rickeyfro Report post Posted July 8, 2009 Check it out, long awaited website is up an running. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rickeyfro Report post Posted July 9, 2009 That was kinda short lived excitement, if anyone can figure out how to actually add the items to the cart and check out let me know Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Johanna Report post Posted July 9, 2009 Eric called me today. They are not quite ready with the check out cart- but as soon as they are, he promised it would be announced here first. They are pretty excited about getting things back on track, and building a new and improved Hidecrafters. They have a lot of instructional materials available for sale or for free, and George is helping with that. Eric also talked about plans for helping guilds and listing them on the site. It's refreshing to see the enthusiasm and potential HC has now to become one of the better leatherwork suppliers again. We've waited this long...we'll make it another day or two, right? Johanna Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rickeyfro Report post Posted July 9, 2009 No doubt, Johanna, I got an email from Eric myself and he said to try again tonight. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TwinOaks Report post Posted July 9, 2009 Hidecrafter.......website........I recall something about that..... ..wait, HC has a website?!?!? About bloody time!!! Hurray for the 21st century! Next thing you know, there'll be online communities... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bree Report post Posted July 10, 2009 Hidecrafter.......website........I recall something about that.......wait, HC has a website?!?!? About bloody time!!! Hurray for the 21st century! Next thing you know, there'll be online communities... For the time that people have been waiting for this website and their catalog to get fixed... I am NOT impressed by the new site. Apart from the lack of E-Commerce functionality, it takes a lot of clicks to navigate, and the information about each product is meager. I expected more. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iwannabeacowboy Report post Posted July 10, 2009 I still don't see any way to add something to the shopping cart. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tashabear Report post Posted July 10, 2009 No doubt, Johanna, I got an email from Eric myself and he said to try again tonight. This is the text of an email I just got from him: Thanks for looking at the new web site. We are having a problem with the shopping cart that should be fixed by tonight, technical difficulties as "they" call it. I apologize, make sure you look on the specials when the webpage, shopping cart is fixed, and you will receive a coupon for 25% off order. thanks!!!! Hidecrafter Iiiiiinteresting.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
azrider Report post Posted July 10, 2009 At least I can find things on this version of the website. It's a step forward. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TwinOaks Report post Posted July 10, 2009 I couldn't find hardly a thing. Apparently, somebody forgot to add pics when the updated the pricing file.... geez, I really hope after saying that that Johanna and Kate aren't the ones building that for them.... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CitizenKate Report post Posted July 11, 2009 Nope, not us. Kate Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iwannabeacowboy Report post Posted July 17, 2009 Still no shopping cart??? I don't understand with a company not being able to get a functional site up and running. Do you think they feel all their customers live within driving distance? I can't imagine how much $$$ they've lost by not being capable of online sales. Me, I live to far to drive there for tools, so they already lost alot of my money. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Brandon Report post Posted July 17, 2009 Looks like the whole world has the address to the site except me! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rickeyfro Report post Posted July 17, 2009 Brandon, its www.hidecrafter.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Slickbald Report post Posted July 17, 2009 Are they going to publish printed catlogs? I stopped getting them when they closed the Denver store a few years ago. I was very sorry to see Andy leave. Glad to hear they are making a comeback. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Art Report post Posted July 17, 2009 Everyone is putting high importance on websites, and now shopping carts. It costs a pure fortune to get a website and shopping cart system up and running, and I only know one sitebuilder who has much experience in the leather business. Unfortunately, she can't do them all, and most business owners cannot afford the man hours to have one of their experienced people help the techie. So it will take a while for some of them to get things right. I would like to point out that the BEST cart system is right on your desk, the phone. I have used the cart systems a mere handful of times. A few of those times, I got a call the next day from a person at the store to check or clarify my order and I ended up speaking to the owner or manager to answer some additional questions. The leather world still uses the phone, the whole leather world, you will get more and better response from a phone call than you will ever get on a website. Yes, you can look at the pictures on a website, and generally shop, but where oh where will the shopping cart tell you that what you are buying is a piece of crap and will never do what you want it to. When you talk to Ron Stuhlman, Eric Edrich (Hidecrafter), Kevin Hopkins (Springfield Leather), Tim Cox (Zack White), you are talking to years and years of experience just there for the asking and taking, and who are truly interested in you having the best buying experience. When you don't use the phone, you are robbing yourself of the experience and product of many places that don't and probably never will have a website. There was a time in my younger years, when I would NEVER call someone cold for fear of wasting their time. That comfort level got better over time, but got absolutely reset when I had a store (Fishing, Hunting, Guns). I was happy to hear the phone ring. Every phone call was someone wanting something, even if I didn't have it, I gave out a name and number for them to get it, and to please tell him I gave you his number. I started getting calls from folks who were referred by the same guys I was referring. So then I understood a phone call is an opportunity on both ends of the line. So....., websites will come and go, be good, bad, ugly, or nonexistent, and generally support some percent of the business, but a pretty low percentage of it; use the phone, it is really really how this business works. Art Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hilly Report post Posted July 17, 2009 I don't have a problem placing an order by phone, but I want to know what I'm ordering. Pictures help a lot. How hard is it to include photos? Heck, if they don't own a camera, there's always stock photos for cheap... Maybe in another year or two they will have a decent site. In the mean time, I'll order from somewhere that I can see what I'm buying. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rawhide Report post Posted July 17, 2009 I don't have a problem placing an order by phone, but I want to know what I'm ordering. Pictures help a lot. How hard is it to include photos? Heck, if they don't own a camera, there's always stock photos for cheap...Maybe in another year or two they will have a decent site. In the mean time, I'll order from somewhere that I can see what I'm buying. I talked to Eric on Tuesday at the Guild meeting. The problem with the pictures is that the website developer had pictures with incorrect discriptions. Plus the cart was having a problem with incorrect pricing (sewing machines were for sale for $2.00). He wanted to take the whole site down to correct it, but they said to leave the site up and take down the pictures and the cart. Then the guy went on vacation, so they have to wait until he gets back. As far as the catalog goes, they've got over $100,000 into the new catalog, and it still has a long way to go...It's very expensive and time consuming and they wanted to focus on the website first, then get the catalog finished. They are slowly getting things in order, but things are really looking better for them. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Spence Report post Posted July 17, 2009 I appreciate folks needing to get their websites up and running, but they shouldn't go live until all the the problems are fleshed out. I wouldn't let my site go live (dogs) until I had about 5 friends just get in there and try to make it fail. They succeeded many times, but at the end of 2 or 3 months, it went live and hasn't had a problem in 5 years. Honest. I'd recommend they take the site down and let the "bad press" die down. As we can see, they may be losing current and future customers with a faulty site. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Brandon Report post Posted July 17, 2009 Brandon, its www.hidecrafter.com Acha, thank you! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rawhide Report post Posted July 17, 2009 I appreciate folks needing to get their websites up and running, but they shouldn't go live until all the the problems are fleshed out. I wouldn't let my site go live (dogs) until I had about 5 friends just get in there and try to make it fail. They succeeded many times, but at the end of 2 or 3 months, it went live and hasn't had a problem in 5 years. Honest. I'd recommend they take the site down and let the "bad press" die down. As we can see, they may be losing current and future customers with a faulty site. Spence I agree with you here, however, the fact is one side isn't happy that there is no website.."When will the website be up? why don't you update your website? Can't you get your website up quicker?. Then once it's rushed to satisfy that group and it isn't perfect, then you'll get "Why can't I order from your website? I can't see any pictures. By the way when is the catalog coming? I mean sheesh, they're getting it from all sides. I understand the frustration, but you can't please everybody everytime...I know it sounds like I work for them or have a vested interest, but I don't, I just think they have a place in the leather business and hope to see them survive. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vikti Report post Posted July 18, 2009 I appreciate folks needing to get their websites up and running, but they shouldn't go live until all the the problems are fleshed out. I wouldn't let my site go live (dogs) until I had about 5 friends just get in there and try to make it fail. They succeeded many times, but at the end of 2 or 3 months, it went live and hasn't had a problem in 5 years. Honest. I'd recommend they take the site down and let the "bad press" die down. As we can see, they may be losing current and future customers with a faulty site. Back when I was in college I was assigned to a group trying to create an interactive website and I can say that it isn't that easy to do what they're trying to do. When my test site went online and a closed (college campus) network it still went down due to some bug that didn't show up until it went "live". Depending on what you have on the site (java, javascript, etc.) there are some things that you won't know about until it is released from a test computer/network. Something that works good on Internet Explorer may not work so well on Opera or Firefox and vice versa. The internet has more variables than a test server. Eric told me some thing last weekend similar to what Marlon mentioned, $2.00 sewing machines, $.50 lizard skins, not adding tax when needed, adding taxes when not needed. Most of this seems to be database problems. It could be something as simple as a period instead of a comma or it could be something worse. It just takes time to go through the code and fix it and the company that they're using has more than one client to worry about. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
