New Chain Reaction Cycles website

It’s shit. I know companies and websites need to progress and re-fresh, but FFS at least move forward and not backward. It’s pants!. Why?!.

how would you suggest they move forward then? . Seems pretty straight forward to me. Find your discipline, choose your category and order of it. Voice recognition, memory reading skills, what more do you want or maybe its a case of change and getting to know it!!!!

It’s shit. I know companies and websites need to progress and re-fresh, but FFS at least move forward and not backward. It’s pants!. Why?!.

Nothing like constructive criticism…

I do most of my browsing on an 11″ screen. New CRC website only allows me to see 3 products at a time, previously it was much much better. Window shopping just became far less enjoyable!

Oh yes

I do miss the ability to just scroll down, alphabetically, to the product you want. Hopefully it’ll get better as they iron out the bugs, else they’ll lose business…

New website is another reason not to shop at CRC, IMHO.

It’s shit

I think it’s fine. Maybe it’s you that’s shit? 😛

‘Spitting Roost’. What’s that then?

+1

They’d refined the ‘old’ version over quite some time to the point where it was very good, given the large number of items. There were things that needed more work but it was pretty good IMO, and you could use it not only to buy stuff but to research kit/compatibility etc.

But the new one certainly isn’t impressive initially. Maybe it just needs learning…? Looks too much like ProBikeKit for my liking.

Hi Folks

To be fair, there are a few issues. Here are the immediate things we are working on at the minute and you should see improvements very soon.

1. Performance – just not fast enough yet, lots of tuning going on
2. migration of order history – we now have the last two months in and we will be back filling from there
3. Internet explorer compatibility issues, we’re seeing people with IE8 being forced into compatibility mode which totally wrecks the site + a few display issues on IE10
4. Mobile site – coming very soon
5. In stock only button – coming back soon (it’s actually there now, but its buried down the page under ‘status’
6. Hover flyout on the search page to show which items are available without going to the product page

We totally realise this is a big change for everyone (us included) and the launch hasn’t went as smoothly as we would have liked. This is a total e-commerce platform change and we felt we needed to get it across the line and out into the real world so we can start learning, listening and making things better. We already have loads of constructive feedback and are working flat out

I promise that underneath the current issues there is a really good website waiting to get out!!!

it’s bloody slow I’ll give you that.

Radoggair thanks for your smart arse comments. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase ‘if it’s not broken, don’t try and fix it’. It wasn’t broken. The user experience is bad and the ‘new’ functionality is equally as bad. For example. I went to try and find my son new helmet to buy tonight. Here’s the experience i met with before i left the site and bought elsewhere:

3 attempts for the page to load.
It gave a listing of 72 kids helmets on the left side bar but showed 3 on the product listing. 3 images.
I refreshed twice but nothing. Yet, it was still showing different brands listing several different types of helmets on the left hand side bar.
I then had to individually click each brand and the number of helmets sold on the website. It then took an age to download the page. (And no it’s not my internet connection speed. It’s lightening fast and nearly had a movie fully downloaded by the time the 72 products listed on their website).
And then for some reason they are now carrying less products per page.

Ergo… it clearly doesn’t work. Before?, you go on, hover over MTB, bam… menu drops down. Choose helmets, kids helmets, bam… all products list pronto. Choose what you want and buy. A very easy and effective e-commerce website.

If this is the e-commerce experience you’re used to well then that’s too bad. So to answer your first question… Test it and make sure it works before they launch it. Seamless, that’s the magic word here radoggair. If you ever run your own business you’ll understand.

Michael
sorry i only had 40mins for lunch today, so after trying CRC today i gave up and went else where.

You might want to look at the other thread, Michael. As specific issues, other than ‘it’s shit’ are laid out.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/new-crc-website

@ Michael@CRC:

Thanks for coming on to respond to the post. Fair play.

There are a lot of bugs in it. I here what you’re saying about getting it into the real world but it should have been tested before it was launched surely?. I mean… it’s pretty bad.

I’ve bought a lot of products from CRC in the past and tonight it was so bad that i had to buy somewhere else. Of course i’ll buy from CRC in the future but when you’re primarily an on-line store and e-commerce solution, you should really make sure that it’s a seamless transition.

Certainly from my end, the old feature of the drop down menu when you hovered over a disciplined was great. It gave you an overview instantly.
I’m having to refresh a few times before a page loads.
Products aren’t loading automatically.
If you get to a page it suddenly crashes and brings you to an ‘Oops screen’.
I’m sure there’s more

Again i, and i’m sure others are greatful for you coming on to explain the issues. Hopefully the bugs are sorted out soon.

Hi lewy

I can only apologise again. The route cause of everything you described is ‘performance’ related which is our No.1 priority right now. Monday evening is our busiest time of the week so you’re seeing it at it’s worst. the site was load tested at a multiple of of current traffic with no problems but it’s real difficult to simulate real people doing real things.

Anyway, again I apologise and can assure you that we will be back to full speed very soon.

Michael

Thanks guys, we wont be resting until this is sorted and you’re getting the shopping experience you deserve

God no worries at all. I guess it’s just frustration at a good site become difficult. Sorry!

No doubt you guys will get it sorted. Good luck with it all!.

It’s slow because the homepage is 5000 lines of HTML, 3MB of asset downloads with no kind of progressive content. The console is logging a load of data to the user (Google Analytics debugging), all of which should be disabled in a production environment!

Looking at the source code of that site makes me feel ill – and god knows how much it cost!

was going to buy the Mrs a load of MTB gear for her birthday but got fed up with the wait and have had to order else where. Please sort it out quick chaps.

Just tried to buy a new pump – but the website keeps showing me a nice picture of a road bike crash with a message saying “please try later”, so now I’ve bought it from Wiggle instead – If chain reaction can’t be bothered with their customers why should I bother with them?

Hi Micheal,

Good to show your face on here.

There’s a problem if you can’t access Facebook. Basically FB is blocked for me from work and when I click on a product I get this large frame blocking the item description saying ‘Server not Found’.

I can’t put a screenshot on here as my usual picture hosting sites are also blocked.

But when I am at home nothing is blocked so I don’t get the problem.

At least my employers are appreciating the increase in productivity!

OMFG CRC isnt working!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh dear. Someone’s broke Kimbers 🙁

Michael lots of constructive feedback in other threads but lewy has listed most of my gripes. Losing the “hover” functionality when you see what sizes/colours are in stock is a massive (even if temporary) step backwards.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/new-crc-site-doesnt-work-in-ie-7

many of us shop at work where we are locked in to older OS systems and browsers, the new site is like pulling teeth. So I went to Wiggle instead.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/new-crc-website

already linked above.

and I have to create a name for a wishlist why?!

sleepless, bellefied and me makes 3: my recent purchases have been made elsewhere thanks to the new CRC site so I assume the IT bods are getting a kicking as we can’t be the only customers theyve lost.

Thanks guys, we wont be resting until this is sorted and we’re getting the business turnover we used to from the old site

FTFY 🙂

Another +1 on IE8 not working properly and being too slow to use – as above, many companies are still on IE7 or 8 so regardless of the rights and wrongs of that, you’ll be losing sales as is…

If I say it’s shite can I have a discount code please? I’d like some new top of the range bib shorts but only want to pay £8.50 for them. 🙂

If I say it’s shite can I have a discount code please? I’d like some new top of the range bib shorts but only want to pay £8.50 for them.

if they don’t go out of business with the current problems they could follow your suggestion and go out of business that way instead 😀

The one thing that does seem to have worked with the new site, is the deactivation of all useable discount codes.

/bah

Well, i’ve just bought a bike and a helmet from CRC today and had no trouble, still on IE7 as well.
Not so keen on the new layout but it seems to work at this end.

Just tried to log into my CRC account using a Mac running Safari, the site won’t recognise my e-mail address as being in a valid format, which is nice and rejects me. Ditto if I try to use the forgotten password link.

I set up a new account using the same e-mail address to check out, which worked fine. I then tried to use the form on your ‘contact us’ page to tell you/CRC there was a problem, but it wouldn’t accept my message because it said I had used returns to create new lines in the text field – I hadn’t.

I think they may have some sort of problem there. Same issue with log-in using Firefox.

Just taken the time to fill in the online survey on the new site, and after clicking submit get the following

Thank you for entering. If you’re not redirected to check out the rest of our Prologo range in 5 second

Seriously? Even your’e feedback is f–ked? Evans and Merlin must be laughing themselves stupid.

So I thought I’d look for at Park tools…

Whereas for me, after a few prods, it gives results:

I think you know where you can shove your positive CRC browsing experience, Jamie… 😉

Already cramming it up there now, mate 8)

…don’t half sting 🙁

…yet, strangely, I just went back into that tab, hit F5 and I now have the same as you!

…as I said, I had to prod it. First time I got this:

…then the refresh gave me the actual search results.

…and I then tried to click on a sub category and it all fell over!

Consoled myself with chopped banana and custard. But even that went slightly wrong at the start when I realised I’d tipped a carton of banana flavoured custard over my sliced banana; had to rinse it off and ensure I’d found a tub of proper custard.

A real first world catastrophe averted.