Updated August 3rd, 2012 - What Store Issues are being currently addressed and Why the New Store?

DAZ_bfurner

Store updates as requested by our community:
We will continue to update these items as we see progress.

1. Here are some of the top issues that have been logged and that DAZ is aware of and working to fix. This is not all the issues but the major ones at this time.
a. Sort by list (Release Date, Price, and Name) July 17th 2012 - You can now apply a filter for Release Date and see the products based on the date released. You can also search on the Artist via the product page and link to all that artists products in the store.
b. Searching capabilities, by creator (DAZ Original, PA name or Platinum Club items etc.) July 13th, 2012 - You are now able to search by PA or Vendor name and see the full list of each PA's products.
c. Platinum Club Subscription Issues June 19, 2012 - NOTE: Please if you live OUTSIDE the United States, and are using a Credit Card...Please go into your account and update the Credit Card Profile to add the State/Provence you live in. We have seen many orders fail because the information is not in that field. Once that has been updated your orders will process as expected. June 25th, 2012 - Other subscription issues are being addressed. If you need help with your PC membership contact us.
d. Completing purchased product orders. . June 19, 2012 - See the item above (c). Incomplete Credit Card information can effect this issue. This should now be working properly. Let us know if you see any issues.
e. Not XYZ customer? This has never been a security risk to account information, as the customer payment information was secure and encrypted. June 25, 2012 - We are not seeing issues with this any longer.
f. Issues with Platinum Club discounts and coupons. June 19, 2012 - This should now be working properly. Let us know if you see any issues.
g. Problems with improperly functioning product pages, which can affect prices displaying incorrectly. . June 19, 2012 - This should now be working properly. Let us know if you see any issues.
h. Issues with zip files not installing properly (This is being addressed daily as these files are fixed and updated)
i. Downloading files from your account - Some users are experiencing issues with accessing the downloads from their account. We are seeing most issues with older versions of Internet Explorer. June 26th, 1012 - Many who have had this problem are able to solve it by using another browser, or by updating their IE to the latest version. August 2nd, 2012 - We have been working with several customers and the web team to reproduce this internally. It appears that it's a problem with Internet Explorer 8 not wanting to allow the download. We are working on a fix for this.

2. Sales Tax –
a. We charge sales tax in the following states: Georgia, Texas and Utah. Edit for a correction: Illinois and Pennsylvania customers will not be charged sales tax. Sorry for the miss information. We also received information on the California Tax Code that makes it not necessary to charge sales tax unless the item will be shipped to the customer. So No more California Sales Tax. You can contact customer support for refunds if this has affected you.

3. Forum Status and improvements we are working on. First and foremost the DAZ 3D Store needs to be fixed properly. As that is smoothed out, the web team will begin to make updates to the following (in no particular order of implementation)
a. Better image tools for placing images in the forum posts.
b. Implement searching tools and filters.
c. Add the ability back to embed videos to a post.
d. Some administration tools.

4. As we are addressing customer issues either sales processing or technical, we are logging bugs which are being worked on by the web development team.

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I also want to address other concerns many of you are addressing in the forums.

The purpose of the new web site?

DAZ 3D had been using a homegrown solution that was developed when DAZ 3D first began business and wanted a content store presence. The company looked for out of the box solutions but at that time there was not a solution available. We built the store from the ground up with a small team (as any start-up would). As the company grew we continued to add capabilities to the code base, until it was not able to handle the changes and enhancement the Marketing team needed. We simply spent more time keeping the store alive, than adding the much needed enhancements and features to make the customer experience better.

After working on some store front updates, the team decided to research a new Enterprise Store Solution. We spend a great deal of time researching tools that could handle the large number of products on our store, as well as the daily transaction levels we experience. We reviewed a lot of tools. This was not a data push or a database front end update. It is much more than that. We knew this would be a phased implementation and over time reach the level we once experienced, then work to surpass with the new features. It’s been painful for all of us here at DAZ. We are working as company team to fix the issues and press forward.

Our goal (and we are not there yet, as you know) is to have a faster easier check-out experience, better navigation of our store and searching for the content you want to buy. We are making the fixes to the site with your input and it is getting better every day.
We have plans to update the forums with similar capability to the old forum, with better links to videos, images and avatar images. We have these all in place once the store issues are addressed.

I’ve been with DAZ 3D for almost 5 years now. I’ve seen changes in Management, Staff and Executives and am more confident than ever in the focus on customers and helping our Published Artists be successful. You should know that we have extremely talented PA’s who are working closely with us to provide more and better content than ever. You will begin (in the coming months) to see more products coming with compatibility with Poser and DAZ Studio (read into this what you want…that’s all I’m going to say for now).

I was thrilled to see a post from Renderosity in their forums asking people to be patient with DAZ 3D, as they had gone through similar growth/construction/update issues. This will all pan out to make a much better experience for us all. Please if you are frustrated and fed up, I get it. Give us a chance to make it right.

We are working on special offers to our customers in the coming weeks. Sales, discounts, products etc. to show our appreciation of your patience.