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Problems with ProductCart bug notification
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Brett View Drop Down
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    Posted: 31-May-2010 at 7:23pm
*edit*
After reviewing, I have realized that this was probably my own fault. Upon creating my forum and support accounts, I was given the option to sign up for notification of updates and newsletters from EI, and opted not to. So it seems that the lack of notification I received was my own fault. Apologies for any worry caused.
*edit*

So, I was just informed today that SP4 has been released for a few days now. Why didn't I get an e-mail informing me of this?


Furthermore, why was V4 released with these bugs? I can only imagine how many orders we've been losing due to this error. With a bounce rate of 40% on the checkout page, how many of those were due to the error after adding billing information.

It seems like I'm constantly reporting errors to EarlyImpact. First, they say it's due to the custom code modifications I've made. Inevitably, it ends up being an actual bug and some kind of fix is released.

How many times must we go through this, and how many orders must my store lose? I'm starting to wonder if ProductCart is stable enough to be used in a production environment.

Can I be assured that a clean install of V4 sp4 will be bug free? Probably not, since obviously sp3 wasn't without bugs (the bugs which were addressed in sp4) Bugs in the check out process should be communicated as they arrise or we lose money.

The checkout process needs to be flawless or we lose money. Customers bail out.

For the record, the only bug I've ever caused by editing custom code was when I tried to get custom search fields to work with multiple values. That caused my site to freeze up. Every other bug I've reported has turned out to be an actual problem, and a fix was released at some point.

I want smooth intuitive checkout. I need it very soon.

Edited by Brett - 01-June-2010 at 3:02pm
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Greg Dinger View Drop Down
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Points: 238 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Greg Dinger Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31-May-2010 at 8:08pm
Brett, I use http://www.changedetection.com/ in order to subscribe to changes that occur on EI's support page.  Additionally, I subscribe to all sections of the forum.  Subscribing to the forum may be more than you wish to review in your mailbox, but the above service would at least inform you that changes were posted to the support page.
 
As for your question "Can I trust this software?", and so on, that really seems unfair.  PC contains an immense amount of functionality, and somewhere probably in the millions of lines of code.  You must certainly recognize that it takes a tremendous effort to test this large a system in all of the possible combinations that PC users do eventually exercise it.  It's just that sometimes there are circumstances that are very difficult to predict, and thus errors in logic make their way to production until someone stumbles upon them.
 
Programmers are as subject to oversights as any profession, and ours is a particularly complex task.  No complex piece of software is ever bug-free, and I know for a fact that Early Impact works as hard as anyone to make sure each release is as solid as possible. 
 
Regardless, there will always be bugs in any application- and that's just the way life is.  Everyone that is professionally involved with ProductCart does their very best to identify and resolve those issues - from the EI team to the developer community and on to the user community.  As stuff gets discovered, which really is not that often if you give this a fair analysis, it gets fixed.  And thus come new releases.
 
So how about giving EI a break?  This is great software, they provide excellent support, and they are constantly improving it.  Is that hard to agree with?
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Brett View Drop Down
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Points: 89 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Brett Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31-May-2010 at 8:47pm
Since installing SP3, I have no idea how many sales my website has lost due to this bug. I believe the tone of my post reflects the seriousness of the issue.
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Greg Dinger View Drop Down
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Points: 238 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Greg Dinger Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31-May-2010 at 10:04pm
One point that I only recognized in the past week or so is that there is a distinction between the timing of when orders are recorded to the database in v3 versus v4.  The following article is important and should be carefully as you may find that you are not comparing "apples to apples".
 
 
Essentially, the timing of writing orders to the database in V3 was significantly later than it is in V4.  As such, with more accurate reporting of drop-off rates, it may appear that this metric has increased since a v3 user has upgraded to v4.  Realistically, the drop off rate may have been different in v3 than one might perceive.
 
So before you conclude that the v4 OPC (which I am not here to defend, but simply explaining a key difference compared to the earlier checkout) has resulted in loss of sales, please do consider the above information.
 
Does that help at all?
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Greg Dinger View Drop Down
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Points: 238 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Greg Dinger Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31-May-2010 at 10:08pm
Another point.  The title of the newsletter where SP4 was announced is "ProductCart Update - April 2010".  I'll forward a copy to you.  If you are not subscribed to EI's newsletters, you should be.
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Originally posted by Greg Dinger Greg Dinger wrote:

One point that I only recognized in the past week or so is that there is a distinction between the timing of when orders are recorded to the database in v3 versus v4.  The following article is important and should be carefully as you may find that you are not comparing "apples to apples".
 


 

Essentially, the timing of writing orders to the database in V3 was significantly later than it is in V4.  As such, with more accurate reporting of drop-off rates, it may appear that this metric has increased since a v3 user has upgraded to v4.  Realistically, the drop off rate may have been different in v3 than one might perceive.

 

So before you conclude that the v4 OPC (which I am not here to defend, but simply explaining a key difference compared to the earlier checkout) has resulted in loss of sales, please do consider the above information.

 

Does that help at all?


I am using google analytics to record drop off rates. Specifically, 40% of people are seeing the OPC page and not continuing to the authorize.net page. I haven't set up the metrics to record where in the OPC page people are dropping off, but I do have sufficient data to measure how many are making it from the OPC page to the Auth.net page.
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Brett View Drop Down
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Points: 89 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Brett Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01-June-2010 at 1:12am
Originally posted by Greg Dinger Greg Dinger wrote:

Another point.  The title of the newsletter where SP4 was announced is "ProductCart Update - April 2010".  I'll forward a copy to you.  If you are not subscribed to EI's newsletters, you should be.


I will subscribe to the EI newsletter, as that is definitely a good idea.

However, with a large update such as service packs, everyone who owns the software and especially those of us who are subscribed to the support system for a yearly fee should be notified via our support e-mail addresses.

I understand that EI can't be e-mailing for every tiny update, but for service packs, everyone should be notified via any available avenues of communication, be that a newsletter subscription or a paid support account's registered e-mail address.
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Points: 89 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Brett Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01-June-2010 at 1:15am



Edited by Brett - 01-June-2010 at 2:24pm
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Edited by Brett - 01-June-2010 at 2:24pm
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Brett View Drop Down
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Points: 89 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Brett Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01-June-2010 at 12:57pm
While I am frustrated with these issues concerning productcart, I don't want to give the wrong impression *I* do use productcart on a production site and I do trust the software as well as it's developers. The support has always been good, and the functionality of the software has always been reliable.
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