What steps should be taken when seeking support for purchased PHP scripts, especially when encountering bugs related to character encoding?

When seeking support for purchased PHP scripts, especially when encountering bugs related to character encoding, it is important to first reach out to the script's developer or support team for assistance. Clearly explain the issue you are facing, including any error messages or unexpected behavior. If the developer is unable to provide a solution, you can also seek help from online forums or communities dedicated to PHP programming.

// Example PHP code snippet to fix character encoding issue
// Set the correct character encoding for the script
header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');
// Use mb_convert_encoding() function to convert the string to the desired encoding
$encoded_string = mb_convert_encoding($original_string, 'UTF-8', 'ISO-8859-1');