customer can't order prints

dogwood

I just had a customer call me-- she was trying to order prints from this gallery:

http://www.petespringer.com/gallery/1443495

(petespringer.smugmug.com/gallery/1443495)

And everytime she added a photo and went on to the cart, the "Your shopping cart is empty" message came up.

I also sent an e-mail to help@smugmug.com but wanted to post here to see if anyone else has had this problem?

This customer happened to be a rep for a designer for Nike-- so I probably don't need to emphasize how embarrassing and desperate I feel right now! Nike is based locally and I'd do anything to get paid work shooting for them-- but if they can't even order photos-- yikes!

dogwood

cookies?
Smugmug help just e-mailed me back and this may have to do with enabling cookies. Guys-- I love smugmug and the support and all that-- but I'll tell ya', when you try to explain to an untechnical person over the phone about how to enable cookies on a browser and she says, "I'll have my boyfriend do it, he knows more about this than me..." it's like kissing a big print sale good-bye (and possibly a big paid photoshoot...)

May I suggest there be an error page that customers see if cookies are not enabled? When they just see, "shopping cart is empty", I'd guess most folks would give up after a couple tries!

Sheaf

dogwood wrote:

Smugmug help just e-mailed me back and this may have to do with enabling cookies. Guys-- I love smugmug and the support and all that-- but I'll tell ya', when you try to explain to an untechnical person over the phone about how to enable cookies on a browser and she says, "I'll have my boyfriend do it, he knows more about this than me..." it's like kissing a big print sale good-bye (and possibly a big paid photoshoot...)

May I suggest there be an error page that customers see if cookies are not enabled? When they just see, "shopping cart is empty", I'd guess most folks would give up after a couple tries!

That's a good idea. I'll run it by the company.

rainforest1155

Sheaf wrote:

[cookie checker for shopping cart]That's a good idea. I'll run it by the company.

Please let me know when you come up with something on this. I might want to include this into my multi lingual site-project, because if cookies aren't stored, my site will display in multiple languages at the same time, which is not desireable!

Thanks,
Sebastian

EDIT: Just noticed that my site uses the default language instead and doesn't rely on cookies to function, but I still would like to know when you come up with something - maybe I'll need it then.

marlinspike

Well, I'm sure it is cookies because I have no issues buying from the page. As someone who has had to be tech support for everyone he knows, I can tell you anybody can do anything with computers if you give them instructions. The trick is three-fold: assure them that they can do it and it will help them in the future, speak slowly, and be able to give them locations (like, left-click on tools, it's near the top and is the fifth one on the right).

Though I agree, a "you have cookies issues" idea is a good one.

mpmcleod

marlinspike wrote:

Though I agree, a "you have cookies issues" idea is a good one.

A better solution is to code the site in such a way that cookies are not necessary to get business done. Then problems like this wouldn't happen.

dogwood

i agree

mpmcleod wrote:

A better solution is to code the site in such a way that cookies are not necessary to get business done. Then problems like this wouldn't happen.

At least for ordering prints. You're trying to convince someone to pay you money-- it should be as simple as possible. Not a whole lot of folks are willing to take the time to read a FAQ on cookies and change the settings on a browser in order to spend money.

Incidentally, the original person who contacted me about the print order problems has yet to place an order... and it's clearly stated that those prints are only available until Monday. We all know it's tough to convince someone to pay us for prints (esp. when they're wondering why Wal*Mart charges 59-cents for a 5x7 and we charge $7.99 plus shipping...)-- no sense in making it more difficult than it needs to be!

I now put the cookie info and a link to help on my print order pages, though, so hopefully this won't happen again.

DigitalTasmania

Sheaf wrote:

That's a good idea. I'll run it by the company.

G'day Sheaf,

What is the status on this?

IMHO this is hurting sales . . . esp since, IMO, not all people like to run with cookies turned "all the way up" - makes more sense to the average joe to not accept cookies from places they don't browse to - which, IME, can cause issues with the Smuggy cart.

Thanks matey,

Thomas