Item description has suddenly disappeared from my website

[coquette-clothe]

Last week whilst doing some work on my website , I discovered that approximately 80-90% of my items were not showing the Item description that I and my staff have spent many hours uploading.

Looking back further we have ascertained that inventory going back at least 1 year was missing item descriptions.

At the same time as this, when we upload new inventory into Dashboard the amount of inventory is not syncing onto the website. So I am having to upload this information again on the website which is taking extra time.

Although the staff in Australia have been very willing to help and discover why this has occurred they do not have technical engineers in Australia and everything has to be referred to American and this can take weeks. 

This is extremely frustrating and of course costing me money as my website is not operating at optimum and I have to spend hours (or pay staff to do so) updating the information back onto the website so I can do some media marketing. I have over 1200 items and do not have the time to manually do this all again.

My issue with Square and Weebly in Australia is that when these "GLITCHES" as they call them occur, it takes way too long to be resolved, it costs me money and there is a lack of communication/ help from Engineers at Square. The first time something like this occured it took nearly 6 weeks for the 'Glitch' to be rectified. Last time it happened it took about 2 weeks. This is not acceptable.

This is the 3rd time I have had problems with the Website and it taking so long to resolve and I am seriously considering leaving Weebly and seeking another company to have a website with.

Has anyone had similar experiences and how can I escalated this to get some help and it resolved?

[Laurie_]

Hi there, @coquette-clothe, we appreciate you taking the time to share your experience and feedback with us. We apologise for the inconvenience this has caused you and would be happy to assist here where possible.

Given that the Seller Community is a public platform, we're unable to exchange account-specific information in this thread. However, we were still able to track down your active case with our team to look into this further from our end.

We're sorry to hear you've experienced a few issues when attempting to upload and edit your inventory to Square Online. While it appears the syncing issues between the Item Library and Square Online were resolved, we can see our team is currently investigating the item description issue with our engineers.

When it comes to troubleshooting and resolving Square Online issues, the best way you can assist our team is to provide a screen recording of the issues you're experiencing on your end. If a screen recording isn't possible, then a screenshot of an item on your live site with the description included (if you can make a note of the date and time that would be helpful), and then another screenshot of the same item on your live site when you notice the description disappears (again noting the date and time). 

The first step our team will take is to try and replicate the behaviour when logged in to your Square Account on their end. If they are unable to easily replicate the behaviour, as appears to be the case in this instance, they will then look to specific examples that you have included in your case.

We've reached out to the advocate currently assisting you with your case, so they can request you send additional examples of this behaviour to help expedite the investigation.

In terms of resolution timelines, this can vary from case to case and we work closely with our US-based engineering teams to ensure we can provide timely updates until your case is resolved. Factors that can impact response times include the amount of testing required to successfully replicate the reported issue and identify the cause.

I would be happy to make a note of your feedback regarding Square Online support and pass this on to the relevant teams. 

In the meantime, please look out for an email update from our Australian Support Team with the next steps.

[coquette-clothe]

Dear Laurie ,

I received an email from Fionan who is trying to assist me here in Australia . He requested what you have asked and this was my reply :

 This is a really difficult request. 

I think the issue happened suddenly. I only noticed that huge amounts of items had no item descriptions all at once. As I said, I was working on some marketing at home of an evening when I noticed item descriptions were missing on items I wanted to include. It wasn't a case of me adding an item description, then 2 days later noticed it was gone.

Re steps to edit item description:

As I explained all our descriptions are added manually (not bulk editing). We put the item description onto the Weebly site of the item in the section asking for item description.

We are editing descriptions on 2 devices. My desktop computer that is used by myself and by my staff who has a different login at my boutique.

I also sometimes add descriptions while working from home on my PC lap Top computer.

So here are the steps I and my staff have taken when adding new items.

1: Item will be added to Dashboard by creating a new item. Price, inventory amount, SKU and photos will be added.

2: If we want to sell the item online, we will then log into the Weebly site , bring the item up and then add the Item Descriptions, more photos if needed, category and SEO information. We copy and paste what had been put into item description and then put that into SEO description. Then save to secure information. Then we open item again to check item by clicking Save and View to see that it looks good and information is correct.

We have always done our uploading of new items this way.

I cannot possibly tell you when the item descriptions went missing because as I have mentioned it can to my awareness one evening when I noticed they were gone. Some of these items were put on the website over a year ago are gone. However, I am thinking that they may have disappeared perhaps around 20th October as I sent out an email for my items called A Perfect Match Alquema and Moko Freshwater Pearls and I the item descriptions were showing for this email when I sent it out. For example the description for 

Moko Pink Burst Multi Strand Freshwater Pearls and all other items in this email

Moko Forest Burst Multi Strand Freshwater Pearl Necklace

Moko Marine Burst Multi Strand Freshwater Pearl Necklace

were showing when I sent out the email and now the item description is gone. I make sure that what I include in my emails have all relevant information. Now if you check this item it is gone....but you will see information is still in the SEO description which is proof I put it in as it is only included here after it has been put into Item description.

The Alquema dresses in this email had item descriptions at time of email being sent out 20th October. Then their item descriptions disapeared as well. But these items have since had descriptions reinstated last week by us manually, as there were customer enquiries regarding these pieces. However other Alquema dresses on my website don't have item descriptions anymore which is very frustrating as we do get a lot of enquiries regarding these dresses. 

I don't have the time or manpower to reinstate all itemem descriptions. It would cost me a lot in wages to get my staff to do it and it would take a long time.

I am really loosing my patience over this. Small business is really struggling with the economy in Australia at present. We have noticed a drop in sales and now I haven't had any online sales as well as I feel my online website is not up to scratch and looking as good as it was for customers.

Please rectify this issue. I am loosing confidence in Square and seriously considering taking my business elsewhere as these issues, 'gitches' happen at least twice a year and take way too long to resolve.

Anastasia

[coquette-clothe]

Dear Laurie ,

I haven’t received any response to my reply to your request.

since hearing from you this has happened:

I've had 2 customers ring me today enquiring about garments they say the website is showing only the Back of the garment photo and no item description.

This is very frustrating and i haven’t had any response via email or phone call to my previous email alerting you to this current issue.

Would someone please contact me to assist and advise me of what you are doing

 to rectify this fault on the website.

So now only the last photo i have uploaded ( I generally add 4-5 photos and the last photo is usually a back of garment on model Image or a close up. This i have discovered is an issue in many items on the website . So basically the website as it is at present is useless.

i didn’t have time to call Square today as i was on the floor selling in the store with customers.

i sent an email last night regarding this new alarming matter. No one has called or emailed me in response . 

One of the main reasons i joined up with Square was because i was told i could always call or email to someone here in Australia who would help.

This isn’t happening and I am no wiser as to how my issue is being resolved  and i am getting no communication regarding this latest problem.

would someone please please assist me.

[Laurie_]

Hi, @coquette-clothe, thanks for checking in.

I can see you're frustrated with this situation and we'll do our best to keep assisting you here but I do want to note a few important things regarding Square Support, and how we can offer you assistance via the Seller Community platform.

The Australian Support Team are in the office and available to contact between Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm AEDT. If you are currently engaging with an advocate via email, their expected response times are between 24-48 hours after the email is received on their end. Advocates are managing multiple cases at any given time and often need to perform testing and research before sending a reply back to you with the next steps. Please bear this in mind when communicating with our team via email. In the meantime, I have reached out to the advocate currently assisting you to pass on the above information you have sent us.

In future, the fastest way to reach out to the Support Team when your matter is urgent is to call them directly. The advocate assisting you via email may not see your request for a call until much later. In these instances where you require immediate support, you will need to call our Support Team directly to request this. 

The main purpose of the Seller Community platform is to allow fellow Square Sellers to connect with each other to discuss how they use Square for their business. In addition to this, we will share product updates, Seller Stories and news on this platform. We also offer assistance to our Sellers by helping to answer general questions about using Square. We always endeavour to reply to Seller Community questions within a few days. However, as we do not provide instant replies to questions posted to the Seller Community platform, we do not advise Sellers to use this platform for urgent requests or issues. Furthermore, once we have followed up with the Support Team on your behalf, you will need to continue to work with that team directly in order to move forward with your case. Keeping the conversation in one place will assist the Support Team in tracking the progress of your case.

With this being said, what we have done for you today is linked this thread to your active case to ensure all information is easily accessible. Additionally, we have reached out directly to the advocate to request they review your engineering ticket for any further updates upon their return to the office on Monday, November 7th, and ask that they arrange a time to call you to discuss this.

I am hoping that during the phone call, they can walk you through the recommended steps for adding items and item photos to your Square Online site and observe any unexpected behaviour that may be occurring on your Square Online site.

Please keep a lookout for an email early next week to arrange the above. 

We thank you for your patience while our team continue to investigate these issues.
 

[coquette-clothe]

Dear Laurie,

Thank you for your response. I understand the steps required to gain assistance. The reason i reached out to this forum Square Seller Community was out of complete frustration that nothing had been resolved. I needed to reach out to connect with someone out there who may have been experiencing the same issues.

The other reason is that I feel 24-48 hours before a response is not good enough especially when this issue has been going on for over 3 weeks now. As I have stated the problem with the website item descriptions/photos disappearing is urgent. I am paying for a product that is basically not working and hasn't been for weeks.

When you are paying for a product, a product that I have spent hours and paid staff to work on, then it is not working and not because we have done anything wrong ( which has been implied) it needs to be made a priority. My business is dependant on it and is suffering because of it.

I don't accept that I should wait and wait and wait and be patient. This has been going on for too long. I have been patient and now my patience is at an end. This is just not good enough. I discovered the issue with disappearing photos on Thursday night. I worked retail on Friday so was unable to sit on a phone call for any length of time so i emailed. It is because of absolute frustration with the system and the fact that the website is experiencing issues that are even more alarming which led me to reach out here in a desire to get some help. i don't think you understand what this is like if you are lecturing me about the protocols of getting assistance. Perhaps the protocols that you are talking about are just not good enough when things go seriously wrong.

I will wait until Monday as I have no other choice or avenue for help, but I have little confidence that this issue will be resolved. The 'advocate' that you have referred to here in Australia is lovely and helpful but it seems everything is referred to engineers in the US and this is where the system of assistance falters. I cannot afford to wait anymore. My business is suffering because of this issue which seems to be getting worse. First Items description disappears , then photos disappear. Photos of items that have been loaded up for months. I know I am repeating myself but it doesnt seem to be getting through to you how alarming this so .

You show little understanding or compassion towards that.

In response to this comment of yours:

I am hoping that during the phone call, they can walk you through the recommended steps for adding items and item photos to your Square Online site and observe any unexpected behaviour that may be occurring on your Square Online site.

The issue as I have stated to the Advocate and in emails is not happening immediately when an Item has been added. I have been through this with Square staff and am not doing anything different to what I have been doing for the last 2years. The item is uploaded photos added then appears published and showing well and good . Then days laters we have noticed item description has disappeared and photos have disappeared as they have suddenly done so to items that have been uploaded for over 12 months and have been fine until now. Also photos that were uploaded months ago. Why should they suddenly disappear?