What’s Changing Fundamentally at gecleant Right Now
Over the past six months, we’ve had to rebuild several key systems at the same time:
- Our email system has been migrated to Microsoft Exchange.
- At the same time, the shipping software switched from an old SOAP interface to a new REST API. As a result, the shipping label system, postage fund, and parts of the order processing system had to be technically redeveloped.
- In addition, new customs requirements for international shipments were introduced
- There were issues with outdated systems and the new PHP version on our server—> —as well as extensions that are no longer compatible with it.
These changes affected precisely the areas that need to function smoothly in day-to-day operations: orders, shipping, returns, and customer communication. On top of that, there were major changes to day-to-day operations. The result was clear: responsiveness suffered, some inquiries were processed too late, and certain tasks were not consistently completed.
That wasn’t good enough.
That is why we did not just correct individual errors, but rebuilt the technical foundation from scratch.
Since August 1
The “gecleant” backend now runs on a new—in-house developed—customer service system. Emails, orders, returns, reshipments, and refunds will be handled as related cases going forward. The system is designed to recognize how often someone has contacted us, what happened most recently, and what the current order status is.
- Standard cases should be resolved more quickly. Critical issues will become more clearly visible. Old messages and open cases will be systematically addressed and properly closed out.
- We are also improving our phone support. We are currently developing a call agent system so that customers will no longer need to call multiple times in the future.
With more than 40,000 customers, even a 0.5 percent error rate results in about 200 dissatisfied people. We’ll probably never reach 0 percent. But the situation in recent times was still unacceptable.
The priority now is to clean up, resolve outstanding issues, and restore reliable communication.
If you are still waiting for a response, a refund, a replacement, or further clarification, please write to:
It’s best to include the order number. We’re systematically going through the existing emails and resolving open cases one by one.
But let me say this right off the bat: The transition will be a little bumpy at first. But the most important foundations have been laid. Now it’s time to get to work.
Shown in the picture:
Process returns faster: the new WooCommerce OCR Package Mobile Scanner by GECLEANT.de
With the OCR scanner, a returned package can be captured directly using a smartphone camera. The system extracts visible details such as name, address, and other shipping information from the photo and uses them to find the corresponding order.
The system doesn’t just search for a single piece of information. Name, address, and other identifiable data are combined to find the order that is most likely correct and match it to the existing customer record.
This way, an anonymous package is quickly turned into a clearly assigned transaction:
Take a photo → Recognize data → Find order → Open a return request → Proceed to the next step
This feature eliminates the need for manual searches, reduces allocation errors, and links physical returns directly to the order and communication history.
If the assignment is ambiguous, the system does not make a blind decision. The case remains open for review, and the system displays the most likely matches.
This means that returns will no longer be handled separately in the future, but rather as part of the overall process: orders, emails, returns, reshipments, and refunds will all remain visible in a single history.
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