Digital Art Zone

Okay, I normally hate the incessant complaining about EVERYTHING that so often goes on in the forums. But, having said all that, I have to report that (not even by conscious decision) I’m barely making purchases at DAZ anymore.  Rendo and RDNA are getting my money.  Not that their products are superior, I’m just COMPLETELY annoyed with the new store website.  Realizing that my spending habits have noticeably changed is kind of an epiphany for me.  My money DOES depend on my comfort.  I never made a conscious choice that, “Darn, I’m ticked at DAZ… I just won’t shop there!”  And I’m betting most people (even angry ones) never do more than HAVE that thought, or perhaps, at worst, voice it.  We are so frequently mindless creatures.  We shop here because we like it.  If we don’t like it, we don’t shop here.  I wanna LIKE shopping here again.  And I can’t be that different from other people (except that third nostril) so… HEY! Powers That Be! Here are the reasons that this girl (who’s spent enough here to have bought a fairly nice used car) is not even opening the store site regularly anymore.

1) It’s NOT about your content.  That’s great.  But unfortunately, I won’t know about most of it until someone makes and sells an add-on for it at Renderosity, because I’m not at your site to know what you’re selling.

2) Your website went forward in ways *I* don’t care much about.  Sure, it’s prettier.  It probably has some shiny features for you guys on the back-end.  But me?  I’m trying to think of an improvement to the site, and about the only thing I’ve got is that forum threads don’t break.  That actually makes me more likely to come here and complain than shop.  Because, hey look… I’m complaining.  Not shopping.

3) REMEMBER MY PURCHASES!!  And no, I don’t just mean that as, “I’m a loyal shopper! Remember all the money I spent here and listen to me!” (though, ok, that works too…)  I mean LITERALLY, remember my previous purchase history when I put it in the cart!  For crying out loud, I’ve bought the equivalent of A NICE USED CAR here.  Do you HONESTLY think I can remember it all?? If your COMPUTER can’t remember it, then I sure as heck can’t.  THIS is why I can’t shop here.  Special sales are useless to me.  I’ll browse new items feebly for a few minutes and then leave.  Because, let’s say a vendor’s whole store is on sale, or there’s a fastgrab I’d like… If I don’t KNOW if I own it, I now have to go into my itemized order history and MANUALLY page through **311** pages of alphabetized items.  Yeah, sooooooo… Just not doing that.  I don’t HAVE to do that at Rendo or RDNA.  Why anyone thought that was a minor issue is completely beyond me.

4) Customer service used to be rock-solid here.  Then it got very shaky with the release of DS4Pro.  Now it seems laughable… though, I only know this because I’m in the forum, reading complaints instead of shopping. You have GOOD PEOPLE in your service department.  But things are flying out so fast (DS4, Genesis, DS4Pro, V5, M5, new website…) that the support for it just isn’t there. 

5) It isn’t fun anymore.  You have your customers in a constant state of change.  Ya know what we really don’t like? THAT.  There’s a reason why every Walmart in the known universe has almost the same layout, and why we all still have junk in our basements from 1987.  We are creatures of comfort. I, for one, am willing to accommodate a fair amount of disruption in the name of progress.  But, this time, you lost me.  Too much pain-in-the-keyster. Too little bang for my buck.  Literally.

Please note:  I’m NOT a critic.  I DON’T whine.  I have 8 year old twins, I need no further whining in my life.  I want things to get BETTER.  I’m not threatening to leave, I’m REPORTING it.  How many customers take the time to do that? “Eh, em… Excuse me, fine retailer, but I balanced my checkbook and discovered my allotted payment to YOU has been shifted elsewhere.  Can you please help me spend it on you again?”

But there you have it. And that’s what I’m saying.  I really, really hope someone has fifteen spare minutes to read it, or else I may end up losing something I really valued.

And, oh hey, look.

I joined in May of 2008, have purchased a used DAZ-mobile, and have 311 pages of itemized order history, but… I’m a “New User.”  Fantastic.  I can’t even COMPLAIN without the website invalidating me…

I can tell you one good thing about the new site you’ll appreciate:  when they restore the warning about previous purchases, they’re finally going to fix the bundle loophole.  If you knew how many items were in your Itemized Order History on the old site, you’ll probably notice that there are a lot more now—mine increased by about a third so far, and I expect it will increase some more as they finish converting everything to zips.  That’s because they’re splitting the individual items out of bundles.  So you’ll be warned even if ypou bought the item in a bundle, and you can reset a single item instead of the whole bundle.  (Resets are instantaneous, by the way.)

I’m sure there’ll be plenty of other improved features once they get the site wrestled into shape.  On the old site they were still frantically bug-swatting a year after the launch, and had no time to add new features.

Halleluja.  THAT would be an improvement.  Like I said, willing to accommodate a fair amount of disruption in the name of progress.  As long as there IS progress.  I guess I just wish that a few more of the bugs were squashed prior to launch.  I’m less upset when new software is buggy because I can use the old version in the interim.  Here, we have no fallback, and I’m stuck with the bugs.  I hope they are quickly exterminated.

KaribousBoutique - 11 June 2012 09:53 PM

And, oh hey, look.

I joined in May of 2008, have purchased a used DAZ-mobile, and have 311 pages of itemized order history, but… I’m a “New User.”  Fantastic.  I can’t even COMPLAIN without the website invalidating me…

This forum starts us off as “New Member”, until we hit 26 posts here.

But your join date is showing correctly..

Once you’re a “Member”, you’ll get one of those little green squares (“pips”) under your title.
And since Forum Administrators only have 2 pips, that should be the end of that.

You could make 17 complaint posts, and it’ll still work, the software doesn’t care.
Trust me, all of us “members” have posted at least that many complaints here.

fixmypcmike, may I ask if you know, if sale times marks (like, “this sale ends Day-Month-Year”) will be back?

We’ve no idea - it will no doubt depend on how hard it is to do, and what’s ahead of it in the queue.

Richard Haseltine - 12 June 2012 08:26 AM

We’ve no idea - it will no doubt depend on how hard it is to do, and what’s ahead of it in the queue.

I wish that made me feel better, but it really doesn’t.  Appreciate the honesty, though.

fixmypcmike - 11 June 2012 10:32 PM

I can tell you one good thing about the new site you’ll appreciate:  when they restore the warning about previous purchases, they’re finally going to fix the bundle loophole.  If you knew how many items were in your Itemized Order History on the old site, you’ll probably notice that there are a lot more now—mine increased by about a third so far, and I expect it will increase some more as they finish converting everything to zips.  That’s because they’re splitting the individual items out of bundles.  So you’ll be warned even if you bought the item in a bundle, and you can reset a single item instead of the whole bundle.  (Resets are instantaneous, by the way.)

EXCELLENT news Mike.  Thanks for letting us know.  This is something worth waiting for. 

Kattey - 12 June 2012 07:23 AM

fixmypcmike, may I ask if you know, if sale times marks (like, “this sale ends Day-Month-Year”) will be back?

Kattey:

We agree this is a great feature that we also want back on the store. I’ve created a ticket that will be given to the web team to prioritize and hopefully get fixed.

DAZ_bfurner - 12 June 2012 03:52 PM

Kattey - 12 June 2012 07:23 AM

fixmypcmike, may I ask if you know, if sale times marks (like, “this sale ends Day-Month-Year”) will be back?

Kattey:

We agree this is a great feature that we also want back on the store. I’ve created a ticket that will be given to the web team to prioritize and hopefully get fixed.

 

Thank you very much for bringing it back. “Sale ends <...>” feature is a basic and helpful one for all good online stores and I’d be greatly upset if it would vanish from DAZ3D store. Again, thank you.

DAZ_bfurner - 12 June 2012 03:52 PM

Kattey - 12 June 2012 07:23 AM

fixmypcmike, may I ask if you know, if sale times marks (like, “this sale ends Day-Month-Year”) will be back?

Kattey:

We agree this is a great feature that we also want back on the store. I’ve created a ticket that will be given to the web team to prioritize and hopefully get fixed.

 

Thanks, that is a feature I really want back along with remembering the previous purchases.  Those are probably my 2 biggest complaints right now and have kept me from really browsing the site much since relaunch.  I am glad to hear once it remembers previous purchases, it will handle bundles properly.  I rebought a few items I forgot were in some bundle and didn’t realize until it was too late to request a refund.  My Dazmobile is probably pretty spiffy now too with a 326 page itemized order history.

KaribousBoutique - Thanks for that post, pretty much sums it up for me also and saves me having to type all that.  Since the launch of the new store I pretty much have only taken the freebies and used my credit on the $1.00 items.  I used to try to check the site daily when possible, since the relaunch I’m not even motivated to check it every few days.

Also, if we can’t display the itemized history on a single page, can we get it searchable to make it quicker to find items?

Thanks!