Help with resolving Miva store problem!

[Tracy]

I need some help fixing some serious problems with my Miva 4.24 store. Viking Coders attempted an install yesterday and in the process they made a complete mess of our store. Somehow they deleted all of the interface images (headers, top & side navigation) and when I try to re-upload them, they do not show up. Does anyone know of a way to get these images to appear? I'm not sure if Viking Coders caused these errors in the Miva admin screen, or when they had FTP access to our server. Here is a link to the store: http://www.premiernutrition.com/Merc...EMIERNUTRITION
Our store has been for days now, and any help is much appreciated!
Thanks,
Tracy

[wcw]

Re: Help with resolving Miva store problem!

You said your store has been down for days? What was installed yesterday to try to fix that, but was unsuccessful?

[Tracy]

Re: Help with resolving Miva store problem!

Thank you for your reply. It was a Viking Coders custom UPS shipping module which shouldn't have caused any of the errors it did! They have provided horrible customer service, and now I'm spending my whole Saturday fixing their mess! I think I've figured how to resolve all of the problems, now I just have to replace all of the content that they deleted.

[wcw]

Re: Help with resolving Miva store problem!

I don't see how that could have affected anything except the shipping selection drop down. Interesting.

[ILoveHostasaurus]

Re: Help with resolving Miva store problem!

I've never seen that issue result from their installing UPS Custom and we've had hundreds of customers purchase that module. Are the missing images the ones that make up the admin interface like the arrows, etc.? I can send those to you for a version 4 store if that's all that is missing.

[Tracy]

Re: Help with resolving Miva store problem!

David,
I've had a Miva store for years and I've never had problems like the ones that were caused by Viking Coders. I can't even imagine how they managed to create such problems while installing a shipping module, but they were the only ones who had access to our server & Miva admin at the time the problems occurred. The only reason I was even having them do a re-install was because the original module we had purchased from them 2 years ago suddenly stopped working and the only way I could get my store back up and running was to re-purchase a module I didn't want anyway.
They provided horrible customer service. Even though I told them about all of these problems, they still did not make any attempt to help resolve them and as a result our store was down for 5 days. Viking Coders and their faulty module has cost our company thousands of dollars in lost sales, and I've spent hours today restoring the mess they've made.

[Tracy]

Re: Help with resolving Miva store problem!

David,
Sorry, I forgot to thank you for your reply to my post and your offer to provide missing images. It wasn't the admin images, it was all of the images I had created to make the custom look on the store, as well as a whole list of other content (headers, footers, storefront message, buttons, text formatting, etc.) that were missing.
Thanks,
Tracy

[wcw]

Re: Help with resolving Miva store problem!

The only reason I was even having them do a re-install was because the original module we had purchased from them 2 years ago suddenly stopped working and the only way I could get my store back up and running was to re-purchase a module I didn't want anyway.

I can't imagine anything they did that caused the problem. By your statement above it sounds like something was happening several days ago. That could have been a corruption in any of the Merchant databases. While the dBaseIII databases in 4x are fairly reliable, they are not 100% trouble free. You may have had a corruption that cascaded through several databases until it became noticeable.

I suppose if an inexperienced person switched the User Interface between MMUI and OpenUI you could have seen massive loss of headers/footers/etc. But you don't appear to have OpenUI, so that is not the issue.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: Help with resolving Miva store problem!

Sorry Tracy, this doesn't track. Installing a retail module in your store will not cause images to go missing. Its tempting to think that the problem is because of the last person who touched it...and it may be...but as David pointed out as well, its VERY unlikely that Viking caused it. And since you really didn't provide much detail, there is little others can do to assist. Trust me, I've been associated with technical support for over 20 years, and whenever someone says "they didn't do anything" they end up being wrong. I say this not to "brow-beat" you, but to get you to focus on fixing the problem and not blaming anyone--including yourself.

This doesn't really track:
"The only reason I was even having them do a re-install was because the original module we had purchased from them 2 years ago suddenly stopped working and the only way I could get my store back up and running was to re-purchase a module I didn't want anyway."

How did it stop working? Why did it need to be replaced instead of "fixed" (i.e., settings changed). Why wasn't the module just deactivated if you didn't "want it anyway".

[eMediaSales]

Re: Help with resolving Miva store problem!

Hi Tracy,

Based on our ticketing system - I don't even think we've done the re-installation yet. I'm also curious about the comment that you don't want it - if you don't want our UPS Custom integration, you can make it inactive and we'll certainly refund the install you purchased Thursday night.

There's a lot of good tips above, maybe a good step will be to see if your host can restore you back to a known good point. Then pack your store and domain.

Best,
James

[Tracy]

Re: Help with resolving Miva store problem!

Hi James,
Thank you for replying to my post. Actually someone from Viking Coders must have installed the module files on our server because they couldn't have come from anywhere else. Unfortunately, our host didn't backup our server, so they were unable to restore the missing files. I didn't want to continue using your UPS custom integration because it stopped working properly and it wasn't offering us any features that I couldn't accomplish with the basic Miva UPS module. I tried to deactivate it last week and when our Miva store wouldn't allow me to deactivate it (kept saying it was in use, even though I had deleted all orders & baskets), I went into the server and deleted the 2 files for your module. When I did that, the store gave me an error and wouldn't allow me to change the shipping module at all. Miva said that the only way I could deactivate your module was to re-install it, so I could deactivate it properly. That is the only reason I purchased your module again. I just needed to get our store back online.
I do find it hard to believe that an install would cause all of the errors that occurred, but nothing else was being done to our store in the meantime, and no one else besides me had access. I watched for progress on our web server & store all day on Friday, and everything was the same until late afternoon when I found your files back on the server. It may be a coincidence, but I find it seems odd that errors like this would occur unless someone was doing something to the files associated with the store.
I've spent hours last night and today restoring all of the missing images & content. I'm not even able to activate your UPS module (as it still isn't working), and I have my store finally back up and running using the Miva UPS module. I appreciate you refunding our purchase.
Thanks,
Tracy

[eMediaSales]

Re: Help with resolving Miva store problem!

Hi James,
Thank you for replying to my post. Actually someone from Viking Coders must have installed the module files on our server because they couldn't have come from anywhere else. ... I have my store finally back up and running using the Miva UPS module. I appreciate you refunding our purchase.
Thanks,
Tracy

Ben had logged in and put the module files back in place for you - that's all. Please put in the refund request via our helpdesk, so it's tracked.

If I were you I'd switch hosts - yesterday!

Best,
James

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: Help with resolving Miva store problem!

Hi James,
Thank you for replying to my post. Actually someone from Viking Coders must have installed the module files on our server because they couldn't have come from anywhere else. Unfortunately, our host didn't backup our server, so they were unable to restore the missing files. I didn't want to continue using your UPS custom integration because it stopped working properly and it wasn't offering us any features that I couldn't accomplish with the basic Miva UPS module. I tried to deactivate it last week and when our Miva store wouldn't allow me to deactivate it (kept saying it was in use, even though I had deleted all orders & baskets), I went into the server and deleted the 2 files for your module. When I did that, the store gave me an error and wouldn't allow me to change the shipping module at all. Miva said that the only way I could deactivate your module was to re-install it, so I could deactivate it properly. That is the only reason I purchased your module again. I just needed to get our store back online.
I do find it hard to believe that an install would cause all of the errors that occurred, but nothing else was being done to our store in the meantime, and no one else besides me had access. I watched for progress on our web server & store all day on Friday, and everything was the same until late afternoon when I found your files back on the server. It may be a coincidence, but I find it seems odd that errors like this would occur unless someone was doing something to the files associated with the store.
I've spent hours last night and today restoring all of the missing images & content. I'm not even able to activate your UPS module (as it still isn't working), and I have my store finally back up and running using the Miva UPS module. I appreciate you refunding our purchase.
Thanks,
Tracy

...and, yet another one. Don't mean to keep picking on you, but this is classic (and I think you owe an apology to Viking/Emedia).

Deleting the files of a module that is still installed WILL cause your store to stop functioning AND its something YOU did, though you claimed before you did nothing. As for why the images are gone...I'm going with the logical guess that you deleted them as well.