Sunday, October 3, 2010

You Left Something In Your Cart

Yes, I certainly did you silly machine.  Now delete it and go on.

That's the G Rated response that I had to that nag email that I got from overstock.com

Back a few days ago, My Sister, Pat, the person who I started writing this blog for, had her birthday.

Go ahead, wish her a happy birthday again.  She'll appreciate it.  :)

Yeah I know ...

So I ordered something from overstock.com and had it shipped to her directly.  Very convenient, and I tend not to do that sort of thing often.   With all the cookies and cakes that I make , usually I send her a couple pounds of goodies around the holidays and her birthday.  With the nonsense and drama that's swirling around, I got into a bind - I couldn't take the morning and make my cookies. 

When I do get the time, I'll let you know...

I'm thinking December.

The reason why I went through that order was a happy coincidence.  I load up 130 or so web pages every morning at around 7:15.  I started slogging through all of those assorted job search pages that are peppered with pictures of cats and fails and other things to keep up the happy when doing the task of finding permanent work.  Being a Freelance Project Manager/Web Designer/and all around Tech Guy Extraordinaire in this Republican Induced Great Depression is tough and I'm good at figuring out the problem and getting it solved. 

One of the web pages has a lot of "deals" on it.  One of the deals was a piece of folk art that was a piece of a steel drum pounded into the shape of a Gecko.  They're made by hand in Haiti, and they're all over South Florida.   This particular buy was considered a Fair Trade item which meant they try not to take too much of an advantage when bargaining with them. It may be "Green Washing" for the soul and just an excuse to tack an extra buck on the item, but the item was what I was looking for and not a terrible price at all.  If *I* can afford it ... it certainly isn't too badly priced.

After getting into the sales cart I got to the point where for some reason Firefox didn't show the link I was to click on to actually complete the sale.  I went through the process again on the Bloated Browser, Internet Explorer, and there was the link.   I went on my way happy that I could send a little South Florida to Pat. 

I hope you like it, Pat.  It isn't much but it should be nice on the wall under an eave like the real things down here.

Apparently I left an item in the cart.   If I wanted the second item I would have bought it you silly site, so stop sending me reminders...  Rule Number One Of Marketing - Do Not Annoy Your Customers!

I went on there trying to convince overstock.com that I didn't want the item, again, and went away.

I got another email the next day... Is business really that bad folks?  

More likely does anyone do proper Quality Assurance these days?   I have noticed more shoddy web sites that need a Project Manager (AHEM!) sitting there telling the Business Analysts that they need to work with the QA department closer because this just doesn't work quite right.   Oh! and go down the hall to the programmers, get them into the conference room and we'll have a JAD (Joint Application Design) session at 10AM.

Come on folks, ecommerce is not THAT tough.  You know what you're trying to duplicate - a trip to the mall.  Now go and get it right.

Ok, so since you can't you can contact me here.

Happy Birthday Pat, I know you like my cookies... maybe next time I'll remember to pack them with more peanuts so they don't shift and make cookie dust!  :)

No comments:

Post a Comment