Declined Orders

[rapidfinancia1]

Hi,

So along with my first order, the customer initially declined, & I realized afterward that I never got an e-mail that his first attempt declined.

I really need that. Where can we set that up?

Thanks

[mc12345678]

Hi,

So along with my first order, the customer initially declined, & I realized afterward that I never got an e-mail that his first attempt declined.

I really need that. Where can we set that up?

Thanks

What payment method(s) are available? How was the decline made known to the customer?
What are your email settings in the configuration->email section? Are you able to receive any emails? How did your first test transaction go when setting up the store?
Able to answer the questions of the posting tips?
I'm going to stop asking questions at the moment because there are many more where those came from based on the minimal information provided.

[rapidfinancia1]

What payment method(s) are available? How was the decline made known to the customer?
What are your email settings in the configuration->email section? Are you able to receive any emails? How did your first test transaction go when setting up the store?
Able to answer the questions of the posting tips?
I'm going to stop asking questions at the moment because there are many more where those came from based on the minimal information provided.

Ok, so my previous hosted SC always sent me declined e-mails & the gateway is the same, so it has nothing to do with my gateway who is USA epay & they have Zen Cart on their list of acceptable carts

Here's this that you wanted - https://www.awesomescreenshot.com/im...980099e84d3ce7

I don't know what the customer sees b/c I never did a test with a fake cc.

What version of Zen Cart are you using? Latest

Has your site been upgraded? When? From what version(s)? We just installed Zen 3 weeks ago

If you've upgraded, HOW did you upgrade? (official upgrade procedure or an automated script from your hosting company?) Haven't upgraded yet.

What plugins/addons have you installed? When? If your problems are payment-related, what payment module(s) are you using? If it's shipping-related, which shipping module(s) are you using?

USA epay API

If your problems are language-pack related (non-English), have you checked that all the language files are loaded and correct? All English

HOW did you install Zen Cart? (upload via FTP and run zc_install, or a one-click install from your hosting company? (one-click installs might mean you don't have enough information about your site/server to make customizations easily))

FTP

What version of PHP and MySQL is your server using? (See Admin->Tools->Server Info)

PHP Version: 5.6.31 (Zend: 2.6.0)
Database: MySQL 10.1.24-MariaDB-cll-lve

WHEN did the problem "start"? How does that compare with other events of your hosting company, changes you've made to your site files/addons, or your admin settings, etc?

Got my first order, so yesterday.

If this is your first store, have you tested all aspects of transactions before going live?

I did test orders & it did go thru.

In what ways is your site customized or different from a brand new uncustomized install?

Outside of plugins & changing the theme template, none.

So the customer declined first (no e-mail), then tried again & I did get the order email that went thru.

Plugins

Better Together
Styleable Min Max Units
1page checkout
FedEx
CK editor

Thanks

[DrByte]

Zen Cart itself doesn't send any emails on credit card decline.

I think the only built-in payment module that has coding to send any emails about failed payment attempts is PayPal, but those aren't specifically for declines, but rather for complete failures to process a transaction attempt.

You could add custom code to your USA-ePay payment module to send an email to you about declines. By default the module probably just does a redirect back to the payment page with a generic error. You could add code before that redirect to send you an email.

Obviously you have a different opinion on this than I do, but my opinion is that most merchants will get conditioned to ignore "decline" emails and then it'd actually be better to not send them at all. I guess it depends on your typical customer and the kinds of cards they use.

[rapidfinancia1]

Zen Cart itself doesn't send any emails on credit card decline.

I think the only built-in payment module that has coding to send any emails about failed payment attempts is PayPal, but those aren't specifically for declines, but rather for complete failures to process a transaction attempt.

You could add custom code to your USA-ePay payment module to send an email to you about declines. By default the module probably just does a redirect back to the payment page with a generic error. You could add code before that redirect to send you an email.

Obviously you have a different opinion on this than I do, but my opinion is that most merchants will get conditioned to ignore "decline" emails and then it'd actually be better to not send them at all. I guess it depends on your typical customer and the kinds of cards they use.

I'm already getting the declined e-mail from USA epay, but I didn't realize it was a decline as I'm not used to how ZC works.

With my previous SC I always got a declined e-mail.

When you say "merchants," I don't know if you are talking about me as the merchant (aks vendor) or the customer purchasing.

I also want to know what the customer sees on their end when their card declines. Does ZC tell them the transaction didn't go thru? That's very important.

Thanks

[DrByte]

When you say "merchants," I don't know if you are talking about me as the merchant (aks vendor) or the customer purchasing.

Providing you with financial services for your business - merchant accounts, echeck solutions, small business loans, and chargeback prevention services. Exceptional customer service.

Pardon me for being confused by your comment, given that your forum signature says you're in the business of providing merchant accounts.

The merchant is the storeowner, the seller, the vendor ... all in the traditional universal meaning of "merchant".

I also want to know what the customer sees on their end when their card declines.

The fastest way to know is to do an actual transaction. You should always do some transactions of your own, to familiarize yourself with how it works, regardless which Shopping Cart software you're using.

The built-in Zen Cart payment modules give failure status messages to the shopper if there's a problem with their card, and asks them to attempt payment again.
But, since you're using a payment gateway that I've never used, particularly one that does not come built-in with Zen Cart, the best way for *you* to see exactly what the customer will experience, specifically with *your* chosen payment module, is to do some successful and unsuccessful transactions. Then you'll know for certain.

And, given that you're in the business of providing merchant accounts, I imagine you and your teams have plenty of resources for performing valid and invalid credit card transactions. But if you don't, then the technical docs for your payment gateway will typically list suggested cards that pass LUN validation but which will produce a decline ... which is perfect for the test you requested.

[rapidfinancia1]

Pardon me for being confused by your comment, given that your forum signature says you're in the business of providing merchant accounts.

The merchant is the storeowner, the seller, the vendor ... all in the traditional universal meaning of "merchant".


The fastest way to know is to do an actual transaction. You should always do some transactions of your own, to familiarize yourself with how it works, regardless which Shopping Cart software you're using.

The built-in Zen Cart payment modules give failure status messages to the shopper if there's a problem with their card, and asks them to attempt payment again.
But, since you're using a payment gateway that I've never used, particularly one that does not come built-in with Zen Cart, the best way for *you* to see exactly what the customer will experience, specifically with *your* chosen payment module, is to do some successful and unsuccessful transactions. Then you'll know for certain.

And, given that you're in the business of providing merchant accounts, I imagine you and your teams have plenty of resources for performing valid and invalid credit card transactions. But if you don't, then the technical docs for your payment gateway will typically list suggested cards that pass LUN validation but which will produce a decline ... which is perfect for the test you requested.

You know you seem to have an ax grind with me.

Ever since I started asking questions I've gotten nothing but attitude from you. Constantly being sarcastic or condescending. Even now you are questioning one of my professions. What you calling me a liar now???

So let's just call it quits & please refrain from responding to my posts. It's a waste of your time since you clearly don't like me.

All the best

[mc12345678]

If I may also toss some additional forum posting tips out there, latest version of ZC isn't as clear as saying Version 1.5.5e or if being adventurous ZC 1.6.0. The information is particularly helpful to anyone in the future (including yourself) that identifies a similar issue but isn't sure if it directly applies, it could be confusing. One might say, yeah, but isn't 1.5.5e the latest? Again, matter of perspective. There's someone that just was indicating that they were having problems installing ZC 1.5.1... didn't say whether they thought that was the latest version or not, but it very well could be from their perspective. I know when I first installed ZC that the only "locally" available version was 1.3.9h and 1.5.0 was already out at the time, but I had just begun using it and didn't know any better... was further confused because the auto-installer didn't offer anything that said "hey I wasn't developed by the people of ZC and am not a part of the official release." I've come to learn a lot more especially from one the core developers of DrByte, Ajeh, and when he makes an appearance Wilt. :) There is a large handful of other "helpers" that get their hands dirty in ZC and find ways to make development, shopping, coding, advertising, operation, etc... easier and better.

Generally speaking those that post are out to see success of others. There's friendly competition in some discussions and differences in opinion in others, but generally speaking those that post here (always good to see those that have asked for help to return to others what they've learned) do so because of that drive for success or support.

[rapidfinancia1]

To add to this, now I'm realizing that the CART also doesn't tell me when an order was declined, so I have these "pending" orders here that are VERY confusing & neither say the order actually went thru when 2 did out of the 5 did & it only shows me 2 orders (pending) from him.

Not thrilled about this. I need to be able to go in & at a glance see the history of what happened with that customer.

[DrByte]

It sounds like you're talking about "Pending" being the "order status" shown beside each order in the Admin-Customers->Orders screen.

That's not what the "Pending" order-status means.

Unless your chosen addon payment module operates differently, the checkout flow works like this:

a) customer adds items to cart
b) customer initiates checkout, chooses shipping method
c) customer chooses payment method, and clicks confirm on the confirmation screen (THE ORDER IS *NOT* STORED ANYWHERE YET)
d) payment is collected
e) once the customer is returned to your store, the order is saved, with whatever "order status" is assigned by the payment module.

THERE IS NEVER ANY RECORD OF A DECLINED PAYMENT, because if payment fails, the ORDER IS NOT STORED: it is left in their shopping-basket until they complete a successful payment.

The order-status indicators refer to the flow of *your* staff in fulfillment processing.
The built-in order-status names have the following meanings:
1. Pending = "checkout was completed with a payment module that "authorized, but did not CAPTURE the payment". Or is a check/moneyorder that's waiting to arrive or be deposited. (It's also what orders might be reset to if an order's payment is voided/refunded, assuming your payment module offers such an option.) These behaviors are all determined by the configuration of your payment module.
2. Processing = payment completed (or if was authorize-only ,then your staff have captured the payment and updated the status to Processing).
3. Shipped/Delivered = you can set an order to this status when you send it out for delivery
4. Update -- this is used to reset download counts on virtual/downloadable items.


I've not used the 3rd-party USAePay module that you've previously said you're using. Maybe it does things differently, which may be causing even more confusion.