Client left with no copy of Actinic

[jofgav]

Hi all

I couldn't find this question elsewhere so apologies if it has came up before.
A client of mine has come to me with the following question: -

The original developer of their store used to carry out their site updates and forward on orders. Strange I know...

Anyway this company has now disappeared and the client is left with no access to the website (which we are trying to ammend) and no Actinic software.

Is there any claims proceedure where by someone in this situation can get a copy of Actinic? I'm not hoping for too much, just to know where they stand and what (if any) options there are.

[Mike Hughes]

It sounds to me like the designer probably did this on the cheap with Actinic Developer, so your client never had a properly licensed copy of actinic. The best thing to do is contact Actinic sales by phone and see if they have any records of your client.

Getting out of the situation isn't going to be easy. Unless they have a copy of a snapshot and/or backup of the site then it will have to be redone from scratch. Probably with a new version of Actinic although you can sometimes pick up clean versions that haven't been used on ebay.

Mike

[I-CC]

Another issue is the live site now. If this is still operational, then the chances are that it is still receiving orders, which without the encryption key unique to the installation/site, you will not be able to get at those orders, so if all hope of getting this encryption key is lost, then disabling the cgi-bin or something (if you have this access) might be wise, or simply having copying the acatalog folder down to get the images for your site and then putting up a notice of pending rebuild, which will at the very least stop customers ordering and then being told that the order could not be collected, let alone processed...

Not good news I am afraid.

[jofgav]

Thanks

Yes the site is live and when orders do come in the have to check their statments and guess what has been ordered or get in touch with the customer.

I realise that the developer may have simply used a Developer version and the client hasn't purchased a copy of Catalog.

[jont]

May be worth putting up a redirect to a holding page - nothing worse than customers placing an order and it vanishing into the expanse of the web with no way to retrieve and just guessing at orders beggers belief.

Depending on the site / products may be worth offering a free gift with every phone order placed to entice people to still buy?