Crical case

[tomker]

Perhaps. Iirc you said that intuitively you don't think that there is enough force or movement to damage your cues given the way you handle your equipment. The tone i perceived is that you think that damage to your cues or anyone else's is unlikely to occur.

Yes, that was many posts ago. You posted a long reply to that explaining that there could be damage and I thanked you for the insightful and informative post that gave me a lot to think about.

Do you remember THAT exchange? You seem very focused on continuing to argue points that have already been resolved.

As I said many times I cannot possibly know if your cues are being damaged.

Right, you've said that. So I don't know why you keep saying it. Just because I post something doesn't mean you have to reply to it, especially if it's not really directed to you and you don't know the answer.

... I don't think that I am but I am kind of sensitive after you made the "same factory" comment.

And again, didn't we already resolve this?

How about, when you reply to a post I write, and you're quoting text in that post, you JUST REPLY TO THE TEXT YOU'RE QUOTING.

 

[JB Cases]

Did any of your 5 developers tell you that Magento 1 is 17 years old and stopped being supported 5 years ago?

Yes, and as I mentioned we are tied to this version until the new site is fully developed because of the custom built online designer that is integrated into it. We have 10,000 custom orders in the system and 33,000 designs and we get many new orders a day. We have dealers that have built libraries of custom designs that they use to create orders for their customers. I can't disrupt this ecosystem until I have a replacement that works.

We implemented Magento 1 in 2014. The original developers of the custom design tool obfuscated the code and so it is impossible for me to make any major changes to it now. We are developing a brand new designer tool that will be platform independent. That way I can use it with any e-commerce platform.

It's hilarious how you all think you know my situation better than I know it. Truly it funny. It's like that time a guy said he would bet me that our tubes were made of cardboard instead of plastic. Oh he was all over it until I said post up.

Not only have I had Magento developers looking at it I have had developers for other platforms bid on solving the issue and none of them could do it.

I am spending 10k a month on the new tool and website and when it's done, it will eclipse every kind of online design tool that exists and will be able to manage customer types exactly how a custom-production company like mine needs it to. If a solution had existed then I would have already implemented it.

 

[JB Cases]

it’s really not sustainable to have people just fielding inquiries all day long every day because buyers can’t figure out how to get ahold of one.

Continued.....


I can't agree with you here because that's exactly what we have been doing for the past three years and it is working just fine. I estimate that 90% of the time when someone contacts us directly they purchase a case.
I think maybe you're projecting your own expectations and drawing conclusions but the reality is that in the past three years we have grown or sales to the point where the current model is sustainable forever really. And honestly we often get told that it's refreshing to speak to someone at the company and get personally served. So perhaps in the age of faceless transactions it's actually the better business model to encourage customers to talk to us.

From a profit motivated standpoint I would want to never spend a penny talking to a customer if all I wanted wanted was to maximize my profits per item sold.
On the other hand though, when we speak to customers then we have the opportunity to introduce them to our wide array of options and often they end up buying more things from us.
This in turn helps them to be more confident with our brand and be better able to explain it to others. So respectfully, I disagree with you about the sustainability and our numbers prove it.

We might not get your business because you only want to grab and go so to speak but we get plenty of sales from those who do read the content and call us.

As mentioned many times we sell everything we make. Our in-stock inventory turns continuously without the need to post each case.
We used to post every case, we would take 8-10 pictures, edit each one, create a new item and write a description. That was pre-COVID. After COVID the whole dynamic changed for us.

If I can solve the dealer ordering problem then we will post each case at it comes in just like we used to.

Even now my wife will update inventory when we get cases in that already have listings. And she cancels the dealers orders and puts them back into inventory. And even with that the cases that are updated sell very quickly so on any given day we might have 20 cases listed for sale and by the end of the day they are all gone.

So, in conclusion, I will amend the text with some your suggestions. I hope you better understand the actual issue and stop thinking that our inventory management system is non-existent or inadequate.

 

[JB Cases]

Yes, that was many posts ago. You posted a long reply to that explaining that there could be damage and I thanked you for the insightful and informative post that gave me a lot to think about.

Do you remember THAT exchange? You seem very focused on continuing to argue points that have already been resolved.


Right, you've said that. So I don't know why you keep saying it. Just because I post something doesn't mean you have to reply to it, especially if it's not really directed to you and you don't know the answer.


And again, didn't we already resolve this?

How about, when you reply to a post I write, and you're quoting text in that post, you JUST REPLY TO THE TEXT YOU'RE QUOTING.

I think we are done for now. The only thing remaining for me is to review the model you have.

 

[tomker]

...
This video shows what is seen. It was made in response to the other guy not you. There is a prominent explanation of how to get a list of in stock cases.
... I explain very clearly at the top of every page returned under cases for sale why we are not listing cases at this time.

You seem to be frustrated that people aren't e.g. reading all the text you put on your site or e.g. watching all the videos you make but I think you're vastly overestimating the amount of time and motivation people have in their lives to read text and watch videos.

If you're making a new web site that will be much better, great, sounds like the problem is getting solved. But until then it's self-defeating to blame users for using your web site wrong.

 

[garczar]

I think we are done for now. The only thing remaining for me is to review the model you have.

you really need help. go ahead write another 10,000 words 'cause we all know its coming. bye. i know now my next case will be a CASTILLO. Info on Gil's stuff: http://castilloleathergoods.com/product-category/cases/

 

[jasonlaus]

No shit? Your replies in this tread alone make 'War and Peace' look like a quick read. I've been around a few 'last word' folks before but you give 'em all the five-ball. Go ahead, you can't help it.

Is it Orange?

 

[JB Cases]

Snipped.....

Done. Here you go.

 

[JB Cases]

you really need help. go ahead write another 10,000 words 'cause we all know its coming. bye. i know now my next case will be a CASTILLO.

That's cool. Castillo builds great cases. I did a review of them. They adopted my padded interior style and do a pretty good job of it. I often say that if I didn't build cases I would be happy to use a Castillo and satisfied that a Castillo would protect my cues. As for your shit comment about "needing help"..... well luckily for me you're not in any position to impact my life in the slightest so your opinion of me and what I need is completely insignificant. What I do know is that I am doing what I need to do for my family and my employees and my community. Since our income is not dependent on your opinion I feel that disregarding it is of zero consequence. Would you like me to provide you with Gil Castillo's personal cell phone number? Nah, no need to do that as he is quite easy to find.

Here is a listing of cases on their site. No idea if any of them are in-stock or not.

Cases – Castillo Leather Goods

castilloleathergoods.com

 

[JB Cases]

You seem to be frustrated that people aren't e.g. reading all the text you put on your site or e.g. watching all the videos you make but I think you're vastly overestimating the amount of time and motivation people have in their lives to read text and watch videos.

If you're making a new web site that will be much better, great, sounds like the problem is getting solved. But until then it's self-defeating to blame users for using your web site wrong.

Somehow people manage to buy everything we make. Every day we get calls from people who somehow figured out how to use the website. I don't know how this is happening with the website being so terrible according to you. Maybe people are smarter than you give them credit for or MAYBE the site is pretty useful for most people and only a small minority of users like you can't figure it out.

These four orders came in before we opened today. Imagine my surprise every morning when I see new orders coming in on this absolutely awful website. What will be the consequence of having a better one? That we can sell more than we can make which is what we are doing now?

 

[tomker]

Somehow people manage to buy everything we make. Every day we get calls from people who somehow figured out how to use the website. I don't know how this is happening with the website being so terrible according to you. Maybe people are smarter than you give them credit for or MAYBE the site is pretty useful for most people and only a small minority of users like you can't figure it out.
...

What you're saying doesn't make any mathematical sense.

Okay, SOME people are figuring out the web site and placing orders. That's not proof (or even evidence) that it's a good web site. Maybe there are a billion other people who don't figure out the web site and don't place orders. Without knowing the ratio, what you're saying is completely irrelevant.

Also, you've managed to completely miss my point. My point wasn't that your web site is unusable, or that I can't figure it out, or that it's impossible for anybody to figure out. My point was that it's self-defeating to blame users for using your web site wrong or not getting the information you want them to get from your web site and your videos.

This is another case of you replying to something I wrote but completely misunderstanding (or not reading? or ignoring?) what I actually wrote. I don't know why you do this, but it's infuriating.

 

[JB Cases]

What you're saying doesn't make any mathematical sense.

Okay, SOME people are figuring out the web site and placing orders. That's not proof (or even evidence) that it's a good web site. Maybe there are a billion other people who don't figure out the web site and don't place orders. Without knowing the ratio, what you're saying is completely irrelevant.

Also, you've managed to completely miss my point. My point wasn't that your web site is unusable, or that I can't figure it out, or that it's impossible for anybody to figure out. My point was that it's self-defeating to blame users for using your web site wrong or not getting the information you want them to get from your web site and your videos.

This is another case of you replying to something I wrote but completely misunderstanding (or not reading? or ignoring?) what I actually wrote. I don't know why you do this, but it's infuriating.

Mathematically there are exactly FOUR people in this thread who have complained about the site. One of them is a customer. What that customer said about HUNTING for an IN-Stock case cannot be true because there is ONLY ONE PLACE where in-stock cases are listed and that place is AT THE TOP of the listings for every category and every search results page. So it's not like there are dozens of cases that are listed as IN STOCK that are hiding in the database and unable to be "found" easily. The other two said there is no inventory management which is not true. I also didn't say the website is a good site. I said it works and does in fact have the information that people need to buy a case.

As for what YOU said, I proved adequately that it's easy to filter by price, both using the browser site and the mobile version.

Then there is the other person who said that a customer wouldn't know that In-Stock cases come up first. Maybe not but on every website I have ever looked at the items listed are either IN-STOCK, NOT IN STOCK or no information about stock status. Nowhere has it ever been expected that the listings are HIDING the in-stock stuff in some way. So a customer never has to search for items that are IN Stock on any other site, as far as I know, because that is simply not a thing.

As for reading text on a website...... WTF????? What on earth do you think websites are for? They are there to convey information to the user. My company has information to share that is IMPORTANT for the visitors to know about IF they are interested in buying a case. That information is shared IN THE SPOT where the information is most relevant.... the TOP OF THE LISTINGS PAGE. Why is this a problem for you?

I just did a test and reading the text slowly took 1 minute and 43 seconds. Apparently, mathematically, there are enough people who are willing to spend less than 2 minutes of their life learning relevant information to keep us in business and selling everything we make. Might there be millions who don't want to spend two minutes getting this information and they leave? Sure could be. I could look at the analytics and probably see those numbers. But the number that interests me more is 4000. That's the number of cases we can make currently to keep our staff fully occupied and as such is the number I want to sell each year. Out of the possibly millions of visitors that come to our site I am happy if we get 4000 orders a year. I don't need to cater to every person's expectation of how our website should operate, even if they are correct, which you and the other person have not been. I just need to make it work well enough to keep everyone working for us paid and happy.

BUT, there is a lot more that I want to do and a better site is on the horizon. And when it's done I am 100% certain that there will still be some who criticize it. Does not matter because as always I will look at what they say and evaluate the value of their criticism and take action if needed and explain why not if not. When I am done though I predict that what we create will be beneficial to makers everywhere and serve as a great connection between small makers and consumers no matter where in the world they are.

 

[tomker]

...
As for what YOU said, I proved adequately that it's easy to filter by price, both using the browser site and the mobile version.
...

Sure, it's easy, if you already know how to do it.

Whatever. Blame your users. I don't care. The best I can do is tell you that it's self-defeating, which I've done. Twice, I think.

 

[JB Cases]

Sure, it's easy, if you already know how to do it.

Whatever. Blame your users. I don't care. The best I can do is tell you that it's self-defeating, which I've done. Twice, I think.

Um if a tool exists and is prominently displayed then how is my fault if you don't use it? It's not like you had to look for it in hidden menus. I don't blame USERS - plural for not using the tools on our site. I blame YOU specifically for not using the tools that are there with which you could have EASILY found out that we have a lot of cases in the 200-250 dollar range.

 

[tomker]

Um if a tool exists and is prominently displayed then how is my fault if you don't use it? It's not like you had to look for it in hidden menus. I don't blame USERS - plural for not using the tools on our site. I blame YOU specifically for not using the tools that are there with which you could have EASILY found out that we have a lot of cases in the 200-250 dollar range.

I explained that I subconsciously ignored the filtering UI because it looked like it was greyed out to me. That's something you could easily change/improve rather than blaming me for not using it.

Now that I'm looking at the page again, I noticed something else. I click on "View all cases for sale." So that takes me to a list of cases. Great. So I start scrolling down to browse through the list. The act of scrolling down causes the filtering UI to scroll up and out of view, at which point it is actually literally invisible. So when you say "It's not like you had to look for it in hidden menus," ehhhhhhhhhh...

There are ways to make it more likely for users to see and understand the information you want them to see and understand, and be able to accomplish what they want to accomplish (and what you want them to accomplish) with a web site.

It's called UI design/UX design. It's an entire field of academic study and professional expertise. If you do this work, you learn than when a user doesn't see information you want them to see, or doesn't use UI that you want them to use, those are useful data points and you can use them to improve your UI accordingly.

 

[JS858]

Done. Here you go.

View attachment 808169

Pretty cool that you actually used what I gave you on the site.
Normally, I get paid pretty well to consult on UX implementations, but if you happen to have a 2x3 UR in a solid color in stock and want to send it to me, reach out and I’ll give you my address.
I’ll even post a video review for you.

As far as everything else you said, I don’t need to put on my six sigma belt to tell you that all of your challenges are self inflicted due to current processes and tools.
I’m not interested in your agreeance, it’s your business so you are free to disagree and obfuscate about it, and run it however you want.

Thank you for explaining how the site works, it’s helpful for people how to understand how to find items that are actually in stock.

And I’m glad to hear that you will be making improvements to the site and inventory in the future to streamline retail purchases.

 

[JB Cases]

Pretty cool that you actually used what I gave you on the site.
Normally, I get paid pretty well to consult on UX implementations, but if you happen to have a 2x3 UR in a solid color in stock and want to send it to me, reach out and I’ll give you my address.
I’ll even post a video review for you.

Lol, thanks but rearranging the words to say the same thing isn't worth a case.

As far as everything else you said, I don’t need to put on my six sigma belt to tell you that all of your challenges are self inflicted due to current processes and tools.

No they are not "self-inflicted". To be clear when we first implemented this e-commerce platform it was state of the art and met all of our needs. We expected to have a long relationship with the original developer and they flaked and against contract they obfuscated the code so that no one else can change it. I hired a developer from that company to rewrite the designer tool but he was unable to do it.

I hired a local company who just stole 5000 dollars and provided me with mock-ups I could have gotten off fivver for $100. I hired another company to do it and they were untruthful about their ability to develop in Magento. I tried to start my own web design company to do it and they were unable to make headway. Finally I decided that we have to essentially start over. So now we are working with a new company to develop a brand new platform-independent designer tool.

We wanted to upgrade to Magento 2.0 but it will not play nice with the custom design tool and nothing we did in the test site would allow us to have a working integration.

The designer tool is a foundational part of our business. If it goes away I can count on half of our revenue disappearing. Additionally we have many dealers and private designers who are making money off custom designs.

So it's not like I can simply switch platforms. And I am pretty confident that you can't solve it either. At least not for a price I can afford but most likely not for any price.

The people I have now are experts in Magento development. They write extensions and know Magento as well as anyone can know it. They can do everything in 1.9 that is possible to do. So it's not a matter of us being able to and unwilling. It is literally a hostage-situation where I can't afford to wipe half the revenue off the books just to fix the issue of not being able to prevent wholesale accounts from wiping out inventory.

I’m not interested in your agreeance, it’s your business so you are free to disagree and obfuscate about it, and run it however you want.

I am running it as we need to run out given the situation. I have not obfuscated anything. However if you are a developer then you understand what it means when I say that the code is obfuscated. It means that we cannot alter it. Luckily the designer continues to work and Magento 1.9 continues to work but I am on borrowed time as I think that any day there will be some new protocol adopted that makes 1.9 not work.

Thank you for explaining how the site works, it’s helpful for people how to understand how to find items that are actually in stock.

I guess so. Honestly there is no way to "find" items that are in stock. In stock items have always been presented at the top of every results page and the lack of any simply means that there are none available on the website. Normally I don't think I should have to explicitly say that but I guess it doesn't hurt. This is literally the only addition that addresses what had always been the default state. "These items are automatically filtered to the top of the page and identified in green as ‘IN-STOCK READY TO SHIP'".

And I’m glad to hear that you will be making improvements to the site and inventory in the future to streamline retail purchases.

Thank you. The only thing that will be different is that those with a wholesale account will not be able to buy cases from inventory at less than retail. Otherwise the process will be the same. Our reps like to talk to customers and help them pick out a case. So we will still encourage people to call us.

Well, I have to go because I have a 10pm meeting with our developers in India to go over the past couple days iterations.

Thank you for understanding the situation and realizing that we do in-fact have an inventory management system that functions as it should not we have a particular set of needs that is impossible to implement using the current platform.

 

[garczar]

Put this dude on ignore but i can just picture another rambling multi-page novella response.

 

[JB Cases]

Put this dude on ignore but i can just picture another rambling multi-page novella response.

Lol, I honestly don't get why some people get upset by the length of a post. Verbal communication is literally what separates us from other animals and makes high-level tool-making possible.

Why should anyone care if they aren't forced to read?

Of all of the things to be offended by being offended because a person likes to write a lot when expressing their thoughts seems kind of silly.

I like to read and I like to write. I like to be as clear as I can be. Why is that a problem? And why would it be a reason for insulting and denigrating another person? Is there some trauma associated with having to scroll past something you don't want to read? Carpal tunnel syndrome in the thumb?

Help me out here? You said I need help so give me some. What if I am actually autistic and really can't help it? It's funny how casually people will say things like "you need help" meaning you're mentally ill or handicapped and then feel some regret when they find out a person is mentally ill or handicapped.

Why not just live and let live by scrolling past the lengthy responses? Maybe writing long posts keeps a person from being homicidal.....

 

[JB Cases]

I explained that I subconsciously ignored the filtering UI because it looked like it was greyed out to me. That's something you could easily change/improve rather than blaming me for not using it.

Now that I'm looking at the page again, I noticed something else. I click on "View all cases for sale." So that takes me to a list of cases. Great. So I start scrolling down to browse through the list. The act of scrolling down causes the filtering UI to scroll up and out of view, at which point it is actually literally invisible. So when you say "It's not like you had to look for it in hidden menus," ehhhhhhhhhh...

There are ways to make it more likely for users to see and understand the information you want them to see and understand, and be able to accomplish what they want to accomplish (and what you want them to accomplish) with a web site.

It's called UI design/UX design. It's an entire field of academic study and professional expertise. If you do this work, you learn than when a user doesn't see information you want them to see, or doesn't use UI that you want them to use, those are useful data points and you can use them to improve your UI accordingly.

Fair points.