OLYMPIC ORCHIDS

The shipping charge calculation seems to be a major bug on this platform. I am in the process of constructing a “flat-rate” table that should approximate average shipping to different parts of the country. As I monitor shipping costs, I will update as seems appropriate. In the meantime, please rest assured that we do not want to charge you too much for shipping!

Moreover, we do not want to have to subscribe to a costly service that would perform what should be one of the most basic e-commerce functions in existence. Doing this would raise the cost for everyone, and we want to avoid that.

The shipping calculation plug-ins provided by third parties to use with this e-commerce platform are all dysfunctional in that they calculate shipping separately on each item in an order and add it up. We are trying to find out how to fix this, but in the meantime I have added flat-rate shipping for three different zones: “local” for orders going to WA and OR, “California” for orders going to CA, and “General US shipping” for everything else. When you check out you will see the ridiculous USPS Priority Mail calculation as well as the automatically generated flat rate. Choose the least expensive shipping method, which I assume will always be flat rate.

Thank you for bearing with us as we deal with the shipping calculation issue.

Now that a few people have ordered items other than the free plant, it appears that there is something wrong with the app used to calculate shipping charges. All of the product weights are the same as on the old site, but shipping charges are considerably more. If you have ordered and paid more than the actual cost of shipping, you will receive a refund when your order ships. We are working with the website hosting company to try to correct this problem. Thank you for your patience as we debug the new website.

After more than a decade of using the old, clunky website, it’s time for a major upgrade. The new platform will provide a more modern look, a lot more efficient functionality, and some nice new features for our customers. Some of these features are secure checkout, electronic gift certificates that function seamlessly, a customer rewards program so that you can earn “Orchid Bucks” on all your orders. They are cumulative, so you can let them add up or spend them for a discount on each subsequent order.

I’ve been working on this website for quite a while now, and it seems ready to go live, but as with any new software package, there are bound to be some bugs. For that reason we will be offering a 10% discount on all orders placed over the next month using code NEWSTART. If you have problems with anything, or just want to make helpful suggestions, please let us know. Your feedback will help improve the website.