Home Forums Networks & Cross-Platform Networking Errors on Lands' End web site

If anyone would like to comment on this:

(Firefox 38.0.5)
I was unable to add items to "Add to my Bag" on the Lands' End web site. I was able to reach someone on the phone who told me the problem was the Ghostery extension. But I don't use that extension. She also told me to use a Private Window. I did and it worked, but first I disabled my extensions, which are Ad Block Plus and HTTPS Everywhere.

I noticed in the lower left corner there is a "Javascript void" message.

Shopping cart software seems pretty basic to me. I would have thought a company like Lands' End would have no trouble with it. They have had this problem for something like two weeks, so far as I've noticed, and possibly have lost sales because of it. I know I put off purchases because the web site kept giving me an error message that also said "We're working on it…"

I could write an essay on why and how something like this can and does happen, but suffice it to say it appears to be happening more and more frequent regardless of what browser you are using. Just last week my wife and I encountered three different sites of very reputable and tech savvy firms that were having shopping cart problems of one sort or another. A phone call to the customer service for each of them yielded the same answer, "I am so sorry. Yes, we are having shopping cart/database/credit card problems and are working on it. I can take your order now by phone or you can wait a few days and try again on the web site." My supposition, and it is just that — supposition — is the merchants are scrambling to make their sites more secure in light of recent breaches and the additional complexity is increasing the opportunity for error.

In short, whether it is Lands End, their parent company Sears, Zappos, or whoever, the solution is to invest the time in a phone call to their customer support. That way you get to kill two birds with one phone call…

1. complete your order
2. alert them to the problem with their site they may be unaware of. Javascript Void is not necessarily a fatal error.

Not calling leaves them with silence to interpret which is notoriously difficult.