Lots of Problems - Much Success?

[Greenmind]

I'm seeing a lot of threads about problems with Actinic. I know most of them are down to a simple lack of knowledge and, as such, aren't really problems at all, but others are undermining my confidence somewhat. Can we have some good news? Are there people running ecommerce sites with Actinic that are operating, on the whole, smoothly and successfully? I need to hear some positives; I'm sure there are many.

[leehack]

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Loads of positives there for you.

There are thousands of successful sites, people don't come on posting each day about how wonderful actinic is, you will only hear about problems in general. 60% of the problems you read could be solved by RTFM or searching the forum or the KB. It's not as bad as you think at all. It's a very good piece of software, on it's way to being great hopefully.

[pinbrook]

I suspect that 99.9% of peeps who have reported issues now have a/many sucessful sites

there has been the odd person who has thrown their dummy out the pram and gone elsewhere - but thats human nature

[Duncan Rounding]

Some perspective.

There are almost 8000 forum members. I am sure that most Actinic users never visit the forums, those that do rarely have problems but just visit for information. As you have noticed most posts are for also just for information. Very few posts are actually real shop threatening problems.

Sure there are software issues, things that don't work correctly but most sites work well straight out of the box. It's usually inexperienced customisation thaty causes the majority of problems.

If you're still sitting in the fence anmd not sure of Actinic then go through theh v8 showcase thread and look at the many sites that people have posted there, that will give you a realistic indication.

[fergusw]

Lee's point is a good one and one worth thought.

There are 100's of 1000's of Actinic stores out there I believe (at least 100,000+ anyway!).
There are only a few 1000+ who have registered onto this forum, and only a small proportion of these only post primarily to resolve questions or issues they have with the software.
In terms of positive the 99.9% happy statement looks quite accurate!

The main positives you'll find on this forum are more about the helpfulness of the forum members providing assistance and help for free than about the software in itself.

If you bought the software and were absolutely happy with it, what need would you have to come and register here and post that anyway?

[Greenmind]

Well done everyone. The answers I wanted to hear.

Your point Lee...

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people don't come on posting each day about how wonderful actinic is, you will only hear about problems in general.

is valid, and something I was aware of, just that through spending time on the forum as a newbie there was just a niggling embryonic doubt developing in the back of my mind.

[marke]

If you are an accountant and you use Sage then it will be fairly easy for you to switch to quickbooks or MYOB or one of the others becuase you think like an accountant and understand the sorts of things accountancy software should do. Ecommerce is the same. If you think ecommerce you will have a head start and will find your way round the software much quicker as its just a case of finding out how things work. If you are new to ecommerce then the learning curve is much steeper. You have to learn ecommerce as well as Actinc. I have run several ecommerce sites over the years using Actinic since version 5. It works well as a peice of software and correctly configured and with the right host I have never had a problem. Sure it has its limitations like any software out of the box but if you spend the time to learn the software correctly then you will find it works very well. I have tried to convince myself to use other solutions (some free!) over the years but I keep returning to Actinic. Does what it says on the tin if you use it right.

[RuralWeb]

I have tried all the others over the years and Actinic is still the best - as said above all the gripe posts are from people who dont RTFM or are trying to work beyond thier abilities.

Actinic is a shop in a box for small to medium business - if you keep it simple and get your shop working then its plain sailing.

Many of the posts from this time last year were about bugs in the software which have 99% been fixed and the 1% left does not really present many problems in reallity. As Ive posted before people will latch onto anything if their business is having a problem and websites are a favourate - where better to complain than the forum

[Rob_Rhubarb]

I've only been using the software for a few weeks and think it is very impressive. I love how the shop design, product management, and order processing are all tied in together and it seems that the only real limits are your own technical ability and imagination.

A big thumbs up to Actinic!

All I need now is some bloody orders! What's the current world record for a fully running Actinic store not receiving an order?

[leehack]

All I need now is some bloody orders! What's the current world record for a fully running Actinic store not receiving an order?

16 months is the longest i know of, although technically it had an order 11 months into that, but it was a fraud.

[Rob_Rhubarb]

Wow, 16 months! I feel better now at a measly 3 weeks without an order. We are in a niche market selling mostly to the Police and Prison Service and it can take time for them to come round to the idea of buying online.

That's my excuse anyway. We are very busy making cell doors and grille gates etc to keep the bad folk in so web sales aren't essential to our success. The web shop is a bit of an experiment.

[gabrielcrowe]

Its nice to see that people are using the correct terminology in this thread

[george]

We are in a niche market selling mostly to the Police and Prison Service and it can take time for them to come round to the idea of buying online.

I'm sure the screws n guvnors will create a rush for xmas fella.


www.filesinchristmascakes.com

[fergusw]

The web shop is a bit of an experiment.

Have you thought about a novel marketing strategy???



Something like:

"Mother-in-law coming round to stay?
Need to re-decorate the spare room?
Need to keep control in your own home?
Relax. We can give you the piece of mind you have been dreaming of!"

just a suggestion!

[george]

"Kids a pita in the summer hols? Look no further...!"






George : Father of the Year 1486ad