As many of you know, our shopping cart system is cracking up a bit under the pressure of the Sunday night mayhem. Last night’s sale was a bit chaotic, but everyone was so patient and understanding, I really appreciated that. I’ve talked to my software guy today, and he’s explained that the problem is (probably) being caused by the fact that the software is hosted on a different server to the PY site, and that the server is old and a bit slow, so is struggling to cope with the demands on it. He has promised to transfer the software over to the better server this week, which should put the problems right. If it doesn’t, he’s going to investigate further.
Now, the problem is that the demands of the PY sale are quite unique, and difficult for him to replicate in a test sale. The first update after the transfer (which should be April 5th’s sale) may have some hiccups, it may even be more chaotic than last nights, but the only way to fix the problem is to test it out and see how it goes. If you can bear it, please shop as normal on Sunday, but don’t panic if things go a bit wonky. I’m desperately hoping it won’t, but just in case, I’m warning you all. If I wasn’t going away on Wednesday, I’d set up a fake sale as a test run, but I don’t have the time (I’m struggling to get everything ready in time as it is). And I don’t want to skip a sale altogether. So we’ll let Sunday’s sale go ahead, and hope that things run smoothly. And if they dont, we’ll sort it out from there. Whichever way it goes, we’ll have the system fixed in the next couple of weeks, and these ongoing niggly problems will be sorted, one way or another. Thank you all so much for your patience and support during this worrying time.
