Hi everyone - I just wanted to let you know that we discovered a little problem with our email system this morning. First, the good news: the problem is solved now! I’ve been sending test emails from our site, and we’ve received them all.
The bad news is: if you sent an email to us between yesterday evening and earlier this morning, we may not have gotten it. If you didn’t get an auto-response back from your email, that means it didn’t go through.
So, if you sent us an email and you don’t hear from us, please send it again. You can use this form on our site to contact us. Sorry for any inconvenience!
Hey everyone! As I announced, eWallet sync is out and it’s going really well. For most folks it’s a simple process and is working like a charm. Of course as one would expect with the number of folks we have upgrading right now, some people are running into some problems. Fortunately, most of these are pretty easily fixed.
So if you’re one of the folks who are having some trouble, read on. I’ve got some easy fixes, and if you’re still having trouble let us know via our support lines! We’ll get you up and running.
Quick And Easy Problem Solving!
Before I go into details on various issues, let me give you the top ways we’ve helped people solve their problems so far!
Make Sure You Run Sync on the Device: If you want to synchronize, you need to start sync on both the device AND on the desktop. A lot of times folks have hit sync on the desktop but not in eWallet on the device. We do it this way for security reasons I’ll address in a future post. You can find detailed step-by-step instructions for doing this under Help->eWallet Tutorials on the desktop or in the Help file that installs with the desktop software.
Make Sure You’ve Installed eWallet 6.1.2 on the Desktop and Device: You need the very latest version of eWallet in both places to make sync work. The iPhone update will show up under updates in the App Store. You can download the latest desktop version of eWallet here. It’s a free upgrade if you own eWallet 6.0+ (it will auto-register when you install it) and $9.95 if you are adding it on or upgrading ( get it at the discounted price here if you already own 5.0 or less or are adding on.)
Create a Partnership With the Phone: Before you can start synching you have to create a partnership in eWallet between your phone and the desktop version. You only have to do this the first time you sync. After that you just sync. There are a number of reasons for doing it this way, security in particular, but I’ll talk about that in a later post. For now, if you have trouble setting up the partnership, check out the step-by-step instructions in eWallet on the desktop (Help->eWallet Tutorials) or the help doc on the desktop for detailed instructions.
Reinstall Bonjour: We’ve found that some folks need to reinstall Bonjour. You can get Bonjour here. It may ask you if you want to do a repair installation. If so, say yes!
Delete and Re-create the Partnership: Stop any wallets from synching with the iPhone using Setup under Synchronize on the desktop. Then, still in setup, remove the phone from the list of sync locations. Now recreate the partnership with the phone.
Close eWallet on Both Sides and Try Again: A simple one but you’d be surprised at how often this fixes things!
This may or may not solve the problems you are having, but so far we’ve found that one of these resolves most of the issues folks are having. Of course if you’re still having trouble you can always contact us. That’s what we’re here for.
Specific Questions and Problems
I called/sent an email! When will you get back to me?
We hope that no one will wait more than one business day for a reply. The response to this new release has been TREMENDOUS. We’ve got folks working non-stop here just fulfilling desktop add-on phone orders (yep - we still get a lot of orders by phone!) So if you don’t get a response right away, know that we’re plugging away and hope to get back to you as soon as we can!
If you want to speed up response/solution time, make sure to include the following info:
Version of Windows you are running (and is it running on a Mac)
If Vista, are you using UAC
Are you on a commercial/work network, or a home network
Are you using AdHoc wifi to connect
Is your phone Jailbroken.
Why don’t my pictures and custom icons sync?
Unfortunately, eWallet hasn’t ever done image synching and iPhone is no exception. The original reason (for Windows Mobile/Palm) was sync speed and device memory. These aren’t issues with the iPhone so we are working on this for a future release.
It keeps saying the wallet doesn’t exist and asks if I want to create it!
This one is a puzzler and we’re working on it. We haven’t seen it here nor have our beta testers. We’re trying to replicate it and if you’ve seen this problem, please email us. We’d love any additional input folks have! In at least one case, trying some of the Quick and Easy steps solved the problem but I’m afraid it didn’t tell us why someone might run into it. The good news (to anyone who hasn’t seen it) is that the problem is pretty rare. The bad news is that this makes it tricky to diagnose!
UPDATE 9-10-8: Matt, one of our developers here, figured out why this happens! He is working on it as we speak! We’ll keep you updated!
Ahh! I updated but my wallets are gone!
In theory, Apple should be handling the updates in a way that this won’t happen. This is one ball that is firmly in the Apple court though. The good news is that normally this doesn’t happen. IF it does happen, try restoring your device. iTunes is supposed to be backing up even the data files when you sync to iTunes.
It can’t find my iPhone but I’m connected!
Again, for some folks the Quick and Easy steps did the trick but for a couple it didn’t. One of the most common secondary problems is a network using subnets. In simple terms, it’s like driving in the Express lane on a highway with a Local/Express split. You’re both going the same speed on the same road in the same direction but there is a wall between you. Another common problem is that the Firewall is blocking the connection. To see if this is the issue, try turning off the Firewall (temporarily) just to see if that makes any difference. (It will be good for support to know you tried this if you’re still having trouble!)
Oh - And one thing one of our posters here reminded me (Thanks M!). Although I don’t usually give ANY Firewall settings advice, he mentioned that in the Vista built-in settings there is an Exceptions tab where you can check to allow eWallet through! Might help folks with this problem!
OK! I’m going back to help with answering emails. Hopefully this will help some of the people who have run into challenges. If not, let us know!
So here we are, fielding hundreds and hundreds of email questions, desktop software requests, and much more, and guess what happens?
The email server dies.
Again.
OK, to be fair it didn’t die on Monday. It just went down for awhile which put us behind on our email responses. Today, however, the thing finally went belly up. Although we didn’t lose any emails UPDATE: It looks like we COULD have lost some emails if they came in between 12AM ET and 8AM ET. If you think you may have emailed us during that period you might want to resend!
We are working hard to get replies out to everyone in a timely fashion. Fortunately, the trouble on Monday got us moving in the “Get a replacement, STAT!” direction, so recovery won’t be too bad.
The bad part is that email replies will likely be slower than usual, and we’re very sorry about that. We pride ourselves on quick email turn-around, and this is just the sort of thing that makes us crazy. We’re even bringing in a temp to help get things rolling again, so hopefully we’ll get to everyone before the weekend!
In the meantime, if you haven’t heard from us yet, at least you know why. And if it’s an emergency, remember that you can always give us a call!
Last week we had a glitch with our anniversary discount for users wanting to pay with PayPal, and with everything going on, it took us a little while to notice. We were shocked at how many orders this affected, especially when we realized that exactly two people told us about it.
I know that when I run across a problem, especially when ordering something online, I try to at least email someone at the company to let them know. But, then again, by nature I am a “fixer”. (I guess my job in Support is a natural fit, eh?) The results of my contact with companies are pretty much a mixed bag, everything from no response at all, to the occasional automated reply that has nothing to do with my original email, but more often I’ll get a real response from someone who is at least trying to correct the problem.
Overall, do you expect a low level of service or response? Or is it that you feel it’s pointless to complain? We really try to do better than that, and I hope we are succeeding.
No, seriously, wouldn’t you? I’m talking about finding out when we have iPhone or Blackberry versions of our software available. You don’t need to keep checking our blog every day (although we appreciate the visits, and the enthusiasm!) waiting for an update - we can notify you as soon as we have something ready.
All you need to do is fill out this form to tell us who you are and what you’re waiting for. That’s it! We’ll let you know when we have software available for your device.
Sascha Segan, of PC Magazine, wrote a great column called Pay Now or Pay Later. He points out the real costs of buying low-cost electronics, including
“hidden charges, shoddy products, lousy tech support, a poisoned environment, lost U.S. jobs, and starving workers … the loss of things like customer service, reliability, durability, and flexibility”
and says that
“the relentless cost-cutting brought on by a culture where low prices are the ultimate goal has led to the complete demise of tech support, the most labor-intensive part of the tech process and one that’s invisible in advertisements and on shelves.”
Hi everyone - I just wanted to let you know that we discovered a little problem with our email system this morning. First, the good news: the problem is solved now! I’ve been sending test emails from our site, and we’ve received them all.
No, seriously, wouldn’t you? I’m talking about finding out when we have iPhone or Blackberry versions of our software available. You don’t need to keep checking our blog every day (although we appreciate the visits, and the enthusiasm!) waiting for an update - we can notify you as soon as we have something ready.
Sascha Segan, of PC Magazine, wrote a great column called