Need advice on shopping site or cart. Please read.

Bill Martino

Bill Martino

Joined
Mar 5, 1999
Messages
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Brief history. A couple of years back I got email from Smoothsale promoting their new shopping site. I answered saying I might be interested. They had a feature I liked -- a sort of chat room between me and customers for doing UBDOTDs and the like.

They called and tried to sell their services. Polite but persistent. I finally went for it. Start up help was fantastic. Follow on help was excellent. But then about six months ago I noticed things started to slide. My email to them would go unanswered. Instead of people at the end of the toll free help line I got recorded messages. It would take a day or two to get an answer. Email was answered a week late.

Day before yesterday I called and got a message that the toll free help line had been disconnected. I called another number for them and got this message: "Leave a message." I did and no return call. My email goes unanswered.

I get the feeling that nobody is left at Smoothsale and the thing is running on air. This makes me nervous and I'm looking for an alternative.

So, anybody with experience with shopping sites, carts, etc. I seek advice on which way to go. I fear Smoothsale may just collapse in the near future and I'll be left holding the shopping bag so to speak. Another one of those great net idea-businesses that just didn't make it.

Help, please.
 
It's kind of eerie, it makes you wonder whats really going on out there!:( I don't know much about this but good luck!;)
 
I'm sorry to hear of your difficulty, Uncle. However in this age of customer "dis"service, I'm regretful to say, I'm not suprised. I wish I knew the first thing about these things and could help, but I'm clueless :(

-Craig
 
:
But since I have only been on a WebTV I know little about such websites.

I don't know how it works or even if it does anymore, but http://www.beseen.com
had a place that you could sign up for a free chatroom.
I opened one for awhile so my daughter in Florida and me could chat in private.
I don't know if they would have anything lke what you're wanting, but it might be worth a look see.:)

And surely Berk or some of the others might know of some help.
And what about inquireing your ISP to see if they have such a service?
 
Unc, if you haven't downloaded a copy of your smoothsale site to use in setting up another site somewhere else, do it NOW.

( I'd also warn folks not to use it to transfer money over while it's looking iffy. Don't really know anything about it, but it doesn't sound real encouraging. )
 
Uncle Bill--
I don't know anything about shopping sites myself, but I do know a few people who do. I am going to e-mail your dilemma to them and when I hear back from them so will you.
 
The money part is handled by Cardservice International which is big and not about to go under. Smoothsale is sort of a middle man that fowards the credit card info to CSI for processing and the orders to me for shipping.

Smoothsale works okay but when you need help with something now there is nobody there.

And thanks for help.
 
Hi Uncle, Sorry to hear about Smoothsale. My experiences with companies that do the sort of things you described are several. Some I've worked for some I dealt with, these are typically signs of going out of business its just a matter of when. I've seen a couple come back after a struggle. Didn't seem to ever be quite right though. They are probably running out of money, have laid off employees and owe creditors money. So not enough money or people to take care of business. Hard to say what action to take. If it were me trying to run my business ( which I Do) I don't have the time to deal with other companies problems I have enough of my own. I would find a more established company thats stood the test of time.Theres my two cents.
 
Uncle I was about to recommend PayPal, *BUT after a quick web search noticed that there are quite a few ailegations/charges about them leveled by both sellers and buyers :(

I mean as long as someone else is handling YOUR money there are always problems/losses. If you hired someone to redesign the HI website (add item shopping pages, etc...) and started accepting credit cards (doing the merchant transaction with the bank yourself) you would at least be sure of where your standing at any given time. Of course this means extra work for HI (you) and may weigh in on your decisions. It does get rid of that variable, 'the middleman factor' though... :)
 
Uncle Bill,

I found a good site with reviews at ZDNet E-Store Review. Check 'em out. The two recommended ones are free! (There's gotta be some kind of catch....)

I bet there are some of us who could help if you run into any problems.

Chris
 
Thanks for help. If there's anybody out there who knows how to do this stuff and would consider trading khukuris for work send an email. I'm going to have to do something before Smoothsale shuts down like many others have done. I don't want to have to make panic decisions and get into the panic rush mode.

Thanks all for advice, concern and help.
 
Did you contact Pete? He said he usually worked for "trade, or a small fee". I know he's "gunny". He could catch HIKV very easily, since he already has iron in his blood :D

Nothing to do with shopping, but this is what he is putting together for Lou:

http://www.alessileather.com/
 
What's in it for the companies that are doing this for free?

Easy... They are able to temporarily amass large pools of money. On which they can collect interest, make loans, etc.. Same deal as insurance companies do.
 
I checked with my girlfriend Barb, who makes her living selling on Ebay and has her own Ebay store. She recommended a Paypal store for two reasons. Currently it's free and it has a good number of hits from people searching on Paypal stores. Most of her store sales come from people being directed to her store, much like you have set up with the Khukuri faq site. People searching thru the Paypal categories is sort of an added bonus for her. She has been doing this for years and has a thriving business. I would definitely check them out.
 
Thanks for good tip, wolve. I'll definitely check it out. Do you have a link to you friend's Paypal store?
 
Bill,

Pal-Pal is not the way to go in my opinion. They have a lot of problems and the method they use with credit cards does not protect the consumer (and there are many upset merchants also). In an earlier post, Buoy noted the Ziff Davis website which rates E-Commerce sites. The highest rated site (tied with one other unknown to me) is www.freemerchant.com (which is not a free deal).

I have purchased many times from vendors using this company for their E-Commerce and the selection process, payment process and complete checkout is flawless. Once a customer uses their site for any merchant, the ship to data is stored, so you don't have to refill the form. It uses the customer e-mail as the password for this feature.

I have been impressed with the ease of check out and the smart functions of their sites. They are geared towards the small businessman, so you are not dealing with a web store set up that takes many hours and many experts to deal with.

I have only been a customer of sites using thir service, so I don't know how they treat their customers, but many merchants continue to use their service. They also have a quick loading and active website, so they might just be the one for you.

Hope all works out and I'll continue lurking. Take care.

Nick.
 
Nick, thanks for great help. After checking paypal out I'm inclined to agree. I'll check your link. Sounds pretty good.

Smoothsale is still working okay. The problem is when a customer or merchant needs help there's nobody there to help. I wanted to decline a sale (can't do it with standard setup) to Indonesia that was purchased with a stolen credit card and couldn't do it because I couldn't get hold of anybody to stop the sale. And, I've had complaints from customers who can't rouse anybody there, either. It is a very bad situation.
 
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