Automated Email Problem

[quikshop]

Hi,

As I understand it, a customer only gets the automated email confirmation from Actinic if they wait for the payment successful page to redirect them back to our website - if they close their browser before that point they never receive an order confirmation email.

This is becoming a really big problem for us, a lot of customers do not sit there and wait resulting in a high number of customers enquiring about whether their orders have even completed.

Is there a workaround for this?

Is the a way to get that automated email sent to the customer regardless of the customer closing their browser immediately after completing their payment??

[Mike Hughes]

No.

If the customer doesn't return to the receipt page the email isn't sent. The worst payment method for this tends to be Paypal who like to keep the customer on their own website.

You do have the option of sending the emails manually.

Actinic are looking at a solution for the future. I don't remember seeing a confirmed date or time for this. It won't be backwards compatible.

Mike

[guccij]

You can also change the text on the Done button to something more helpful - not guaranteed to work with the dimmest of customers but it's better than nothing.

Ours for example says "Click to complete your order and receive your order confirmation" - wordy but accurate

[leehack]

Ours for example says "Click to complete your order and receive your order confirmation" - wordy but accurate

This works well IME and well worth doing.

[quikshop]

Ours for example says "Click to complete your order and receive your order confirmation" - wordy but accurate

Well, its an interesting suggestion but in practice I can't see it changing the behaviour of more than a small percentage of the more watchful customers - a customer will leave as soon as they feel their purchase has been accepted which is what has been happening, I'm sure I would do the same.

There must be another solution to this, perhaps a server side solution when the callback page is requested by the payment service provider (in our case RBSWorldpay), that triggers a php scripted page separately to email the customer?

We're talking about a considerable amount of man-hours here getting used up simply answering questions which are all caused by this quite basic flaw in the software.

[pinbrook]

There must be another solution to this, perhaps a server side solution when the callback page is requested by the payment service provider (in our case RBSWorldpay), that triggers a php scripted page separately to email the customer?

It has been a niggle since day one of Actinic - nothing satisfactory has emerged in the past 10 years

We're talking about a considerable amount of man-hours here getting used up simply answering questions which are all caused by this quite basic flaw in the software.

You could pre-empt this by manually sending the order confirmation when you open the order.

There may be a way to bulk send emails using a Mole-end product but you#ll have to check with them

[guccij]

I can't see it changing the behaviour of more than a small percentage of the more watchful customers

It changed customer behaviour quite significantly in our case. We know how many click through obviously as we get the same email confirmation as they do. Since we changed the text, we "miss" maybe 5% of these emails. Before, it was closer to 15%.

The cutomers who still don't get it are almost exclusively those with hotmail and yahoo accounts.

[guccij]

We're talking about a considerable amount of man-hours here

All it takes is a quick glance down the list of orders and comparing this to the list of order received emails. We just send copies to those who haven't reached the receipt page by going into the mail tab in the Actinic order. Takes maybe 10 secs?

[Lance]

You can also change the text on the Done button to something more helpful - not guaranteed to work with the dimmest of customers but it's better than nothing.

Ours for example says "Click to complete your order and receive your order confirmation" - wordy but accurate

Is it clicking the 'done' button on the receipt page that triggers the email?

[Mike Hughes]

No. The email is sent when the receipt page is displayed. I think Jules is talking about the payment page on the psp website.

If you want to check, place a test order.

Mike

[Lance]

So I don't understand how changing the text on the 'done' button makes any difference to the sending of the email...by that time it has already been sent!

[Mike Hughes]

I think Jules is talking about the payment page on the psp website.

Mike

[Lance]

oh...that makes more sense!

[Jan]

There may be a way to bulk send emails using a Mole-end product but you#ll have to check with them

We don't have any bulk emailing software however our One Stop Automation product can be setup to send an HTML email to the customer when orders are downloaded (which is does automatically at regular intervals). More details and a free trial can be found here :

http://www.mole-end.biz/acatalog/One...r-Actinic.html

Regards,

[davidrmoore]

- and I did follow the "done" advice at end of order

Forgot to say that I am clicking the "Done" button at end of order

D

Advice appreciated

I am testing V9 catalog, having successfully imported via snapshot my V6 webshop.

All appears to run OK, ordering via SSL, card or Paypal.

BUT - no customer confirmation email is received - nor the "you have received an order since your last download" email

The only email received is the "send receipt email copies to.." email

The corrrect boxes are ticked in "Ordering Options"

Network Setup Test works well, and sends the confirmatory email.

I have refreshed the site - and have tried a new cgi-bin, and different script number - but with no success

Tips appreciated

David