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Good Grief. I have just spent about 45 minutes trying to locate Provo Craft Clear Stamps on the Addicted to Rubber Stamping web site. I don't think it can be done. The search shuts down, I get re directed again and again to the home page, the "next" button puts me back at the home page.
There are thousands of stamps on this site and I can't find one item I want. The Addicted to Scrapbooking site is just as bad. The sale they are having this week is about 10% off regular price and looking on their sites is just not worth the headache.
I don't think companies realize how important it is to have their sites professionally done. Yes, nearly anyone can make a web site, but not just anyone can do it well. For a company this size, I just expect more. Or I expect better.
I've ordered from them many times and haven't had that problem. Now their Frugalities website, that's another issue. ATRS did change around their website awhile back but now I like being able to click on a company and then narrow it down to rubber stamps, clear stamps, paper, etc. Maybe they were working on their site or something, they do have a big sale coming up.
Darcy
I just tried finding this for you. Really, it took me maybe 10 seconds. I clicked on companies, provo and then under categories, stamps clear. I wonder if the site was being goofy yesterday. Here's the link to what I found
Personally, I'll agree, I've never ordered because I think their site is confusing and too wordy. I've never had the search problems as you're experiencing, but I just don't like the layout of their site. If I have to read too much I'm not buying from that site.
I'm sorry you had this experience. It is frustrating when you cannot find something easily. I've never had a problem with their website, and have only had good experiences with ATRS. They have so many products, and the items I've ordered have all arrived very quickly. I've ordered from them many times. Eileen
__________________ The best things in life aren't things.
I've had the same experiences - esp. last night - I ended up just giving up. there seems to be no easy way to do a more detailed search for what you want!
The email about their sale just went out yesterday. Maybe they were overloaded and the site went haywire. They've changed their site and it's better than it used to be I think.
I totally agree...it took me about an hour yesterday to get about $50 worth of items in my cart...and believe me, it wasn't that much stuff. I have had these same issues with Frugalities...it is quite obvious they are affiliated companies. I swear they would both would sell more if they could correct these issues.
BTW, OnMyTerms, when I clicked on your link I got "No exact match, blah,blah,blah...see this is just what I am talking about!
I recently purchased some items from ATRS as well. BE CAREFUL! The Prima flowers that I received were not the ones pictured. I got some really ugly bright orange, green, etc. daisies instead of the nice yellow and blue ones that I wanted. I went back and looked, and sure enough they had the wrong picture posted, it was the same one as another name of Primas. I sent an e-mail (after waiting on their "live chat" for over one and a half hours, kept showing that I was #1 in the queue.) To date, I have not received an answer to my e-mail from them, and they promise a reply in 24 hours. (This was on 8/18/07.) I sent another e-mail yesterday. There is no phone number that I can find, if anyone knows it, please let me know!
Also, be aware that shipping costs are based on the ORIGINAL retail price, not the SALE price. I went over by $1.00 and had to pay the next level of shipping. (I did get an immediate reply to this e-mail when I had ordered.)
Needless to say, I won't be ordering from them again :(
It seems that a possible recourse, or perhaps an eventual solution could be found if you would voice your concerns to that website via "contact us", etc. They might actually try to rectify the situation if they were informed of the various difficulties a few of you have experienced. Just a thought to help bring about a more positive experience for some of you.
It seems that a possible recourse, or perhaps an eventual solution could be found if you would voice your concerns to that website via "contact us", etc. They might actually try to rectify the situation if they were informed of the various difficulties a few of you have experienced. Just a thought to help bring about a more positive experience for some of you.
There really isn't a "contact us" on the site. There is only a "help" which gives you this:
I was actually impressed with their customer service. A couple of weeks ago I found their Inky Antics clear stamp sets were way overpriced compared to the Inky Antics site. I think the ATRS site had the sets for over $24 each while Inky Antics had them for $14.99. I emailed ATRS about this. Then someone here pointed out that Inky Antics had a special on their clear sets for 50% off if you spent a certain amount of money. Oh... I emailed ATRS back to tell them I had made a mistake. They sent me a very nice email thanking me for following up. Anyhow... Then I emailed Inky Antics because I just didn't think the $14.99 was the sale price because I hadn't added $25 to my cart yet. They emailed me back to say the $14.99 is the regular price. Anyhow... I emailed ATRS back again and included the email from Inky Antics regarding the set price. ATRS emailed me back and said they would be contacting Inky Antics themselves to figure out why there was such a price difference. The happy ending to the story is that the sets are now $14.99 regular price at ATRS. (They didn't email me back to say they had changed the price, but at least they DID change them.)
Kimberly
__________________ "There is a very fine line between hobby and mental illness." -- Dave Barry
I have ordered from them, and never had a problem (and things come fast).
I have had website problems when trying to navigate their site with Mozilla Firefox...I specifically exit Firefox and use Internet Explorer when I want to visit/browse.
I order from them a lot. I've never had a problem (thankfully, because I've read some very frustrating experiences on here!). I had an awful time last night trying to get to anything on their site. I had the same problems last year, but they seem to have fixed the issue, until yesterday. I wonder if this happens when the site is overwhelmed? I don't know what would screw up a search to make it go back to the home page, and it makes me wonder what database is driving it. It needs to be more robust, whatever it is.
I will probably keep ordering from them because I do like the "one stop shop" for some of the more obscure things I like, but it is frustrating.
Their site was super slow yesterday and it looks to be slow this morning as well. Probably overloaded from the volume of customers because of the sale. I've ordered from them before and never had a problem.
i really LOVE addicted to rubber stamps and have shopped for years! please don't judge by the huge volume that slowed the server etc, they ARE a good company!
__________________ "grandma squared" janice aka *favorites stalker* MY BLOG
I just tried to do some shopping and had the same problems the OP had. I shopped ATRS before, but never had these problems. Maybe I'll try again later...or maybe not!
The site is super slow for me today....yesterday morning I got in and out in a matter of minutes. Got an e-mailed that it shipped yesterday. I've always had wonderful service from them. I think that no matter how professional your site it, if there are too many people loggin on to your site, you have problems. Hey,.....look at the problems SCS has with their servers and all the people logging on!! Server upgrades are VERY expensive. That's one reason I support SCS with DD subscription.
On the other hand, ATRS changed their site to this fade in and fade out page change that I think is very nice.
__________________ Ann Here is my oily blog! CLICK HERE Certified Copic Instructor - Local ClassesI love cars, stamping and essential oils!
I've ordered from them several times and never had a problem with their stuff. They do ship fast too. That being said, I positively hate their website. It is hard to navigate, and I'm pretty darn internet savvy. It's fine if you want to look at a whole class of things or lots of products from one company, but a pain in the rear if you're looking for one specific thing. I shop there when I want to browse for a while, as I know it can be difficult to do quick shopping there. And yes, the site is outrageously slow and gets messed up during sales.
It seems that a possible recourse, or perhaps an eventual solution could be found if you would voice your concerns to that website via "contact us", etc. They might actually try to rectify the situation if they were informed of the various difficulties a few of you have experienced. Just a thought to help bring about a more positive experience for some of you.
The ATRS folks sit across the hallway from me. They are acutely aware of the slow web site problems during this sale. Normally they have perhaps 200 or 400 shoppers online at any one time. They ramped up for this sale to handle 1,000~1,500 simultaneous shoppers. There have been 2,500 to 5,000 shoppers (nobody can tell since everything is so overloaded.) It's been a source of stress and much discussion here. I know that when the overload happened they swiftly borrowed three mondo-big servers from Frugalities.com to handle some of the load. It's just hard to forecast how many people will show up and to be ready for thousands at a time. You can't just go out and buy servers for three days of overload. (These aren't just desktop PCs...they are super-powerful machines.) It should all be good by Thursday.
Also, this afternoon the main SQL database server hard-crashed. But the emergency spare kicked right in and has been doing fine. (Most systems here are redundant like that.) So that did kick everybody off for a moment during the switchover. (No data was lost.)
The good news is that Frugalities.com got the OK to start shipping orders. The warehouse is keeping up with all of the orders (they put in a new system that's doing wonders!)
At Frugalities.com here we care mostly about costs and prices. But the ATRS group is highly focused on selection and service. They get sad when things don't work smoothly. Really they do.
Sorry to blather here. But a lot of people have been asking what was up.
I appreciate the semi-techie explanation. I understand they can't buy servers for just a few days worth of sales, except there are servers that can be used to load balance that aren't "mondo" in either size or price, but again, it's kind of a lot of overhead for a few days. Perhaps the database calls to SQL could be written more efficiently, so while the load on the web server would still be killer, the constant calls to the database won't add to that load.
And it still doesn't explain why I go back to the home page in the middle of looking through a company's offerings. I hit the "Next Page" arrow at the bottom, with 3 more pages of stuff to look through, and I end up back at the home page and have to start all over again. I also can't look at 100 images per page. I try, and I end up back at the beginning. It's annoying. I don't blame the people at the company. I understand computers don't always behave and there isn't anyone to really blame for it, but it is so hard to shop when any progress can instantly be undone with a flaky search process (and I seriously have no idea what kind of programming is behind this that could allow such a thing).
I think most customers understand and will forgive ATRS and continue to try. I know I will (am as I type). It just feels necessary to vent the frustration at such strange occurrences when we all want to jump on this sale!
Thank you for the beneficial explanation, Frugalities.com ! It's my opinion that we should all be able to accept the fact that well-advertised sales certainy do cause a "crush" of consumers - particularly when it's an online, national website. We have seen similar slow-downs and odd software behavior even here at SCS during occasional slow periods or times of troubled/overburdened servers. I, for one, appreciate your trying to help the majority to see that this is a temporary issue, and all will begin to work more smoothly. ;)
I have bought from them many times. They have amazingly fast shipping and send everything very well packaged. I had the troubles others have described on their site so I asked my computer tech son and he told me to switch from using Mozilla Firefox to Internet Explorer. Their site was impossible to navigate with firefox and worked like a charm using Internet explorer.
Skip reading me unless you like techie gory stuff...
Quote:
Originally Posted by immzw4
...there are servers that can be used to load balance that aren't "mondo" in either size or price...Perhaps the database calls to SQL could be written more efficiently...still doesn't explain why I go back to the home page in the middle of looking through a company's offerings...It just feels necessary to vent the frustration at such strange occurrences when we all want to jump on this sale!
This is going to get seriously un-interesting (right about now) so I'll answer and then be done. This forum is about stamping, and I understand that. But I will briefly address your issues.
The problem is not an overload of the SQL servers. We use a large grid of SQL database servers to handle the load and they are fine. Our main SQL server simply crashed. The backup kicked in and we were back in business. It was unfortunate timing.
We already use high-end load balancers and a "farm" of servers. The load is spread across a multitude of servers in a data center dedicated to only our use. So we're onto that technique long ago. We use powerful servers so we can have fewer of them.
The problem with pagination, and with going to HOME when checking out is a server overload problem. A lot of memory is consumed for each active user. When there are too many users and memory is all consumed the memory associated with the least active user is deleted and the session is re-initialized. But if the server is ridiculously overloaded then the "least active" user may have only been inactive for 15 seconds instead of 60 minutes. The result is thrashing many people in an ugly way. Our servers can only accept 4GB of RAM. It's a problem. We know of the problem but a solution is a ways away, unfortunately.
Frugalities.com gets the old equipment so our servers are even more problematic. We'll upgrade in 2008.
-----
Now as for venting frustration:
It's entirely justified at the moment. The current situation is intolerable. Customers are angry. Our support people are literally in the bathroom in tears. Senior management is standing around the servers just watching. The one thing going well is fulfillment...orders are at least shipping promptly and we have oodles of available inventory!
Our customers have every right to be upset at us. We know that. We accept the venting. And, it will etch this into our minds.
Many solutions are longer-term. We'll implement them. We have to.
Short term fallback solutions already being discussed for Thanksgiving include having a "pre-announcement" to our established customers a few days earlier than the general public...perhaps even with a special URL or passcode. That will let them in first and will spread the system load across more days.
Sorry to all for the eye-glazing techie stuff. At Frugalities.com we're doing all that we can to help ATRS out. (Then we'll gore them with our low prices
Back to stamping. Any further questions on this should be directed to our support mailbox where we will personally answer individually and privately.
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