Our Subscription Widget for MailChimp doesn't seem to work

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • bobnwp

    (@bobnwp)

    7 years, 10 months ago

    A vendor created our website for us. Part of the job was to create a subscription form that users could complete to have themselves added to our Alerts mailing list on MailChimp. We thought it was working, but we’ve just tested that when someone signs up, their information isn’t being passed to Mailchimp.

    The form that they used is really a sidebar widget.. and i do see a mention of Mailchimp, but don’t see where it’s being told to pass subscriber info thru to our Mailchimp account.

    There is a submit button defined by:

    <input id="mc-embedded-subscribe" class="button" name="subscribe" type="submit" value="Subscribe" />

    When that button is clicked, a post request, with the data the user enters in the various fields, is sent to the URL specified in the <form> tag:

    //sncoast.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=3110f81138f269e34d0149981&id=1f99b9e967

    The action= parameter of a <form> tag indicates where data is to be sent when the form’s submit button is clicked. That’s how the transmission occurs.

    Are you “Suncoast Solutions”?

    I ask because if I open a new tab and paste in the form’s URL,

    //sncoast.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=3110f81138f269e34d0149981&id=1f99b9e967

    I get to a page with a logo for Suncost Solutions.

    Page is title “Main Contact List” and it provides input boxes for name and email, etc.

    The text under the logo is:

    Please enter your contact information below and select which email communications you would like to receive. Descriptions of these communications can be found on the Client Portal.
    There are errors below

    The errors are that none of the fields were filled in – as I would expect it considering the way I got to the page.

    I am assuming that is your subscription page which you want the user to bypass by using the form in the sidebar on your blog.

    What happens on your site when you fill in the form in the sidebar and click the submit button (the button labeled Subscribe)?

    What are the symptoms? What happens, what messages do you see?

    the vendor had our log in in formation for Mailchimp – specifically to set this up. We cannot go back to the vendor because 1) we don’t trust them for many reasons, and 2) they want to charge us for any correction they make at this point – and we have found a lot that they have not done…

    Do you have a written contract with this “vendor”? Any work I do for clients includes a clear agreement of what I will and will not do, and one thing I will do, for no additional cost, is fix problems, unless the client changed something which caused the problem.

    Is this “vendor” someone local or is it someone who you have engaged via the net?

    If local, go to your County Court house and file a small claims case against the “vendor.”

    If not local, check without your state Attorney General and the Attorney General of the state in which the vendor is located.

    This sounds like a clear case of the “vendor” failing to live up to whatever agreement was made.

    Do you have the information needed to login to your ChimpMail account or is the vendor the only one with it?

    If you search on WP for: mailchimp plugin you’ll find several plugins you might be able to use to implement what you want. You could just toss what the “vendor” has done.

    Here is the result page for that search: https://wordpress.org/search/mailchimp+plugin

    Another matter, which screams “sloppy and incompetent” to me — in the HTML code you show in your post, there is the following:

    <style="font-family:arial;">

    That is invalid HTML coding.

    There is a <style> tag, used to specify the beginning of a section of CSS rules and values on a web page, but what is shown is no where near the correct syntax of the <style> tag.

    There is a style parameter that can be coded on many other tags – for example, <dv>, <p>, <span>, etc – but it must be coded on a tag like the ones I just listed.

    For example:

    <div id="example" style="font-family:arial;">sample text</div>

    would cause the text – sample text – to be displayed using the arial font.

    The way you show it coded is a big ol’ error. Perhaps they meant to code the style parameter on the preceding <div>

    <div class="clear"><style="font-family:arial;">

    tag but they didn’t code it properly.

    Anyone knowing what they are doing – and I expect someone who I pay for work to know what they are doing – should/would have caught this error.

    So –

    As I asked above, what happens when you try to use the form?

    Bob

    bobnwp

    (@bobnwp)

    7 years, 10 months ago

    Something else –

    The link ” Client Portal.” on the page at

    http://sncoast.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=3110f81138f269e34d0149981&id=1f99b9e967

    Results in a 404, page not found error.

    Do you provide Electronic Medical records services? I looked at your home page –

    If so, you need to engage a competent web security person to review your entire site – especially anything that “vendor” had a hand in.

    I worry about the security of your facilities given the problems you are having with this “vendor.” Can you trust the “vendors” who did other work for you?

    Makes me a tad uncomfortable.

    Bob

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • The topic ‘Our Subscription Widget for MailChimp doesn't seem to work’ is closed to new replies.