Review Product Emails don't work!!!

[douglaspotts]

I was told yesterday that Weebly had an issue with the link on the Product Review emails not functioning correctly, and that it was supposed to have been fixed Wednesday night.  I was also told that the emails are generated well before the window for automatic sending, and that the emails I had trouble with (which I sent manually) didn't work.

How can I send out corrected emails to my customers??? The existing ones don't work!!!

[Bernadette3]

I'm sorry for the troubles @dbpotts Which order were you having an issue with? Do you remember when you first enabled the Reviews feature? 

[douglaspotts]

Hi Bernadette,

I have no idea which orders are affected by this, since Weebly didn't publicize it.  I really think they owe it to their users to let them know when the problem first started, and what emails it will affect.

I have no idea when I enabled reviews, but I would assume that Weebly would have a data log with that info?  If Weebly offered me a listing of what emails had been sent to whom, that would help both me and you right now.

When did this problem first start for Weebly, and for how long did it last? 

[Bernadette3]

@dbpotts

This feature was just released about 6 weeks ago. Slowly as users start to explore the option we are getting more questions coming in through support. I'll be honest I'm having some troubles trying to test it in my own account, but that is probably because I don't have many "orders" to test it on. According to tech support, once you enable the feature you no longer have the option to manually send out to NEW orders. So the manual button will only be available for orders within 30 days of hitting that enable button. However, we just tested and confirmed that if you disable the review feature, then re-enable, the system will refresh and give you the option to manually send out to orders placed within 30 days of today. Or whenever you disable/enable. Does that make sense? 

For instance, the earliest order in your account that allows for manual review is from 11/16. I'm assuming this means you enabled the feature sometime between 11/16-12/6 as your order on 12/6 does not give the option. You have your settings set to 2 weeks so that customer should have received the email on 12/20. Since you don't have any reviews yet I don't see an issue with you doing the disable/enable trick. If you want to give me some time I can run some more tests in my account to see if anything glitches by "tricking" the system in this way. 

Have you been able to confirm if any of your orders received the automated 2 week review email? Also, I see you have a test order for yourself on 11/7. I'm assuming you tried to send yourself a test email? Did you ever receive it?

[Bernadette3]

Okay, tested it out and Success! I was able to disable/enable and then send myself the manual review. Left myself a review and confirmed it showed up on the live product page (after I approved it from store settings tab). Then I disabled the review setting and checked my live page again. The review no longer showed up. I went back to settings and enabled reviews again. My original review was still there and also showed up on the product page again. Pretty neat feature! I hope this helps you sort out your issue. 

[douglaspotts]

Are you saying that if we disable, then re-enable, the reviews, that new emails will be generated?  I ask, because I was told that the emails are generated well before they are sent, and the issue is that some of the emails generated don't contain a working link.  So if disabling the reviews deleted any emails that were generated AND sent, or generated and not yet sent, then new emails will be generated, and we'll have the option of resending them?  Understand, they must be newly generated emails, created after the fix from two days ago.

Alas, even if that works, the new emails will be a duplicate, and I have no way of telling them that there was a potential problem with the previous email, and that they should try again.  What it will look like is that I'm bombarding them with emails asking for reviews...

[douglaspotts]

Hi Bernadette,

I did what you said, and the email still won't provide a usable link to review the product.

Here's the beginning of the link...you'll see that it is not an http:// link, and as such, has no way of finding the URL...

x-webdoc://5DA8B6B7-09C7-42F4-A5B4-C975E33DA14F/www.cableporter.com/store/leave-review/p55/5_......

[Bernadette3]

Where did you get that information from? Was it a test email you sent yourself or did the customer forward to you? 

[Bernadette3]

@dbpotts

Hey! I got the email your sent, but I am able to click on the link and leave a review....

Do you want me to leave the review so you can see that it shows up? What's strange is the email is a gmail email and that's what I use. So we can't even assume it is the email client messing up the link... Did you or Dwight click on the button that says "Write a review"?

[Bernadette3]

Wait. I apologize. Unless you are saying that the link from the email works, but the review page won't let the Submit button go through? 

[douglaspotts]

Hi Bernadette,

So when you said it worked for you, I went into Gmail from my browser, rather than from my Mac Mail application, and it worked for me as well.  So, I did some research.

It appears that the link being generated is actually the x-webdoc:// link, but some mail clients can handle it well (interpreting it into an http:// link), while some, specifically Mac Mail, cannot.  You were able to use it from within your browser (i'm assuming).

Do you have an email client that you can use other than your browser?  I'm curious as to whether or not the link is actually an x-webdoc:// link or not.  Can you open the mail from within Microsoft Mail or Mac Mail, and right click the link, and then save it, then paste the link into an email back to me, so that I can see what the link looks like from within your client?

[Bernadette3]

Interesting! That is definitely good information to have. Thank you for doing some research to figure that out. I do have Mac Mail on my desktop, but I have not configured it yet. I may need our IT guy to set permissions, but once I am able to test it out for you I'll let you know. 

[Bernadette3]

Nope. Doesn't work with my Mac Mail either. 

Sending you a message with the link..

I'm going into my weekend, but I'll see if I can test out some other email clients like Outlook, etc. Thanks again for bringing this to our attention. 

[douglaspotts]

Hi Bernadette,

Here's an article on why you shouldn't use Protocol Relative URL's in email campaigns.

https://geek.michaelgrace.org%2F2015%2F06%2Fdo-not-use-protocol-relative-url-in-email-campaigns%2F&u...

The method chosen has essentially prevented 15% of users the ability to leave a review, since the link in the email is the only way they can do so.

[Adam7]

Thanks for the extra info, @dbpotts. I've opened a ticket with our engineers about this.

[douglaspotts]

Hi Adam,

Any info on this?

[Adam7]

This should be fixed for anything sent out after about Jan 3rd. Are you still seeing it, @dbpotts?

[deckerpair]

I enabled this feature just over 2 weeks ago and it's not working for me.  I sent myself the test email and I received it but the Review button is dead.  I manually sent to a recent customer and they tried yesterday but when they hit submit they just get a spinning circle.

Can you help please?

Rhonda

[Bernadette3]

Hi Rhonda. As far as I know the test email is meant to give you an idea of the layout/style of the email and won't have an active link. Which order number did you send the review out to? I can definitely look into this further for you.

Do I also have permission to create a zero dollar test product? I think the manual option has been removed, but in case it's still there we can do a mock order.