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Friday, 6 October 2017

This is why shopping carts expire after a period of time

Customers on our webshop will know that the shopping basket doesn't keep your purchases for very long if you are interrupted while browsing.  Unfortunately we have no control over the length of time the goods remain in the basket: this is controlled by Freewebstore* and is currently only about 45 minutes, I think.

Whether or not you think this period should be longer, there has to be a limit, otherwise pending orders which had not been taken through checkout would keep stock tied up and unavailable for other customers to buy.  As all our postal history and many of the postcards are often 'one-offs' - as well as some of the modern Machins which are nearly sold out - this would be difficult for us as well as customers.

Not that anybody would deliberately tie things up, would they?  Wouldn't they - this was an abandoned basket last month:

Both these are unique in our stock, so without an automatic emptying of the basket this joker would have tied up stock.  OK, it still hasn't sold, but it is there for other people to buy.

If you have problems getting through checkout, let us know.  As the image shows, we can show what was in the basket in case you can't remember everything.

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2 comments:

  1. petemk6 October 2017 at 16:07

    Hi Ian a bit off topic but I think relevant, have you given any more thought to creating accounts for people like me who only collect Machin security issues? With the new minimum order of £10 this is going to give us collectors a few problems, as most of these issues are very spasmodic and may go out of stock before we can reach the £10 level.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ian - Norvic6 October 2017 at 16:21

      Peter,
      In the event that there are new stamps available which you want, but for which the total value is less than £10, then please email and we will reserve them for you pending accumulation of a suitably sized order.
      Clearly this is more likely to happen in the 2nd half of the year, than the first.

      regards, Ian

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