If you participated in our 'Trick or Treat' Sale, you probably noticed that the AGM website has been re-invented.
(Information on the new Order Status / Tracking system is at the bottom of this article)
  You are correct!  We have fundamentally transformed the way that the AGM website functions. Previously, on opening day of a new catalog, it could easily take 5-7 hours for us to process all of the incoming email orders. This means that if you submit an order request for something at 3:01 in the afternoon, you may very well have to wait until 8:00 or 9:00 that night to discover whether or not you were first in line for that item. Well... no longer.

With the new system, you will know instantly whether you got the item or not.  This will be especially helpful to those on a limited budget who need to make decisions based on what is or is not available - if something they want is sold, they will know right away and can move along to the next item on their list.

You will still have to wait to get a combined invoice, because it will still take us a few hours to get all of the incoming orders entered into our system, assigned correct shipping, and posted to your individual USER CP page.  However, at least you will already know for certain which items are yours, and that is the main thing.  

When you are browsing either the item list or the gallery, you will see that items are marked "Available" or "Sold." Your browser is going to refresh this data approximately once every 5 seconds, so you will have essentially a real-time live, constantly updated real time view of what is and is not available on the AGM website.
The individual item page will also display the status, and update it every 5 seconds.  If the item is sold while you are looking at it, the "buy now" button will disappear, and be replaced with "Notify me if this item becomes available."  If you really wanted the item, but were not quick enough - click that and enter your name on the list to be notified in case the first buyer does not follow through.  This will probably not help you often, as customers are strongly discouraged from reserving items and then not following through on purchases.. but I have been more diligent about taking items off of long-overdue invoices and putting them back into play recently.  If there is someone on the list for an item, they will get a chance at it before it is put out again in the "Emancipated Militaria" section.

When you click "buy now" on an item, you will be taken to a confirmation page where you will be asked to affirm that yes, you really do intend to purchase this item. If you think you might want to back out, now is the time. If your purchase intention is sincere - check the box, hit "buy" again, and assuming that nobody else has completed this process faster than you, it is yours. It has now been marked "sold" on the website.

Items that are "sold" will be removed from the website once per day automatically.  If you bought an item, though, it will still be available for you to view and enjoy.  Just go to your USER CP page and click "View My New Purchases". 

SO.. you have purchased a few items, you know that they are indeed yours, but you don't have an invoice yet?  It is true - that part will still take the same 5-7 hours for me to complete invoices, calculate postage, update the website with invoices on your USER CP page, etc.  In the meantime, feel free to continue shopping.  I will keep adding items to your invoice as you submit the orders.

Questions about Items: If you have questions, please get them answered BEFORE you hit "buy now." The best way to do this is to call. (1-800-233-1918 or 001.573.243.1833) Our ability to deal with email questions on opening day is pretty limited due to the volume of incoming orders.

PROBLEMS: We tested this system on our 'Trick or Treat Sale' to get as many customers using it at once as possible.  The positive response has been overwhelming, but three customers reported that they are experiencing difficulty.  When reading a description or viewing photos on an item page, their screen 'jumps' back to the top every time it refreshes - every 5 seconds.  Doesn't happen on any of our machines, and the website guys who even keep some Jurassic systems hanging around just for testing this sort of thing have not been able to duplicate the problem, either.  Even though only three customers have reported having this issue, that normally means that there are a few dozen more out there who just didn't say anything, and certainly more among the others who did not visit the site for the sale.  I have a solution in mind, but will not be able to test it until after Catalog 93.  SO, if you have an old computer / old operating system, and are experiencing this issue, don't worry.  We're not giving up on you.  A fix is in the works.  If you contacted us about this - thanks!  We will likely be back in touch soon to ask you to help test our solution for it.

That's the fun news.  Now for the necessary but uncomfortable stuff.  99% of our customers are sincere, straight-shooters, and none of this will apply (other than reading it just for entertainment value.)  The other 1% are typically good folks too, but might need some guidance, so here it is:

The new website system is not a 'Shopping Cart'.  Should you decide later that you bought too much, found something else that you would rather have, discovered that you already had one in your collection, etc. - backing out on items that you have agreed to purchase (and thus removed from the action) is not an act that we will view kindly.  True, we can't force you to complete a transaction.  I will not drive to your house, turn you upside-down, and shake you until enough loose coins hit the floor to successfully conclude a deal.  I did that once many years ago in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  It was unpleasant, an insufficient number of coins were recovered, I pulled a muscle, and I actually felt a little bad about the whole thing after it was over.  But that's a story for another time..  I can't prevent customers from reserving items and then backing out later.  However, I can turn dials and throw switches that will guarantee that it will only happen once.

Reserving everything of interest so that you can look the items over later and choose which ones to actually buy: This is not what the 'buy now' button is for, and honestly concern that a few people will approach the website this way is one of the primary reasons why we have resisted making the inventory 'live' on the website up until this point. This is a practice that simply cannot be allowed, and when folks try to do this, it will generate an immediate and overwhelming 'zero-tolerance' response. In these cases, ALL items will immediately go back out for sale, and the customer's account will be permanently restricted.  No exceptions.  Think about it - if everybody did this, catalogs would be complete chaos, and we would soon be out of business. Not going to let that happen.

Restricted Accounts:  We have a few customers who have made a habit out of reserving items and then not following through, taking forever to pay for items without arranging a lay-away and making a deposit, or have done other odd things that abused our good will and frayed nerves around here.  In the past we have handled that by.. well.. to be honest we simply ignored their catalog orders and did not process them until everybody else had already had their shot.  This way we minimized our exposure to their brand of chaos, but at the same time managed to avoid hurt feelings or bruised egos.  The one disadvantage of the new system is that we don't have that option anymore.  Consequently, when people do things like reserve a bunch of stuff and then call up later to tell us which ones they want and which they do not.. on future catalogs they will find that the online ordering system is not available to them.  Orders for customers with restricted accounts will need to be taken over the phone, and payment in full by credit card is required at the time of the order.  Shocking, I know.  I anticipate a few shrieks and curses, possibly a rectal prolapse or two, but guys we're running a business here.  We are as accommodating as we can possibly be, but at some point there is a limit.  If your account is restricted, don't take it personally.  We still like you - even those of you who routinely explore the limits of our generosity and understanding.  We simply must do business in a way that is in the best interest of AGM and of the 99% of the customers who play by the rules.

Reserving something for your friend so that it he won't miss it.  Dude - don't do this.  It seems like an act of kindness, but it could come back to bite you.  Let your friend succeed or fail on his own.  You are responsible to complete the transactions on items that you reserve.  If your friend informs you that he doesn't want the item that you have reserved.. then you have to decide whether you are going to follow through on your own, or 'put it back' and find that your account is no longer authorized to place online orders. 


More FUN and EXCITING changes since the last catalog: 
 
Online Status & Tracking for your AGM order.  Yes, this is one of the things that we get the most requests for, and something that we have tried unsuccessfully to provide in the past.  We had a system in place for years, but the steadily increasing number of "What is my status - do you have a tracking number??" emails that we were receiving indicated that a great many of these notifications are disappearing into spam filters. 

The new system is installed and running. The website will generate notifications for you (these seem to get through the spam filters better than emails that we send from our Filemaker system), and you will be able to track progress on your USER CP page.  For the moment, the automatic email portion of this is not really working, but we are working on that.  In the meantime, though, all you need to do is go to your USER CP page and follow the simple steps there to track your order as it works it's way through the system.  Once it is shipped, you can use the package data to track it with the carrier.

After your order has gone past the "waiting for payment" stage, there are three status icons indicating where it is: 
  In the Queue:

Your order is in that stack of invoices that we are working on, waiting to be picked and boxed.  Depending on the volume and complexity of orders in line ahead of you, your order might remain in the queue for anywhere from 1 day to 2 weeks.  We ask that customers allow 2-3 weeks for delivery.. not because it takes us that long to process your particular order, but because it can take that long to process all of the orders in line ahead of you. 

We take pride in making sure that orders are wrapped up properly.  As Anna says, though, once the item is paid for it belongs to the customer, so we make sure it is treated with an abundance of care.
   Boxed Up:

Your order is all wrapped up and ready to go out.  If it is going UPS, it is simply waiting for the next pickup.  UPS collects shipments here on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  If it is being sent via the US Postal Service, it will either be in the next batch that we take to the post office, or it has already been sent and we are in the process of hand-entering their tracking numbers.  (It is far easier for us to provide tracking data on UPS orders than the Postal Service just due to their system.. so it can take longer to get USPS data entered into your account.)
   Shipped!

Your order is in the hands of the carrier and is enroute to you.  The User CP page will have your tracking number, information on which carrier was used, a link to their website for tracking, the ship date, etc.  If there is something extra that we think you need to know about the shipment, notes will be included.  Also in the notes section are additional tracking numbers if your shipment contained multiple packages.

(Yes, that's our regular UPS driver loading your packages in front of the AGM warehouse on a nice bright day last fall!)
The other potential status is "Problem."  Hopefully you will never see this one, but it is there so that you will be informed if a credit card did not run, or if we have made some sort of error (like having trouble finding one of the items in our shelves and bins, etc.) 

I think you all are going to like this.  When you have ordered something cool, it is always nice to know when it is on the way.  We're excited about it too.  With this system, you have access to all of our data - the very same thing we would look up if you called.  Now that people can use this instead of calling, shipping should go faster because we are not stopping every 10 minutes to look up shipping data.  As they say in Vegas - "winner winner, chicken dinner!" 

AGM Insider is also nearing completion.  At long last... there is still a way to go, but this 4-year project is nearing the final testing stages.  This is another reason why AGM has not produced as many catalogs this year - we have spent a great deal of time and energy trying to push Insider over the goal line.  When the last components are finished, I will post a news article with some previews and screenshots.