The US Mint on Friday "sincerely apologized" to customers who experienced difficultly and frustrating moments Thursday when attempting to order the newly issued Lincoln Coin and Chronicles Set.
As we relayed on CoinNews yesterday, the US Mint Web site was either down or sporadic in behavior for several hours following the launch of the new Lincoln set.
The collectors here at CoinNews experienced the same frustrations in ordering — and excitement in the hunt. But we can offer no grounds to blame the Mint considering our own CoinNews.net site went down for a time as collectors used our ordering links as gateways to the Mint’s Lincoln Chronicles page. And we had just over 9,000 visits in the afternoon while the Mint likely had that during the first minutes of issue.
The Mint should be commended for its apology and recognition of the problems. Here is the Mint message in its entirety:
To Our Valued Customers:
Unfortunately, the United States Mint Web site did not perform as expected when the popular 2009 Lincoln Coin and Chronicles Set went on sale at noon Eastern Time on October 15. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and frustration many of you may have experienced while attempting to purchase this and other products using our online catalog.
We did not meet the standards of excellence we have set for serving our customers. You deserve a better online shopping experience, and we are committed to resolving these issues quickly and permanently.
Thank you for your patience and continued support.
For reference, an image of the apology follows:
