 Tarot Garden Website News:
Information about our
recent upgrades
Click here if you wish
to jump to the "Addenda" section, where you can review the latest
additional information about our account system functionality.
Greetings one and all! As always, we're pleased
that you've decided to spend some time with us.
Whether this is your first time browsing our
site, or you're a frequent visitor, you'll want to be aware of the many
changes we've been implementing recently. At first, these changes will
be most apparent in our redesigned "look," and the long-awaited
implementation of our online shopping cart. Later, we'll be adding new
services and attempting to improve the general navigational "flow"
through the many features we offer, now and in the future.
During our current "upgrade" phase, we'll be
phasing in new features over a period of time. We do appreciate your
patience and understanding as we work through the various "quirks"
inherent in the process.
Most importantly, you'll want to be aware of
what you will and will not be able to accomplish using our new online
shopping cart system. As always, your order is important to us, and we
want your shopping experience with us to be as pleasant as possible.
However, there are still several limitations of our online shopping
cart, so we recommend you read and familiarize yourself with the
following details:
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In order to use our online shopping cart,
you will eventually have to establish an online account with us. You
don't need to set up an account before starting your first shopping
session, but you will not be able to complete your order and "check
out" online without eventually establishing an account. Our system will
direct you to the account setup page if you try to complete an order
before you have set up your account. Once you have established your
account, you can log in anytime to enjoy shopping with us!
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There is no charge to set up a Tarot Garden
account. For more information on Tarot Garden accounts, please see our
new Accounts FAQ page.
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The "Accounts" and shopping cart portions
of our website are secure. Our site certificate is signed by DigiCert. Most
browsers will confirm that you are on a secure page by displaying some
sort of symbol, such as a closed padlock, somewhere within the borders
or toolbars of your browser window. If you see this symbol when you are
viewing pages of our site that are used to transmit personal
information, you can be assured that your information is being
transmitted in an encrypted and secure fashion.
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We consider our online shopping cart to be
in a "live beta test" phase. Our system has passed the initial alpha
tests, but we're sure our clever and inventive clientele will be able
to find areas where things could be improved further. Please feel free
to forward your questions and comments about our new system to our
programmer and webmistress, Jeannette, at jkr@tarotgarden.com.
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Some features of our shopping system have
not yet been implemented. At present, you should be able to put items
in your cart, complete the checkout (once you've set up an account),
receive email confirmation of your order, review your order history,
and submit preorders and backorders. In the future phases, we will
implement a wishlist feature, and the option to automatically add
purchased items to your account Collection Tracker list.
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We do not require you to use our online
shopping cart system to order from us. If you experience problems with
the online shopping cart, or simply prefer a more "personal" level of
service, you are more than welcome to place your order by email by
directing inquires to sales@tarotgarden.com,
or by phone at (515) 224.7654 (we're in the U.S. Central Time Zone).
In addition to our shopping cart, here is some
additional information about the current state of our site upgrade, and
what additional changes you can expect to see over the coming months:
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As past visitors to our website will have
noticed, we are in the process of changing the "look" of our website to
a more "professional" format. Our previous format was designed for
speed of loading; however, with widespread use of faster Internet
connection services, we've allowed ourselves the luxury of
incorporating a few more "graphical" elements. Our initial tests
indicate that our site load time has not been noticeably compromised by
the new design elements. Past slowdowns in our site service have been
conclusively tied to problems with our ISP, and not with our server or
site design. At present, our ISP problems seem to be resolved, but
anyone experiencing slow navigation of our website should contact us
with the details.
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While our database and Boutique have been
redesigned to incorporate our new "look," it may be some time before we
transfer all of our site pages over to the new design. In addition to
the database and Boutique, we've implemented the changes into our new
account system and shopping cart, and our homepage will follow next.
Changes to the format of our Library pages will probably not take place
until much later.
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We've redesigned and reorganized our
general information pages. These pages are now lumped under the heading
"Info / Help," and can be accessed by using the button on the
navigation bar available at the top of most of our site pages. These
pages include: our "About Us" introduction page, our FAQ, our calendar
of shows and events, and our contact information.
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Many of the features that we previously
offered as "discreet" services on our website are now being gathered
under the "Account" heading on our site navigation bar. However, two of
our site features also remain available through our old submittal
forms: our mailing
list signup, and our readings service.
Addenda:
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21 March 2008: FINALLY! We have been able
to reproduce
one of the redirect problems encountered by a small segment of our site
visitors -- namely, some URL "not found" errors that most frequently
surfaced when account holders used the deletion or cancel functions on
some of their personal lists (preorders, backorders, wish lists, etc.).
Having at last reproduced the problem, it didn't actually take long to
solve it. We encourage users to continue to inform Jeannette at
info@tarotgarden.com
or jkr@tarotgarden.com if you
receive any
unexpected error messages when navigating our website.
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16 March 2008: A "wish list" feature has
been implemented
for Tarot Garden account holders. When you are logged into your Tarot
Garden account, a heart icon with an "Add to Wish List" button will
appear next to each entry in any Boutique listing. Clicking this button
will add the title to your personal wish list. Each account holder has
been assigned a unique numerical code (displayed above your wish list
on the Wish List screen) that can be provided to others who want to use
your wish list information to select and purchase items on your behalf
(for example, as a birthday or holiday gift, or as a trade item). We
made the decision to make wish lists available to others only if they
possess the proper wish list code, for confidentiality reasons -- that
is, your wish list is not accessible by your name or any other personal
information that you may not wish to disclose to others. Furthermore,
when using your personal wish list code to display your wish list, only
your initials and general geographic location are provided as
confirmation of your identity. This is intended to prevent casual site
visitors or spammers from entering random codes and pulling up usable
personal information to identify you. Full details on the wish list
feature are available on our Account
FAQ page.
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15 March 2008: USPS tracking information
has been added
to customer order records. The tracking number will be included in the
order confirmation email sent to the address registered with your Tarot
Garden online account. A clickable link with the tracking information
is now also available on your account 'History' screen. This number is
available for USPS trackable orders shipped on or after 10 March 2008.
Please note that tracking is not insurance; if a package is lost, we
cannot do more beyond supplying the tracking number already
provided if you did not request insurance. Furthermore, tracking
information may not be available for international orders once the
package leaves the U.S. However, the tracking number may be usable by
the postal service of the destination country; check with your local
post office to learn what extended tracking options may be available to
you.
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13 March 2008: In order to better manage
the number of requests we've received regarding the likely market value
of particular titles, we have begun to implement a 'Bluebook' feature
in our database. When logged into your Tarot Garden account and
browsing the database (not the Boutique), a 'View Bluebook
Value' button will now be available. Clicking this button will bring up
information on the Tarot Garden's bluebook appraisal for that title. As
of this writing, this feature is too new for us to have updated many of
our database entries to include this information. The bluebook data
will become more complete as time goes along. Please refer to our FAQ
entry on this topic for more information and caveats related to this feature.
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13 March 2008: The online collection
tracker now has a field where you may enter the assessed value of items
in your collection list, and a link that generates the collection list
in a report format specially suited for hardcopy printouts. In
addition, a checkbox has been added to the shopping cart checkout
screen that will allow you to indicate that the items in your shopping
cart should be added to your collection list automatically.
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26 September 2007: Our referal /
partnership program is now up-and-running. For more information on this
mega-cool feature, you can read a quick overview on our Account FAQ
page by clicking here.
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9 June 2007: Our online backorders feature
is now available! For re-orderable items that are out-of-stock, Tarot
Garden account holders no longer have to send an email to Jeannette to
request that they be placed on the restock "notify" list. Simply log
into your Tarot Garden account, look up the out-of-stock item in our
online Boutique, and click the "Submit Backorder" button. You will be
asked how many copies you want to put on backorder, and then... voilá!
You are instantly added to the "notify" list. Once you receive your
availablity notification, you can then go to your "Backorders" screen
and click the "Add to Cart" button for that item. You can also cancel
backorder requests from the "Backorders" screen, or review the status
of past and current backorders. Also on the "Backorders" screen (as
well as below the "Submit Backorders" button displayed with
out-of-stock titles) is a "View Log" button. Clicking the "View Log"
button will provide a list of entries regarding the progress on
restocking the item (if available).
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9 June 2007: Corrected a problem with the
login screen that was preventing the system from being "case sensitive"
to user's login names.
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4 April 2007: Added a feature to the Search
Service submission form that shows how many other requests are already
in the queue (as of that time) for the selected title.
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18 February 2007: Huzzah! We've now
integrated preorders into the online account system. If you log into
your Tarot Garden account, you can use the "Submit Preorder" button
next to any pre-orderable listing to get your request (for one or more
copies) into the queue. You can also cancel existing requets online.
The "Preorders" link, available when you are logged in and within the
"Accounts" section of our website, will get you to your preorder
history, and allow you to manage active preorder requests. Preorders
will, for the time being, also still be accepted by email for those who
do not want to set up an online account. But if things get too tricky
to juggle, we may ultimately require online accounts for persons who
want to take advantage of our special preorder pricing for forthcoming
titles.
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29 November 2006: A problem with our
shopping cart redirect from the PayPal service seems to be fixed.
Prevously, customers using our online cart and paying by PayPal were
directed to a non-existent URL after payment had been issued. Users
should now be correctly redirected to their Tarot Garden account menu
page once the system leaves the PayPal site.
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4 September 2006: We seem to have fixed some
of the problems that were interferring with proper operation of some of
our site features for visitors using the Mozilla "Firefox" browser. The
Boutique "Add to Cart" buttons and the "Submit" button on the search
service request form now seem to move the user on to the proper next
step. Other (somewhat less serious) problems seem to persist, however,
such as the opening of unneeded new windows during the checkout
process. We will continue to address Firefox interface problems at time
permits.
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21 August 2006: The beta version of our
online collection tracker is now implemented. While we plan to add more
features over time, the basic function of this tool is now available
for use. When you are logged into your Tarot Garden account, all
entries in our database will display an "Add to Collection List"
button. Clicking this button will include the deck in your personal,
online record of decks owned. You can access the list from any account
screen by clicking the "Collection" link on the "Account"
sub-navigation bar. The list is currently sorted alphabetically by
title; other sort options may be added over time. User-modifiable
fields include "# of Copies Owned" and "Notes."
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19 August 2006: We've located two different
causes of our shopping cart checkout problem. The first is the Firefox
browser, which seems to be misreading our header redirect instructions.
As we're not sure how to fix this problem at the moment, we can only
recommend that customers making online purchases using our shopping
cart should use broswer software other than Firefox. The second cause
is external frames -- in particular, frames left by Aeclectic Tarot and
certain Google pages above our site pages. We have begun to implement
code that removes these frames before the user reaches the checkout
screen, but as we have not been able to adjust the code for all
affected pages, please be aware that you should take advantage of any
"remove this frame" links provided by the offending frames before
proceeding to our checkout screen.
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29 March 2006: The "Readings by Dan"
service has now been rolled into the account system, so that customers
may request and pay for readings through their Tarot Garden account,
and review a complete history of all request results online. For more
information, visit our Services FAQ page.
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27 March 2006: Huzzah! We have at last
reactivated our "Card Credits" bonus program catalog. Customers who
have set up an online account with us AND indicated in their "Settings"
screen that they wish to participate in this program may now use the
"Bonus Pts" link from any account screen to review the bonus program
catalog and make selections. Selections made from the Card Credits
catalog are added to the online shopping cart, just like regular
purchases, but will display the point cost rather than a dollar value.
Note that enrollments received for the beta version of the "Card
Credits" program are NOT automatically rolled into the new account
system. If you have not set up a Tarot Garden account under the new
system, you will be unable to take advantage of the Card Credits
program. For more information on the Card Credits program, see our "Accounts" FAQ
page.
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25 March 2006: We have rolled our search
service into our Account system. Now, in order to submit a search
request, you must be logged into your Tarot Garden account, and use the
new "Submit Search Request" button that is automatically displayed with
qualifying entries in our database. More information on our search
service can be found on our Services FAQ
page.
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23 March 2006: A bug in the account
"Settings" screen has been corrected. After selecting (or changing) a
credit card expiration date, the selected expiration year information
was being transmitted correctly. However, when the information was
retrieved for later display, the display incorrectly added 3 years to
the stored data. Credit card expiration years now display accurately on
the "Settings" screen.
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22 March 2006: The shipping calculations
used for the pre-checkout shopping cart screen have been updated so
that a more accurate shipping estimate is reflected for non-U.S.
customers. Prior to the adjustment, the shipping cost displayed
reflected an estimate based on a U.S. destination. Now, the
pre-checkout screen displays a shipping estimate for overseas buyers
that matches the shipping estimate on the final checkout screen.
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22 March 2006: The bug mentioned in the 10
March 2006 fix did not include a fix to the email that was sent out
after the order was submitted. Although the customer confirmation email
displayed the correct order total, the discounted items still displayed
at their undiscounted prices. The email has been adjusted to correctly
display the discounted prices for the individual items, as well as
being reflected in the order total.
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10 March 2006: We have located and
corrrected a bug that was preventing sale items from being added to the
shopping cart at their discounted price. Now when sales items are
selected for purchase, the sale price will be displayed rather than the
retail price.
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6 December 2005: The "History" link is now
functional for online accounts. We are in the process of entering all
past, non-shopping-cart orders for established customers who have set
up their online account. Despite the checkout problems noted above, the
order "History" link is now functional, and appears to be working
without problems for all site visitors.
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6 December 2005: A number of customers have
experienced problems when attempting to check out after filling their
shopping cart. Our system will insist that the customer is not logged
in, even if he or she has logged in without logging out several times.
We have made some adjustments that have lessened the frequency of this
problem, but we are still receiving a few reports from customers for
whom the problem persists. We are continuing to try and determine what
is causing these last "holdout" instances of this error, but in the
meantime, anyone experiencing checkout problems should contact us to
let us know. If you successfully set up your Tarot Garden online
account, we can process your order manually. All we need is an email
sent to sales@tarotgarden.com,
or a call to Jeannette at 515.224.7654, stating the items you wish to
order, and we'll have your decks on your way to you immediately.
Once again, if you have questions or comments
about our site, please visit our FAQ
pages, or write or call
us anytime!
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