Removing punctuation during the Checkout?

[MeFromLondon]

We have an issue where our PSP (HSBC) rejects any orders which fail their punctuation rules. The customer is given a brief message which is either too difficult to read or understand and then sent back to our site (with all the usual questions about resending data etc). After trying a few times they eventually give up and go elsewhere. It’s a very untidy, annoying, and confusing problem, and it has lost us many sales.

The rules are complex but the simple answer seems be to remove all punctuation except hyphens and to replace ampersands with the word “and”.

We’ve used the capitalisation javascript from the Advanced User Guide, and I’d imagine that the same script could be modified to rip out punctuation and change the “&” to “and”, but it’s not something I’d be confident in doing!

Anyone have a solution?

Regards
David

[TraceyG]

Hi David,

The character rules are set on our server with guidance from HSBC. The error reports are as clear as they can be, for example:

You have entered '.' into the Billing Name. You can only enter characters that are in the allowed set:
English alphabet(A to Z, a to z), blank space, single quote and Hyphen

So, it is telling me that I've entered a full stop into the name field and what is allowed.

I don't know if we can use javascript to get rid of these from the field automatically. I will ask our development team but in the meantime, you could put a message on your invoice address page to let customers know what characters are/are not allowed (on the 'Design' tab, select 'Checkout Page 1' in the 'Select Page Type' drop-down box. Click on the 'Preview Pane' as to where you want the text to display and enter it into the 'layout code' window).

[RuralWeb]

This sounds a little odd - I have several sites using HSBC and have never had this problem. They get all sorts of odd address details which are never rejected by HSBC because of the reasons you are describing.

Have you altered the standard actinic checkout/scripts in any way?

Have you set up the HSBC fraud shield - if incorrectly set it will reject almost every order placed on the website.

[TraceyG]

Hi,

We are going to remove the character validation from our servers as HSBC inform us now that they allow any characters. We will have to test this change works before we put it to the live servers so it will not be immediate I'm afraid. I'll post back as soon as testing is complete.

[MeFromLondon]

Malcolm,
Any idea why you are immune to this problem? Our scripts/checkout have had a few design changes, but nothing that should cause this.

From Tracy’s comments, the problem seems to lie with the Actinic character validation and not with HSBC. Are you bypassing this in any way?

The HSBC Fraud Shield is as standard, but the problem occurs before it gets that far.

Tracy,
The pages already have helpful and clear (if unread) instructions about avoiding the use of punctuation, but who reads instructions.

How long is likely to be before you get the changes done on your servers?

Regards,
David

[RuralWeb]

Our scripts/checkout have had a few design changes

This is the only thing I can suggest you look at. I have several sites which use HSBC and they have not had any problems such as you describe.

I never modify the checkout as this is the most vital area of the website - so standard Actinic works with HSBC no problem is all I can say.

[TraceyG]

Hi,

How long is likely to be before you get the changes done on your servers?

The modifications are being tested out today, so as long as there are no major problems found then it should be implemented very quickly.

[TraceyG]

Hi,

The changes have been made to our servers so there should be no character validation done anymore.

[James13009]

so how do i remove character vaildation from my server? cause i have a simular problem with HSBC

[Bruce]

The character validation is done on an intermediate server and this has been removed from there so you should not have any issues with this bit if you are using HSBC as offered by Actinic within the Payment & Security tab.

Kind regards,