New Website Is Here

Apr 18 2005

This new project has been in the works for a little over a month now. We were never pleased with the site that we had and it was just too rough and bulky around the edges. We wanted a site that was clean, professional, and easy to finish the ordering process. So I sat down and started work on this new look and feel that has nothing extra in it, you can get to what you want right away. Now there are few things to note that have changed.

• Current Customers Login: In order to login, we had to reset your password. Your password is now your email address until you update it. Your username is the same as before (your email address). Just login to your account and change your password back to what you like.
• Address Information: We have done away with the Address Book feature so you have two addresses in this system (Shipping & Billing). We transferred the default address from the old shopping cart into both these fields for you, but please go and double check before making your first order that your address is correct.
• Pricing: Maybe you all noticed, but we are changing our pricing to be $1 per bearing no matter how many you order. This is a testing session and we will monitor the sales to see if this is an option that we would like to continue with.
• Order History: This has also been wiped out and starting over fresh on this new system. However every order from here on out will be in your order history here.
• Login Characteristics: When you login we are using sessions instead of cookies for your security. What this means is that once you close the browser or make a transaction your login will be closed.
• Newsletters: Your profile settings have been transferred from the shopping cart, if you requested not to be on the newsletter than you are still not going to receive one. You may change this in your view account area though if you would like to change it under edit profile.
• Adding Items To Cart: If you add an item twice to the cart then it will appear twice, it will not update the quantity of what you have in their already.
• Shipping: This is not calculated in realtime and we offer three solutions for Domestic orders (USPS: First Class, Priority, and Express). We add a $2 handling fee to every order on top of the realtime fee. International is not yet on, but we will be turning on USPS Global Express which will offer tracking and insurance up to $100. The fee will vary from $15 to $20 for the international service. We want to work out any bugs with the domestic orders before international orders.
• Email With Orders: You will still receive all the emails with the stages of your order so you will know where you are in the process as usual.
• Payments: We will be accepting Paypal and Money Order as payment but the Paypal is much more effiecient. We designed this cart so that your order is submitted to us before going to Paypal and the transaction payment is tracked through Paypal IPN. This means more comfort for all of those involved. We are considering accepting Credit Cards in the near future as well.
• Dealers: We built this system around you, we will be adding dealers shortly that are willing to purchase through the website. Due to our size we are not capable of handling phone orders for dealers effieciently. This way you can visit our site, order what you like, your discount will be viewable and your order shipped out like a regular order. Allowing us to focus on keeping stock on the shelves, the website working, promotions, and shipping. Dealer orders will have to meet a requirement of $100 minimum purchase. We will still be able to offer those special large orders for Manufacturers as well but those will need to be done by contacting us.