Block Specific Customer?

[limelites]

Hi,

I like to offer my customers an option to pay by cheque or by bank transfer, but a disruptive customer has forced me to remove these options from my site as they are logging in, buying things and checking out without paying.

Now I've set it only to allow Online CC... Paypal... or Google Checkout. That way unless payment is received the order is not processed.

With cheques and bank transfers, the item is marked as sold and the order is processed even though payment is not sent.

Which leads me to blocking the customer. Their IP address is 86.4.166.xx but if I block this IP from CPanel or .htaccess then wouldn't that block more than one person?

Any thoughts/advice appreciated :-)

[louisapple]

you do not send out your goods until you receive payment, do you

[limelites]

Of course not :-)

The problem here is just the disruption caused when someone places an order and checks out with an offline payment method. It removed the item they purchase form the database and takes it out of stock, so if they don't send payment, I need to manually re-stock and it can be a pain in the neck.

Just want to know how to block disruptive a customer.

[s_t_e_v_e]

Your "disruptive customer" must be far more than that for you to remove 2 payment methods that has a potential of assisting sales. If they are a regular visitor you should get a better idea of their IP and could use such information to warn them of their impact and potential consequences that is if you have any legitimate contact details.

Blocking an IP can have larger consequences if they have a dynamic IP which changes frequently and fixed IPs can be bypassed if they are intent on messing you around.

[limelites]

Hi Steve, hope you're having a nice weekend and it's sunny where you are :-)

Yes, they are more than disruptive, but other than removing those two checkout methods, I don't know how to deal with it. As you say, their IP is probably dynamic and besides, proxy servers are a simple way round it for them.

I have removed cheque/postal order and bank transfer but I'll put a note on the checkout page to contact us if they wish to pay that way.

Most online stores, correct me if I'm wrong, do not accept off line payments? I guess for this reason.

[s_t_e_v_e]

hmmm... So potentially, they could have filled up their cart with all your stock in your store and checked out - leaving everything out of stock...

I have noticed some sites display the visitors IP at the bottom of the checkout with a security warning... this may offer a little visual deterrent.

where they signing up with a fake account every time??

can the IP be traced back to an ISP? and what if it was reported to the ISP as abuse?

[limelites]

Well Steve, it's stranger than that. They did buy a few things, got them, happy with them and were actively buying more. Initially, they had paid by credit card, then they started checking out with bank transfer.

I contacted them but they said they'd done the transfer so just thought they were an honest buyer.

Potentially, I think they could have placed orders all over the site and cleared it out. Yes. I have the maximum order mod installed but nothing prevents them placing several orders.

I guess this is why big sites don't take cheques, postal orders or bank transfers. At least not as a checkout method.

As for reporting it as abuse, it's not strictly abuse per say. More of a bought it but changed their mind..

My solution then, based on all I've read is to remove those payment options. That way I don't need to block IP's as they can't complete checkout without actually paying online.

[charmedbytina2]

In your admin - customers, change the customer authorized status to unauthroized. See what that does for you.

Tina

[limelites]

Thanks Tina I'll do that. Although, with the site set to accept online payments only, there's not much this customer can do by way of buying without paying

[Steven300]

Unless of course they know the credit card test numbers