Lou Rosenfeld's dashboard

Lou Rosenfeld replied on May 14, 2008 03:24 to the problem "Can't download digital version of Web Form Design" in Rosenfeld Media:

Dylan, don't be sad! It's likely just a temporary glitch with our server (the file should be fine; hundreds of customers have downloaded it so far). If you don't mind, please try it again and let me know what happens. If it's still hanging, please let me know and I'll get you access to the file through some alternative means.

Thanks for your patience!

Lou Rosenfeld replied on May 12, 2008 16:31 to the problem "Can't login to re-download MM digital edition" in Rosenfeld Media:

Hi folks, I think there are two possible problems here:
1) The extra masked characters that show up when you enter a password. Apparently this is a very old security measure, and in any case, it's causing too great a hassle for our customers, so we're working on disabling it.
2) The bigger issue is that our cart is fooling customers into thinking they've created accounts when they actually haven't. Essentially, customers provide all the information that would be required for a permanent account, but haven't opted to create the account. They think they have, but every time we check to see if they're in our customer database, they haven't.

I could really use input on this latter issue; it's the #1 customer service request we've had by far. I've always assumed that customers would greatly prefer to have the option of creating a guest account. But each transaction includes a downloadable digital edition, and it's really hard to make the file accessible to customers without permanent accounts, especially when session cookies have expired or when customers want to download the file to another computer.

So... Will requiring our customers to create permanent accounts cause an insurrection? :-) I'd really appreciate hearing your thoughts on this issue.

Lou Rosenfeld replied on May 09, 2008 02:44 to the problem "Order Confirmation Email - Web URL wrong?" in Rosenfeld Media:

Cool; thanks Geoff. Should be fixed now.

Lou Rosenfeld replied on May 09, 2008 00:52 to the problem "Order Confirmation Email - Web URL wrong?" in Rosenfeld Media:

Geoff, thanks for finding this! I'm surprised it hasn't come up before. Shows you how many people bother with help... ;-) We'll fix this very soon; the correct URL, by the way, is http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/storein...

And to answer your question, our books always ship within 24 hours (on business days). Many thanks!

Lou Rosenfeld replied on April 29, 2008 20:20 to the problem "Can't login to re-download MM digital edition" in Rosenfeld Media:

Michael, so sorry; I'm going to email you the file right now.

Our original shopping cart design misled a lot of our customers into thinking that they had created an account when in fact they haven't. We've changed the design in the past month and it seems to made a big difference, but it's definitely possible that there are still some problems. Do you happen to know for sure if you did create an account?

Thanks for bringing it up, and again, apologies for the hassle!

Lou Rosenfeld replied on April 20, 2008 20:45 to the question "Redownload digital edition--can't access email instructions" in Rosenfeld Media:

Julie, you know, making the login feature more prominent is a great idea. It's there, but a bit buried within the checkout process.

As far as what you need to do right away: Rosenfeld Media books have no fancy digital rights management attached to them. If you want to use your copy on another computer, the sky won't fall, despite what our attorneys might suggest. And given that you're in a huge hurry, I'll email you the file right away (hope I'm in time; just got off a plane myself). Please send me your email address ASAP, and thanks again for the suggestion!

Lou Rosenfeld replied on April 18, 2008 10:38 to the problem "Waiting for my book (1 month has gone by)" in Rosenfeld Media:

Mech, so sorry that the book has taken so long to ship. Although very few people have had problems with delayed orders, it does happen, and we've had a few challenges getting DHL to ship properly to addresses outside the US. I will investigate this today and report back to you what I've found. Either way, we'll make sure that your book arrives; thanks for letting us know about the problem and for your patience. Once again, I apologize for the delay.

Lou Rosenfeld replied on March 24, 2008 13:35 to the question "Amazon.com and the digital edition" in Rosenfeld Media:

I wish we could somehow call it out *in* Amazon, but they might not like that. ;-) Thanks Max!

Lou Rosenfeld set one of Lou Rosenfeld's replies as an official response to "Amazon.com and the digital edition" in Rosenfeld Media

Lou Rosenfeld replied on March 20, 2008 12:00 to the question "Amazon.com and the digital edition" in Rosenfeld Media:

Hi Max, I can understand your frustration. Please let me explain why we offer the print/digital combination only from our site.

Amazon doesn't handle selling digital books well, nor does it support combination packages, like we're selling via the Rosenfeld Media site. It's also quite expensive for us to sell via Amazon, both in terms of transaction fees and processing orders. In fact, we'd just as soon not sell through Amazon; as it is, it's a secondary means for selling our books, although admittedly a required one--no one can ignore its importance.

Because our site is our primary means of doing business, and because we want to provide customers with an incentive to purchase there, we offer the better-priced combination package, as well as numerous discounts, there only. Of course, if you didn't know about this, I can appreciate your concern. Given these constraints, what would your recommendation be if you were in my shoes?

Lou Rosenfeld set one of Lou Rosenfeld's replies as an official response to "Waiting for my book (1 month has gone by)" in Rosenfeld Media

Lou Rosenfeld replied on March 10, 2008 18:22 to the problem "Waiting for my book (1 month has gone by)" in Rosenfeld Media:

Kevin, you should be more than a little frustrated! And I apologize for this problem; I'm really very sorry.

Resolution: A book is being overnighted to you; it will ship today or tomorrow.

Explanation, part 1: Our fulfillment center is staffed by humans who somehow missed this order. I've request that all those responsible be sacked.

Explanation, part 2: I have poor Gmail filter hygiene, which caused your order-related email to be filed under my Orders tag, rather than show up in my inbox. I've requested that I be sacked. ;-)

Seriously, this should not have happened. I should be able to fix the second problem easily, and will stay on top of the first one. I'm sorry for the hassle, and I hope that you'll find a copy of Indi's book awaiting you tomorrow or Tuesday. Please email me (lou [at] rosenfeldmedia.com) if there's anything else I can help with, or if you have any input or suggestions.

Lou Rosenfeld set one of Lou Rosenfeld's replies as an official response to "Aligned fields on the payment form" in Rosenfeld Media

Lou Rosenfeld replied on March 10, 2008 01:59 to the idea "Aligned fields on the payment form" in Rosenfeld Media:

It should be much better now, thanks to the wizardry of Mr. Dave Shea.

Lou Rosenfeld set one of Lou Rosenfeld's replies as an official response to "What does RM's elephant iconography symbolize?" in Rosenfeld Media

Lou Rosenfeld replied on February 21, 2008 03:56 to the question "What does RM's elephant iconography symbolize?" in Rosenfeld Media:

I've been waiting for someone to ask this...

Whenever I think about user experience as a field, I'm reminded of the fable of the blind men and the elephant. Each touches a different part of this strange animal, and none gets it quite right in trying to determine just what it is. The blind men are all of us--and especially the established disciplines we come from--and the elephant is UX. No one quite has the full picture.

Also, it may not be obvious, but the elephant is made up of an "r" and an "m". For Rosenfeld Media.

The logo, and the entire Rosenfeld Media site, was designed by the extraordinary Dave Shea of Bright Creative (http://brightcreative.com/). Working with Dave has been one of the highlights of my (young) career in publishing.

I'd be curious if readers of this post could let me know: what does the logo look like to you?

Lou Rosenfeld set one of Lou Rosenfeld's replies as an official response to "Aligned fields on the payment form" in Rosenfeld Media

Lou Rosenfeld replied on February 21, 2008 03:47 to the idea "Aligned fields on the payment form" in Rosenfeld Media:

Victor, amen. I've been a bit embarrassed about our field alignment, given that our next publication is Luke Wroblewski's book on web form design best practices (http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/w...). In fact, Luke has a whole chapter devoted to this topic. We'll be studying it closely as we begin to make improvements to the cart.

Thanks; more comments like these!

Lou Rosenfeld started following the idea "Aligned fields on the payment form" in Rosenfeld Media.

Lou Rosenfeld started following the idea "Aligned fields on the payment form" in Rosenfeld Media.