APO Product Options, Variants

BEWARE. We've used this app for 5 years. They recently updated the app as the older app was having issues where customer's weren't getting charged for options even though they showed on the order. The new approach resolves that, but it opens up some serious issues:
1. Products with options can't have their inventory tracked. This was not told to us when we migrated. It is in "development" (and has been for a while), but it is absurd they launched an app that doesn't have one of the primary functions of e-commerce - tracking inventory. That means you have to manually update your inventory for these SKUs. Really?
2. The new approach can cause a host of other issues with functionality with other apps as it created new custom options variants or SKUs for every order. We had to revamp all of our shipping software to try to accommodate this new approach (with limited success). We also ended up having to remove options from some products because it become too complicated to manage.
3. You'll get a a lot of extra variants or SKUs in your admin system that are a pain to manage as anytime a customer creates an option on your site, it generates a variant or SKU in the back end.
If you don't care about inventory tracking or compatibility with other apps, it works great. Otherwise, BEWARE of using the app.

This app USED to be great! It was the only one I could find which was able to handle the advanced product configurations that I needed for my store. However, this past week apparently something happened which caused items which were configured with the Advanced Product Options app to not be able to be added to the cart.

I had no idea there was an issue with the app, I only noticed that my sales were down 90% this past week compared to the week before and I couldn't figure out why. It wasn't until I had some customers contact me saying they weren't able to add items to their cart that I realized there was an issue, and when I contacted Shopify they told me it was an issue with the Advanced Product Options app. I emailed Mageworx support and it took them 3 days to get back to me (during which I had $0 in sales, at a time when I'm normally selling about $1,000/day), and they told me that Shopify had changed the way the "Add to Cart" button works and so the old version of the app will no longer work.

You would think that if they were aware of the issue they would have been proactive and emailed all of their customers who are still on the old version of the app to let them know there was a problem, but no such luck. I had to rely on my customers reporting the issue and then contacting Shopify to learn that it was caused by this app.

Mageworx offered to move me to the new version of the app, but I've already tested the new version and it doesn't work the same as the old version and therefore doesn't meet my needs. So I'm basically screwed for now and stuck with a non-functioning store until I can find an alternative and spend hours reconfiguring all of the complex product options and dependencies for my products.

This issue has literally cost me THOUSDANDS of dollars in lost sales in the past week, and will continue to cost me about $1,000/day until they either fix it or I can find an alternative.

8/6/19 - This application was working great up until a week ago. After submitting a help ticket, it took over a day to get a reply. Each email reply would take them the next day to reply and the issue is still not resolved even though we provided access to review our Apps and Orders. The "Upload" feature is not passing the file through to our Orders consistently. We can see the file path through the Shopify phone app, but nothing on the web version (we've tried multiple browsers from different PC's). Their troubleshooting effort is lacking. I get that it's probably people from overseas, but it's disappointing. Time to find another solution.

3/26/18 - After testing several different Apps, Advanced Product Options is the one we stuck to and here is why:

1. It is compatible on mobile devices (both iOS and Android). We ran into issues with other Apps in which the File Upload feature was not compatible.
2. It has the Calendar option. If you need a date in your options, this App has it.
3. It allows for Conditions on options. If you want to create options based on a previous option selected, this is a great App.
4. The pricing is reasonable. Most Apps fall into this price range, but for the features it provides as well as the support you get, it's worth it.

Hopefully this info helps in your selection process. There are a ton of great Apps out there, but you definitely need to test it out to make sure it fits your needs.

One of the worst app and worst support. Always some issues which affect sales directly.

very bad & non-effective customer service, you can't trust them and they will make you lose customers & money.

Worst app there are too many glitches. You have to ask everything to support team and they say no every time. So please be care-full before using it.

Read the review by Wabi Cycles, it says exactly everything I want to say. The app worked GREAT for years, but then it became buggy, and after a month, its still not fixed. Their new version of the app doesn't track inventory! Its also incompatible with a shipping app I use.
They updated the app, broke it, and now I'm moving to another app. Don't fix what ain't broke!

Update--App is working better BUT I have wrote several times about a new issue and havent received any response. The customer service and help sucks so bad.

Now--If a customer adds something with the custom options added, but then removes it from the cart, the custom option pricing still stays and does not give them a choice to remove it. --Not only that, but if the customer has an account and they sign in a week later, the cost IS STILL THERE! So it NEVER goes away until they check it out. It is extremely frustrating. Currently looking for a new app to use.

SOOO aggravated with this APP. It is so unreliable. I have been writing them for over a week and they haven't even made an attempt to fix the problem! DON'T even bother trying this app!

Causes us so many issues, creates an additional sku every time which messes up the back end with thousands of products showing. The item does not show in the checkout so customers are constantly on the phone asking if the item has been added or not. Just causes a complete mess to your skus.

As many others say this app USED to be great. For the second time in a row now we tried to update the app to the new version and the second time was as bad as the first. And mind that every time it doesn't work our configurator is down, which means our products are worthless.

So comes the second try they send me again instructions how to do this and I am getting ready at a little down time and as per instruction I delete the old app. The moment I am clicking the link the provided I am getting an error message. And now I am in absolute panic mode because our website is basically broken now, I contact support one time, two times, three times...no response. After about two hours I am getting a reply and it basically says "well you should have done that at 10:00am our time" which is 01:00am my time!!! Great, right? Now my site is broken and nobody helps me. Shopify really needs to come up with an insurance against developers like this because if they'd be in the US I would sue them for damages.