Widgetbox support bites...can someone help me with this one?

**Wetworks4Biz** · 09 April 2011, 06:07 PM

Okay, so I signed up for widget box about six months ago and made a form for one of my clients to collect e-mail addresses for a mailing list. While the widget works just fine for the collecting, their notification system absolutely blows chunks. The site I built the widget for got over 50 new registrants in a week, and I can't find any way on their site to download the CSV file rather than having to manually copy and past all of the data into my customer's database. Their "knowledge base" page auto-redirects to some page on their server that doesn't exist, and contacting their own support has been a complete waste of time since they NEVER respond. I am going to cancel my service with them, but before I do, is anyone familiar with how I can find and download the CSV file for the form I made, and other than Google, are their any good alternatives for form creation that doesn't require me making a data base? Thanks in advance, you guys have been absolutely awesome with my past questions.

**Chris** · 09 April 2011, 08:50 PM

Don't know if this will work for what you want, but here is a great program for creating all kinds of forms.

http://www.coffeecup.com/form-builder/

Hope that helps.

**mikehihn** · 09 April 2011, 09:49 PM

Slightly different than what you asked, but I set up all my clients with MailChimp.com, which also is a mass emailer and online database, with great templates and superb help videos (like Xara has). And .... "forever free" up to 2000 subscribers and 12,000 monthly mailings.

They still blow me away! Set up a gorgeous subscription form easily. When you mail your list you can track clicks and responses, personalize by name, all sorts of neat stuff. I set it up for my clients, and have yet to have any of them ask for help. As part of my pitch, I create a few email templates that match their website header, which they LOVE.

This is a complete and professional system, spam-legal, where customers maintain all their own subscriptions.

Did I say free?

**gwpriester** · 09 April 2011, 09:52 PM

"blows chunks". I haven't heard that lovely phrase since I left LA in the mid 80s.

**Wetworks4Biz** · 09 April 2011, 11:26 PM

lol, Sorry, I hope that wasn't out of line GW, it was born out of frustration (and I think I am about the only on in L.A. that still uses it...along with rad, goober, and cool beans). What can I say, I grew up in the 90's and I blame the baby boomers.

**Wetworks4Biz** · 10 April 2011, 12:10 AM

Originally Posted by Chris

Don't know if this will work for what you want, but here is a great program for creating all kinds of forms.

http://www.coffeecup.com/form-builder/

Hope that helps.

Mike, I love free, I really do (let's put it this way, before I found Xara, I was using SeaMonkey to make sites), but looking over this option I am not sure it is going to work because I basically set these up for multiple clients and really don't want to have to get stuck adding to their lists/sorting for them, and the free account seems to only work for me if I was doing all of that, but good on you for the idea, I really do appreciate it, and will be bookmarking Mail Chimp for referral when clients want total control and a free alternative to paying me for my time. Thanks again...

Chris, your suggestion looks like the best fit, and I am assuming you have used this software yourself, so if I can pick your brain a bit, will I be able to create individual forms & reply systems for each of my clients? I really like the low price point too.

GW...you have my word, no more dated west coast referrences...well at least for today.

**Wetworks4Biz** · 10 April 2011, 02:11 AM

Okay, so I am going to throw this out here now because if anyone else in my position reads it, hopefully it will save them a lot of trouble. I started out in this whole foray by happening on a copy of Xara Photo & Graphic Editor. I liked it enough after the free trial that I bought it. In fact I liked it so much, I bought Web Designer 6 WITHOUT taking advantage of the free trial. Since then I have purchased many a great program without using a free trial first after reading recommendations from other users in this forum, always with fantastic results (and you all do a great job which is EXTREMELY appreciated). Also, I am not blaming anyone (including myself) for how this played out, but I hope relaying this experience will save any other GoDaddy customers a headache.
...and for the record, Chris, regardless of what just happened to me at coffee cup I still think you kicked tail in both response time and in providing me with a solution that if I was not a GoDaddy customer would have fit the bill perfectly, so kudos to you my friend.
Here it is. I bought the program from Coffee Cup. After installing it (not after PURCHASE, after INSTALL) I was notified that if I had a GoDaddy hosting account that their software would not work properly and was directed to a work around thread. That thread instructed me to modify the code in order to work around the flaw in their software, or leave GoDaddy as a host. The second option is not an option at all since I have had to clean up too many messes for my clients created by other hosts, and I am (obviously) not a techie, so after reading through technical jargon I frankly didn't get, I posted to their "support thread" that this would have been nice to have known prior to purchase. I was met with a barrage of insulting e-mails calling me names telling me I should have used the free trial first (sure, I will concede that I should have gone with the free trial first, but for staff of ANY company to behave that way? All I can say is WOW), and the VP of Development essentially stating the same thing, though a little nicer with the delivery, granted. So if anyone out there is like me, and uses GoDaddy, don't go for Coffee Cup, (Go Daddy provided me with their free service which I didn't even know they offered for this purpose here http://community.godaddy.com/help/article/512?locale=en). Everyone else, better know your coding or you might get treated like a dolt.

For the record, I really do appreciate the fact I have never been treated like a fool here (or at GD) for not knowing something, which is why I stay with GD, buy Xara/Magix products and continue to use TG forums as my first line of knowledge when I get lost on something.Though separated by company lines, you all share the same dedication to excellence in customer service that "n00bs" like me really appreciate.