U.S. Mint Online Catalog and Ordering System is Unavailable
Customers visiting the U.S. Mint’s website to place an online order for the new Bald Eagle Commemorative Coins, or any product for that matter, were stirred with surprise today when they were directed to a page that began with:
Because of a transition in service providers, the United States Mint online catalog is currently unavailable. We expect the online catalog to be back in service within the next couple of days. In the interim, our toll-free customer service number will continue to be available to our customers.
To place an order, or to inquire about the status of an order, please call 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468). Customer Service Representatives will be available to assist you from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 midnight (ET), seven days a week. Hearing- and speech-impaired customers may place orders and inquiries through TTY at 1-888-321-MINT (6468), Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (ET).
While a typical business would have held to task their IT/MIS department for even thinking about such a long term disruption before the sale of a new product release, unfortunately, since the Mint is funded by tax payers and under the government, a smooth and seamless transition didn’t happen. To be fair, the situation may have been out of the hands of Mint officials and employees.
Hopefully, the end result will be an improved and dynamic ordering system that’s faster while still secure. It would also be nice if the system could adjust bullion coin prices based on the market. If the Mint could bypass their current policy of suspending bullion products for weeks and months due to volatile bullion prices, the short term wait for the new ordering system could well be worth it.
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January 20th, 2008 at 7:22 am
I have visited the US Mint ordering page dozens of times since the site was “put on hold”
It is very fraustrating especially at the beginning of the season when all the goodies are
just coming out. Dealers lucky enough to have a large stock in hand charge and believe me
are charging a premium in 2008 unlike ever before, prices are nearly double what they paid
in bulk! US Mint has the responsibility to be accessible to everyone. It’s not some 3rd world
country this is the US Mint, a multi Billion if not Trillion dollar industrial facility.
Anyway Good luck to all those more patient than myself, i’m sure the situation will be
corrected by the end of the weekend.
January 23rd, 2008 at 3:41 pm
This situation was NOT out of the hands of the US Mint. The deputy CIO, Jay Mahanand, is responsible for this SNAFU. He fired the incumbent catalog contractor, who was allowed to host the site. Previous to this vendor, the Mint hosted the site and the vendor maintained it. Due to improper termination, the new vendor has not been able to get the site’s content.