How to have customer order, receive quote, then pay?

Hello everyone,

I spent about 30 minutes searching here to make sure this topic hasn't been mentioned before, but couldn't find any answers to my problem.

I'd like my customers to be able to buy a "free" product in which they will upload an image with specifications for their design. This part I have accomplished.

I'd like to then write them a comment back on the order telling them how much this design will be. This also works.

The only part I can't figure out is how to have them actually pay the amount I quote. We only have three price tiers, so I know I could setup 3 products at these price ranges, but I'd rather not have the customer have to order twice (one for the price quoting, once for the actual order) as that would be a bit confusing.

Ideally I could just adjust the price myself on their order and then have them pay, but this doesn't seem possible. I tried using other payment methods such as COD but this didn't seem to solve the problem either.

To sum it up I'd like:

1. Customer orders product with their design info
2. We give them a price for that product
3. Customer pays that price if they agree.

Thanks a lot!

Do you require the customer to enter their Credit Card info along with teh first "order / quote" request?

If not, then the only way to get them to pay for the order online is to make them fill out some form (meaning a "second" checkout) -- otherwise, how would you get them to pay? (unless you had them call you with the CC info)

If you allow payment forms other than Credit Card, then maybe once you give them the quote, you adjust their total in the system, and have them "send you the check" (or something similar).

Not the best way of going about it, but with the current "quote then accept then buy" method you have in place for your products, it might be the better one for now.

What features of your product cause you to have to "quote it out"? Can you turn these into product attributes that the user would select (like width, height, 4 color vs. 2 color, etc... ) and have the quote generated on the fly with the order?

That would be your best bet if you plan on generating better sales.

The customer uploads the image (assumed for printing etc..) and already has selected their options. They know the price, and by submitting the form, they are in effect agreeing to the cost (thus allowing you to charge their card upon submission of the order).

Thanks a lot for the prompt and detailed response!

Right now, since the product is set to $0, they do not enter any credit card info. I'd prefer it to be this way, since some customers may not want to purchase after their quote. However if there was some solution that required them to enter their credit card info, I would do that.

I see what you mean about the customer knowing the price first, but the price completely depends on the complexity of the design they submit to us - i.e. a design that will take our artist 15 minutes is going to cost much less than one that takes 2 hours.

You mentioned the phrase adjust their order total, and doing a search allowed me to find the module SuperOrders. I am going to install this and see if it might allow me to accomplish this.

Yeah, that is a nice mod.

This is another you may want to look at.

Offsite Payment

Ok, it seems like while I can change the price of an order after the actual order takes places, I can't allow the customer to make an additional payment on an order after it has been placed.

My best option seems to be for them to place the order, I will adjust the price, and then if they agree send them an invoice through Paypal. I'd much rather be able to send the invoice with a link to pay through Zen Cart, but it doesn't look like that's an option.