Payments for custom 1 off items

[newshopbloke]

Hi all,

My shop is now re-uploaded and working again.
Before doing the usual items for sale I need to do something a bit more complicated which involves giving a cutomer some sort of code to use the shop payment options - either paypal or hsbc.

I am running a business that offers a printing service for customers with their own files, they send the file - I approve it for print - wait for cheque - print and despatch.

I am now getting asked for a credit card option and want my customers to somehow be able to go to the shop and click on an item or code that only they can see and then progress to the checkout, can this be done ?

I hope this makes sense and if anyone can help I would appreciate it.

Thanks

[jont]

Would setting up customer accounts be an option/solution?

[Mike Hughes]

I would probably create a section called 'Job Quotes' or something like that and then create a simple, single line product (unique template) for each open quote. Somthing along the line of:

Job ABCXXXX £197.50 Pay Now

All you have to do is direct your customers to the page and tell them what their job number is.

No-one else would know what the job was or who it was for, so there shouldn't be a problem with other people seeing it.

Mike

[jont]

I have seen a competitors site with a similar approach as suggested by Mike and it obviously works .... the only thing I would suggest is to throw in some dummy orders as well (depending on how busy the site is or isn't) at it indicated to me just how slow their trade was.

[newshopbloke]

Jont,

I have heard that customer accounts can slow the shop down and for me its slow enough already - even on a fast server. I will still consider it though.

Mike,

This is what I had in mind but surely theres the risk of someone accidentally buying the wrong quote, especially if I have quite a few lined up. Is it not possible to do it your suggested way but have actinic ask for a code before it lets the customer add it to the basket ?

This would be a great help as im getting asked by quite a few customers for an alternative payment option, and it would be perfect to send them to the shop because they may have a look around and buy some stock too !

Thanks

[newshopbloke]

I have seen a competitors site with a similar approach as suggested by Mike and it obviously works .... the only thing I would suggest is to throw in some dummy orders as well (depending on how busy the site is or isn't) at it indicated to me just how slow their trade was.

Yep, I will have dummy orders running all the time and change them frequently.

Cheers

[jont]

surely theres the risk of someone accidentally buying the wrong quote, especially if I have quite a few lined up.

Thinking on the fly what about validating the correct order using a coupon code sent to the client .. this could be assigned to just that product (order) ????

Probably fraught with difficulties once thought about for a few mins

[newshopbloke]

I just tried to look for the customer account option, so that I could turn it on and test it but I cannot find it anywhere ? Is this because its a developer only option ?

If it was available and didnt slow things down too much I would consider it.

Its a shame Actinic hasnt implemented this kind of feature yet, as many people have been asking for years.

Mick

[RuralWeb]

I am building a site with a similar requirement. I intend using customer accounts with products for each job and payments by HSBC. By doing this each customer will be able to logon and see all thier bills outstanding and when they pay the site owner will get thier order details as normal.

I considered using coupon code but it just got too complicated and the chances of error were large.

[newshopbloke]

Sounds great but ive just found out that none of this is available with catalog and only business or developer !

Oh well, something else this software cannot do for me