Order Confirmation Even Without Payment

[Charmed_Empress]

I am evaluating WHMCS and I love the interface. It is easy. However, when a client select a product, and goes to PayPal, then the client decided not to continue i.e. didn't proceed, the Order Confirmation note is still sent to the client, as though he/she has made the purchase!

 

How can I stop this? I would like the Order Confirmation to be sent only after the payment is fully made. Does anyone knows why this is the case?

 

Thanks.

[Adam]

Hey,

 

You can either not send the note all together, or send it. You can not send it after they paid you.

 

The order confirmation note simply reminds the user that they have signed up for a product/service with you.

 

Btw, you can always change the email to your liking!

 

 

From,

Adam

[Charmed_Empress]

Wonderful. How can I configure it to not send the note at all? I rather manually send the note to them if this is the case.

[Adam]

Hey,

 

Login in to the WHMCS Admin Area and go to

 

 

Configuration > Email Templates > Product Messages > Order Confirmation >

 

Then mark the check box,

 

Tick this box to disable this email from being sent.

 

 

From,

Adam

[Charmed_Empress]

Hi Adam,

 

Thanks for the information. This is wonderful. At least now they won't be misled with the Order Confirmation.

[arhost]

If the buyer decides not to continue with their purchase i.e. click the Back button, then the order confirmation e-mail should not be sent at all.

 

Even though you can disable the e-mail from being sent altogether however this is not the point, if the payment is not made then the e-mail should not be sent simple as that.

[Matt]

Of course it should - they've placed the order whether they pay or not. Once the order is placed they are then due to pay. If they pay or not is up to them and determines whether the order is activated. And by sending them the confirmation, they are able to communicate with you and reference the order number for any questions they have.

 

Matt

[Charmed_Empress]

Hi Matt,

 

You are right in this case, however, there should be a setting by Administrators on whether the order confirmation should be sent if payment has not gone through, instead of us disabling it altogether.

 

One of my client made an order, and I believe he must have aborts, as I never see the payment made. He then gave me the order confirmation number and e-mail and assumes that I will provide him with the service, despite the fact that the payment was not made. His reason was that we already confirmed his order.

 

Perhaps we can add this as a feature in the next release?

 

Thanks.

[Matt]

No customer should expect the service without paying, but maybe you just want to change the email message to say Order Received instead of Order Confirmation?

 

Matt

[Majid]

I have had a serious problem with this from the very start and even created a thread about it when we moved into whmcs.

 

If a payment has NOT been made it is considered an incomplete order and there is no reason a client should be getting a confirmation email or even be placed within the pending orders. The fact is lots of users or clients will test out a order form or go through the order process but never complete it.

 

If you are one of the larger hosts you can expect many of these to be placed within the pending area everyday. I don't believe any other billing system works this way....this is something I would like to see changed. Unless an order is fully completed it shoudn't be placed within the pending orders or have a order confirmation mailed out to the users.

[Si]

I have had a serious problem with this from the very start and even created a thread about it when we moved into whmcs.

 

If a payment has NOT been made it is considered an incomplete order and there is no reason a client should be getting a confirmation email or even be placed within the pending orders. The fact is lots of users or clients will test out a order form or go through the order process but never complete it.

 

If you are one of the larger hosts you can expect many of these to be placed within the pending area everyday. I don't believe any other billing system works this way....this is something I would like to see changed. Unless an order is fully completed it shoudn't be placed within the pending orders or have a order confirmation mailed out to the users.

 

I agree with Matt on this. You MUST send out some communication to customers who have placed an order and gone all the way, and who don't pay. There could be any reason why they don't pay.

 

ie, their credit card is not with them, they had a power cut, blah blah,

 

I've had customers come back weeks later and complete an order because they had the 'courtesy' of the order confirmation email and I've had others contact our support dept with the order no to ask us to amend the order because of a mistake.

 

At all times, (especially during a new customer sign-up) communication is vital and if you don't, you will probably lose the chance of that customer completing an order.

 

Incidentally, this happens maybe once in 20 orders, but 4 out of 5 customers completes. If you have the same figures, that's 4 sales you would lose because you don't communicate.

 

I'd rather have 100 pending clients with 20 of them time wasters, and the potential of 80 future sign-ups, than classify them all as time wasters simply because they couldn't or didn't complete the order at the time.

 

I'm in the process of moving to WHMCS from Modernbill and it works with the same principle. I'm glad WHMCS does the same.

 

Like Matt says, change the wording of the email if you like, but my pennys worth, always send the email.

 

[broadway]

Hello Guys,

 

I do understand the logic of breaking order process in 2 parts. i.e order receiving and then payment, perhaps it will be great to have clear message after they finish giving order details that they need to make payment for the order to be executed.

 

Just a thought on this. I have faced similar issue myself as well. Where it gets bit confusing for the customer.

[Dominic]

Hello Guys,

 

I do understand the logic of breaking order process in 2 parts. i.e order receiving and then payment, perhaps it will be great to have clear message after they finish giving order details that they need to make payment for the order to be executed.

 

Just a thought on this. I have faced similar issue myself as well. Where it gets bit confusing for the customer.

Well you can just edit the order confirmation email.....you know you can change the subject, message contents....

[TDub]

This is all confusing to me. I see customers hitting the back button as a common problem for a variety of reasons. Maybe they changed their minds. Maybe they left and came back and their session timed out. Maybe they want to change some information on their order.

 

In my testing so far, I've found when I hit the back button after I enter my customer details it will enter the customer's details into the system. But the order isn't complete yet, so why are they being added to the system? The only time an order should be entered into the system is if the user pushes the big red button that says "click to complete order". Then, and only then has the customer confirmed they want to place an order for the product. There's no confusion. What happens after that point then can be handled as a normal order, whether payment is received or not (for whatever reason).

 

But to enter a user into the system, generate an invoice number, and they haven't even gone all in yet is a waste of my time and creates unnecessary administrative overhead in the system and for customer service reps.

 

Oh, and when a user does hit the back button after an order is put into the system unintentionally, then they try to go back and resubmit their order, they'll run into a problem with the domain/user already added to the system. To me, that would be enough confusion to say "the heck with it" and go somewhere else. Not a good prospect.

 

That aside, I like the way each order page is a separate page. Allows me to track at which point customers back out of the order process using tools like Google Analytics and improve conversions.

[netearth]

Hi All,

 

How about 2 emails, one for the order received confirmation *when they place an order*, then a followup email to state that the order has been processed, payment has been received and domain succesfully registered / hosting account provisioned etc. The first email could have a reference of Pro-forma XTZ and the latter email have INV XYZ that way any communication back to the reseller/hoster if you see PRO-forma you know they tried and failed to pay, if INV you have the cash and need to see whats not happened?

 

The other good thing about the above, when you provide other services that arent automatci, you can send them a proforma first and then a "paid invoice" once they have paid?

 

Chris

[Jordan]

... You guys are failing to remember that there's already a process to differentiate between an order, and an invoice.

 

If you're a new client, and you sign up with WHMCS. We'll pretend you want the order, and you paid for it. These are the emails you'll get:

 

10/18/2007 11:20 Welcome

10/18/2007 11:20 Order Confirmation

10/18/2007 11:20 Customer Invoice

10/18/2007 11:22 Invoice Payment Confirmation

10/18/2007 11:22 New Account Information

 

Welcome - This is the welcome email, containing their username and password.

Order Confirmation - Tells the customer we've received their order, and are processing it.

Customer Invoice - This is their invoice email; They'll click through to their invoice to pay.

Invoice Payment Confirmation - Client has paid invoice. This the receipt.

New Account Information - Voila, they ordered, they paid. We created.

[tbhost]

I changed the subject of the e-mail to be: "TBhost.com - Pending Order"

And changed the text of the e-mail to :

"We have received your order and will process it once payment is received."

 

Removes confusion as to what the status of the order is.