Corel Painter X3 Australian checkout broken

[chewedon]

Hello guys.

I hope some Corel staff reads this (which I'm sure they won't).

I'm trying to purchase Painter X3 but Corel's website keeps saying the following after step 2 (login):


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Site Temporarily Unavailable
Thank you for visiting www.corel.com. This site is temporarily unavailable. Please try again shortly.

To purchase by phone, please use one of the following phone numbers for your region.

United Kingdom:0800 376 9272 (Mon–Fri 8AM–5AM GMT).
United States:1-877-582-6735 (Mon-Thu 24 hours, Fri 9AM-7PM EST).
Canada:1-877-582-6735 (Mon-Thu 24 hours, Fri 9AM-7PM EST).
Danmark:80 882 219 (Man-Fre 09:00 til 17:00 GMT & CET).
Italia:800 986 250 (Lun-Ven 09:00-5:00 GMT & CET).
Norway:800 10972 (Mon–Fri 9AM–5PM GMT & CET).
Rest of Europe:+44 1628 581601 (Mon–Fri 8AM–5PM GMT).
United States:1-877-582-6735 (Mon-Fri 9AM-9PM EST).
Mexico:+52 (55) 5018 1024 (Lunes a viernes 9-12).
台灣:(02) 2659-8757 (週一~週五 10:00~18:00).
中国:+886 (0)2-2659-8757 (週一~週五 10:00~18:00).
Deutschland:0800 101 6080 (Mo-Fr 9.00 bis 05.00 GMT & CET).
Sweden:0200 885 065 (Mon–Fri 9AM–5PM GMT & CET).
New Zealand:+64 4909-7391 (Mon–Fri 9AM-6PM AU ET).
Polska:+48 71 738 24 38 (Pn-pt w godzinach 9–17 CET).
Россия:810 8002 1054011 (понедельник – пятница: 9:00 – 17:00)(GMT +3).
France:0805 639 862 (Lundi-vendredi 9 heures-17 heures GMT & CET ).
Australia:+61(0) 2 8518 1296 (Mon–Fri 9AM-6PM AU ET).
España:800 098 125 (De lunes a viernes, de 9 a 17 h GMT y CET).
Colombia:+57 1 381 9578 (Lunes a viernes 9-12).
South Africa:0800 992 570 (Mon–Fri 9AM–5PM GMT & CET).
日本:0570-009-002 (月-金 10:00-12:00/13:30-17:30).
Nederland:0800 020 3700 (Man-Fre 9AM-17:00 GMT & CET).
If you require product support, please search the Corel Support knowledge base.

Thank you for your patience and please check back soon to continue your visit on www.corel.com.
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This issue seems to have plague Corel for a long time and they don't want to fix it and live chat customer support just say call Corel Australia on this number and end the chat session without giving user a chance to reply.

It seems like Corel is trying to cut their own throat, especially in a time when Adobe's in a bad light with their creative cloud and price gouging affairs. Corel doesn't seem to care or don't want to do business anymore.

I don't want to purchase over the phone. I don't believe it's my browser, I've tried Chome, Firefox, Safari, iPhone, iPad, PS Vita browsers. In the past, I've purchased many things over the internet and never have I experience a checkout system (and customer support) as bad as Corel's.

These were the steps I went through:

1) Visit www.corel.com/au
2) Make sure "Australia" is the country set in the top left drop down menu
3) Click on the "painter" tab
4) Click on the "Box" version radio checkbox for Painter X3 purchase
5) Click on the "Buy now" button
6) Confirm the purchase of 1 copy of Painter X3 by clicking "Secure checkout" and proceed to step 2 of checkout system
7) Enter login information and click continue

* After loading for a few seconds, Corel's site gives the above "Site temporarily unavailable" error message. The next step should ask user to enter billing information but I never can get up to that step. *

Anyone else having the same problem? I'm sure I'm not the only one.

[Ken Berry]

Sorry, but you're right. Corel is totally unlikely to read your post. More to the point, you are in the wrong set of forums. We deal with the Corel range of multimedia products. There is a totally different set of forums for CorelDRAW, Painter etc. AFAIK the Painter one can be found at http://painterfactory.com/Default.aspx

Good luck!

[chewedon]

It doesn't matter if I pick Corel Painter or Corel Paint Shop Pro or Corel Video Studio. The checkout system's broken regardless of which software I choose to add to cart (I have tested it).

I am getting some official response from CorelSupport on Twitter but their technicians gave the same response of clearing cache & cookies. No that didn't fix it.

I am confident someone messed up the programming code somewhere on their payment system or their system got hacked.

[BrianCee]

I just connected all the way through to final payment on the Australian site with no problems at all - if I had not backed off at the end I would have been charged a total of AUD$ 534.18 for the Painter package.

When the Corel technicians are telling you to clear your cache etc. they are suggesting that like me - they think the problem is with YOUR computer - if you have had long time problems this would also seem to support the theory that the problem is with you - if every one in Australia was having problems Corel most definitely have fixed it by now.

Have you tried ordering using someone else's computer ?

Have you tried purchasing from Corel in a different country - just because you live in Australia doesn't mean you have to buy from an Australian site

Maybe some of our Australian users could also check it out.

[Ken Berry]

OK... I no longer live in Australia, but next door in NZ. Like Brian, I just logged on to the Australia site, and went through the purchase process for Painter. And it all seemed to proceed normally, until I aborted at the end to avoid actually purchasing the product.

Interesting enough, it was only going to charge me A$428!!

[BrianCee]

Yes - so was mine until the dreaded VAT and download insurance were added

[chewedon]

Alright, I managed to get it working!

I decided to bite the bullet and try the checkout process again. This time though, when I get to step 2, instead of logging in, I decided to create a new Corel account.

I entered the exact same personal details with the difference being the email address (which needless to say needs to be different) and the phone number (my previous account uses my home phone number where as my new account uses my mobile number) and just like that, it worked with the new account. I completed my order and now waiting for it to be shipped to me

I thought it might be the telephone number at first so I updated my telephone number of my previous account to match my new account and retried the checkout process but still no luck, my previous account just doesn't want to work.

So somehow, my old account is broken or denied somewhere.

I've purchased many things online before with other companies and without hiccups using that email address, so I'm not sure why my old account didn't work. It's anybody's guess at this moment.

BrianCee and Ken Berry, I very much appreciated your effort in testing the checkout process for me, thank you

Believe me, I've tried all options with my old account:

- Tried on Windows PC using Firefox
- Tried on iMac, Chrome, Firefox, Safari
- Tried on Macbook Pro
- Tried on iPhone using 3G and using home Wifi
- Tried on iPad
- Tried on Playstation Vita
- Tried changing the country to united states, new zealand, australia
- Tried clearing cache, cookies, everything, from the start of time till now
- Tried downloading the trial and see if I can successfully purchase it from within the software.

So good luck to any future customers who is experiencing the same problem. I hope you find this thread. Moral of the story - try the checkout using a new account

[BrianCee]

Thanks for the feedback - it may well help some one else with a similar problem.

[chewedon]

Just want to also add, If you are like me and trying to report a problem on their site or looking for technical support from Corel, I highly recommend sending a message to @CorelSupport on Twitter.

Their website doesn't give the user a way to email Corel about technical issues unless you bought a product with them or pay for technical support. I was searching for a couple of days before I discovered they had a Twitter support group to interface with.

Do note, their support team are in the USA timezone, so if you're living in the opposite side of the world (24 hour difference) then stay up till 10:00 PM, they'll be online at that time.

Good luck

[BrianCee]

One other place that some Corel customers seem to be getting in contact with technical support is on their Facebook page - where they get a technician to call you.