/blade-child/images/icons/bug.png)
Bugs
Paying for a plugin, not being able to use it, facing bad support and then going through a long refund process… For Larry Wymer, buying Memberships Pro was the biggest nightmare of his business life. Watch him share his ugly experience with Memberships Pro and the reasons why he switched to WCFM Marketplace, only to love it it even more!
Transcription
Coordinator: Hello, Larry, and welcome to WCFM Marketplace! How are you doing, Larry?
Larry: I’m doing pretty well and yourself?
Coordinator: And I’m doing good! Larry, would you please introduce yourself to our audience?
Larry: Yes! My name is Larry Wymer from United Promotions powered by ColorXPrints. I’ve been actually in business for 2 and a half years now and it started off with screen printing. And it’s more of a hobby – a second job for me.
And as far as, you know, my marketplace goes, I wanted to do something that offered custom products to customers and something that was easily integrated with WordPress so that I can quickly play… plug-n-play so to speak! So, yeah!
Coordinator: Okay, Larry! So, I just heard that you have, you know, migrated to WCFM Marketplace. Which platform were you using previously?
Larry: I was using Membership Pro and I would not necessarily say I was using it… I ran into a lot of bugs with the program; things were outgoing after purchase and login screen was blank – it was nothing there. And, obviously, I went through customer support and they told me to do this, this and that… I followed all their instructions. It actually got into the point where it was so bad that I had attempted to get a refund after the 30-day guarantee. Well, I was, during that 30-day period or during that ordeal, I could not access the program… So their service was, you know, in reality, not rendered properly. So, I turned around and I requested a refund and it was just a really bad experience for myself. And I ended up venturing a couple of other membership platforms and none of them were actually offering anything that WCFM had offered. WCFM was actually the last membership program I ran into and after downloading and messing with settings, I actually fell in love with the product!
Coordinator: Okay! So, what was the best thing that, you know, you discovered about WCFM Marketplace?
Larry: Ummm… that’s actually a great question! I can go about for days about this! So, WCFM… the reason I was looking for membership is… my website, the whole idea of my website was uhh… United Promotions – that’s actually the name of the website – unitedpromotions.com… And the idea behind it was that I wanted a bunch of manual printers, small shops that started off with sublimation, directed garment, obviously screen printers, even digital designers… I wanted a simple place for them to be able to go where one website would be marketed through the United States and aloof these little companies can set their market in the same website. And it would actually be posted on Google at a higher ranking because of paints! That was the original thought behind starting any membership program using a membership plugin on my website. And after downloading a few plugins, I realized there are a lot of issues with the idea… The main issue was actually them having access to the backend – I did not want them to have access to the backend of my WordPress. And that was actually one of my biggest concerns.
When I had downloaded WCFM, I went through a lot of the settings and have actually found that you guys eliminate the ability for the user to actually use the backend…. Which was actually great as a setting that you guys have implemented and there was just so much! And it took me a little while to actually go through all your settings – you guys just offer so much in your program and plugin that, you know, even if it’s something that I haven’t implemented on my website, it’s something that I probably could find! As a matter of fact, this morning, I was going through all of the programs I have or the plugins that I have downloaded in the past… and I have just found out that you guys offer a plugin added to for Elementor – which I use! With Elementor, I design my website. So, I had actually just found out this morning, I was updated this past month and just added it. Hopefully, after this interview, I’m gonna go through and mess with those settings and see what I can do as far as customization on my stores!
Coordinator: That’s so nice to hear about, you know, you having such a great experience with WCFM Marketplace. But one thing I’m intrigued with is that… you previously used Vendors Pro, right? So, I mean, you couldn’t actually use it at all! I mean, it had a technical issue and what was the reply from their side once you approached them? That’s really, you know, intriguing!
Larry: I had contacted the technical support via emails and through tickets and they kept, you know, advising me to go ahead and uninstall and deactivate the plugin and then reactivate, update my themes where it could be, you know, it’s not compatible with my theme on WordPress. And I was going through so much stuff – I was changing themes, tallying with which ones are compatible…and none of them worked! And like I had originally previously stated that when I log into their website, it was just blank – there was nothing there! I couldn’t even pull up my… what are those? Meta keys to activate license! So, it was one of things where you can download those plugins but it was useless! It did nothing for you!
So, I ended up contacting them and I got to the point after a couple of weeks that, “Hey, I just want my money back!” You know, this is not doing anything for me and in that time, like I had mentioned previously, I’ve tried other plugins and none of them offered what I wanted. Beside you guys! And it was actually after I found you guys and I found your settings and the ease of use that I said, “Well, I’m not gonna mess with this Membership Pro plugin” – it’s just it’s not useful to me. I paid almost $300 for it and the customer service is just not there! And that’s what are the things that I strive for – customer service. And if I’m not getting what I would provide to my customers, then I don’t want it in the first place!
I went through the process of actually trying to get my money back and they kept postponing everything – “We sent the ticket to the financial department and they’re gonna contact you shortly while we’re turning by…” At that point after I had submitted the ticket, it’s already been past 30-days.
Coordinator: 30 days for refund!
Larry: And this was actually the crazy part – before I finally contacted my bank to do a reverse payment, because they were refusing to even give back to me… so I had done a reverse payment, ended up finally getting the money back and they (the bank) ended with, you know, fighting with all the way to the end for me so I didn’t really had to mess with it.
So that was all taken care of and, like I mentioned previously, I tried other plugins before I found you guys. The plugins I was finding, they were kind of bare – there wasn’t much of customization to it and one of the biggest problems besides from having the problem of backend access to my WordPress, which I did not want… one of the biggest things was that I could not find a plugin that allowed vendors or members to be able to login and post to my store. And that was one of the biggest things I wanted – I wanted people to allow people to login and put in, you know… Allow them to post all their merchandise on my store or on the store website. And that was one of the problems with all of the other programs or plugins.
So, when I ran across WCFM, I had realized that this plugin actually has a lot to offer. And there was actually so much to offer that it took me days to actually go through all the settings, figure out what I can and cannot do with the program… I had set up numerous testing users so as to go through and see what the users can and cannot do on their end! And afterwards, you know, when I set everything up, it allowed them to have access to the backend and I was more concerned about that. And again I went through settings, and after setting, I found that I can actually limit where they’re accessing the backend. And then on WordPress they have that two-bar and I was like if we can move that. So by the end of actually manipulating your guys’ plugin and changing all of the settings to my liking, I actually found that WCFM was exactly what I was looking for!
Coordinator: So, you’re pretty satisfied with WCFM Marketplace, it seems!
Larry: Yes! Yes, I would say it’s one of my favorite plugins out of all the plugins that I do use. Obviously, the Membership, you know, I’m not running through Membership’s programs or plugins. But as far as the ease of use… even, you know… yeah I’m the owner of the website, but I also have a store on my website, you know. I own a store, which is ColorXPrints… and being able to go in and having the options to being able to post my own products… and now that’s actually one of the big reasons why I was so excited about WCFM was the fact that I would not have to take a vendor’s information, their products and actually post it myself! I wanted the website to be able to be run by self or I don’t have to do anything.
And actually it brings me down to another aspect that I do love! WCFM limits, and it’s easy to do it with settings on it, it limits how many products the vendors could actually offer based on their membership status. So, if they’re paying a smaller membership fee, they get less product; if they’re paying a more premium pack, they can have unlimited products. And even to top that off, let’s say you turn around and limit them, then you have an option where they can pay for additional products. It’s really great that you can go in now and be able to select a specific store and change how many products they are limited to, regardless of the global rule – I believe is what they say in the settings – the global rule… you set up your global rules in that membership and then enter the individual member into their store and change from global rule to a user-specific rule and be able to change how many products that user can use. So you can set there as the owner of the site and say that you’re gonna offer this membership to a customer; and if they wanna offer more products, they can pay for the Play kinda thing, like plug-n-play. And you can go into their vendor-specific and change how many products based on how much they’re paying for.
Coordinator: Since you’re, you know, so satisfied with WCFM Marketplace, if I tell you that on a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend WCFM Marketplace to, you know, other entrepreneurs who might, you know, run a similar business or any other kind of a new startup? So, how likely are you to recommend WCFM Marketplace?
Larry: I would, and this is a non-biased aspect of it, you know, I’m not trying to be biased about it, but it would definitely be a 10! Based on my… and really it comes down to my experience with Membership Pro…
Coordinator: Yeah! I mean, that’s really weird, you know. I mean, I have heard of stories of other clients who have used any other marketplace solutions and, you know, they did have technical glitches, or you know, bad support – that was their reason to, you know, switch to WCFM Marketplace. But, I mean, it’s the first case that I’ve heard where you haven’t even, you know, properly used Memberships Pro and then you had to have, you know, face such a lot of issues. So it’s really weird from that side!
Larry: Yeah! And when you actually look at it, would I ever try Membership Pro even in the future? The answer is, you know, a hands-down NO! The reason behind it is not necessarily what they have to offer, and it seemed like they had everything that I wanted. But when I found WCFM, that offers everything that I want at a really good price, and then you’ve got the customer service… And that’s you know, like I’ve mentioned, that’s one of the biggest things I look at. And if the customer service is not there, then I couldn’t mess with it.
Coordinator: Thank you so much, Larry! That was really great talking to you! It was a pleasure, you know, hearing about your experience and I mean, a lot of entrepreneurs will now, you know, get to know the reason why so many people choose WCFM Marketplace. And thank you so much for our love and support, I mean, that means a lot and your positive words mean a lot!
And I just hope that you never ever face such difficulties with WCFM Marketplace – we’re always there to, you know, help you out if you find any kind of issue. So I just hope you never face any such issues further. And thank you so much! It was great talking to you!
Larry: Always the pleasure! And I do appreciate the time you’ve given me today to actually allow other people to learn a little bit more of my experience and what you guys actually have to offer. I think this, you know, your program is phenomenal, and I can’t wait to continue using it in future.
Coordinator: That’s the real point of this interview, you know. A lot of entrepreneurs, they have a lot of motivational videos to watch out for but, you know, they don’t really have those little nitty-gritties of other entrepreneurs that they have, they feel, the obstacles they face, the problems that, you know, they solve it by themselves… and these are the experiences that they really require to know and that’s what we, as team WCFM Marketplace, we strive to, you know, provide to all the other business people.
Larry: Absolutely!
Coordinator: Thank you so much! Bubbye and take care!
Larry: You do the same!