On Friday I tried to sign up for Blinksale. I have a working-but-clumsy way of handling invoicing and I’d certainly pay $6/month for a better solution. Unfortunately, though I tried to sign up, I couldn’t. Instead I got this error:
Card Number and/or payment information was invalid.:
I’ve double and triple checked the information I’m registering with; tried adding and removing spaces in the credit card number - no dice. I e-mailed them on Friday since I couldn’t find any forums or FAQs, but haven’t had a response yet.
It seems they’ve had some downtime issues, but I can’t find mention of a “can’t sign up” problem.
Anyone know these guys? I’d be happy to give them my information to help them fix whatever the problem is - it looks like a really nice service.
Of course, if it doesn’t “work” to let you sign up, that builds concern about the rest of the service’s functionality. I could also look at something more established like Billing Orchard1.
- I wonder if the “Orchard” name was inspired by “Peach Tree”. [back]
Popularity: 3% [?]
Shaun Andrews adds this Comment:
I actually use BlinkSale, even after their 12 hour long outage. I have to say they have a hell of a product. It’s a nearly flawless execution of a great idea.
While I don’t personally know the guys at Firewheel, I’m willing to say that you could trust them. They’ve been around long enough and seem willing to help.
August 14th, 2005 at 2:02 pm
Alex adds this Comment:
It certainly looks nice. I just wish they’d reply to my e-mail and/or fix whatever is not allowing me to sign up.
August 14th, 2005 at 2:05 pm
Michael Koziarski adds this Comment:
Their developer is http://scottraymond.net.
August 14th, 2005 at 2:41 pm
matt adds this Comment:
I’ve actually been working with Billing Orchard for a service I’m working on and they seem to have a pretty top notch system. I’ve looked at blinksale, but last time I looked (a week or two ago) they didn’t have a recurring invoice system in place, which is an absolute must have for my service.
So … if blinksale doesn’t work out for you, definitely take a serious look at billing orchard. I really like that they have an integrated helpdesk you sign up for too. Then you (and your clients) can easily look at their support tickets and billing all from one login in a nicely integrated system. (Sure, there’s plenty of other places out there, if you get an authorize.net account you could check out ModernBill (check out the reseller mblicenses.com) as well, they’re well known in the hosting industry).
August 14th, 2005 at 7:26 pm
Alex adds this Comment:
Hmm, most of my invoices would be recurring as well, perhaps I should check out Billing Orchard.
I’ve got some experience with ModernBill (Austin Web Development uses it) and really don’t like it.
August 14th, 2005 at 7:53 pm
alexking.org: Blog adds this Trackback:
Blinksale Notes
This evening (one week since my first attempt), I was successfully able to sign up at Blinksale.
During the week, I received two e-mails from Blinksale support:
“Sorry, we think this is our problem. We’ll have someone get in touch.R…
August 19th, 2005 at 9:07 pm