PHPJabbers

I have worked with the jabbers extensively over the past few years, and my review is mixed. I am a website designer but I don't script everything. The jabbers produce incredibly cheap basic software packages that probably do 70% of what you want but they always lack some aspect for which they invite you to get them to customize the product for you at a cost. This can be a small price $50 or much higher $600. I have found that their communication is good, they always get back to you, but they take a whole day to make a reply. This may not sound much but when you ask a question one day, and they then reply the next day with "what do you mean?" and you reply to clarify etc this very slow conversation can go on literally for months before you get a change made in the script. When they make a change in the script they "NEVER" test it, they let you test it and when it has a problem (and it always does have a problem) you enter into this slow daily comment conversation explaining what the problem is (which always seems to take about 5 days) then they work on the script, say it has been checked, but when you test it there is a different problem. This can go on for weeks until it works properly. Which by the time you have just about torn your hair out starts to work. So the jabbers are great if you have a small budget and lots of time and patience. Seriously, if you lack patience then don't work with them. They will drive you mad. Also they cannot work on more than one problem at a time, so when you get your modified script and it has 5 faults in it, I have learned if I want to remain sane (and this may not be the case as i have worked with them for years now) to just tackle one problem at a time until it is sorted. Its just chaos dealing with more than one issue at a time.
I have now had many bespoke changes to scripts and when they work it is great, quite often I have found this to be the way to get the perfect script that does just what I wanted, but I pay for it in more than $'s. I am sure they are knocking years off my life in frustration. If I could change just 1 single thing about the Jabbers that would make them fantastic? If only they thoroughly tested the script before they pass it over to you. I'm afraid this NEVER happens and you become the test dummy, and more often than not that's exactly how I feel "dummy".
At the moment they are working on 2 scripts for me, one has cost $300 the other just over $400, at home to get this script made You would add a zero to the end of those figures, so they are cheap, but when I count up the time spent in testing their code and conversing with them sometimes I wish I had paid the extra cost. BUT and this is where the nub is:- I'm a skinflint, I am always seduced by their low cost and think "this time it will be different" I even have a conversation at the beginning - are you sure you will check the script thoroughly before you pass it over to me? - I always get the same reply "we always thoroughly test our script before you get it" and I think, here we go again, take the calm pills and lets go for it. A few months later I will be a quivering wreck thinking "why did I believe them?" I knew they would be exactly the same, very polite but very very incredibly very frustrating.