Oh Yeah, BTW, You’re a Pro
Have you ever ordered something from Amazon? How does it usually play out… Step 1: Place the order. Step 2: Get a confirmation email immediately. Step 3: Order ships. Step 4: Credit card charged. Step 5: Shipping confirmation.
If you think about any online transaction site, it usually functions this way, doesn’t it? So why was my Flickr experience so different?
For those who haven’t been following along, I’ve been pondering an upgrade to Flickr pro lately, and I finally took the plunge last Saturday. Now, here’s what has me a bit frustrated about the whole process. Let’s get back to the step breakdown:
- Step 1: Place an order to upgrade to Flickr pro.
- Step 2: Have the money withdrawn from my bank account using Paypal.
- Step 3: Wait a day without my account upgrading or getting any confirmation email from Flickr.
- Step 4: Send an email to their help department saying, “Um, what the hell, please?”
- Step 5: Sit there for a while tapping my foot.
- Step 6: Get an email four days later that my upgrade had been processed.
Now, I’m not so uptight to expect the world to jump when I call it to action. (Why aren’t you jumping?) But Flickr could allay my fears by simply sending a confirmation email automatically when I upgrade. I’ll even write it for them!
We need a couple days to process the purchase before we can upgrade your account to Pro. Until then, keep uploading those pictures! You’ll be sharing like a Pro real soon.
Doesn’t it sound all Web 2.0?
Alternatively, maybe it’s a Paypal issue!
I received an email Saturday night from Paypal that said, “This email confirms that you have paid Flickr $24.95 USD using PayPal.”
Yet today, I got a second email that said, “Your PayPal payment by bank transfer to paypal@flickr.com for $24.95 USD has been processed and automatically credited to the PayPal account of the payment’s recipient.”
What’s the difference between “paying” and “processing”? Both words imply my money leaving my account and going to Flickr’s hands.
Regardless, this doesn’t change my view that Flickr needs more support of the purchasing process.
Comment by zaiss — November 15, 2006 @ 12:28 pm
Another note - I finally heard back from flickr with a link to an FAQ page. However, that page didn’t come up when I did a help search for “upgrade process time,” so you can see where I might be concerned.
And again, there’s nothing wrong with letting the user know “Hey! We got your request!” We aren’t quite in the age of reliable technology where we can trust things to work without them telling us.
Comment by zaiss — November 17, 2006 @ 2:51 pm
How weird! I never had an issue like that, but perhaps I never noticed the delay (because I was dealing with many other issues)…
But yay, sam! Now you’re one of US.
Comment by Jenn — November 20, 2006 @ 11:32 pm