Recurring Orders - what does this frequency mean to you?

General Chat
#1

Hey everyone,

I’m here again making a really high quality post. It’s got a poll in it though so I hope the Joy of Polling can forgive my “using the community to solve my real life problems” factor.

I’m having a bit of a dispute about what a websites “recurring order” means in practice, would love to see some outside opinions to either validate mine or tell me I’m wrong.

Scenario: You are doing your bi-monthly pet-food shop, for your needy, but adorable feline friend. You see that his favourite food can now be ordered on a recurring basis! Joy!

When you go to add the food to your shopping basket - and you’re met with this interface:

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You enter a date about a week ahead in the box, and select your frequency, so it looks like this:

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Add to your basket, check out, pay, happy days.

**You’ve now got a recurring order set up - how do you expect it to work?:

What orders will you receive?
  • The first delivery on the date selected, and then again in 60 days.
  • The first order now, then again every 60 days.
  • The first order now, another on the date selected, then every 60 days.

0 voters

Interested to see what people think - feeling a bit wound up by the company and their response - so trying to see if I’m the difficult one or not. And hey it’s Saturday and It’s not like I can go to the pub.

For the record, I believe that it should be Option 1, but the company seem to think it’s “Now, Date Selected, Then repeats”

1 Like
#2

Tell them they are wrong.

5 Likes
#3

I’m with you on A.

The second option doesn’t make sense. You’re already telling them how often you want it.

1 Like
#4

So you get 60 days worth on Monday, 60 days worth on Tuesday, and then again every 60 days?

#5

They seem to think it’s a totally logical thing to send me the same cat food, twice in three days. I’ve got enough food in now for about 8 months!

Gutenberg (the cat) is expecting double meals for the forseeable I think!

3 Likes
#6

The internet demands the obligatory cat tax!

1 Like
#7

The devil in the detail seems to be the grey text saying ‘next run’ in the date box.

The problem is once you or a date in and it vanishes, you no longer have any context to remind you.

2 Likes
#8

Out of interest, which Pet food company is this?

The food I buy AATU, has had a subscription in place for ages. The most annoying thing is, due to the frequency of subscriptions like this, they don’t work with Monzo!

With that said, their system isn’t nearly as archaic as that, and the food is great quality if you want to check them out.

Also tried tails a while back, but they’re overpriced and overhyped IMO. Not to mention they fluctuate your quote massively for exactly the same nutritional quality and value depending on who your previous food was purchased from. Then my dog didn’t like the trial anyway, and just refused to eat it.

ETA: I did choose the option of first delivery on the date selected, but after looking at the screenshots again, the box does say next run, which does it make it plausible that it denotes the date of your second shipment. But this is all terribly explained and presented. Good news is, if it’s kibble, it should keep in an unopened sealed protective bag for several years, so no need to buy any cat food for a while!

#9

Yeah, I see that on my second play though now - though, since at this point I haven’t yet made an order, I take this to mean “the next delivery” full stop, because there hasn’t been a “first run” yet. If that makes sense?

And the lack of any other explanation - I can see how people will believe what makes the most sense to them. Even add check out, it doesn’t add enough context to change how you would read it. (If you have already taken a different meaning to them)

2 Likes
#10

Anyway I was trying to get a picture of the Cat Tax, but he didn’t really feel like playing along.

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image4032×3024 1.64 MB

5 Likes
#11

Yeah I got the answer correct, the companies answer anyway. I’d say what do I win but suspect a pouch of cat food.

#12

I now want a cat but damn those allergies :frowning_face:

1 Like
#13

And link them to this thread.

A scheduled order to start on this date most people would expect (I’m guessing 90%+)

If you wanted it scheduled for now and repeating you would put today’s date in.

The big problem is using the “Next run” placeholder, should be “Starts on” and have today’s date ready to be picked as default.

Or they make it less ambiguous with a sentence that explains what the setup is. “You will get one now, pick when the next order should arrive after that, and how often it repeats.”

What happens if you had it as today’s date, I mean do they send you two lots of orders for both now and next? :joy::thinking:

2 Likes
#14

Yeah I’m with you, except for, as said above, the fact that it says ‘next run’ in the box before you put the date in.

If it hadn’t said that, 100% option 1, but as it did, I am sadly gonna have to say option 3, even if it produced such a ridiculous result for you here.

2 Likes
#15

Out of interest, if you select an option from the how often box first, does it auto fill the date?

#16

I selected this, this is what I took it to be.

The UX of this, is a nightmare

3 Likes
#17

What does clicking on the ‘i’ for info tell you?

2 Likes
#18

Should be option 1 in my opinion.

#19

Let me try…

Nope - but It will let you get to check out with just the frequency of X Days, with the date field being optional.

It looks like that was the way I should have done it - but with no tooltip or anything to actually tell you thats how it works…

1 Like
#20

The ‘i’ tool tip shows:

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Some basic info just to say “you can make this recurring”.