I Hate Customer Support Centers

I had to cancel my weekly chat-fest with Aearwen yesterday because I was expecting a call from Tech Support re my website issues. And of course, they never phoned, and the email that they sent me at 9:30 pm my time was completely unhelpful. *sigh* So I basically wasted an afternoon when I don't have a lot of those to waste, and missed a conversation with a friend I had been looking forward to. I still have unresolved questions, and I'm quite obviously going to have to work around things from a different direction to get this solved. I'm LESS than happy!

It doesn't take a lot to make me happy, but
lately it seems impossible. 

But I did get step one done on my Solstice cards, so at least the afternoon wasn't a total loss. I got the first step done, got my three loads of laundry washed, prepped and washed a bunch of fruit for lunches over the next week, and cooked dinner. The day wasn't a complete waste. But ... But ...

I wish my website was as pretty as this, but
it's functional, it loads quickly, it is pretty easy
to navigate. It's just out of date *sigh*. 

I fully admit that my store website is an antique. It was written with a program that doesn't exist any more, and it can only be updated or changed on a single one of my computers that still runs Win XP (and of course, now, even that doesn't work since I can't seem to log in to make any changes). I made the website myself in 1996-1997. Each picture of the 1000's of product pictures on there was done by me. Each word was typed by me. I have page upon page upon page of product there, and it's still only a small part of what I actually carry at the store.

I just brought in more than 50 colors of these fabulous
Czechmate 2-hole triangle beads. Every color they make. It's
new and it's popular and I can't get it onto the website.
This log-in problem is costing me sales! 

But I'm not an HTML coder. I get grief every now and again about how my website is so old fashioned. Why isn't it using CSS or other this and other that? But I don't know code. I haven't the least idea of how I could re-write this to still be fully functional and still showcase my product. Hiring someone to do this for me would be prohibitively expensive, and I still wouldn't know what to do to change things. Additionally, if I changed the structure of the website, I'd have to also change the coding for the off-site shopping cart system that I have for my on-line sales. To avoid all of the problems with security and credit card fraud, my sales are handled by a third-party system that integrates with my website. Its seamless and it works really well. I'm not a believer in changing what works, so no. Just ... NO.

This is the ideal - great design leading to strong marketing
with easy of advertising and product placement. This is
what I used to have, but it seems I have to try and change
with the times. I'm totally kicking and screaming because
re-doing the website isn't something I have time for.
At All! 

All I want to do is update my pricing, add some new products to some new pages, and generally continue the daily upkeep and build-out of my website. You wouldn't think something that I've been doing weekly for years would be so difficult all of a sudden, but since mid-June, I suddenly can't get into the website to make any alterations at all. So yes - oh gods of Customer Service - I think we need to have an actual CHAT!

Isn't this just the key to life? Be happy today! 

Happy Thursday, all.