I was trying to shop at PoserPros over the weekend -- there was an item on temporary sale. I registered and got the confirm email, but my membership has to be approved by a human(?) which still hasn't happened 2+ days later. Is it normal to wait several days just to shop?

The item that was onsale (Andre for M3, hubba hubba) I found here at RMP also onsale same price ($20.65 yay), but the other items I would have bought (can you buy one thing without adding a few impulse extras?) don't exist here. I eventually gave up waiting since the sale on Andre was advertised as "one day only". I sort of feel bad for the other merchants I would have purchased from, but to play it safe I bought Andre here just under the deadline at the same one-day-only price and (as usual) added a few extra items from the marketplace (halo effect). PP's loss is Rendo's gain....
Not trying to lodge a formal complaint, but I think merchants should know: until you have an approved membership at PP there is no temporary shopping cart or wishlist, so the extra items I would have bought are lost and forgotten. Assuming I am eventually approved I will probably look around before buying something there. I realize there are real-life delays with small merchants and I'm not the type to freak out over that sort of thing, but this isn't even a case of spending money and waiting for downloads. The irony of being lured by a one-day sale and then not being approved for several days.... This was a lost sale.

At this time I can't even logon to their forums to see if that is normal business practice for them or maybe they hit a technical snag or backlog. As the days go on, I'm less and less interested.

holly

I'll try not to kick any sleeping dogs here, but since the change in ownership, PoserPros has definitely lost its spark. There does not seem to be much in the way of motivation for the people currently running the site. From outdated information that stays on the home page for days (weeks sometimes) to sales that are one day, but no one knows about them.

I've seen a drastic difference in participation levels in the fora and the quality of the merchandise being marketed there. Shame, it was once a pretty energetic site.

I have to agree kalon, I don't go there much now and some of the merchants there are now selling at CP!

Complain to Daz, they are the ones who actually run it.

Quote - I have to agree kalon, I don't go there much now and some of the merchants there are now selling at CP!

About the only thing that keeps me going there, well, two things... Roy Loo (he's marketing his G2 and Miki2 things at CP, but his Mil 3 and V4 stuff are still sold there, and the Hexagon forum which is pretty active and very helpful.

Actually, Daz don't run it. It's run pretty much solely by Guarie these days, and as he's got some personal issues, sometimes things aren't done in an instant.

As for the human having to complete your registration, that's a spam precaution. Poser Pros got hit with a lot of spam buyers, which in turn affected the whole site, so now you have to wait a little bit to be registered.

Poser Pros hasn't lost it's 'spark', just the controversy that used to surround it all the time ;P

Quote - Actually, Daz don't run it. It's run pretty much solely by Guarie these days,

Wow! That's a monumental task. That is not a small site and with the store, it's a busy one!

It's been two years that my cc has stopped being accepted at Poser Pros.  Any attempts I made to have this looked into have failed despite assurances that it would be taken care of.   This same cc is being used on all other e-shops without problems so I fail to see what could be the matter.   I could jump through hoops and find other ways of shopping there but I guess I'm about as motivated to do that as  they are about looking into my problem :)

Xena pointed this thread out and while I didn't want to post, I figured I better clear up some things.

Its true that we restricted membership to manual approvals now because we were being hit pretty hard by some SPAMmers - both human and bot. And while we try to get them approved everyday, sometimes we get behind (we still get hit by bogus registrations and have to check each one individually to make sure that we are not stopping someone legitimate from registering).

If anyone has ever wanted to register and wanted the approval speeded up all they have to do is write to the storeadmin email address and we will go in and do it manually. The same goes if you ever want anything or need help with something - I mean hell, you can always write to me at my private email address (guarie at iinet dot net dot au).

As for site updates being slack in the past - its true. There was a while there when I was not getting the front page updated every week (at one stage I think it took a month). But as Xena said, I have had some personal issues and it has made it difficult at times to be online. I've never made it known publically what has been going on as I do not want sympathy or want to use whats going on as an excuse, and I'm not about to go into it here. But if you had been watching or visiting the site in the last couple of months you would know that the front page has been getting updated weekly, the newsletter is going out weekly again and we've introduced a few interactions with members (Meet the Merchants, site polls etc) which have proved to be really popular. I don't think we have lost our spark at all.

I may not be online on the site for 18 hours a day, 7 days a week but I am there for at least 8 - 12 hours, 6 days a week when I can (even I need some time away from my PC). So if you need anything - just ask.

Guarie

Ps - Kalypso - I did try and get that problem sorted for you but never got it resolved by the Daz techs. I was very much motivated but there is only so much I can do when it is a technical problem beyond my reach. I'm more than happy to go at it with them again if you would like me to.

Perception is everything. And what I stated is my perception, there's no malice or animosity. I don't have an axe to grind.

I'm glad you dropped in, Guarie. And the fact that you are trying to do this, essentially, alone and had personal issues does clear up some things. I've liked PoserPros and I hope you can get some help, because I don't think I'm the only one with this perception.

No worries Kalon - I never saw this as an axe grinding thread. I see threads like this as a chance to improve things.

Just to verify that PP is not a one man show. There are two other Admins (Lobo75 and SilverElf) with their own duties plus forum moderators each with their own area of expertise. I couldn't do this with out them. And while Daz do have a very hands off approach with the site, ultimely I believe that any failings of the site fall on my shoulders alone and I take full responsibility. 

Quote - And while Daz do have a very hands off approach with the site, ultimely I believe that any failings of the site fall on my shoulders alone and I take full responsibility. 

Guarie, it's Daz's responsibility to get you some help, not to let you shoulder all the weight like this. :)
At least that's how I see it.
If you have to resort to manual approvals, then maybe they could see to it that you have a few more hands on deck to take care of things like that, to maintain the integrity of the site.
After all, it's in Daz's best interest to do this.

Believe me, I know what it's like to try and single-handedly run a big sales site, take care of orders, registrations, staff, problems, returns, the odd virus, newsletters, mailings.... It's a freaking nightmare and I don't envy you one dang bit.

Guarie,
It takes a strong person to come here and say what you did.
The site will benefit from it I am sure. 
Because of your actions, that proves to me the site is in good hands.

Regards,
DarkEdge

I was eventually approved, probably thanks to this thread....

I really wasn't complaining (maybe it seems so in a veiled way, not intentional), I asked if that kind of delay was "normal" for PP. I guess it is ;) I can see PP is a forum first. Every Poser site seems to have it's own character and ways of doing things....

Guarie said:
If anyone has ever wanted to register and wanted the approval speeded up all they have to do is write to the storeadmin email address and we will go in and do it manually.

Um, okay..., but the confirmation email said I had to wait for it to be done manually anyway so I'm not sure I see the difference. I figured it would happen asap -- maybe even office hours on Monday -- didn't think it would take 3 days so I'm glad I didn't wait.... I only would have contacted PP customer service if I had been denied the advertised sale price or something went "wrong" with a purchase, but I found what I wanted at another store so there was no transaction pending and no urgency about membership anymore. I waited over 2 days before asking here -- sometimes sites go down and Poser community knows why. It was more curiousity about PP's reputation at that point.

I might shop at PP in the future, but for now I already got what I needed.... The smaller items aren't enough to make me pull out my credit card. Maybe another time.

thanks
holly