Australian Book site fail, loses the sale

[ NB> to see how Dymocks handled this, quick note at bottom, follow up post to come ]

I had a mission. A simple mission. All I wanted was to replace a copy of a good book that was so good, someone has lifted it!

The book itself is not the issue, but it was a good project management book which I like to keep handy to explain to people our project management documents and process.

Anyway I digress. Too late to stop at a book shop and none of the local major stores show in store inventory, (Gee wouldn’t that be such a good idea! Live store inventory) and my preferred local bookstore Coaldrakes at Milton, is nearly closed and doesn’t have it in stock. I want it now. Well more importantly I want to order it now and just have it turn up quickly.

Help – Google! Yes look at that Angus and Robertson has it, Dymocks has it. That’s a start. Amazon has it (of course) and they will ship tomorrow which means less than 5 days and I will have it. How do I know this? Well I have always gotten my books from Amazon quicker than they promise.

Angus and Robertson, ships within 24 hours 7-14 days till I get it. Okay that is one slow camel it is coming on, unless of course it is actually coming via the USA, in which case I may as well just order it from there.

So back to Dymocks. Well look at that, yes they have it and can ship immediately, even better they seem to be the only site on the planet that has it as a downloadable PDF. Wow that is better; I can store it and not waste any paper. Except the electronic version is dearer than the paperback (now that is odd). The electronic version is enough to make me jump in and buy it.

This is what happens next:

• I add to the shopping cart
• At the top of the page the shopping cart still says zero items.
• I go back into the shopping cart there is my book (Qty 1)
• I go back to homepage – Shopping Cart = 0 items

So I start feeling less confident that this site is as safe as I thought it might be. But I am impulsive and I REALLY REALLY want to resolve this issue. I am busy I need this one crossed off.

Then…

• Ah heck let’s checkout and move on
• Pressing checkout takes me to a new screen, sign up to be a book lover or login (if you are already a book lover) then make your payment

AHHH NO. I just want to pay for this book, and any shipping, and get the heck out of Texas thanks. So there must be a skip this step and buy now button (or link). No there isn’t.

I leave the site open, open a new tab and shuffle off to Amazon. No electronic version (unless you have a kindle. I don’t).No good here.

They have got me hooked on wanting it now. I think I already mentioned I can be an impulsive shopper didn’t I?

Back I go:

• So I sign up to become a Book Lover. (I don’t even like that term – cringe factor very high)
• I press save and create (or words to that effect) and get a survey after my details. They want to be able to send me more relevant things by getting a better demographic profile of me. Hang on I haven’t even said you can spam me yet. Does signing up to be a book lover mean you spam me? I just want to buy a book god dammit.
• I figure out how to fake out the survey form and press submit. It accepts it. I am now a book lover.
• I see a pretty little version of a rewards card calling me a book lover with some long number on it
• I do not print it I have no long term plans to come back here (yet anyway)
• I press the button that says continue with purchase
• I get a server error. You know one of those fatal type errors that display everything the windows server has to offer.

Now I am a little concerned. Thankfully there hasn’t been any ecommerce happening yet, only some of my personal details. I press back in my browser. Server is still working I press the button to continue processing, just in case it wasn’t really that someone forgot to make it work properly, and was just one of those server things that happens sometimes.

Nope. No good. So I retype in www.dymocks.com.au and the main server is still working. Presuming that it was just a bad page for the ‘Book Lovers’ Club, I figure the server probably doesn’t like that name either and this is some sort of machines against the designer karma thing.

Then I see the URL from the button I pushed http://\\www.dymocks.com.au\/. Now I am no expert but I know a few things and URLs like that will NEVER work. (addendum after posting this i found that if you go to the sign up page and click the JOIN BOOKLOVERS button you get this very bad URL https://www.dymocks.com.au\booklovers\yourdetails.aspx/?Action=Join  <– it does not work either and a very easy to test link)

Oh look what I just noticed. I AM logged in anyway. It has “Welcome Darryl” in the main navigation area.

Oh goody. Well I can just buy that book I put in my shopping cart and we can move on. Oh no. Shopping Cart = 0 items again. Click on Shopping Basket shows me 1 item in my basket, go back home again, zero items. Oh dear. It doesn’t matter I will just check out. Let’s face it; it is still in my shopping basket.

So:

• Press Check Out
• Pop up warning “You are about to buy electronic book blah blah blah….” Press Yes to confirm
• Pressed Yes (to confirm)
• Page reloads – back at checkout. (Me thinks I must have pressed no by mistake)
• Press Checkout, get same pop up, press Yes
• End up on the Book lovers sign in page again
• Password is saved (because I told my browser to do so)
• No Book Lovers card number auto filled in

So right now it knows me (still says Welcome Darryl in top nav on home page). It seems to know my order. Book is still in the shopping basket (covered in tears of frustration now though). But it does not remember my book club number.

Of course I didn’t print that page when I got to it, because I didn’t really care for it.

That’s no problem I will have an email confirmation of joining so I will get it from there. Wrong. 1 hour later still no email. That’s concerning.

Oh well there will be a get your book club number link thingy somewhere on this page for idiots like me who just want to buy your books and have all this spare time to critique your site. No. Lost password but no lost book club number link.

Suffice to say at writing time, I have now given up. I will get it elsewhere in paperback form.

Many of us lament how poorly the Australian bookstores are handling the needs of buyers and I get similar feedback regularly. Not that there are not challenges. There are, and having worked with some book sellers they have challenges locally in handling electronic ordering.

For a national retailer though there is no real excuse. The odd glitch in a site is forgivable, as they can become very complex and browser compatibility issues can cause the odd item which can then be rectified. But this is a shambles.

Suggestions:

• Employ a new developer
• Employ at least 1 tester or more
• Use your own site in different browsers
• Make it mandatory for your own staff to use your site and experience it as if they were new to your business
• Treat it like you were at someone else’s site not your own
• Add live support to the site. A helpful support person could have fixed my issue, or at least enabled me to give them feedback so you could fix the issue
• Add a highly visible (You have problems logging button) not just pages of FAQ’s
• Get the CEO to try using it
• Use email instead of a book club number

Right now the world tells me there is a recession and businesses are being hard hit. I see adverts all the time to ‘buy Australian’ and support the local economy. Here in my business we are not perfect either. We get some things wrong some times. But you have to be making an effort to enable customers to buy, enable them to at least talk to someone and not be an online faceless entity.

Dymocks – sorry but you failed. If you were the real deal you would have probably picked up my complaint using twitter search and would have already gotten me my email and my book lover number. You have lost this sale and many future ones. This lad still buys plenty of books. I love them. (Did I say that?). You hooked me enough to make me go to a lot of effort to buy a book from you and yet it was still too hard.

Use your website like you care about it. Treat it like one of your physical stores. Please.

Well that’s what ireckon anyway.

[Today, Tuesday 26th of May I received an email from a Dymocks Customer service consultant who saw a Google alert with this post in it. She has not only apologised, but genuinely communicated with me, advising on what they are doing to correct the sit. She also helped to get me the product I was after. In how she got hold of me and what she has done to correct the matter, she has definitely shown me that inside Dymocks there are people that care and are empowered to do something. This is a positive sign. I hope that their IT team gets the site fixed up in a hurry and supports those like her who are dealing with people like me every day. She knows who she is, I cannot thank you enough for being a real human in a business, going the extra mile, and despite your claims of being old enough to be my mother and not getting all this technology stuff, you have out done most Gen y's in supporting your employer, and enabling trust and goodwill to flow in business. Well Done Book Lady!]