Just got an e-mail from a potential customer (I pasted it below). I wrote her back and explained the cookies situation and hopefully that works for her, though she says she tried different browsers. But to be honest, this looks like a situation where I'll end up printing the photos for her and selling them directly to her-- cutting SM out of the deal. Which I'll bet neither of us are crazy about, but I have to say, this problem seems to come up quite a bit and it's frustrating.

I've said this before, but is it possible to have a print selling system where a customer clicks on what they want, enters a CC # and address, and they're done? None of this back and forth over cookies and browsers and passwords and errors? When I order something from Amazon, it's very simple-- click-click, done. Any chance SM could design an order system like that?

"Pete-
Thank you for the link-
I tried to order a picture but unfortunatley the checkout kept giving me an error.
I would choose the picture, it would say done, but then when I would click next it would give me an error code and say my cart was empty.
I tried several different browsers hoping that might be the problem, but to no avail. The same thing happened on all of them.
Hmmm- is there any other way for me to get a print?
Let me know what I might try next-
thanks for your time -
Kari"

Hi Pete,

If you have your customer write to us, we'll sure sort them out. We're taking more orders than ever, hitting new records of daily orders nearly every week. I say that, only to show that the site's working for hundreds of thousands of folks - but there are the few that sometimes have trouble - the good news is, we can ALWAYS help them

Originally Posted by Andy Hi Pete, If you have your customer write to us, we'll sure sort them out. We're taking more orders than ever, hitting new records of daily orders nearly every week. I say that, only to show that the site's working for hundreds of thousands of folks - but there are the few that sometimes have trouble - the good news is, we can ALWAYS help them

An update. Got this email from the customer (I guess she didn't really try that many different browsers the first time around):

"Pete-
I was able to get it ordered on Firefox - thanks!
I went ahead and ordered 1 8x10- not cropped.
Thanks for all your help!!! I really appreciate it!
Have a great weekend-
Kari"

Only problem is I think I went in and messed up the no crop testing the cool new feature that lets you see the crop. I e-mailed the help line.

Originally Posted by Andy Hi Pete, If you have your customer write to us, we'll sure sort them out. We're taking more orders than ever, hitting new records of daily orders nearly every week. I say that, only to show that the site's working for hundreds of thousands of folks - but there are the few that sometimes have trouble - the good news is, we can ALWAYS help them

Hi Andy . . . it is comforting to hear these words from you. I appreciate the level of service we get from you guys.

However, at the moment I'm concerned about "your cart is empty" - cookies issues.

I setup a XP virtual machine on my Macbook pro to test my site:

http://www.digitaltasmania.com

and specifically the following gallery:
http://www.digitaltasmania.com/gallery/2361491

I had no luck using IE6 either on the default security settings (which is called "medium") or the "low" security settings - got the "cart is empty" screen of death with no warnings about cookies, etc.

But that was a fresh install off an XP disk with service pack 1. So, I went to a mate who is a serious Windows geek and we tried to "buy photo" and use the cart on both XP SP2 IE6 "medium security" (default again) and "low security" - again no luck. Then we went to an XP SP2 box that was running IE7. Now the "default" security is called "medium-high" but again, no luck . . . and again no luck when security was set to "low"?? And this is a bloke who is a heavy tech head . . .

I have an online community of over 900 members that I feed into my smugmug photo site - and right now I have some very important (to me and my clients) and ver timely images to sell. My stats shows me that 51% of my community are on XP using IE6. I have the following questions:

(1) Should the Smugmug cart work with IE6, or IE7 for that matter with any combination of security/cookies settings?

(2) Sincerely, does Smugmug expect your average joe or jane computer user to fiddle with their security settings to make a sales cart work?

(3) Why is their no warning built into the cart when potential purchasers have the wring cookies settings.

(4) Am I totally off base about these concerns because as an online business owner they seem very serious impediments to my sales?

I'm dealing with mom's and dad's and others who simply use a browser and have no idea nor interest in "cookies" - surely Smugmug sales must work with the default settings of the most popular browsers and operating systems . . . as much as I dislike them myself =).

IMO this is and will effect both sales and peoples impression of my site.

Sincerly thanking your for your time and efforts,

Thomas in Tasmania
Mac OS X / Firefox user

Originally Posted by DigitalTasmania I have the following questions: (1) Should the Smugmug cart work with IE6, or IE7 for that matter with any combination of security/cookies settings?

Yup - in fact, I just added fine to the cart, IE6, IE7, from your gallery - security Medium.

(2) Sincerely, does Smugmug expect your average joe or jane computer user to fiddle with their security settings to make a sales cart work?

99% don't have to. We do many hundreds of thousands of orders and very few folks have trouble. If they do, we help!
http://www.smugmug.com/help/digital-prints
http://www.smugmug.com/help/cookies

(3) Why is their no warning built into the cart when potential purchasers have the wring cookies settings.

There is/should be. I'll double check.

(4) Am I totally off base about these concerns because as an online business owner they seem very serious impediments to my sales?

No - totally understand.

Originally Posted by Andy Yup - in fact, I just added fine to the cart, IE6, IE7, from your gallery - security Medium. 99% don't have to. We do many hundreds of thousands of orders and very few folks have trouble. If they do, we help! http://www.smugmug.com/help/digital-prints http://www.smugmug.com/help/cookies There is/should be. I'll double check. No - totally understand.

Andy,

Thanks for the quick reply . . . but I'm stumped.

I had the cart working on both my Mac OS X safari and Firefox browsers - made no changes to settings.

Now I've got one Mac Box (Macbook pro) with Safari & Firefox, one "virtual machine" with XP SP1 and IE6, one XP SP2 box with IE6, one XP SP2 box with IE7 and two possibly fried brains and we can't get ANY of the browsers on ANY of the boxes to "load the cart" with ANY settings???

I've got customers expecting to order tomorrow. . .

So I'm not going insane . . .

----------------- from Ivar's email ------
Hi Thomas,

Thanks for contacting SmugMug.

The new release has a problem with adding a single photo for accounts that use a custom domain, like yours. I've notified our engineers, and they would be able to fix this shortly. I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Adding multiple photos is still working.

Let us know if you have any questions.

-Ivar
--------------------------------------------------

Originally Posted by DigitalTasmania So I'm not going insane . . .

There WAS a problem, there IS no problem anymore

Originally Posted by DigitalTasmania So I'm not going insane . . . ----------------- from Ivar's email ------ Hi Thomas, Thanks for contacting SmugMug. The new release has a problem with adding a single photo for accounts that use a custom domain, like yours. I've notified our engineers, and they would be able to fix this shortly. I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Adding multiple photos is still working. Let us know if you have any questions. -Ivar --------------------------------------------------

Yes, Ivar was correct then, and now, too, it's all fixed please let us know? Thanks!

Originally Posted by Andy Yes, Ivar was correct then, and now, too, it's all fixed please let us know? Thanks!

Andy et al.

We'll when I first woke up - around 645 local - it was back to pulling my hair out as it certainly didn't work and worse, while the URL for my gallery connected to the right place, my main URL (http://www.digitaltasmania.com) did not - it went to the Smugmug home page instead? Both the old "cart" problem and the "new" main URL issue happened across browsers and across platforms.

Now, however, 10 minutes later things appear to be fixed? Both the "cart empty" issues and the failure of my main URL to direct to my smugmug homepage. Hopefully this state is permanent?

I appreciate the swift response from all the team members (and the new UI looks great) however this issue burned stacks of my time - time I simply don't have spare. As a result I missed a deadline last night.


I run my own humble websites with communities - I do know how hard it is to roll out new updates and keep people happy. Trouble is my services to my online community are free to the public. A paid "pro" service that causes "pros" to burn 3 - 4 hours of time on update bugs that IMHO are pretty front and center (can you order a print) is frankly frustrating.

If you are working, as most of us are, and you are trying to deliver the best service to your shoot clients and potential purchasers, time is like gold, or these days water . . . a terrible thing to waste.

Not intending to be patronizing - I know you guys are accomplished and also care. But these are the facts of my experience in the last 24hours and they are frustrating.

Wish I could go back to sleep for another 12 hours . . .

Peace from Tasmania,

Thomas

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Dr. Thomas Moore, BSME, MSME, PhD.
Earth Systems Scientist - Photographer - Media Production
Director, Editor, Publisher
http://www.CoastView.com.au
http://www.VirtualTasmania.com
http://www.SurfTasmania.com
http://www.DigitalTasmania.com

thomas.moore@coastview.com.au
0409681127

Originally Posted by DigitalTasmania Wish I could go back to sleep for another 12 hours . . .

Glad you are sorted.

There are 17 of us here at SmugMug that feel the same way