Domain transfers - shopping cart problem

[HostBizLng]

Hello,

 

I don't know if anyone have the same thing, but here is the issue that I experience with domain transfers:

 

For most of my domain pricing I used an option to offer discounts with more years of registration (depending on minimum and maximum years allowed for registration for any given TLD)

For example: .com TLD - Register/Renewal 1 year (15.95), 2 years (29.90), 3 years (41.85), 4 years (51.80), 5 years (59.75), etc. (6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 years accordingly.)

Now as I understand, (I might be wrong, since I am new to this process,) domain transfer ins have one set price, which is, in most cases, a price of one year of domain registration. So according to my above pricing example, .com domain transfer ins would be (ex.:15.95,) which includes an additional year of registration upon completion of transfer.

 

In Setup>Domain Pricing (within WHMCS) I configured Registration/Renewal prices for all available years (ex. above: .com TLD 1-10 years,) except Transfer prices where only one Transfer price applies (ex.:15.95,) which is entered on first year only, and all other years for Transfer prices is disabled and set to -1; (... all other years which I used only for Register/Renewal discounted prices.)

 

The problem with shopping cart:

 

When I try to transfer a domain, after checking availability, shopping cart gives me years of transfer options (which is odd). With above .com TLD examples it looks like this:

1 Year/s @ 15.95

2 Year/s @

3 Year/s @

4 Year/s @

5 Year/s @

And up to 10 Year/s @

As you can see, shopping cart gives a transfer option for more years, even though they are disabled (and those options are blank - without any price.) Moreover, shopping cart allows to choose those disabled years and allows to proceed to the next step, where customer have to enter EPP code and other addons/configurations. But as I proceed forward to the next step, I am getting an error message - Invalid TLD/Registration Period Supplied for Domain Registration. Once I get this error message, I am unable to remove wrong domain transfer product from shopping cart, because I am unable to access/view shopping cart at all, and I receive that error message every time I try to access/view shopping cart.

 

I did try to start a thread about this error and found similar thread in this forum posted by other user, but without any practical resolution/suggestion on how to fix this, (and in my case I need to find the way to fix a cause explained above, about transfer pricing configuration.) While browsing other posts about this error message, somebody mentioned that it is FireFox incompatibility, but I tested domain transfers on many other browsers (FireFox, Mac Opera, IE, Google Chrome, etc.,) and shopping cart still behaves in the same way on all of the tested browsers.

 

I was thinking about setting transfer prices with more years options, but I don't know how WHMCS/my registrar (eNom) would process transfers with more than one year options (available within WHMCS shopping cart.) If transfers are processed with one year added to registration after completion of transfer regardless of what years options customer chooses within WHMCS shopping cart, I don't mind to manually renew/add additional years to the transfered domain that customer payed for. But if transfer price that for example is set to 5 Year/s @ 59.75 would be processed as transfer (one year added to domain) + 5 years of additional registration, then the price in itself is wrong, because 15.95 (transfer price) + 59.75 (additional 5 years price) = 75.70. If anyone tried to use or know how transfers processed with more year/price options, please let me know, I would truly appreciate.

 

Anyone having any thoughts, suggestions, or resolutions to share on this issue? Plus, I haven't tested other TLDs with some Register/Renewal/Transfer prices/years disabled (set to -1,) and something tells me that shopping cart would behave with disabled years options in the same manner.

 

I don't know how for others, but for me this is a big issue. Please check your WHMCS shopping cart and see if you having the same problem. If yes, please join me in this thread to discuss resolutions to this. If you read similar forum post with practical suggestion/resolution on how to fix it, post it here. Thanks guys.

 

Thank you!

Serg

Edited May 14, 2009 by HostBizLng

[HostBizLng]

An update to my initial post:

 

1. I use V4 (new install, NOT an upgrade!)

 

2. I tried to check other web hosts who use WHMCS, and tried to test their shopping carts, and I noticed that some have set transfer prices for all years/options available in WHMCS, while others did not, but their shopping cart does not allow customer to proceed when a customer selects those disabled/blank transfer/years options. And a lot of hosts actually do have the same issue I have (I am not alone !). I still don't know what to do though. Impatiently waiting for input on this issue.

 

Sincerely,

Serg

Edited May 14, 2009 by HostBizLng

[HostBizLng]

An update to my initial post:

 

I tried to transfer domain/TLD with minimum 2 years of registration, like .co.uk, where transfer price is set for 1 year, but shopping cart did not allowed me to transfer it at all, because I did not have an option to transfer a domain that has 2 year minimum registration, and transfer price is set for 1 year, where it should be, correct me if I am wrong. Isn't transfer price adds only 1 year to completed domain transfer?

 

Thought of resolution, and the only quick fix, or more like workaround, is to try to set transfer prices for all years/options (if used for certain Domain/TLDs), just like Register/Renewal prices. The only concern that I had initially about doing it this way, is that I am not sure how WHMCS/my registrar will process a transfer that have been ordered for more than 1 year. Isn't transfers are just transfers, and like I said many times, and read about how transfers work - and that is, 1 year is added to completed transfer? How then will this work?

 

When I was browsing other hosts that use WHMCS and checking how their shopping cart behaves with transfers/prices, I did noticed that some hosts have transfer prices set for more than 1 year and up to 10 years. So I guess it might be working for them. Anyone having an input about this workaround?

 

Sincerely,

Serg

Edited May 14, 2009 by HostBizLng

[chickendippers]

You need to enter -1.00 to disable transfer pricing for 2,3,4 years etc.

[isdoo]

.co.uk does not add any time to the domain, as they do not charge for transfers. If transfering a .co.uk you need to set the period of time to 2 years irrespective of any settings.

[HostBizLng]

Hello,

 

chickendippers,

 

In my initial post in this thread I explained my issue in every detail, that shopping cart gives disabled (-1.00) year options and allows customer to choose them and proceed, and at the end we get error message, and after error message shopping cart becomes impotent, I mean you cannot access/view it at all. Have you at least read my post? I am not going to repeat myself my initial post was long and detailed enough, haha ... that was actually my idea to make my post very, I mean very detailed, hopping it would be easier for you guys to understand the problem.

 

isdoo,

 

I decided to check .co.uk at random, and I did not tried to transfer an actual .co.uk domain, but to check how shopping cart would behave with any domain/TLD that has minimum 2 years of registration set in domain pricing. And just because .co.uk has different transfer conditions, it doesn't mean my question does not apply to other minimum 2 year registration domain/TLDs. The issue is with transfer pricing and shopping cart (unwanted) behavior. But thank you though for correcting me about .co.uk, I would would definitely read their Terms and Conditions to double check it.

 

Thank you for your input guys! But waiting for more, because I still don't know what to do.

 

Sincerely,

Serg

Edited May 14, 2009 by HostBizLng

[HostBizLng]

isdoo,

 

Here's other thing that I see as odd, so you say that .co.uk does not add anything to transfered .co.uk domains, because since .co.uk is 2 year domain, and shopping cart allows me to procedd with .co.uk transfer only if transfer price is set for 2 years (together with Register/Renewal prices), then after proceeding to shopping cart what customer will see? Customer will see his transfer domain.co.uk - 2 Years and price that had been set to what? To 2 years of registration? Or to 2 years of registration + transfer fee? Or just a transfer fee ?

 

This is just massed up Btw, as I mentioned I browsed other hosts who use WHMCS, so there was other thing I noticed and that some hosts just do not offer domain transfers at all. I guess that would solve this issue. By not using one of the fundamental features.

 

Sincerely,

Serg

Edited May 14, 2009 by HostBizLng

[chickendippers]

Exactly, please keep it short and sweet, we don't need to read an essay.

[HostBizLng]

Hi chickendippers,

 

There's a problem in keeping it short, because I would get a lot of unrelated (and perhaps unhelpful) to my issue replies and questions about more details. And at the end throughout discussion, I still would have to elaborate, and try to explain details.

 

And for example, after posting long and detailed initial post, your first reply to me was "You need to enter -1.00 to disable transfer pricing for 2,3,4 years etc.," even though I explained in detail how I set domain pricing, and that I did disabled (set to -1.00) for more transfer years options, and that issue was with shopping cart, because it allows customer to choose those disable (set to -1.00) transfer years options and allows customer to proceed till the error comes "Invalid TLD/Registration Period Supplied for Domain Registration" consequently making shopping cart impotent to that customer, as it do not allows to access/view shopping cart by giving that same error to the customer, and the only way I can enable shopping cart to access/view it for that customer is by enabling that transfer year option that was selected by customer's mistake. And those options actually even shouldn't be there if they are disabled.

 

This is a 'problem' with shopping cart, which makes it not-so-operational, and that's why I invested enough time to elaborate it and write long and detailed post, because I need to fix it. And as I mentioned I did check many hosts that use WHMCS, and not surprisingly many have the same thing. I don't know why not many brought it up, maybe because no body noticed it.

 

Anyway, I submitted a ticket, and will wait and see if this issue can be fixed, otherwise I will have no other choice other than think how to work around this issue. If I find useful info on how to fix it or some reasonable resolution to this issue, I'll post it here.

 

Inputs on this issue are very welcomed. Thank you for your help!

 

Sincerely,

Serg

 

An update:

 

I tried to test transfer on different order form templates (Boxes, Default, Cart, Singlepage, Web20cart.) So - 'Boxes', 'Default', and 'Web20cart' has the original issue as it was explained in my initial post in this thread. 'Cart' template still has the same issue but behaves in different way. With Cart template the shopping cart drop down menu lists prices for all years that have been set for Register/Renewal, and which were disabled (set to -1.00) for Transfers. But after choosing any year more than 1 year to transfer a domain, the shopping cart allows to proceed, till the good old (mentioned in my initial post) error comes.

 

The only order form template that bypasses that error is 'Singlepage' which still shows disabled transfer years options, but do not do anything if customer chooses those disabled transfer years options. And there is nothing can be done at that point in Singlepage, since dropdown menu is frozen, so customer have to start over from the beginning to change a mistake in choosing disabled transfer years option that even shouldn't have been there in shopping cart to start with.

 

Sincerely,

Serg

[Frankc]

I now also have the same problem after upgrade to V4.

 

Worked perfectly before and NO template was changed.

[HostBizLng]

Hello,

 

The issue with disabled transfer options is fixed! Works great!. Thanks to Matt!

 

I submitted a ticket and Matt suggested a change in 'configureproductdomain.tpl,' to find:

<option value="{$period}">{$period} {$LANG.orderyears} @ {$regoption.$domainoption}</option>

And replace with:

{if $regoption.$domainoption}<option value="{$period}">{$period} {$LANG.orderyears} @ {$regoption.$domainoption}</option>{/if}

Now shopping cart doesn't lists disabled transfer year/s options.

 

Even though it didn't seem solved an issue at first, I think because of my text editor wasn't set to utf-8, but Matt been able to fix it.

 

The suggested change have been applied to 'web20cart' in V4.

 

Sincerely,

Serg

Edited May 20, 2009 by HostBizLng

[othellotech]

Here's other thing that I see as odd, so you say that .co.uk does not add anything to transfered .co.uk domains, because since .co.uk is 2 year domain, and shopping cart allows me to procedd with .co.uk transfer only if transfer price is set for 2 years

 

correct the only price fields you set for a .uk are the 2 year price fields

[HostBizLng]

Othellotech,

 

Yes, I understood that, and it seems this applies to all domain/tlds with minimum 2 years registration period. But still there is a question that hangs about setting transfer prices for those domain/tlds. Like .co.uk, according to isdoo, does not add any time to transfer domains, or other domain tlds that add a year, yet transfer prices are set to 2 years, and according to Matt, when I asked him, he said that transfer will not do a renewal aswell once the transfer completes. But customers who would order transfers would see a 2 years as the only option. So where is those 2 years come from, unless I add/renew years to completed transfers 'manually'?

 

Sincerely,

Serg

[D-Litz]

Below is what I found from my Enom Account, so take it for what its worth.

 

Pricing rules for .uk transfers:

 

At the time of the transfer request with eNom, we will pre-authorize the full cost (two year renewal price).

 

For .uk transfers where the domain has more than 3 months remaining on the domain expiration, the domain will be transferred to eNom at no charge.

 

For .uk transfers where the domain is within three (3) months or less of its renewal date, the domain will be renewed for 2 years upon transfer and a charge for two year's renewal will be made.

 

Also, any client that wishes to transfer a .uk domain to Enom has to request that their current registrar change the IPS “TAG” name to ENOM before they request the transfer from via Enom.

[HostBizLng]

D-Litz,

 

Thank you very much for such informative reply! Now it does makes sense. Not that I am too lazy to read service agreements, it just I haven't gotten to that task yet, which would be one of the major tasks before I finish publishing 'informative' content and all agreements and terms of all services and resold products on my website.

 

Very appreciate your reply

 

Sincerely,

Serg

[stirton]

It would be nice if a customer chooses to transfer in a .*.uk domain name, that they are presented with something other than 2years @ £0.00.

 

The confusion I see for customers is that they might think they are renewing for a further 2 years from that day, rather than simply moving the domain over to your control for the remainder of its validity.

 

Why not have the cart show a message before checkout to say something similar to Enom's text above, "Please ensure that you ask your current domain registrar to update the IPS TAG to ***" ?

[othellotech]

>transfer in a .*.uk domain name, that they are presented with something other than 2years @ £0.00.

 

you can change the tpl to have it say whatever you like ...