Customer Not Being Charged For One Item On Their Order-Random Problem

[fabienne]

Lucky you, it's Celebrate Team Palermo Day. As you are undoubtedly aware, the colors of soccer Team Palermo are Pepto-Bismol pink and black. So, one's delicates should follow suit, so to speak. Yes, that is a real faux team shirt on the left, a fugazzi as they say. The crest of Team Palermo features a falcon.

Now that you know this, does this help with the mystery?

[RodG]

First, and most interesting, the color of underwear I am wearing. I suppose you think I AM wearing underwear. That question shall be answered at the end of my answers so stay tuned.

I've just tried to replicate the problem again, this time while wearing the same coloured underwear (the wife wasn't very impressed though- she says I stretched them). Alas, that didn't cause the problem to show either (I did look cute though) :-)

Both errors were the first item ordered. I suspect that is significant but I am not sure about that.

I agree 100% - this does seem to be significant - in fact so far it is the only thing that I can see that is significant.

They were both from NY state and I don't think that is significant but I could be wrong.

I still say probably NOT significant, but not entirely ruled out - at least not yet.

The list of plug ins will follow later,

I seriously doubt that any of these would be of relevance or importance.

The error was NOT with the same product, the error was in the same category (Permanent Blends). Both products did have attributes (different prices for different sizes).
One of the products was 301 and the other was Gelato: Vaniglia.

Thanks. This is/was important (for me) to know. I'm now pretty confident that the problem has nothing to do with any particular product - However, I *will* be restricting my further tests/checks to these two products *just in case*. (The idea is to replicate the fault conditions as close as possible).

I have only had that problem with those two products so far. If I get a third error and it's the first item in the order, I will say I deeply suspect the first place item. I have also had very random success duplicating this problem.

Among some of the pointless questions asked of you was one very important one that you've not really answered, and that was the one given by mc1-8, specifically:
"At what point in the process does the first item show as $0.00?"

Just to expand on this a little, and based on the fact that *you* have seen the problem 'in action' (as opposed to just seeing the results in the orders placed), AND the fact that you've stated that it is always the first item ordered, this implies that for the 'problem' to occur there must be at least two items in the cart.

If this correct, does the 1st item show a valid price until the second item is added, or does it show the zero price when it is added (in which case, the second and/or subsequent items are insignificant to the cause).

Another reason why this is such an important question is because of the possibilty that the in-cart products have a correct/valid price at all times, and the price of the 1st item is somehow getting set to zero while the data is being sent/processed by the PayPal/order related code.

The fact that you've (apparently) seen the zero cost item in the cart itself means that we can eliminate the 'after cart' processing as being the source of the problem. In addition to this, and assuming that you haven't been logged into the site using a NY address when you've been able to replicate the problem would mean that we can positively rule this (and several other things) out as being a possible cause.

The answer to "At what point in the process does the first item show as $0.00?" may not give us an answer/solution to the problem, but it can/will narrow down the search (and possible causes) tremendously.

Cheers
RodG

[RodG]

Now that you know this, does this help with the mystery?

LOL, well it has solved a mystery, but nothing to do with the actual problem.

Cheers
RodG

[fabienne]

OK, the software was installed on June 20 and the problem started to show up that I noticed on 7/17. However, I am going to go back over all of the orders from 6/20 on and see if I can find an earlier one. This was from the aspect of the natural paranoid. There might have been one out there somewhere. Let me check and find out.

Glad you liked the undies. I bet your wife said,"Oh, Team Palermo? Good choice, paisan!"

[RodG]

OK, the software was installed on June 20 and the problem started to show up that I noticed on 7/17. However, I am going to go back over all of the orders from 6/20 on and see if I can find an earlier one. This was from the aspect of the natural paranoid. There might have been one out there somewhere. Let me check and find out.

Do this for your own benefit/satisfaction only. Whatever you find almost certainly *won't* help in the way of further diagnosis.

Cheers
RodG

[fabienne]

I will give it another try tomorrow, that is try to replicate it all. We shall see when exactly it shows up IF I can make the error appear again.

[mc12345678]

Noticed something unusual.

After adding a product to the cart that had an attribute selected that was not the first attribute in the list of attributes, was returned to the product but the attribute "chosen" was the first attribute not the one selected. It is almost as if the prid is stripped/lost/incorrectly assigned. Also, the products_id should have been in the uri it seems even though simple SEO URL Manager is installed. But on further inspection, the prid is hidden in the cart source data, so no wouldn't expect it in the uri then.

Same issue occurs if the uri is directly entered to go to the products_id that is hidden in the cart, further indicating that at least that part seems "scrambled" either in generation of the prid or in decyphering it...

[mc12345678]

Happened for items in that original category as well as the 4 Seasons Summer (Kuniyoshi) product found in the summer of elegance 2015 category... So not specifically category dependent, but evidenced in the one category..

Btw, suggest adding a default, display only attribute to your attribute selection with something like "Please choose a size..." Or some other wording so that adding the item to the cart immediately upon display doesn't always result in the smallest size and potential returns... Ideally the template supports displaying the resulting message to do just that "Please choose a size..." Or whatever words have been chosen.

[fabienne]

Thanks for the suggestion about the display. I will definitely put that in my list of things I am going to change on the cart. I really don't understand your prior message, a bit over my head. But it sounds like you found a potential cause for the trouble.

By the way, I did go through all of the orders from the time the new cart was installed, and those were the only two cases where the customer was charged $0.00 for the product. Now I can say that with certainty. I also went through my e-mails and didn't see that anything had been done to the cart on 7/16 or 7/17, so it was not caused by a specific action we had performed on the cart.

[RodG]

Thanks for the suggestion about the display. I will definitely put that in my list of things I am going to change on the cart.

Personally I don't think this is necessary - If the customer doesn't see the big bold 'Please Choose' text above the dropdown and just hits the 'add to cart' it probably means that they *want* the default smallest size. Just my opinion.

I really don't understand your prior message, a bit over my head.

Would it make you feel any better if I say 'Me too' - I *think* I know what he was saying, but I've not been able to replicate the findings (as I understand them). LOL.

But it sounds like you found a potential cause for the trouble.

Maybe, maybe not. Although I don't think his findings/observation is *directly* related to the zero cost issue, it is along the lines of what I'm thinking it *could* be - namely, *something* related to the product attributes.

Where as mc1-8 has observed that "the selected the attribute "chosen" was the first attribute not the one selected" (which as I say, I've not been able to replicate), the 'theory' that I have (which is actually more of a guess than a theory) is that somehow or other, the product, when added to the cart, doesn't have *any* attribute selected, and since your products are priced by attributes, then if none are selected the price of the item will end up being zero.

Question: With the orders you've observed with the zero price, does the order show the size of the product selected (as it should do)?
If they *don't* show a selected attribute/size then my guess/theory would tend to suggest it has some merit.

It still won't actually solve the problem, but it will take us one step closer to the cause, and if this does turn out to be the cause, then the suggestion to add a read-only 'please select' to the dropdowns may in fact be a *solution* (OTOH, it could also, in theory aggravate the problem if it is still possible to 'add to cart' without making a selection - as the 'default' then would be 'no attribute = no price'.
With the way things are, the 'default' (no selection) will (or *should*) always ensure 'valid' attributed product is added (which is where my theory/guess tends to fall apart).

By the way, I did go through all of the orders from the time the new cart was installed, and those were the only two cases where the customer was charged $0.00 for the product

BTW, do you happen to have the SBA (Stock by attributes) module installed?

Cheers
RodG