Gift Certificate Sent to Customers; Cart Not Allowing them to Redeem

Hi - I sent gift certificates to customers when they review products on my site.

Recently, I have gotten emails from customers stating that they were unable to redeem their gift certificates. I checked the system and it does know they have the certificate, but it has not applied the gift certificate value to their accounts for usage.

Is this because they have not clicked on the link in the email sent to them to redeem the certificate prior to starting an order? I suspect it may be that they must add the certificate's value to their account before starting a new order in order to apply it.

Is there any way to fix it so they just enter the redemption code and all will work out?

My website is https://www.herbalaxation.com.

When you say:

I checked the system and it does know they have the certificate, but it has not applied the gift certificate value to their accounts for usage.

Do you mean that in the Customers ... Customers ... listing that you see the GV Balance for the customers?

If so, then on the Payment page in checkout_payment, there is an input box ... for example, if they have a balance of $33.50 they would see:
Apply Amount:
Available balance: $33.50

Then need to enter how much of that Available Balance they want to apply to the order ...

If they have not claimed the Gift Certificate, meaning they did not redeem the Gift Certificate with the redemption code ... they either need to:

1 use the link in the email where they can login and claim the GV

2 go to the Gift Certificate FAQ where then can enter the GV redemption code

3 enter the GV redemption code on the Payment page checkout_payment and once claimed, they can enter the Apply Amount ...

NOTE: if the customer does not have a GV Balance, and has NEVER had a GV Balance, they will not see the Apply Amount input box until they either have a GV Balance or have had a GV Balance in the past ...

That box does not show unless the Customer has a record with/without a balance in the table:
coupon_gv_customer

NOTE: Sometimes, if a Customer is totally lost and just doesn't get it ... you might want to send them to the Gift Certificate FAQ page where they can just input their GV Redemption Code and it will help them to get logged in and add the Gift Certificate to their balance for use on the checkout_payment page ...

Ajeh:

If they have not claimed the Gift Certificate, meaning they did not redeem the Gift Certificate with the redemption code ... they either need to:

1 use the link in the email where they can login and claim the GV

2 go to the Gift Certificate FAQ where then can enter the GV redemption code

3 enter the GV redemption code on the Payment page checkout_payment and once claimed, they can enter the Apply Amount ...

NOTE: if the customer does not have a GV Balance, and has NEVER had a GV Balance, they will not see the Apply Amount input box until they either have a GV Balance or have had a GV Balance in the past ...

That box does not show unless the Customer has a record with/without a balance in the table:
coupon_gv_customer

NOTE: Sometimes, if a Customer is totally lost and just doesn't get it ... you might want to send them to the Gift Certificate FAQ page where they can just input their GV Redemption Code and it will help them to get logged in and add the Gift Certificate to their balance for use on the checkout_payment page ...

Thanks very much, I think the customers in question simply have not claimed the GC before trying to order and that's what's mucking things up. I will include this verbage in my emails to them going forward, STRONGLY. :)

I had a similar experience yesterday and I think the problem arose over how my customer interpreted the word "redeem".

They informed me that they followed their email link to discover that their certificate had been redeemed, as in already spent.

This happened to be my first gift certificate redemption and I wasn't really familiar with the scenario and I was trying to get her payment through quickly on a popular item that might sell out while we were fiddling around so I quickly created a discount code for her which worked fine and later edited her GV in the database.

Now that I'm aware of how it works I can probably guide the next user through, but I'm wondering if I can edit the reference to "redeem" and replace it with "activate" (page unknown to me).....

You might go to the Tools ... Developers Tool Kit ... and enter into the bottom input box:
redeem

and select Catalog ... and click search ...

Be sure that you are customizing the language define statements and not the code files as the code files ...

Oh thank you. Having done that now, I might also think about NOT changing that language until I'm sure it's an issue with my users. I should have been able to guide my problem child through the process better, I think, but I see where the changes would be made if I want to make them....

Saintsteven:

Oh thank you. Having done that now, I might also think about NOT changing that language until I'm sure it's an issue with my users. I should have been able to guide my problem child through the process better, I think, but I see where the changes would be made if I want to make them....

Hi, May I know which file did you edit to change the reference 'redeem' to 'activate'?

https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=38
https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=39