Many a Slip Twixt Template and Code
So we’ve been working on upgrading our web store (nice job, Simsys!) to put in a shopping cart and be able to manage more products. And we have just published a new set of KM Diagnostic Cards to support organisational KM audits and to go with our Culture Cards and Method Cards. And we got agreement from some select partners to sell their niche KM related products from our store.
Big deal, right? And so, big announcement and celebratory 20% off coupon code in our August Straits Knowledge Newsletter sent out to our several thousands strong contact database. Hurrah!
At which point, our payment services provider Plimus mysteriously disappears the coupon code field on the checkout page… sigh. Oh did I mention that it was just after I went home for the evening?
So 24 hours later after multiple support requests, transatlantic phone calls, and placating confused and possibly frustrated buyers, the coupon code box mysteriously reappears on most, not all pages. And then on all. No explanation or reply from Plimus. However, from changes in the payment page templates, we suspect that this was Plimus shifting to a new set of templates, and somebody simply forgot that little piece of script to include the coupon code box.
This was a big deal for us, evidently a small one for Plimus. But our increasing reliance on complex and opaque technology infrastructure, serviced by people who are careless, working for companies that evidently don’t care for their customers, leads to more and more of such errors. In July, the largest ATM network in Singapore serving DBS and POSB bank customers, crashed for over seven hours (peak morning hours) as a result of repeated – and apparently stubborn – errors by the IBM engineers servicing the network. They got a slap on the wrist. Who will slap Plimus for us?
Oh, that coupon code is available and still active – check the newsletter link to find it.
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