Please change from "waiting" to "sold"

[nichewriter]

To CC staff:

Well, I'm trying it here -- 2 days ago I contacted support about changing the status of 2 of my articles from "waiting" to "sold" since I have received payment for them. Oddly, even though my regular buyer bought those 2 articles, the articles still remain in "waiting" status (have been for more than a couple of weeks I think). I got an immediate reply from CC support named Basil: "They have all been archived and sold. The status is so that they will stay archived. The money has been transfered to your account, I'm not sure any changes are necessary." -- I think he missed the point of my request to change the status, and I replied right away but so far, those articles are still showing as "waiting" when I go to my account. His reply baffles me because I've made a similar request in the past and it was done; not sure why I got the response I did from Basil.

Anyway, hope a CC staff sees this and makes the adjustment. And thanks for the timely payment! Happy weekend!

Best,
Sherry

[JD]

Can I add to this, please, because I am in the same boat. I have five articles that sold sometime ago and they're still showing as "waiting". I emailed Support last week about this (it was a follow-up to an email I sent querying an article that was "waiting" and hadn't yet sold), and my message was misunderstood. Looking at my content now I see that one article is "waiting" (correct), while five others are also "waiting" (incorrect, as these articles have sold). The titles of the five articles that have sold were listed in an email to support dated June 23, 2010.

Many thanks.

Jane

[Amy W]

A couple of months ago, I had the same problem. I emailed Support, and I received the same response from Basil - that sometimes Support used the waiting status to archive an article. I didn't really understand the point behind that - why wouldn't they just use the sold status to archive an article? - but the status changed by the next day, so I left it alone. Now I'm in the same boat as the both of you - another article listed as waiting when I've already been paid for it. I'm just assuming it's some sort of technical glitch. It's not a huge deal to me - as long as I'm paid, I'm happy - but it would make it easier to keep track of articles if the status was accurate.

[nichewriter]

...but it would make it easier to keep track of articles if the status was accurate.

Yup, that was the point I was trying to make to Basil when I explained to him why I wanted the status changed from "waiting" to "sold', but I never got a response and my articles are still in "waiting" status.

[Evelyn]

What I love about this site is that there are real people doing the writing, people you can talk to on the forums or just "hear" through the voices in the articles. Real people with real lives! Not puked out repetitive sounds the same as the last article I read copy pasted garbage. Whew! Good writers who care about the language and teaching readers. Great concept.

To back up those real writers, we have real support people: There really is an Ed, and a David, and now Basil (Hi, Basil!), and many others who have not been named yet. They are really real and send real emails and try to actually be helpful. When you work on the Internet you start to think that everything is instant, but around here it's just not that way. And that is a very good thing.

I know the posters in this thread (and many others) aren't sitting there fretting about me, me, they're just adding comments to an original concern. We aren't whining or whinging. (Did I spell that right?) I just wanted to throw in a little pat on the back and understanding for the real people who really read our emails, hundreds every day, I'd guess. We'll get our answers/solutions in good time, and those folks will hug their kids and cats a little every day just like we writers do.

I wonder about the ratio of active writers to active support people... That would be interesting to know. Hey, Support, if you have time, tell us how many of you there are!

[JD]

CC: I need to make an amendment to the details I posted about this issue, please: It's six, not five, articles I need changed. The articles are listed between the dates 2009/11/04 - 2009/06/01 in the "Posted On" column in "My Content."

Thank you!

Jane

[BerryMac]

I wish I could say that the articles I have as "waiting" have been sold..but they haven't. They're in limbo, presumably forgotten in someone's cart. How frustrating - to get excited, thinking I was going to FINALLY have a sale (three, in fact!) but I guess I was mistaken.

I too would be interesting in finding out how many "support" people there are to writers!

Rebecca

[JD]

Bad luck, Rebecca. I don't think mine is going to sell either. I suppose it's difficult for CC to strike the right balance between giving the customer due time to consider and complete the sale, and releasing the article back so that we don't miss out on any potential future sale - or get too frustrated in the process! Next time, eh.

Cheers,

Jane

[BerryMac]

Jane,
I guess so. I'll just keep plugging away, and give support an email in a few days so I can get those articles released from the person's cart.

What are the chances that a reminder email from support will actually result in a sale? Wishful thinking on my part?

Rebecca

[JD]

Might be worth a shot. Good luck anyway.

Jane

[nichewriter]

I sent a fourth request to support to change the status of those two articles I have from "waiting" to "sold". I don't know what happened to my previous requests -- they were either ignored or they're in a black hole somewhere and didn't reach support.

To Jane, Amy, and Rebecca:
Do you still have your articles showing as "waiting" instead of "sold"(or in someone's cart)?

~Sherry

[BerryMac]

No, my three articles were released back into general sale shortly after I emailed support for the second time.

Rebecca

[Amy W]

Yep, mine's still shown as waiting. It sold for full rights, so its not like I need it released back into the general article pool. I'd just like the status to reflect the actual status of the article - that way, I can keep track of my articles. Guess I'll send another email off to Support. That's the one downside of CC, in my opinion - contacting Support is sometimes hit or miss.

Sherry - maybe fourth time's the charm?

[Constant]

To all those with 'waiting' status on their articles. Please stop emailing support. There are two causes for this labeling: a) if a customer puts an article in his/her cart and doesn't complete the sale, it sits there for a week and then we remove it b) a naming glitch occurs with some sales (very few sales) and the system archives the sale as 'waiting' as opposed to 'sold.' This is not a cause for concern. If you know the article has been sold, please do not worry about what category it has been logged under, all that is important is that it has been archived and is no longer viewable on the site. If it is a record keeping thing, please make a note of it and move on. It is time consuming to go through everyone's account and change statuses when there is really no need, and support is already swamped with making sure new authors find their way around the site, dealing with customers concerns so that sales are completed and followed up, and the day-to-day running of a site with thousands of clients and hundreds of articles moving through our system each day.

We appreciate your hard work and your patience.

Cheers,

David Kool

[nichewriter]

David,

Thanks for replying to this thread. Since I'm the one who started this thread, I'd like to apologize. I try to keep my contact with CC to a minimum, which was why I have spaced my attempts at contacting support every 2 or so weeks about this matter.

Just for the record, though, I've had articles in the past that sat for more than a week on waiting status and they were never released back to the public pool. I've had to contact support for this. The next time this happens, am I supposed to simply let articles sit in waiting status unsold until a CC staff notices the anomaly and releases them? I certainly understand that you and the rest of the CC staff have your hands full, but I also would like to be able to maximize my chances of selling my articles here; if they aren't being released back automatically after a week...

Also, I've taken note of those two articles that have sold but remain in waiting status. I'm happy to move on, as you suggested. I'd like to mention that articles in waiting status, although sold and archived, don't appear to be counted in an author's total published articles.

Best,
Sherry