Something fishy about Backpack's new request limit system

[Swapnil]

My friend, @Sumit Pramanik has been trying to order some items through backpack for some time, and been failing because of the new request limit system. So, yesterday he went to the website right at 10:00 AM, added the items to the cart and when went to checkout the checkout was disabled and the daily request limit exceeded notification was there. Today, he added the items to the cart before 10:00 AM, refreshed the page multiple times between 10:00 AM and 10:01 AM, and guess what, the request limit was still there.

So, he went ahead to talk to the Backpack Admin. As usual, admin was really nice and apologetic about it. But he was again and again apologizing about the limit system being there in the first place, not about the request limit not being reset at 10:00 AM as promised by the system. After Sumit asked specifically about that a few times, he briefly mentioned that other users are ordering too fast and exceeding the request limit within seconds after the limit resets. But My question is, how would that be possible. Even clicking through the payment procedure in backpack takes more than a minute (from my own personal experience when I ordered before), then how can be the limits exceeded within seconds? Is it plausible that backpack currently has a daily request limit of "0"?

BTW, I'm quoting the whole conversation between Sumit and the admin below, with permission from Sumit and without permission from the admin.

Sumit Kumar PramanikHi, I am trying to ordering products for two weeks now. But everytime i logged in it show the message "We have reached our request limit for now. Please come back tomorrow (Sunday, August 21) at 10.00 AM for placing your order. Sorry for the inconvenience." I have logged in at exactly 10AM but still no luck. So please tell me what is this limit? Is it weekly limit or daily limit? if this is weekly limit then what is the first day?
a day ago


Backpack Admin
Hi Sumit, I am sorry about the trouble you are going through. But this is a daily limit and our purchasing window opens exactly at 10am. We are working on our backend foundation at this point, if we take huge requests then we will not be able to serve our shoppers with our highest level of capability. we never think of profits rather we think about a good experience to our shoppers, and that is the reason we have limited our orders temporarily​ and meanwhile fixing all the hurdles. But this was necessary forus to serve 10 times more shopper in the future. Sorry again for the trouble.
a day ago


Sumit Kumar Pramanik
Hi, what time is it now?? Its 10:05AM, and now the message saying "Dear Sumit, we have reached our request limit for now. Please come back tomorrow (Monday, August 22) at 10.00 AM for placing your order. Sorry for the inconvenience." bullshit again!!!!!!!!!


Please respond to this specific question...


1. Is this some kind of bug???
2. How come your daily limit reached when its 10:01AM only???
3. Dont talk gibberish like previous message. give specific reason for this issue
4. This is my 4th time in 7days that I have faced this. Logged in at exactly 10:00AM and Daily Limit Reached!!!!!!!!


For your information time is now 10:09:00AM
9 hours ago


Backpack AdminHi Sumit, I am sorry for the trouble that you are going through. But this is not a bug. And I already gave you a specific reason to apply this purchasing limit. Also, I would like to say that this situation is temporary and we will remove this as soon as we are done fixing all the backend issues.
9 hours ago


Sumit Kumar Pramanik
So you are saying people are able to complete purchase within 1 minute (for your info its only1 minute not minutes). I have in this site from 8AM today. I refreshed it at exactly 10AM. It still shows this message. What is your response to that???
8 hours ago


Backpack Admin
Due to huge order pressure the limit gets over within seconds.
8 hours ago

Note: The backpack admin is pretty chill guy, and responded nicely to the query. On the other hand Sumit is the one who looks like the hothead. But I'm talking about the limit not resetting, not about their response to Sumit's query.

[Fox Mulder]

It is possible that their quota is full. The whole purchase limit being reset at 10 a.m. is not in place right now. But for business' sake, he's making the limit an excuse.

[Trave160]

Dang it, I need help ordering a thermal paste from the site......ufff

Also this problem has been ongoing for more than a week, already causing distress to good people

[kaziishan]

This is some quotes from someone I know who knows a developer of Backpack (I also know the said developer but I did not hear it from him)...

"...they should change the way they work...by far I have seen, the developers work on their own...no real co-ordination among the teams...and they have some real problem within their system...they have the idea but they are way behind on implementing it properly...their website does not work properly and yet they are taking orders...I have heard they are also facing problems with customs...they have the 'hedom' but the admin figures should be more responsible..."

[Slender Man]

From my experience, there is a window between 9:59 and 10:00 everyday to make the orders, and it is very surprising that this window lasts barely 20 seconds. Try it out. I and several others that I know succeeded following this method (only if you are that desperate).

[Swapnil]

From my experience, there is a window between 9:59 and 10:00 everyday to make the orders, and it is very surprising that this window lasts barely 20 seconds. Try it out. I and several others that I know succeeded following this method (only if you are that desperate).

People can actually go through their payment process in that 20 seconds? That's impressive. But no need, @Sumit Pramanik already ordered his item through another channel.

[dipanzan]

I have had the same experience for the past two weeks. Sitting infront of the PC at exactly 10AM with my items loaded in the cart, and trying to checkout at 10AM, but then it gets greyed out within seconds. The admin as usual is really apologetic about it, and there's no way from my perspective you can order within that 5-10secs.

[Slender Man]

People can actually go through their payment process in that 20 seconds? That's impressive. But no need, @Sumit Pramanik already ordered his item through another channel.

No, you get to be the lucky few who gets to pay for what they need. Next they give you one hour ( a count down clock to exactly 60 minutes ) to make the payment.

- - - Updated - - -

Funny thing is, I have been trying for the last 2 weeks to make a purchase but I have been failing regularly. Last day I managed to click on time and guess what, i find out that one of my items have expired (seller took down from listing) so now I had one item in my cart. So had to cancel the whole invoice to add the other item again and now I am waiting to get myself in the green zone, if I am lucky that is.

[Arz]

Reminds me of a certain university's web based course registration system. Only the students who have the stamina to continuously hit F5 for an extended amount of time and have the sufficient amount of luck to be able to connect to an overloaded web server and login within first 3 minutes after registration goes live can hope to get their preferred courses. Rest have to be content with leftovers. Some unlucky souls may not even get any courses at all.

[furiousTaher]

Reminds me of a certain university's web based course registration system. Only the students who have the stamina to continuously hit F5 for an extended amount of time and have the sufficient amount of luck to be able to connect to an overloaded web server and login within first 3 minutes after registration goes live can hope to get their preferred courses. Rest have to be content with leftovers. Some unlucky souls may not even get any courses at all.

i think i have studied in that university

[Blurgon]

Reminds me of a certain university's web based course registration system. Only the students who have the stamina to continuously hit F5 for an extended amount of time and have the sufficient amount of luck to be able to connect to an overloaded web server and login within first 3 minutes after registration goes live can hope to get their preferred courses. Rest have to be content with leftovers. Some unlucky souls may not even get any courses at all.

I am still in that university

[aayman]

Can this or something like this help?

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir.../check4change/

[dipanzan]

I am still in that university

Which university? :3

[Sumit Pramanik]

This is the last update from backpack.

"Terribly sorry that you are being unable to get past the purchase limit every day. You see, for the past couple of weeks, we have had an enormous surge of shoppers taking their items to checkout within minutes after 10am. Thus the limit gets exceeded far too quickly.

By the time we have sufficiently improved our foundational strength, we will increase our limit as well, although it's difficult to say exactly how many weeks that might take.


If we are to suggest a tip, it would be this: please keep your item in your cart right before 10am and keep your desired delivery method in mind. When the clock strikes 10 and the limit opens, hit "pay" immediately and select the delivery method as quickly as possible.


As soon as the delivery method has been selected, a timer starts with one hour in hand to make the payment to our account. If you make the actual transaction before the timer runs out, we can later verify receiving the money and begin processing the purchase request accordingly.


I hope this helped, and we appreciate your patience immensely."

[Slender Man]

[QUOTE=Sumit Pramanik;815862]This is the last update from backpack.


If we are to suggest a tip, it would be this: please keep your item in your cart right before 10am and keep your desired delivery method in mind. When the clock strikes 10 and the limit opens, hit "pay" immediately and select the delivery method as quickly as possible.

I did this, and what happens is the moment you press pay and select pickup, the item disappears from your cart like magic. Happened twice with me, so this doesnt help much either. AFAIK the management team for backpack will shuffle and replace with new people soon, thus all this trouble. I am sure after all the fiasco from Backpack, Shah Fuad from Shopr is having a laugh at us