Having an ongoing issue with my Miva Merchant account.
A very long story, but it concerns a "stats.dbf" error.
Anyone else???
The hosting company is apologetic, but blames Miva.
This is a problem mostly on Windows based servers, but in a year Miva hasn't been able to come up with a permanent fix, so I've lost all respect for the company.
Otherwise, time to get rid of both my hosting company & Miva!
This is an old host I've been with for years, with a few old accounts.
The host is not well liked on this forum, but has no comments here concerning
Miva.
In order to keep my on-line store up, I have to occasionally (up to 4 times a week)
upload a saved stats.dbf file. Just a real pain to have to constantly monitor the store/site, & pay $$ for the honor.
All allegedly Miva "fixes" have had the same results. The saga continues.
I have the resources to simply move on.
Any comments on CubeCart, OS Commerce or Zen Cart? :)
Thanks!
JohnnyW

Having an ongoing issue with my Miva Merchant account.
A very long story, but it concerns a "stats.dbf" error.
Anyone else???
The hosting company is apologetic, but blames Miva.
This is a problem mostly on Windows based servers, but in a year Miva hasn't been able to come up with a permanent fix, so I've lost all respect for the company.
Otherwise, time to get rid of both my hosting company & Miva!
This is an old host I've been with for years, with a few old accounts.
The host is not well liked on this forum, but has no comments here concerning
Miva.
In order to keep my on-line store up, I have to occasionally (up to 4 times a week)
upload a saved stats.dbf file. Just a real pain to have to constantly monitor the store/site, & pay $$ for the honor.
All allegedly Miva "fixes" have had the same results. The saga continues.
I have the resources to simply move on.
Any comments on CubeCart, OS Commerce or Zen Cart? :)
Thanks!
JohnnyW
Hi Johnny,

I understand your pain with MM4. I have a client who had other issues with MM4 which were never fixed and similar issues with his old host. Believe it or not Miva is supposed to be one of the best carts out there. And his old host used to be one of the better more reliable hosting companing still around. With that said, I am curious why you are considering going from a high end sophisticated cart like Miva to open source carts? Most people who went with Miva Merchant did so because they have large sophisticated stores. If this is the case you may want to consider a cart that has more development time and effort into the product such as you might find with cart software you buy. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the carts you listed. I am just curious.

I have had some experience with osCommerce and ZenCart. Either one is okay. There is a lot to be said for either cart. They both have their strengths and weaknesses. Are you going to do the mods yourself or do you have a web designer that does your work for you?

Dave :peace:

Hi Dave.
Thanks for the reply.
I have 100 or so simple products, so I really don't need the "high end sophisticated cart".
And Miva is really not worthy of any respect. Sophisticated is only worth something if it works. :)
And with all the errors & lost customers, the merchant fees are just not worth it.
So I was going to use the os Commerce or ZenCart & integrate it with my Paypal
business account.
My overall savings between Merchant account fees and hosting would be pretty decent.
For a low volume store it seems like the thing to do.
Especially with no end of the Miva stats.dbf file hassles in site.
I would be doing the set-up myself, so I'm looking for the easiest.
Working with either a reseller account or a VPS.
Want to keep it simple and convenient.
I can work with html code reasonably well, however I am not the greatest with Linux commands. :)
Thanks again.
JohnnyW

Hi Johnny,

I understand your pain with MM4. I have a client who had other issues with MM4 which were never fixed and similar issues with his old host. Believe it or not Miva is supposed to be one of the best carts out there. And his old host used to be one of the better more reliable hosting companing still around. With that said, I am curious why you are considering going from a high end sophisticated cart like Miva to open source carts? Most people who went with Miva Merchant did so because they have large sophisticated stores. If this is the case you may want to consider a cart that has more development time and effort into the product such as you might find with cart software you buy. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the carts you listed. I am just curious.

I have had some experience with osCommerce and ZenCart. Either one is okay. There is a lot to be said for either cart. They both have their strengths and weaknesses. Are you going to do the mods yourself or do you have a web designer that does your work for you?

Dave :peace:

Hi Dave.
Thanks for the reply.
I have 100 or so simple products, so I really don't need the "high end sophisticated cart".
And Miva is really not worthy of any respect. Sophisticated is only worth something if it works. :)
And with all the errors & lost customers, the merchant fees are just not worth it.
So I was going to use the os Commerce or ZenCart & integrate it with my Paypal
business account.
My overall savings between Merchant account fees and hosting would be pretty decent.
For a low volume store it seems like the thing to do.
Especially with no end of the Miva stats.dbf file hassles in site.
I would be doing the set-up myself, so I'm looking for the easiest.
Working with either a reseller account or a VPS.
Want to keep it simple and convenient.
I can work with html code reasonably well, however I am not the greatest with Linux commands. :)
Thanks again.
JohnnyW
Hi JohnnyW,

I know what you mean by the problems and fees associated with MM. My client felt like he had to escape with his life! LOL I am sure it wasn't that bad but he wanted out very badly. ;)

You might want to have a close look at the open source carts as they can be quite frustrating to modify. You will find a lot of threads throughout this board with some complaints about the difficulty modifying these carts. You will also find some third party solutions to some of these issues as well. I am sure the people who have had more experience with them will post some suggestions here.

If you are pretty good with HTML you might take a look at LiteCommerce. This cart is pretty easy to modify using an HTML editor. And it doesn't cost much. Plus it has great support behind it.

Dave :peace:

Yet another occurence of the stats.dbf error today.
arggggg:mad:
And of course Miva or my host do nothing about it.
It's just amazing, for an allegedly good company.
Sorry, but I can't call Miva a good company.
Just checked LiteCommerce as suggested, however I noticed it is not on the
PayPal list.
It appears osCommerce is the best choice so far.
I'll continue to investigate.
JohnnyW

Not sure which list you looked at? LiteCommerce supports PayPal and PayPal Pro. The reason I suggested LiteCommerce was due to your comment about knowing HTML. I believe it is one of the few carts that you can use and HTML editor to modify it. Let us know which cart you end up using. :peace:

I'm not allowed/able to post the link here (not enough posts), but Paypal has a list of carts "integrated" for use with PayPal.
LiteCommerce is not on that list, otherwise I'd consider it.
JohnnyW