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 Replies: 15 / Views: 2,055 |
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Valued Member
United States
462 Posts |
Does the US Mint ever have employees view this forum? We're constantly venting about the bandwidth issues with their website about not being able to order when a new item is released. I was on a 12:00 to try and order the new coin an d currency set and after several minutes was able to add 2 sets to my bag and clicked to checkout only to have the site timeout.
I must say that it doesn't look very good to a government branch when their website can't handle the traffic.
I propose the following. Once a customer is able to add an item to their bag, the item should be removed from stock for 5 minutes for a user to have time to finish the checkout process. With their lag time, I've tried to verify my shipping information only to have the item sold out as I did that process. If the transaction is not complete after that time then the item goes back into inventory and can be ordered by someone else.
I also feel that since they have my credit card on file for subscriptions that I shouldn't have to enter it again and the drop-down menu should populate the necessary information when selecting my card. A more user-friendly checkout process is needed.
Called twice already and got bust signals after going through their menu.
12:00 - at product page and added 2 to bag
(Next 20 minutes spent trying to get to checkout page)
12:20 - Clicked "Place Order" - Internal server error page
12:24 - Refreshed page and got to a page saying I have nothing in my bag - Trying to go to my Order History to see if it went through
12:26 - Three "Timed Outs" later got to my order history and it's not there. No idea if it was taken or not, but shopping bag is empty.
12:30 - Called three times to see if it went through or if I could order on the phone. My call may be monitored for... Busy signal.
12:31 - Checked e-mail and found a "we received your order" at 12:24.
With many other websites experiencing much higher volumes on a daily basis, I would think that the Mint could do a better job acquiring the appropriate bandwidth, even if only on a temporary basis during these releases.
Sorry everyone. Just had to vent this one out. I'm native to North Jersey and patience with the internet is not our strong suit.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5197 Posts |
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Once a customer is able to add an item to their bag, the item should be removed from stock for 5 minutes for a user to have time to finish the checkout process. I'm pretty sure it already does that because in the past when I was logged in and added an item to my cart within the first 30 seconds even though the website timed out repeatedly and took 12 minutes to finally finish the order my order number was much lower than those posting in the threads with their order numbers 5 minutes after sales had opened. My proposal is an express checkout lane. If all you want is the new item then the mint should set up a new URL and have it hosted on a dedicated server. If you want any other item previously available in addition to the new item you should add it to your cart the night before. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4901 Posts |
The previous "Quick Checkout" option worked well..probably why they got rid of it
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Valued Member
 United States
462 Posts |
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The previous "Quick Checkout" option worked well..probably why they got rid of it Too funny. I had done a order on a different coin release and it let me add them to the cart, but by the time I went to complete the order it said the item was sold out. I also wish it didn't make me type in my credit card information again. I have it saved on their website, but when I select it from the dropdown menu it doesn't populate anything. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3069 Posts |
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I also wish it didn't make me type in my credit card information again. I have it saved on their website, but when I select it from the dropdown menu it doesn't populate anything. One way around this is to copy the information credit card number, address and anything else the form requires to a text document. Have it open when you start the order process. You can then copy and paste from the text document into the form faster than you can re-type it. Just a thought. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4901 Posts |
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but when I select it from the dropdown menu it doesn't populate anything. It will if you give it time....problem is when you start typing the number in the save number adds itself to the fray.... Usually by the time I add the 3 or 4 digit code it will show the number and exp date. |
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Moderator
 United States
187654 Posts |
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...but when I select it from the dropdown menu it doesn't populate anything. Give it a few minutes and it will eventually, at least that is what happened with my Eisenhower order. Everything was slow. I am glad I went the Zen route and waited for it to process. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
500 Posts |
it took me 10 min to get though error to get to check out,i hope it was the the turbo internet I had let me get bypass when I reload my page.i don't do anything to shipping I might get kick out so I let 4.95 stay there,when I choose my credit card it delay for a moment but all my info pop in then I click check out.done lol I really hope my internet helping and I get lucky with John F. Kennedy order.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1913 Posts |
What we have here is monopoly business with virtually unlimited funding coupled with zero accountability. In a regular business, heads would roll or they'd go under. But nothing can happen here because it's virtually impossible to fire or demote a federal government employee. At best they get transferred to another department to spread their incompetence. The mint needs to be reorganized in to a quasi-private business owned by the federal government, but not at all subject to its personnel regulations.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4901 Posts |
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What we have here is monopoly business with virtually unlimited funding I assume you are aware that the Mint get zip for funding. It is self sufficient.... |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
5828 Posts |
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the Mint get zip for funding. It is self sufficient.... And so am i, thanks to my new coin copyin.... Er, nvermind.... The mint web page worked for me, but it was slow. |
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Moderator
United States
187654 Posts |
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...the Mint get zip for funding. It is self sufficient.... Yeah, it actually gives money to the general fund. It gave a lot more when the baby dollars were generating much more seigniorage. It will give even more when the cent and nickel are eliminated from circulation.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1913 Posts |
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I assume you are aware that the Mint get zip for funding. It is self sufficient.... I'm perfectly aware of how it works. They get funds from banks and trade it for formed metal. The difference is their profit. It's no great accomplishment to make money using that business model. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12812 Posts |
Regardless of how the Mint operates, today's experience was atrocious. The new web site started out well but it seems that it's gotten worse each time a highly anticipated product is released. I think the Kennedy 4-coin silver set was the first product after the update, and that went reasonably well IIRC. From Truman C&Ch to this C&Cu set, it's gone downhill steadily.
Assuming it was a bandwidth/capacity/resources issue, I understand it's not cost-effective to be ready for peak hours all the time. But you have to be able to scale your infrastructure needs up and down to ensure a decent experience for the customer. For example, cellular providers know there's going to be demand for additional bandwidth at sporting events, so they bring in temporary capacity and remove it when the game is over. Similarly the Mint could order extra data bandwidth and bring in a few temporary servers to handle the load for an hour on the day of release. That's way over-simplifying it but you get the idea. And that may have not been the culprit but it seems a likely option.
I suppose it's possible they were DOS'ed...some unhappy individual(s) after they didn't get their Ike C&Ch, perhaps... Just think what life would have been like if jbuck hadn't gotten his..... *shudder*
Edited by CelticKnot
08/24/2015 7:49 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1913 Posts |
They could also avoid the problem altogether by selling coins for a given period of time. Some could ship immediately, but the rest would be backordered until produced. This way they avoid the high noon peak and don't end up with product for sale for years.
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Moderator
United States
187654 Posts |
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I think the Kennedy 4-coin silver set was the first product after the update, and that went reasonably well IIRC. It was a breeze. I posted of success in three minutes.  Quote:
Just think what life would have been like if jbuck hadn't gotten his..... *shudder*  |
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Replies: 15 / Views: 2,055 |
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Posted 08/24/2015 1:12 pm
