By heatherbird on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 in New on JustGiving
The initial deployment of the new website on Saturday morning went well, but inevitably for such a huge project, there are some issues that are impacting the experience of some users. We are really sorry to all of you who are affected by this, we want to assure you that the JustGiving team – from the developers to the helpdesk – are working hard to fix and respond to them.
Site issues currently being worked on:
• Problems seeing fundraising pages – some users are getting error screens when trying to access their page – we’re working on a fix for this and expect all pages to be visible by tomorrow.
• Problems logging in – please try refreshing your browser cache and cookie settings and then logging in again: http://www.wikihow.com/Clear-Your-Browser%27s-Cookies (or see instructions below). We expect to have this problem fixed by tomorrow.
• PayPal is not available at the moment – although it cleared all pre-deployment testing, it encountered some problems in the live website environment. We’re working on it this week and aim to have Paypal up running again by the end of the week.
• The site is running slowly - We’re currently deploying some fixes to our servers which will slow things down temporarily. If your page is taking a while to load, it’s worth waiting a few minutes to see if it appears.
• Flickr photos are no longer appearing - if you had uploaded photos to your JustGiving page from Flickr, they won’t be showing any more. We removed the Flickr functionality because such a minority of people were using it – people wanted to be able to upload their photos without using Flickr. So we’ve given you the ability to add up to ten photos to your page, and they appear bigger so they’re easier for people to see.
• Donation confirmation emails not sent out - if you’ve made a donation and you haven’t yet received a confirmation email, we’re very sorry. There’s a delay with some of these emails being sent out and we’re working on fixing it now. We’ll have it solved as soon as possible, and you can expect to receive a donation receipt by the end of this week.
To refresh your browser cache and cookie settings:
In Internet Explorer:
1. Click on the ‘Tools’ menu
2. Click on ‘Internet Options’
3. On the ‘General’ tab, find ‘Browsing history’ and click on the ‘Delete’ button
4. From the ‘Delete Browsing History’ menu make sure that ‘temporary Internet files’, ‘cookies’, ‘history’ and ‘form data’ are ticked.
5. Click on ‘Delete’
6. Click ‘OK’
In Firefox:
1. Click on the ‘Tools’ menu
2. Click on ‘Clear Private Data’
3. Make sure that ‘Browsing History’, ‘Saved Form and Search History’, ‘Cache’ and ‘Cookies’ are ticked
4. Click ‘Clear Private Data now’
If you need more instructions on how to clear your browser cache or cookies please visit: http://www.wikihow.com/Clear-Your-Browser%27s-Cookies
To add photos to your page:
Just make sure they’re saved on your computer and follow these steps:
1. Click on Your account and log in
2. Click on Your pages
3. Click on the title of the page you want to change
4. Click on Edit your page
5. Click on Manage photos
6. Click on Browse and find the image you want to use
7. Click on Upload
8. Wait while your image is uploaded (it can take up to two minutes)
Thanks for bearing with us while we solve these teething problems. And thank you for all the feedback you’ve given us so far. More is always welcome at suggestions@justgiving.com
Tags: account, app, Fundraising, Help
104 Comments | permalink
104 Responses
Mike said...
June 22nd, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Very useful, thanks Heather
Stuart said...
June 22nd, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Rolling out a major dev upgrade over a weekend, which then makes fundraising pages for the world’s biggest charity bike ride fall over. Inspired.
Even if it had gone well it would have been a bad idea…
Oliver said...
June 22nd, 2009 at 4:58 pm
New features look great but it’s a shame this happened after a big event as the London > Brighton bike ride! It’s hard enough getting people to your just giving page in the first place. Hope you get it fixed soon!
Martin Lawrence said...
June 22nd, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Hi Guys
I can appreciate improvements are needed and everything must move on an improve but this site was fantastic, it did exactly what it said and made everything about fundraising simple. I know your having teething problems but the new site seems to be more complicated, obviously isnt working as it should and i cant even clearly see where i can create a fundraising page. That is the whole essense of the website.
Please advise me of when it is forecasted for the problems to be ironed out and advise me where to go to open another fund raising page.
Quick question while i’m writing this, can you add two charities onto one page so the totel is split between the two?
Regards
Martin
Gary Brennan said...
June 22nd, 2009 at 5:33 pm
I have been informed that around lunchtime today a donation of £15 was made, However this is not showing on my page and the person has not had a confirmation email.Please advise.
peter verstage said...
June 22nd, 2009 at 6:59 pm
I estimate that the fact that the website is still not accepting donations (test donation of £2.00 sent at 6.20pm today Monday 22nd resulted in error message) has reduced my fundraising by some £500. Several friends have contacted me to say they have been unable to donate, and the tragedy is that of those 500 people on my contact list that I mailed yesterday those that I do not know well will try once and simply not bother a second time. So St Wilfrid’s Hospice must be content with the £1400 I raised and miss out on the rest which I’m sure I would have raised if the website had been functioning.
Nigel said...
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Im currently seeing the widget i placed on my site at http://www.mcdpoker.com displaying a msg saying it is having problems displaying and retreiving my info. is this something that will be fixed soon or should i remove the widget? i really like the old one!
Nigel said...
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:36 pm
It seems crazy to me to choose a weekend to launch your new website. I’ve been contact by a number of friends who have tried to donate since Saturday but who have been unable to do so. My event is next weekend and I anticipate that this is going to be the busiest week for donations to my fundraising page. I would urge you to resolve the problems as quickly as possible and to provide an assurance that all donations made will appear on my page having regard for the comment left by Gary Brennan.
sean caulfield said...
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:44 pm
our big cycling event is this weekend and although love lots of things about the new site we are having major problems. Firstly, trying to pay in other people’s donations has been impossible. \no confirmation email,no sign of money on the website, no sign if it leaving our bank account etc. Have tried to email and phone several times for advise but to no avail !!
very frustrated
Please advise.
John Moorhouse said...
June 22nd, 2009 at 7:53 pm
I think some advance notice of this upgrade and the dates and times that your techies would be effecting the changes etc might have been published in advance of the day that they actually happened.
When I log-in to other websites in a similar situation, I get a message saying service unavailable between certain hours on certain days and I can no way access those sites.
I was working on my justgiving page when it all went pear-shaped, spent hours trying to log-in and carry on work and then some time later got a message saying that your techies were at work.
I wonder if anyone will let users know when it is actually up and running properly so that I can start work again!
John
http://www.justgiving.com/johnmoorhouse1
Marion Moffatt said...
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Surely there must have been a better weekend than this to upgrade ??!!
Huge events like London to Brighton and then smaller events like Moonlit Memories (Portsmouth) - all affected.
Having pulled off the feat of walking 12 miles after a loooooong day at work - I emailed lots of friends with the sorry pic of me at the end of it all, hoping for further donations. But as mentioned previously - difficult to get sponsors to use the site and I fear those that wanted to, have been greatly put-off by the difficulties of this weekend. Sadly our charities may suffer because of this.
Can’t even get a password reminder sent in case it is me having a moment of madness . . . . . .
A sad experience for me as first time I have used the site.
Becki said...
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Just wanted to say thank you for keeping us informed and updated - it’s much appreciated! I can only begin to imagine how much hard work has gone into what I expect is a very complicated site.
I really like the new look (I’m a sucker for bright colours so love how the colour scheme on my page is a lot more ‘obvious’ than before), and I like how the percentage of total is nice and big. It’s nice and fresh and modern, and may take a little while to get used to, but it gets a thumbs up from me
Kev Parsons said...
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:02 pm
I can’t believe that you were/are prepared to risk so much by deploying a site that isn’t up to it at such a crucial time. What must you have been thinking of? Will anybody in the organisation take respnsibility and loose something ’cause the charities will loose a lot.
Val said...
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Agree with above comments. People are getting very frustrated and charities are missing out as many people will not persist in making their donations.
I’m a new user of the site and found it really user friendly initially but since the changes have been made, when I have managed to log in, it all seems much more complicated and time consuming now.
Ham said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:32 am
Another thing I’ve found - the widget now takes people to the Justgiving home page instead of my page. Now disabled.
Looks to me like tomorrow I’m off to bmycharity - http://www.bmycharity.com/ not as flash but a lot more solid feel, no hundreds of “read more” and all donations in one list.
Others may well read this (if it doesn’t get censored) and realise that there are other options.
Mark Shaffer said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:20 am
As an IT architect I’m seriously unimpressed. Yes there are issues with big projects, but that’s why you do proper testing to fix them before you go live…
What were these issues? I see errors on IE6/IE67/Firefox/Opera Mobile…I had hardly any customisation on my page so what on earth have you done and why can’t I even log in to see my accoiunt on any of these browsers either…
I’ll be checking out the other charity donation websites from now on…..this was seriously unprofessional.
kate said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:09 am
Can’t log in.
Can’t make donations
Taking payments is the whole reason the justigivng exists and the highest priority and you’re not doing it.
Page layouts and speed are secondary.
Please get us back to a site which can take payments.
Can’t understand why you’ve started another blog when there’s already one running here
http://blog.justgiving.com/2009/06/20/new-on-justgiving/new-site-is-live-2/
Gill said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:02 am
Not too sure that this was not change for change sake. Was very happy with previous set up. Now video disappeared, cannot log in to edit site, do not really like the look of new page.
Martyn Folland said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:12 am
I contacted you yesterday without response to find out how long you were out fo having lost the wekend.
How on earth can it take you so long to upgrade, I have tried to sign on again this morning and the site it is still down. In the real world when problems occur like you seem to be having staffers are working 24hours a day to resolve things. It seems your guys have gone home for an extended weekend! You provide a service and have let your publice down, it might be an idea to compensate each live page with say £10 to cover any potential losses that page holders experience . I am aware that some £150 of my sponsorship has gone away because of the problems and I cannot clarify if it will return.
You charge as I understand it 5% of the tax clawback and that by default must come to tens of millions each year and therefore the service should be provided, you are not a bucket shop
K said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:05 am
Several people made donations and had no email confirmation of it, nothing has came out of their bank and nothing is on the fund-raising page, really annoying as trying to raise money here and there’s not much time left!!
Need to know if they need to make payment again or if it will come out of their bank shortly?
Helen said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:11 am
Can’t log in.
If I try and search for my name (o’neill) the systems says there are no entries - there are 1,000s of people with ‘ in their surnames.
System looked great to me on Friday, why fix something that ain’t broke.
Simon Richardson said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:27 am
Hi there,
Word of advice, place the link to this blog on your “Oops” error page. Might be useful?
Good luck fixing the issue, I hope it is sorted soon.
Take care everyone
Simon
Simon said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:39 am
Still cant log into my site. Event is this weekend and total lack of support from Just giving. How you can put a update live this way and have so many issues is beyond me. Did you not think of testing. I’ve mailed you my issues, called and left a voice mail and mailed again and again since Saturday. Still cant log in, cant get a password reset and clearing the cache and deleting my passwords and history and cookies has done nothing. given the effort somepeople are putting in to raise money for Charity this is a real kick in the teeth. SORT IT ALL OUT.
Skew said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:07 am
No up front warning about the change. Nothing on the front page reporting problems. A case study in bad communication and rubbish implementation. And for what gain exactly? Apple rip off graphics? Brilliant.
You should double people’s donations out of shame.
Lee said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:25 am
What a SHAMBELS!
Give us the old site back - yeah the one that worked so we could accept donations!
Nick said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:26 am
You take 5% of all donations is taken to fund administration of the website.
It was working really well so why try to fix it at such a busy time
Support will have been lost, donations are not being recognised
Access to your web site and our web page has been hit and miss
I had difficulty making a donation but managed this on the forth attempt
The donation still doesn’t appear on our web page
Telephone support was not swamped and I have had no replys to email requests
When will everything be back to normal?
Jon H said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:41 am
Nice move, upgrading on a weekend that 30,000 people are raising money for charity. I reckon i have lost £100 of donations because people got fed up or “don’t know if it went through”
Be nice to see it working again - and soon.
P.S. What was wrong with the old way?
peter said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:42 am
Tried again to make a donation (10.35 am today Tuesday 23rd). Ended up on the “Oops” error page again. Called the help telephone line given, and recorded message says they are unable to take calls and refers people to their email address. THIS SIMPLY IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH . I’ve been trying to access the site since Sunday. Charities spent a lot of money publicising their events, and runners/walkers/cyclists worked very hard to raise money and endured a lot of physical pain to take part. I suggest that the company should refund the 5% they charged on the £1300 I raised to compensate for the other £500 I would have raised had the website been working.
Peter
Iain said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:44 am
I can’t wiat to hear BHF response to these changes, as there donations must be suffering…Not good business. I know people who have tried to access my site have now given up and will not sponsor me!!!!
Come On, get it fixed or role it back……
Looking forward to an email to let me know when it is back up, so I can try to recover the situation…..
Andy said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:00 am
JustGiving, What are you playing at??
Go back to the old site NOW and do some proper testing before even thinking about re-releasing this rubbish.
I wonder how much fund raising money has been lost due to your complete and utter ineptitude.
Simon said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:02 am
As a Software Tester the problems with the website seem like they are down to either a lack of basic testing or an under estimate of how the new website would scale. I’ve noticed the follwoing problems:
1. Can’t log in with Chrome or Firefox at all. When I try with IE it accepts my credentials but then takes me back to the log in page. If I keep trying it lets me in. Eventually.
2. As noted, the site is slow. People will give up trying.
3. I’ve had one donation on my page that is showing up as anonymous even though it wasn’t - I was sitting next to donor as they were filling in the form
4. Lack of confirmation emails to both the page owner and the donor.
I’ll keep testing and find some more issues if you want!
Any idea when it will all be fixed? Any chance of rolling back to the old version?
Jo said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:13 am
I have called and e-mailed Just Giving about these teething problems but so far had no reply. I too am seriously unimpressed with the change over, it is too slow and very muddled. I think it is very important to be able to see all the messages and donations on one page, the table on the previous sight design was far more informative and interesting, it made you want to read all those lovely messages which many people have put a lot of time and thought into.
I have only JUST been able to access my own account after a few days of trying and really hope that friends have not been put off making donations because they couldn’t get through.
I think that the original sight should be reinstated until the new one is really sorted out and looked at properly.
Jayant Patel said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:22 am
I am new to this. I am unable to access my page for the last three days. Once the problem seemed to have gone but resurfaced. My edited version of the text was not displayed in the ’send’ message email. Once I had entered 50 or so adresses and clicked send the page disappeared and log-in window was displayed. There on I could not access my page. I don’t know whether all the text and email addressess have been wiped out. While things are sorted out could you please say if overseas friends can donate using the site.
Sarah Winckless said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:26 am
PATHETIC and COSTLY to our charities.
My event was this weekend and hardly anyone was able to donate. I have had an amazing response to my 10 day fundraising campaign and have averaged £3000 a day. Over this weekend I received only £260.
Justgiving has failed on virtually all the things it promises to do for its 5% + VAT fee.
What are you going to do about it?
The new layout is ugly and not what we designed our site to sit in, a lot of our story is lost due to this
Sarah Winckless
pullforhuntingdons page
Ellie T said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:34 am
My previous comment seems to have been removed so can I say again that I don’t think this is good enough. I’ve deleted cookies, temp files etc as per instructions (which is a total pain with respect to other sites I use) and occasionally get a very brief flash of the login which would allow me to make changes to the page, but then it flicks onto the broken login screen. We have (determined) people who’ve made donations which we can’t acknowledge, and can’t add pictures of the Team on their ride which we’d planned to do. And I also don’t like the ‘read more’ buttons and the very limited amount of space given for text about the fundraiser.
Shiv said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:42 am
we just had a big push i our fundraising campain for Oxfam trailwalker we all sent out emails to our freinds etc over the weekend and yesterday, i’m now getting calls from people saying;
They can’t access my page
They are redirected to another page not mine
They can’t may any donations etc
I’ve tried to access my page and log on but can’t do either.
HELP!
Nik said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:43 am
I am surprised a new discussion thread was started, but not so surprised, when I saw the last post in the previous thread was suggesting people use a competitor charity donation site!!
We too have been experiencing problems and if I had known how serious the problems were I would not have sent out my mass email to people announcing my fundraising activity - my inbox is filling with comments from people who have tried and failed to donate - me thinks they will be less inclined to try again.
The problem of not being able to donate, and the donation process completing but the donation not being accepted are not even listed in the issues identified above.
The recent survey for comments on the new site included a competition to guess the quickest possible time to donate - so far I would say this is 2.5 days and 4 attempts!
This is an unfortunate (due to the impact on the worthy charities), and avoidable (if nothing else sites should be tested in a range of browsers - problems in Chrome/Opera etc are inexcusable). Even now my pages says loaded with errors on page in IE7.
Please could you post regular updates on bug resolution progress in a prominent place on the site (as well as the forum), at least let would-be-donators / visitors know that you are experiencing problems.
Cheers,
Nik.
Nik said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:48 am
Addendum:
I’ve just read in more detail “About Just Giving” and see that a 5% fee is taken from the gift aid reclaimed to finance the site. As I am raising this money for my charity which directly finances the site, short of there being a Service Level Agreement, I would expect you to get these issues resolved as a major priority, after all it is affecting your bottom line as well as that of the charities’.
Cheers,
Nik.
Michelle said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:58 am
Terrible changes! Agree with most comments and think its a complete waste of time trying to get anyone to donate at the moment as it keeps crashing on my friends so they give up straight away. New format is hard to read and does not look as good as previous. Sort it out asap!
Larissa said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:06 pm
An extremely moving documentary of the ‘Stepping Stones Nigeria’ charity was shown in Australia on Monday night. The charity provides shelter and support for children as young as 5 that are accused of being witches and wizards by pentecostal priests and priestesses, and physically hurt or abandoned. I cried several times and logged on afterwards to donate to the charity, I am sure several other Australians did also. I am so disappointed that after trying for two days I am still not able to make a donation. How many people are going to keep trying?
Larissa said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:07 pm
btw, why does the comments section work so well… but not the donations?
Tim said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Really hard to page through list of donations (and it keeps crashing). Previous format much easier. New progress thermometer not as nice. Won’t be using again if it stays like this. What was wrong with old format?
Helena Akerlund said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:15 pm
At the very least, please could you add a disclaimer or link to this blog post on the help pages so that donors struggling to get it to work can see that it is a temporary problem?
We, the charities and fundraisers, are left looking very unprofessional for sending people to a site that isn’t working at all. Lost donations can be estimated and made up for in other ways, but lost reputation is harder to deal with…
Ray said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:31 pm
I have been advised that a number of people have attempted to sponsor me, and the site is so slow that it is kicking them out before payment can be taken. Whilst I appreciate the upgrade, surely this should have been tested more throughly to ensure things like this did not occur? Terminal 5 all over again?
Paul said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:39 pm
It is now 3.5 days since the release of the new site but still it is unstable and people are unable to donate or login properly. Three and a half days should have been more than enough time to fix any minor issues encountered during go-live. Major issues should have been fixed during testing (if any was done!!)
I think management need to make a decisive decision to roll back to the old site or resign their positions. How long should these issues be allowed to continue?
I think a clear statement now needs to be posted to the Justgiving,com homepage to explain the situation and why it has occurred.
Not good enough.
Howard said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I am disappointed with the new fundraising pages. I do not like the fact My Story is truncated and you can’t view it whole on the page.
There is no longer a link from my page to the charity’s event page, in this case Norwood’s Rajasthan Bike Ride 2009. The link that previously went to this event page - http://www.justgiving.com/event/204477 - now links elsewhere!!
In the Group pages it refers to My Story rather than Our Story.
The charity description is truncated.
I preferred the old page layout purely for the reason it gave a complete overview with no truncation.
sunil said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:54 pm
am disappointed at the new look page. I spent so long setting it up and getting it right and now just about to launch it through Facebook and have to hold back.
the initial impact of our page seems to have gone….
really hoping you support people can sort out all the bugs and get things right.
in my view the only real things that needed improvement were editing functions so can have different fonts and colours and photos to more easily uploadable and not via Flickr.
this wording…MY STORY means our page doesnt make sense…..
there are three of us doing our event and we are using the same page!!!!
so much for thought being given to things beforehand
Michael Quinton said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 12:56 pm
I’ve had two people contact to me to say that they weren’t able to donate because the site is crashing… Very concerned as I have a short window left to raise money and this is costing me. Very concerned.
Martyn Folland said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:02 pm
I sent a message at 08 20 this morning and yesterday but no response, is there anyone there or have you all taken a holiday. Management MUST come to terms with the apparent fact that the new pages are deliquent and return by 16:30 to the old system, if you cannot get is fixed in nearly 4 days you ain’t going to get it fixed short term. I also feel that heads should roll this is a very important fund raising medium for charities in the country and you are now seriously letting them down. I actually start my walk in 48 hours and have no idea how much the hospice I am walking for will benefit by as a result of this unglorius mess or your own making. Where is a comment from senior management about how long it will take to restore anything. I use Safari as a browser and am having difficulty even getting into the system.
YOU ARE A SERVICE FOR THE BENEFIT OF CHARITIES USED BY THOUSANDS EACH YEAR YOU MUST GET IT SORTED TODAY OR PERHAPS HAND YOUR PROFITS FOR THE LAST FINANCIAL YEAR TO THE CHARITIES AND CHANGE YOUR PROGRAMMERS FOR PEOPLE FROM THE REAL WORLD NOT THOSE WHO CHANGE FOR THE SAKE OF CHANGE
Iain said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Fantastic, my page is back up…..I hope too much damage has not been done !!!
charlotte said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
What a shambles. I am still unable to log in to my fundraising page. The new formatting has messed various bits up so I need to go in to fix it, but I can’t.
I am not receiving emails about donations that have miraculously got through.
I was due to start a final push of sending out emails to get the next wave of sponsors over the line, but I don’t want to do it whilst the site is such a mess. The danger is that people will try to donate, be unable to and give up, it is difficult enough to get people to visit the site, they will not keep coming back if there are problems.
The site is meant to facilitate fundraising not hinder it.
How many more days do we need to wait before this gets sorted out? All fundraisers are losing huge amounts of sponsorship money.
Richard said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:27 pm
If it ain’t broke…..don’t fix it! So who came up with the bright idea for such a drastic change!? Ratner isn’t on your board by any chance?
Bring back the old site asap please!
pete said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Interesting criteria for “the deployment went well”.
Ever since the new site went live I have been getting email from people wanting to sponsor me but the site is always down.
There was nothing wrong with the old site it did everything it was supposed to, let people donate to charity.
Martyn Folland said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:34 pm
I have stated receiving UNWANTED EMAILS that seem to be extracts from the BLOG, Please stop them before you totally fill my mailbox. I can read comments from this medium I do not need them repeated on E Mails
Just get the whole thing rolling PLEASE
Steve said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:40 pm
This is a complete cock up. It wont recognise my password so I cant edit. My You Tube video seems to have disappeared. What was so wrong with the old page? No one on the phones either despite an advertised 8am-8pm service.
Richard Warriner said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Still cant login to my account after almost 4 days. I dont know what was wrong with the old site.
How can it take until “the end of the week” to get Paypal working again???
How about some updates? This is a blog, why dont you post on it??
heatherbird said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:12 pm
In an attempt to respond to all of your comments, we’ll be posting an update in the next hour or so.
We want to make sure we give you a comprehensive update, including responses from the people invovled in designing and testing the new wesbite.
Thanks for all of your comments and for bearing with us.
Janina Connolly said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:14 pm
This quite simply is not on. Us people that have created these pages have used them as a medium to raise money for charities that really need it. A lot of the challenges we take on are physically gruelling and take an incredible amount of commitment and sacrifice. To lose donations and potential donors simply because of this sites lack of basic technical comptentence is insulting to the people carrying out the challenges, and damaging to the charities that are meant to be benefitting from them.
I am a support manager for a software company myself, and basic practice is to inform clients of any impending works that may affect performance. A blanket email to all users would have been a good start.
What will you do now justgiving? I would hope you will acknowledge the impact of your actions with the minimum of an apology, and if you have any kind of conscience at all, a small donation to each users page may go someway to recompense the huge impact of your errors.
Simon said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Me - I ride 54miles from London to Brighton on Unicycle.
You - give me a duff website that can’t collect donations.
I am slightly frustrated to say the least. Bottom line, BHF is loosing out. Big time.
Paul Buck said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:52 pm
I’m shocked and stunned by this incompetence!
Like most others, I saw nothing wrong with the old site; the old widget is a far better design, the listing of donations on more than one page is not acceptable!
Were you just bored and wanted a change?
Jon H said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:07 pm
To the dude that cycled on the Uni-Cycle.. I think i saw you man.. (if you had skittle to juggle in your backpack) either way - respect.
SteveK said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:46 pm
I think the emphasis of the site has changed and it’s a shame.
I used to be able to read Sally’s story about how her sister has XYZ disease and she’s raising raising money for her by walking to Scotland. I could see the updates and messages of support from her friends and family, I could get emotionally involved and think “yeah, good on you Sally!, I’ll sponsor you”.
Now all I can see is that the money grabbing ***** has only got 45% of her £2000 target.
I have to click around to find her story, and I think it’s a shame that people’s stories have become secondary.
But that’s ok because you’ve got web 2.0 buttons.
Susanna said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:01 pm
I’ve read all the comments (mine wasn’t published). I was very cross with Just Giving at the weekend but I think that now things are working again there are some improvements and it is faster, although not on all computers. Like others I would have liked warning of the change as it came at a crucial point for me and I couldn’t log onto my account to update it which was very frustrating. What I still REALLY don’t like is that you can’t see all the donations on the front page. Please can we have this feature back as soon as possible?
mike smith said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Perhaps Justgiving needs to take heed of the old saying:
IF IT AIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT!
If you must fiddle about, why do it at the start of the fundraising event season? Answer: because fundraising just isn’t difficult enough!
Shaun said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:11 pm
“we’ll be posting an update in the next hour or so”
That was two hours ago….
John Wilson said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:23 pm
The new website is, I am sure, wonderful - or at least it will be as and when I can get on to it!
The same goes for people who are trying to donate to my Everest Base Camp Trek in October on behalf of the MS Society. At least you’ll have the problems ironed out by then (won’t you?). It’s the guys whose events are now that I’m really sorry for.
Even so, people in my position are having to hope that would-be donors will try again. Human nature being what it is, not everyone will.
I’m no IT professional but the way it was taught to me was that when you put a new system in you run the old one alongside it until the gremlins in the new system are ironed out. You yourselves have said that problems with a new system are inevitable so why was this simple insurance policy not taken out?
The only answer I can think of is arrogance among the people who installed the new system. They ought to be made to make up lost donations out of their own pockets. That would concentrate minds fairly wonderfully.
It’s not really me I’m worried about. It’s the people who are suffering from the various afflictions which have prompted me and my fellow fundraisers to go to Everest Base Camp, cycle from London to Brighton, climb greasy poles - whatever - that I feel for. Their suffering will not exactly be curtailed by this screw-up.
John Wilson
Steve said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:32 pm
I ran 37 miles in a training run over the weekend to then use that to persuade people to donate for a 52.4 mile Im running soon. Not much chance of that now the moment has been lost and I still cant log in. Perhaps Justgiving should start giving back some of the % it takes to compensate for all those who lost over the weekend, especially the cyclists!
John Wilson said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:48 pm
And another thing! I’m sure I’m not the only person whose event is being run by Charity Challenge or some similar organisation. Because of this, I’ve had to agree with the MS Society to a minimum fundraising target of £3450. What if I don’t reach it because of this situation? I have to make up the difference myself, that’s what. What kind of recompense will you be offering?
SteveK said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:52 pm
By the way I think it’s pretty poor advice to just ask people to delete their cookies without making them aware that it will delete all cookies stored in their browser.
Often people login once, click the ‘remember me’ option and forget about it. These people will need to log in again to every site that uses cookies to store their credentials.
Alison Carpenter, Leeds said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:20 pm
I agree with one of the commentators - raising money for charity is hard enough at the best of times. During a credit crunch it’s even more difficult. At least with the justgiving website we had the peace of mind once upon a time that the money was going striaght to the charities of our choice and not sitting in drawers waiting to be reconciled or sometimes not getting there at all. It is a great tool when it works but to upgrade it over such an “event - full” weekend is absolutely insane. Donators will visit a website they know is easy to use - this will affect many charities in such a negative way. Who is responsible? Get it fixed quickly as I have another charity event to take part in soon!
Martyn Folland said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:10 pm
I have now been able to see my page just the once and then the thing cuts off. If I click onto my account it asks for my E Mail and password but having typed it in nothing happens. This is now totally unacceptable, JUSTGIVING are handling million of pounds donated by people for the benefit of charities and after four days they cannot still get the new system working, surely it is time to revert to the tried and tested whilst you work it out where you have gone so seriously wrong.
You are a quasi Bank by default because you are handling money and we all now know what happened to our banking system through inempt management who thought they know better. YOU MUST IN THE INTEREST OF ALL CONCERNED GET THIS SORTED I for one will think seriously about ever using Justgiving again it is just not worth the hassle it seems. I start my walk in two days and am not able to update the numbers because your website will not allow me. Where is a statement from management.
Mike said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Your control of the changeover has been so good that even when I tried to make a comment yesterday your page locked me out & lost my complaint. So what if some people don’t use flickr, some do & I have advertised that fact to sponsors as a means of maintaining their interest & to encourage further donations. Don’t like the appearance of the new site. The 10 photos don’t appear in the sequence suggested. I do have one guaranteed way of collecting donations - use of paper & personal contact. The gift aid is still available to the chosen charity & sponsors have no worries about double transactions & unsafe sites using/losing account details. For a very low cost ‘business cards’ can ber used to promote my campaign & provide the flickr address details. Sorted.
Simon Pardoe said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:07 pm
What a shame you never even e-mailled anyone to tell them.
Had I have known there was going to be a major release I would have held off sending out my e-mail to 800 contacts asking them to visit my (unavailable) page.
Comminication please people!
sean caulfield said...
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:13 pm
getting very tired of having to explain to friends and family that the website not functioning. Our big event that we have trained for months for is this weekend and I know that the charity is missing out on a huge amount of donations. In the very least I thing more regular updates is the very minimum that JG could provide and an approx time when problems will be solved. Very poor, never again shall i use this site again.
Nick Walker said...
June 24th, 2009 at 9:04 am
Not listing all the donations and the associated comments on a single page on the new web site is a pity. People should not have to scroll though the pages to see the early donations and comments. And a ‘large’ donation that is immediately visible on the page sets the bar at a high level encouraging other donars to match it. If the ‘large’ donation is lurking 6 pages back, potential donors will not see it and will be inflenced by the donations on the most recent page.
Nick Walker said...
June 24th, 2009 at 9:18 am
Roll back. It’s a no brainer. Even if the new site worked, the comments listed here clearly show that users prefer the old site.
Your help desk said that rolling back was not a possible option. Hmm, no wonder the upgrade was such a failure.
Victoria said...
June 24th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Get real. The “initial deployment went well” is a lie - you are in absolute chaos, the website is in chaos, and because of your incompetence, shabby planning and appalling communication, charities have lost thousands of pounds since Saturday and are STILL experiencing difficulties. You have forgotten your duties - to the charities and those who are serving them (US - your clients). You are a profit-making organisation, and you have taken our charities’ money whilst preventing us from being able to collect donations. It could not be a more significant mess - you absolutely must start telling the truth and offering compensation to the charities - it is the minimum any profit-making company does when it fails in its duties to its clients. So, what are you going to do? And if you publish this comment, it will be a first step in the right direct. So go on, man-up and put it on the blog.
John Wilson said...
June 24th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
You lot can take a walk.
My new donation web page is at:-
http://beatms.mssociety.org.uk/netcommunity/johneverestwilson.
Please confirm that all donations received on my justgiving web page will be forwarded to the MS Society by you without any deductions by you. This is the very least you can do.
If anyone else out there is fundraising for the MS Society, please note that they now have their own web-based fundraising facility. It might be a bit clunky and as you can see the URL is a bit long - but at least it works, which is more than can be said about this lot.
This episode might also inspire other charities to put in their own web-based fundraising facility.
You guys have shot yourselves in the foot and are now history.
I wonder if this will get through uncensored.
Juliet said...
June 24th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Hi John,
I’m running the great south run for MS Society and was initally tempted to use their own page but used just giving as everyone was faimliar with it and it was user friendly even for those not used to the internet (not anymore on both counts)
Could you please post an update to Just Giving’s response to your questions? Can you also let me know if you know a way to ‘transport across’ donations to date with comments to the MS site. Many thanks.
Phil said...
June 24th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
What more can be said.
I won’t list any of my problems - there enough there already.
Suffice to say we bunnies are not happy.
Bad enough the problems, your company’s response seems to leave a lot to be desired.
Advance notice, clear signposting, obvious updates, clear apologies and a sense of being in touch would all help to reassure us. Sadly all the above are lacking. The consequence will be a massive blow to your reputation.
John Wilson said...
June 24th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Hi Juliet,
1. Good luck with the run. The MS Society is my employers’ chosen charity for this year and
some of my colleagues are doing the Great North Run (I’m based in Derby).
2. I do not expect Just Giving to respond to my questions, certainly not positively as this will cost
them money and they need to hang on to whatever they can for when the receivers come in, as
they assuredly will after this. My worry is that they will find a way to garner for themselves
whatever has been donated so far in order to bail themselves out of this fiasco.
3. No, I don’t know how to transport donations originally made on Just Giving to another website.
If anyone out there knows, we’re all ears. Again, expecting Just Giving to help us out is a bit
pie in the sky, I fear.
4. On the off-chance that Just Giving condescend to send me an individual reply, as opposed to
some computer-generated vapid comment of the “We’re doing our best/working flat out”
variety, I’ll certainly post it on here.
Best Regards
John
John Wilson said...
June 24th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Hi Juliet
I posted a reply but it looks like it’s been blocked by the censor.
Victoria said...
June 24th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Well done John Wilson. And to everyone out there - justgiving are claiming in the press that donations are only down by 20% since the relaunch, the inference being it’s been 80% successful. My arse. And do you know how much donation money justtaking are processing DAILY, at only 80% activity? £600,000 per day. Yes, that’s right. And they take 5% of that per day - let me do the math for you - they run a web-based operation and cream off £30,000 every day minimum. They are “non-profit making” because they trouser the lot and don’t invest properly in their web-based infrastructure. It is a travesty, an absolute top-drawer disgrace. My partner in our pullforhuntingdons campaign blew the whistle on them on BBC Berkshire this morning, and I urge everyone else to use their media contacts to get the lid blown off this. Private Eye will be fascinated. I wonder if this will go out uncensored - because it will somewhere…..
Ray said...
June 24th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
The scrolling of donations is a big mistake, it was always suggested to try and get a big donation/sponsor at the start, as this would encourage others to be more generous, this no longer applies, as time is money, and people visiting the site will only look at the current displayed page, this is a big shame. Please bring back a single page with all donations displayed!
John Wilson said...
June 24th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Hi Victoria,
Nice to get your comments - and that’s without your having seen the censored one!
Be fair. They will have some expenses to come out of that £30,000. Might onle be netting £29,000 a day.
I know NFPs are supposed to be not for loss either but this is cutting-edge to say the least.
I’m on Ashbourne Radio next Wednesday 1/7. Not such a big footprint as Radio Berkshire but every little helps, as they say.
Victoria said...
June 24th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Hello John - agreed, as a 7-day a week web-based operation, on a minimum of £30K a day income (and as they say, this is a “quiet” time of year, thus perfect for this f*ck-upgrade), they are only getting min income of just under £10,000,000 pa. Their 25-strong team must be run ragged counting that lot. As you can see from “who are we” - there is a least one who has come from a banking background - never known a banker with a real conscience, just one who has worked out the appeal of a squirrel - stick something fluffy on a rat and you can win lots of people over. But it’s still a rodent underneath - and this justthieving site is just a bunch of bankers rolling in it, with the added bonus of working for charidee. I still can’t modify our site, we look like we’ve taken the money and run. Agonising.
Juliet said...
June 24th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
A single page seems to be at the crux of what everyone wants. Apparently, justgiving have said it is not possible to revert back to the old site.. well that speaks volumes about their IT skills.
Obviously not everyone donating is internet savvy which is precisely why the old justgiving page was so popular; it’s accessibility.
I am so so angry about the facebook type design of this new site - not everybody who wants to donate to their family and/or friends wants to scroll through pages and ‘read more’ things. However, most importantly, none of my colleagues who wanted to donate yesterday (on our payday) could get into the site.
We need answers on the 5% fee here. What is happening to it? We signed up for the old justgiving page and agreed that fee on that basis when other charity sites would have let us raise sponsorship without such a fee.
Juliet said...
June 24th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
PS. To Victoria, very good comments and you’ve also reported that the press are saying that donations are ‘only’ down 20%… well that’s certainly nothing to brag about on justgiving’s part. This really is an absolute mess.
There was a former thread on this which was stopped when someone suggested an alternative site for fundraising. On that thread, a woman had described her disappointment just not at the new site but at the fact that a photograph of her late husband had been removed following the relaunch. This is very sad and unacceptable for a site linked to charity giving.
Victoria said...
June 24th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Am blowing the whistle right now to Private Eye. More radio stations in this area (Berks, Oxford) are being alerted, as are the papers. Who else needs to know?
Lesley H said...
June 24th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
I am still waiting for the’update in the next hour or so’ promised by Heather Bird yesterday (June 23rd) at 2.12pm. Have I missed it?
JustGiving - Raise money for charity online said...
June 25th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
[...] Click here for Monday’s update. [...]
Ursula Donnelly said...
June 25th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Hi
I appreciate all the hard work that has gone into the new site design, but overall I am not that impressed and preferred the old site. Have you ever heard of testing?? Whats with having two blog threads to post your opinions?
My section about why I am fundraising runs over two pages, will people be bothered to click read more? I don’t think so!
The fact that you can only see 10 donations on each page, this is fine if you have 10 dontations, but when you have a couple of hundred it just gets messy. I rely heavily on people seeing how much other people have donated to bump up my total, if they have to wait on 10 pages to load, they will definitely go for the lesser amount. The writing in the box is too big - it looked much better before in tabular form.
Too many different font sizes, too much empty space, I’d re-address the design if I were you!
Even donating was easier before, less things to click on and more straightforward. Yes its nice that it’s all done in ajax and the boxes move and things appear, but when you just want to donate money, the simple approach is better!
John Wilson said...
June 25th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Dead right, Ursula!
Added to which, when someone leaves a donation and you receive a notification they mention your webpage but it’s not hotlinked anymore so you can’t just do one click to see the comments of your latest donor. You have to boot up Internet Explorer (or whatever) and type in the webpage address. Progress? Bring back the horse and cart!
Howard said...
June 25th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
I too must agree with Ursula. A friend of mine recently ran the London Marathon and my donation was definitely lead by those of others. I actually donated more than I had intended to helping him to reach his target. I would be very unlikely to scroll through more then 3 pages of donations and I have seen some pages with upwards of 15 pages.
John Wilson said...
June 26th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
As well as not having a hotlink anymore, all I get now is “Someone has donated”. It doesn’t say who. Why not?
peter verstage said...
June 26th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
site still not accepting donations to my account - just attempted to pay £25 (6.55pm Friday 26th June) but ended on error page again. How much longer . . . .?
peter said...
June 28th, 2009 at 10:24 am
Well it’s now Sunday morning 28th June and my page is still not accepting donations after 8 days of being down. I’ve now done my event, raised a mere £1300 on the site instead of the £2000 I am confident I would have raised. I’ve had 5 donations by cheque from frustrated donors unable to give online, totalling £190 but of course the Hospice will not get the tax back.
So I suppose I now write it off and hope that by next year there will be another company competing with Just Giving. If not, I won’t be taking part. I’m probably too old now anyway!
Peter
Rod B said...
June 29th, 2009 at 11:45 am
I really do not like the large Just Giving logo at the top left hand corner of my page which deflects the eye from the charity and appeal details. I recocognise that Just Giving is a commercial enterprise, not a charity, but I think you should have shown more sensitivity to the wishes of us, its customers. We want to highlight, above all, our cause and our activity to raise money.Nobody can log on to the page without knowing it is Just Giving and there are plenty of reminders around the website.
For me, the large logo on the top left hand corner will be a recurring aggravation that I would rather avoid. Is there any way to alter the page layout to reduce the size of Just Giving and
increase the size of my charity and appeal.
I am with Peter (above) in hoping for more competition.
Victoria said...
June 29th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Now justgiving are offering “compensation” of the 5% admin fee on all those giftaided donations received from the 7 days since the disastrous upgrade. We went from about 30 donations a DAY to 17 in the WEEK since the site was upgraded, from an average of £3000 per day to a trickle of about £700 of giftaided donations in this last week. So their compensation to us for all the hours of work, repairs, communications, urging them to to do the “right thing” with our charity’s money and reassuring our friends would be in the region of £21. I am bowled over.
Genius - they block donations with a wobbly site, and then offer us “compensation” of the admin on those donations received. Well, 5% of diddly squat is a comfortable non-compensation payout for them, but one that will read nicely in the press and in emails.
They are trying to ride out the storm, hoping we will all go away with a pat on the head and a token gesture of compensation. This is a disgrace and I for one am not going to go away. They are a (massive) profit-making organisation who are have not given us what our charities have paid for, and are not coughing up fairly for their own mess. It is indefensible.
peter said...
June 29th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
You say justgiving are offering “compensation” of the 5% admin fee on all those giftaided donations received from the 7 days since the disastrous upgrade. My page has not been accepting donations for the last 8 days. Just attempted to donate £50 tonight (11.45pm) and it it still going to the “sorry you’re having problems” page. So that amounts to 5% of ZERO. I’m telling those people who have phoned me saying they have been unable to donate that they should send me a cheque instead, but so far only a handful have done so. So I’m pretty annoyed!
Peter
John Wilson said...
June 30th, 2009 at 10:35 am
This has got to be the PR disaster of all time. I agree with those who say these guys are trying to ride it out and hoping we’ll eventually go away but what genius decided that they’d only waive the 5% fee on donations made while problems were being experienced? Is there no-one in the organisation who realised that, by doing that, they’d be offering artificially low compensation because the donations were artificially low - the donations being artificially low because of their shortcomings! Surely someone could have seen that that would go down like a lead balloon. I’d love to see this outfit’s mission statement. It probvably reads something like:- “Rip off as many people as you can as quickly as you can and hope they don’t notice”.
Juliet said...
June 30th, 2009 at 10:49 am
I agree John. What is worse is the fact that everyone who signed up to Justgiving on the basis of the old pages is, in effect, tied in. I really wish I’d signed up with another site and I certainly will next time.
John Wilson said...
June 30th, 2009 at 11:02 am
Hi Juliet,
Thanks for the support. If you want to contact me directly, I’m at:- john.wilson@uktiem.co.uk
I could use a bit of moral support vis-a-vis my wife’s MS at the moment!
Andy J said...
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:15 pm
This site sucks - just trying to use it for the first time. Are there any alternatives that work?
Leave a comment