Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Buttons in Shopping Cart

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Buttons in Shopping Cart

    I have noticed that my Shopping Cart displays 'Greyed Out' gif image buttons whether the button is active or not. To explain, if the Shopping Cart is empty then the buttons below the cart for 'Update' 'Save' 'Retrieve' 'Checkout Now' are inactive and are therefore correctly 'greyed out versions'. However, if there is something in the Shopping Cart, these buttons are active, but they still appear as 'greyed out'. I am using the Smart Theme with the standard Actinic supplied buttons.

    I established from my phone call to Actinic Support that you can specify a different button image.gif for an active button and a different button image.gif for an inactive button. This can be done in the design tab by selecting 'Shopping Cart' in the 'Select Page Type' drop down list where there are two rows of images - one row for active buttons and one row for inactive buttons. This is excellent is is just what I want to do. However, in my site folder, there were only the 'greyed out'.

    To use this facility, the support person said I could use Photoshop to create new black versions of these buttons, using the supplied greyed out versions. I agreed that this was possible, but that I did not have the expertise to change the colour of the text on these gif images. I asked if they could supply the missing black buttons, but they refused, saying that this was a design issue (and was my responsibility) and not a support issue. I explained that I did not want them to design anything, and that I just wanted black versions of Actinic supplied standard buttons, so that I could use them for the active buttons in the Shopping Cart. The supplied versions are faint grey and they look to a normal user as if the button is not active and is therefore confusing and misleading to customers.

    I have been a user of Actinic catalog and Business for many years, and this is the first time that I have come up against a brick wall when asking for support under my support contract. I escalated the issue within Actinic Support and spoke at some length but they continued to refuse to supply the black buttons.

    I have subsequently emailed the greyed out buttons to a friend who has converted them to black and all is now well - you can see the result at my web site http://www.allpanoramic.com

    I think Actinic catalog and Business is a great piece of software and support has been excellent. I hope this problem is an isolated incident, but I would suggest that their very narrow approach and response to the issue is not good for customer relationships.

    #2
    I think their stance was correct and as it should be. It is not sensible IMO to have a support system flooded with design requests which are pure aesthetics where nothing is broken. The problems that matter would get lost in the deluge of these requests. There is a grey area for sure and it can be hard to differentiate at times, but if i was paying for a support contract and found I was queuing on the phone cos your buttons are the wrong colour, i'd be bitterly disappointed.

    If you don't believe a button colour is outside of their remit, what do you think is? How far can you realistically expect a support contract to stretch, what would you not expect them to do for you? Sadly (IMO I hasten to add) support requests like yours are generally what screws up a support service, leaving real problems waiting patiently for answers.

    In advance theme configuration (design drop down menu) you can create your own button sets, this is good enough IMO in most cases. The colours are linked to those in the theme palette, perhaps a discover and find mission would make things like this easier tasks for you to achieve in the future. You've spent longer trying to solve and explain the problem than it would have taken to learn how to fix it.

    Comment


      #3
      Frustrating for something so minor to be refused - but I have to agree they did the right thing as it is outside the support remit and otherwise they would be deluged with design support tickets. It would be more frustrating to find out your broken site could not be fixed for a couple of days as the support staff were sorting a few logos!

      Looking at the images in the checkout you would be better getting your friend to create some new versions from scratch or look at the way he has done the conversion .. the "checkout now" looks very ragged. Building from scratch you can change the hover colours far more effectively.


      Bikster
      SellerDeck Designs and Responsive Themes

      Comment


        #4
        Buttons

        Thanks for responses, and I can certainly see your point. However, I do not think you fully see the situation. What I wonder is how many orders have I lost over the years because customers were presented with 'greyed out' buttons when they added something to the shopping cart. Of course, I should have picked this up years ago, but I did not. Also, I used earlier versions of Actinic where it was much more difficult to change the design, and I concentrated on the functionality of the software. The buttons that were supplied with Actinic were clearly 'greyed out' versions that were allocated to both enabled and disabled buttons.

        Saying it is just a question of what colour buttons are, and that this uses up valuable support time, misses the point, and it is the same tack that Actinic Support took.

        I fully agree that the support team are there to support problems and not worry up colours and design. I would argue that on this occassion, it was not an issue about colour and design, but that it had a direct effect on the functionality of the software, even although the software was itself functioning correctly.

        What I was really looking for from Actinic support was to see that I had a problem, affecting the functionality of the software, and offering to do something about it. The fact that this issue strayed into 'design' I think has been the problem, and in my eyes, detracted from their usual excellent service.

        Anyway, matter resolved now and I look forward to a continued excellent service from Actinic Support and their software.

        Comment


          #5
          If you are not seeing things such as this on your site for years, maybe you'd benefit from a support contract (on the design side), from a local designer. If what you say rings true and you've lost multiple sales because you have not picked up on this for years, surely a support contract (lets say £300 for a 10 hour contract) would be the greatest investment you could make. There's bound to be other obvious errors on the site, each of which will also be affecting the site's performance.

          Have badly coloured buttons is no different to having had the wrong price on a product for a few years. Likewise that would not be their fault also, this is your resposibility 100%. If your skillset doesn't stretch to design, that's fine and perfectly understandable and normal. This is why there are professionals out there to cover that gap in your skillset. You need to accept that you cannot do everything yourself and more importantly that actinic cannot support every request you may have. Therefore, get people in the right areas so the loss of sales is at the bare minimum 'forever'.

          Ringing a support line for a button colour is like ringing for an ambulance because you broke a finger nail washing the dishes in my eyes, i do see your point and i do understand your frustration, i just think you need to bear in mind other people on support contracts and the impact your requests have on the far more important problems. The balance on what's fair is down to individual interpretation and opinion though, so somewhat grey at best.

          PS - put your site up for a site review in the review forum and also read the previous reviews. 85% of all comments apply to most sites, so you'll pick up some fantastic free advice.

          Comment


            #6
            More than just Buttons

            Lee - thanks for your very helpful response. Yes, I do not pretend to be a web designer and I'm sure there could be a number of other improvements which could be made. I'll have a look at the other web reviews. The risk is that I get distracted from my core business - taking, making and selling nice photographs, but of course, the counter argument is that a better web site will get more sales - its judging the right balance for my time and effort.

            I chose Actinic because I could build an e-commerce web site straight from the box, and because I could import my 100's of photographs and associated data from my cataloguing system in an easy manner (and also retain 100% control of the building and maintenance of the web site).

            Thanks again - Derek

            Comment

            Working...
            X