Alternative Credit Card Processor

Due to the large number of failed payments through paypal and the number of customer complaints, we've now added credit card processing through nochex as an alternative payment method. Nochex, like paypal offers users the chance to pay for their order by simply entering their credit card details. There's no requirement to have an account with them and the process is pretty simple. We've kept the paypal option there for those who prefer it, and we still encourage customers to use it as paypal's fees to us are a little less than those charged by nochex.
In the next few weeks we'll also be able to offer customers the option to pay for website orders over the telephone, and a few weeks after that we'll be implementing a full telephone ordering service where we'll be able to fully process orders by phone.
For existing customers nothings changed and all the options previously there are still available with a few extras. :-)

Bridal Gems - Wedding Fair Tour 2007

From spring 2007 we plan to take our jewellery and accessories collection on the road, with the Bridal Gems website expanding all the time it seems like a natural step in our evolution.

The venues and dates have not been decided yet and we'll be starting small with just a few locations, but if things go as expected we'll expand to cover more and more venues.

As we get confirmed dates and venues I'll post them here.

Connection problems

We have noticed today that some customers trying to access www.bridalgems.co.uk are having trouble connecting to the site. We're investigating the problem, but at this time our server is working fine and it would appear the problem is somewhere on route between the bt broadband connection and the server. We'll keep an eye on this and hopefully it will resolve soon.

UK Wedding Forum

I'm not to sure how I should start this post, the UK Wedding Forum is at last back on line. The forum, which was successfully running for a few years was lost back in April because of a server failure. We have finally re-built the forum and users can now register again and start chatting. It's obviously going to take a while to get our user base built up again, but if you fancy being there at the birth of a new forum get logged on and register, it's free with no catches. We're also happy to have business users on there promoting their services, the only thing we ask is that they don't pretend to be customers and are up front about their interests.

Mid Summer Madness

Well, July hasn't really held any surprises for us, this year like every other is just as crazy. The little notes with the orders, "I'm getting married next week, will my tiara be here on time", still put a smile on my face. It's not the last minute buying that amuses me, but the sudden realization that it's real people in real situations we're dealing with, and not just an order number on a screen. It's sometimes easy to forget that we're not just selling any old piece of jewellery, and the tiara or sparkling necklace is part of a girls dream, that she's probably had since a child. So not only does the influx of "urgent" orders keep us burning the midnight oil, it also gives us a good old dose of reality. Thankfully we can usually get the orders out on time, and so long as we know the deadline we normally make it.

Order Status Explained

I just though I'd take a moment and explain the different payment status notices sent to customers and found when you login to your account. The payment status is either set automatically by the site or manually by the person dealing with your order, below I've listed the most common settings.

Processing:
This is when we have received your order and your payment but have not yet posted your order, this will either have been set automatically for credit card and paypal customers or manually when we've receive a cheque or bank transfer.

Pending:
Pending is used for orders awaiting bank transfer payment, awaiting cheque clearance or if there's a problem with an order that needs our attention. This status is also set for a short time for returned orders until we manually update it.

Awaiting Payment:
Pretty much explains itself, we are awaiting a cheque or postal order for the order.

Posted:
Your order is on it's way, once set to this there should also be a Royal Mail tracking number in the comments box.

Preparing [Paypal IPN]:
Once you select paypal as your chosen payment method, this status is set, this is automatically updated to processing once we receive payment, if your order remains at this status then payment has not been received.

Cancelled:
If no payment is received, we manually cancel all orders, paypal order are usually cancelled in a few hours and cheque orders about 10 days, if we receive payment for a cancelled order we return it to processing provided we still have the stock to fill it.

Returned:
This denotes an order has been returned and refunded in full partly returned orders retain the Posted status.

Delivery Problem:
Used in the unlikely event an order gets lost in the post or is damage in transit.

There are a few others but they're used mainly for testing and internal order processing, if you see a different status to your order you should contact us to see what it is. You can view your order status by logging in to your account here Wedding Shop