Well our fancy database/cart just broke… I’m currently on the phone with Scott. More information and groveling in a few minutes… 12:10am
UPDATE: 12:22am
We’re going again in ~8minutes or so. That’s 12:30am CST. All the orders from that flip we just did will be canceled via Google. No one who ordered between 12:00 and 12:10 will be charged anything.
If you stick around and buy a shirt here in a few minutes use this coupon code: “BAD-CART-1110″ – 33% off purchase and shipping costs. (This coupon code is 1 per person and will expire in an hour.)
FINAL UPDATE: 1:44am
Well, that was fun… (except that it wasn’t.)
We screwed up our normal changeover at midnight and had to cancel the 76 orders that came in for the same 2 shirts; “Intrusion” numbers one and two. By recovering quickly we managed a bit of a do-over at 12:30.
We ended up taking a $150+ hit on the coupon code, but that’s OK. Above all else, we always want to deliver a good experience to you, the users of the site. The overwhelming majority of our customers were very cool about it. Thanks so much for your understanding.
-Wade
P.S. Scott, you owe me $150. So just, uh, subtract it from my Scott-doesn’t-actually-code-for-free tab.
24 Comments
Dung certainly happens in the world of technology. I hope the peeps go easy on ya, Wade.
Can I hope that the two shirts I bought (and got receipts for) will still be valid? Sorry you’re running into madness; I imagine my obsessive refreshing didn’t help matters.
Good luck getting it back up
We’ll be here when you do! <3
Yeah you guys basically run a model which causes silly load on your systems every 2 weeks at a not convenient time. I’m curious if other people also bought 1 or 2 for series 10. That might become an issue.
I’m also curious as to the status of orders that were placed before the explosion.
Sorry for your luck.
Hey Wade
If more than one person bought the $1 shirt you can refund me. I don’t really need it as much as other people might.
Jeff
Haha, me too.
Right now we’re calling a “do over” at 12:30am CST. (~10 minutes from now.)
All the orders form that flip we just did will be auto canceled by Google.
If you stick around and buy a shirt here in a few minutes use this coupon code:
“BAD-CART-1110″ for 33% off purchase and shipping.
Must be more than one, since I got #1 too. Darn. I was so pleased with myself too.
This explains why the first box was available and I could not believe my luck at scoring a shirt for $6 (1+shipping).
If this was a technical snafu at your end then I am ok with you canceling my order. You are a small company and I don’t want you losing money because of a technical problem.
The email address I used to place the order is the same as the one used for this comment.
Thanks and keep up the great work.
-Avinash.
Yeah, I was pleased to get a shirt in the top ten, myself. Ah well!
Thanks for keeping us posted, Wade. We’re good end users, we swear!
Just got of the phone with Scott, we’re all set for 12:30 guys… make sure you use that coupon code, and thanks for all the understanding.
#11, hooray!
Good show, guys!
BAD-CART-1110 was 33% off of just the shirt price.
– Brian
I got billed by Google. How do we cancel the order?
I’m having the same problem as before – repeated message at checkout:
“There was a change to the total price. Please confirm the new total and place your order.”
And the discount only applied to the shirt price.
Thanks for the heads up, Brian. It looks like “% off the total” in Google’s mind does not include shipping costs. I assumed it did. Sorry again. (Man, when it rains, it pours…)
No one will be billed for the orders placed before we took the site down. The few that were not auto-canceled are being manually canceled now.
Thanks for the update Wade.
I wondered how I managed to get #2 on my slow Tasmanian connection. Normally us folks in more er… backward… areas don’t get a look-in
((
And 1230am there is 530pm here – going home time, so by the time I got home and saw that my order was cancelled, too late to use the coupon. And with the Australian peso as low as it is, there’s nothing left that I can afford
Wade,
I’m so impressed with how you handled this that I decided to write about my experience:
http://niteshok.wordpress.com/2008/11/10/effective-tribe-management-200-nipples/
Thanks again, buddy. See you next time!
wow! what craziness! 76 orders in the first few minutes. is it because of the cost or the design itself? either way, i’m flattered! thanks guys!
I have to say I’m pretty disappointed in how you handled this. I logged on at midnight CST, ordered a shirt, received my confirmation, and went to bed. This morning I got the cancellation, far too late to make a new order. A better way to handle it, in my opinion, would have been to delay all sales for exactly 24 hours, to give everyone the same chance they had in the first place, rather than punishing the people who followed the rules in favor of those who live online late at night.
hey guys, if you ordered this shirt i would like for you to send me photos of you wearing it to info (at) steveorama.info so i can post them on my site. thanks!
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