Confusing search engine on Epps' website

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We have been over this issue several times on the GunNutz boards, and yet it still seems that our website is drawing more fire. The upside is that this sort of thread does bring more traffic to our site! LoL

I have posted this walk-thru for our website on a few previous complaint boards such as this. For the most part, the majority of people who take the time to learn how our new site works -- and works for them -- have found that it is far more user-friendly than they first gave it credit. Unfortunately, there will always be detractors, and those who think they can do so much better. But for the time being this is our website, and from a store point of view, it seems to be working quite well for us.

Take a look at the walkthru I have posted below, and see if that does not help you out, and maybe change a few minds in the process.

Surfing through our website is now far easier than it was before. Let me show you:

Typing the name of a firearm into the Search window will seek out any listing that has a common arrangement of letters anywhere in the description. Therefor searching for KEL or TEC will bring up any listing with those three-letter combinations in the text.

Instead of searching that way, try one of these two methods:

First Method


Select the HUNTING tab at the top of the main page, then select FIREARMS from the drop-down menu. When the next screen appears, you can start your search by selecting the SORT BY menu at the top of the listing, then by choosing any of available options:

POSITION
NAME
PRICE
DATE ADDED <--- choose this option for this example
MAKE
MODEL
ACTION
CALIBRE
ITEM NUMBER
LEGAL CLASSIFICATION
SOLD
CONDITION

For this demonstration we will select DATE ADDED.

To the immediate right of the menu selection there is a small arrow. If the arrow is pointing UP, the list is populated with the oldest firearms to enter our inventory positioned at the top of the first page. If the arrow is pointing DOWN, the list is populated with the most recently added firearms to enter our inventory positioned upon the first page.

You can repeat this search using any of the options in the drop-down menu as you see fit.

Second Method


If you wish to search for a specific manufacturer, or firearm, or calibre, use the ADVANCED SEARCH option.

At the top right-hand corner of each web page there is a marker entitled ADVANCED SEARCH. Upon clicking this marker, a new page is provided where you can streamline your search for any specific item you are seeking.

While there is no separation between New and Used firearms (with "Used" as a specific term), you can select used guns only by finding the FIREARM CONDITION window and selecting as many options there as you wish. Simply hold down the SHIFT key on your keyboard, then click those options you see fit for your search. [Screenshot below]

You may add as many or as few details to your search as you require (ie: Make, Model, Calibre, etc), however once you back out of a search, those fields are not stored in memory, and must be reentered each time. This is a bit of a sticking point for some customers, and we do have our website developer working on a solution, but for the moment this is still a far better search option than our previous website provided.

I hope this helps you navigate our site. Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns!
 
search engine is great for when your "educated & researched" about sepending your money, but for those impulse "MasterCard just raised my credit limit" purchasers not the best. pics would be a nice addition for those ppl

just my 2 cents
 
another problem with the site, you dont know what brands are in stock (besides the small, limited selection of brands on the side bar)

I cant search for smaller brands I never heard of, if they were in a list (like before) you can at least check them out

I think if you fix this, 99% of complaints will stop, instead of just searching people will have the option of picking a specific brand and getting all the guns under the brand, list the one off's in "other"

I hope this helps you navigate our site. Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns!
 
it takes some getting use to for sure. still great service and prices. I just wish they had pictures of the used stock. Time to upgrade their site again I think.
 
In this day and age you need to write out instructions for people to be able to navigate your website, then your site is too cumbersome and people will avoid it. An easy to navigate, attractive web page would pay for itself pretty quickly. It does suck.
 
Cut them some slack, they just have some data issues. I work in IT for over 25 years, and I can tell you even big corporations (like > 40,000 employees) have the same problem with data. It is not that difficult to fix, just have to spend the time (read $$) to do it right, and tighten the process to prevent crappy data from entering the system. Computer is dumb, it does not know "KEL TEC", "kel-tec", and "Kel-Tec" are the same, unless you program in case conversion in the queries, or better yet store unique brand names in a reference table. Well but then again this is a gun forum, not an IT forum.
 
The way the old site worked you could pick the new arrivals out easy,I bought used guns off them,there description on the phone was good ,bought 3pistols,the pistols came in way better shape than described.Now I just avoid the site
 
Take a look at the walkthru I have posted below, and see if that does not help you out, and maybe change a few minds in the process.

...

Thank you for these clarifications. I tried them and I think they help, although there is still room for improvement.

I don't see anybody here trying to put you guys down; on a contrary, I see that people who are eager to continue to be your customers need your help in doing this.

Three suggestions:

1. Display all makes you sell at any point not only the main 12. Many people mentioned here that they do not know what makes you have, in order to be able to search for items. Today, for instance, you have 3299 firearms for sale but someone would have to browse through 33 pages at 100 items/page to see what makes you have. If you then link under each make its respective items it would be even better.

2. Provide on your website a Help menu or just Q&As that would include instructions like the ones you provided here.

3. Please, ask your web developer to `polish` the search engine. For instance, I arranged the 3299 items by make and then I selected `Type: Handgun` on the left menu to look at the 796 items there: it searched for 10 minutes before I gave up.

Otherwise, good luck with your good store in Orillia!
 
Worst website ever .... Hear good things about them .... But I'll never buy anything from there cause ill probably never find it!
 
I've found the majority of the sites at the top difficult to browse, slow, lacking photos, minimal description etc #### some wont respond to inquiries to purchase??????
 
It probably is an effective back-end inventory management tool for staff once they've been trained how to use it. But not a very user friendly site for people wanting to use the site to purchase. *shrug*
 
1. Category- MAKE,
You have listing for Hi Point firearms, but not for Smith Wesson, SIG, CZ, Glock... etc?
How about adding more listings for most popular handgun makers, as opposed to mostly hunting firearms?

2. Category- TYPE- handgun- got 770 results
Baikal MP-153 HARDWOODS HD CAMO $599.00 Semi-Automatic 12 GA X 3 1/2" is listed as handgun.

3. Category- CALIBRE GROUP
- medium size game
- big game
- small shotgun
- large shotgun
- small handgun
- large handgun
- etc...

Large handgun, and small handgun... just amazing.
As if it was written by CFO bureaucrat, or someone with zero firearms knowledge.

Who is the voice of wisdom in the store who gets to decide which handgun is small enough to fit in 'small' handgun category, or which one is large enough to merit consideration in 'large' handgun group?

Small shotgun---- large shotgun... you got to be kidding us here.

How about listing all calibres, instead of amateurish firearm descriptions?

Have you guys had a chance to look at Wanstalls Online, SFRC, Wolverine, Frontier and various other sites?

None of those require owners manual, or day course in order to be able and qualified to purchase firearms from their respective web sites.

It is becoming obvious that Epps has enough customers, they do not care if website is an absolute disaster, and they are unwilling to spend enough money to hire skilled web designer.
 
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