Orders allowed taking stock level below zero

[hiddenhousebulb]

Hi all.

Stock Monitoring works well to mark a product as out of stock once an order takes the stock value below '1', BUT does not stop that customer ordering more than we have in stock. e.g. If we have three in stock and a customer orders five, the order is fully processed for all five ordered even though we only have three. We really need the system to only allow a customer to order up to the number in stock, as we only have a finite number of each product. In this example, therefore, we want the system to flag up something like "Only 3 available, please adjust your order not to exceed this number".

The main concern is that a customer will order and pay for more than we can supply, the second concern is the impression of lack of professionalism when we email the customer to inform them we can not supply the number they successfully ordered and already paid for, the third concern is the time and trouble taken to refund the money or sort out an alternative.

If anyone can help resolve this little issue, we'd love to hear from you.

Many thanks.
Dawn

[Jan]

In the advanced details, there is a maximum quantity field, if you set this to the number you have in stock and then upload the customer is not able to overorder.

We have a module called One Stop Automation at Mole End, this can help with stock control by downloading orders, setting the maxumum quantity to the number in stock for all products and then uploading the catalog for you. The full product also has order processing options but the stock control part can be purchased separately if that is all that you need. You can find more details and a free trial at :

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

Regards,

[hiddenhousebulb]

Thanks for the suggestion

Thanks Jan. We'd prefer not to have to monitor sales and adjust max order quantity per product as they sell, and are currently too small (or is that too mean, lol) a business to pay for add-on solutions at this stage, so the search for a solution within Catalog v7 continues. Actinic themselves have so far suggested we set conditions on delivery times based on the number left in stock, but this does not solve the problem and as we can not get hold of replacement stock their suggestion is not appropriate. So far they have not responded to our request for alternatives.

Any further suggestions would be most welcome.

Dawn

[webyourbusiness]

I could be wrong, but I think Jan's automation handles this under the category of "Stock monitoring functions"...

As there is a free trial to download at the link provided, you could try it... free!

[Jan]

There is no way to do this within Actinic without adjusting the maximum order quantity value, uploading and downloading at regular intervals.

You could possibly write some bespoke scripts on the server to monitor stock and sales, or you could write your own automation service on the PC to upload, download and set maximum quantity values.

The Stock Control Mole component costs £59.99, this would pay for itself very quickly if you consider the time you would save handling customer complaints. If you really are too small to handle that cost I will give you a three month trial while you get going - but beware, this particular piece of software is addicitive, the most common comment about this is "I don't know how I would run by business without it" :-)

Regards,

[hiddenhousebulb]

Hey, thanks so much for your generous offer, Jan. Much appreciated and may we take you up on the offer. We can see the value of your add-on and would welcome the chance to see if it will do what we need.

How do we non-techies go about installing it? Just hit the link and follow instructions?

Regards & thanks again.

Dawn

If you really are too small to handle that cost I will give you a three month trial while you get going