What to offer for Commercial Services

When you post a question, think of how complex it is and accordingly offer the number of points. If the person working on your solution feels it requires more points, they will inform you so you can edit the points accordingly.

You have a choice here - you can post the question in the free forum or the paid forum depending on your urgency.

Also, as i mentioned earlier, you can always put a lower amount and the person looking at your question and who is able to answer it, will surely ask you to increase it to a particular number.

As Arlette has said, you have a number of choices. Post in the free forum, post in the Commercial Services Forum, seek an external Excel/VBA consultant.

If it is a how do I make this formula work, how do I make this code work, what does this error mean, type of question, the chances are you will get a speedy response in the free forum.

If it is a solution you want ... I've got this workbook and I want it to do this, this and this ... the CSF can probably deliver that for you. Think of the value of that solution to you. If YOUR time is worth, say $20 an hour, and this solution will save you an hour a day ... The solution would very quickly pay for itself.

If you want a Design, Develop, Test, Implement, Maintain and Support solution, go to a consultant.


Regards, TMS

@Arlette: thanks for the feedback.

@anrichards22: I should also have said that there is nothing to stop you posting in the free forum and testing the water. If you get no response, it either means people don't want to answer or can't answer the question. Don't want to answer could simply be that there isn't enough information, it's badly explained or it really needs a sample workbook with typical data ... as described in the forum rules. Can't probably means it's too big an ask.

Now that the CSF is in place, I quite often point people in that direction.

Regards, TMS

Galvinpaddy, thanks for the info, good to know.

TMS,

It is my understanding that I cannot post the same question in both the CSF and the general forum.

It is my understanding that I cannot post the same question in both the CSF and the general forum.

And it is my understanding that you can. You are, after all, paying for the privilege.

Post first in the open forum. If you do not get a response, add a closing post to the effect that you are posting in the CSF, mark the post as solved ... and if you want to make sure, PM a moderator and ask them to Close the thread.

When you post in the CSF, you can refer back to the post in the open forum so there is no issue about duplicate threads or cross-posting. This would be particularly helpful if you did get some input, albeit it did not fully answer your question.

Can't see a problem with that.

@Arlette: can you confirm my suggested approach is acceptable. Please also note that this is a case where it would be useful to be able to mark a thread Closed as opposed to Solved.

Regards, TMS

TMS,

There are multiple opinions regarding what you mentioned.

We have found OPs who start getting frantic when they want their issue to be solved and so post in both the free forum and the paid forum at the same time. Different sets of people work on both the threads and if the person in the free forum is not a guru and onwards, he will not know that there is a duplicate thread in the paid forum. The user solving the issue in the paid forum gets points while the user in the free forum gets nothing and it could be a waste of his efforts too. So to discourage this, it has been put in bold and red font in the FAQ that they shouldnt post duplicate threads.

However, in the event, the user posted in the free forum and didnt get a reply for several days (or even a couple of days) and decided to move to the paid forum, he first needs to PM a mod / admin to close the thread in the free forum (or delete if there are 0 replies) so he can post in the paid forum. There is no option currently to move the thread from the free to the paid forum directly.

Clearly, patience is a virtue.

My suggestion was more around economy rather than "panic buying". That is, see what you get for free and, if the answer is nothing, go pay.

It's a little disconcerting that people have a "business need" and yet are looking to get their question/problem answered/resolved in a help forum.

However, it does beg the question: am I right in suggesting that people who have asked a question in the open forum should consider the CSF? Seems to be a little at odds with what you have described ... and indicates that the process is not well thought through or implemented.

Regards, TMS

The process was discussed from all angles in the mods forum, TMS.

What i am trying to say is i have seen a couple of cases where the user has posted a question in both the free and paid forums within a matter of minutes. This should not be encouraged though it can be simply handled by closing or deleting the free forum question. In such cases, we have sent PMs to the OP asking which thread they would want to continue in?

If a user wants to move a thread from the free forum to the paid forum, we can do so if they PM an admin/mod so that the free forum question can be locked.

The process was discussed from all angles in the mods forum, TMS.

Perhaps you should share the salient points of those discussions, so that the rest of us can benefit from the perceived wisdom.

Regards, TMS