problem with newsletter sign up

I do not want people to be able to sign up for the newsletter through zen-cart. I am using other software. I edited the create account page to remove the newsletter sign up code. I then went to admin and turned off the display the newsletter box.

I went to my store: https://www.vintageknits.net/store and attempted to create an account. As I wanted, there was no box to check to sign up for the newsletter. The problem is that zen-cart is still signing everyone up for the newsletter. In my zen-cart admin, the newsletter subscribers keeps increasing. Everyone who creates an account is mysteriously signed up for the newsletter in the admin section. Does anyone know why this is happening, and how to stop it? I am using zen-cart 1.3.8a.

They are not actually signed up for the newsletter, their emails are still stored for product notifications and such other reasons.

The newsletter system does not have available check box if disabled further more they are not subscribed to a newsletter due to the fact they do not have an option to subscribe.

Only product notifications anf contact incase you need to email them.

knuckle-101:

They are not actually signed up for the newsletter, their emails are still stored for product notifications and such other reasons.

The newsletter system does not have available check box if disabled further more they are not subscribed to a newsletter due to the fact they do not have an option to subscribe.

Only product notifications anf contact incase you need to email them.

Then why does the newsletter subscriber count keep increasing when I log into my zen-cart admin (front page, statistics section).

At the beginning of yesterday, newsletter subscribers were 184. 4 new people set up accounts at my store. Today, newsletter subscribers says 188. This looks like more than storing emails, when the newsletter subscribers count keeps increasing.

Sadie

I suspect that if you turn the checkbox off giving them the option, Zen Cart signs them up by default. But why is this a problem? They've not seen any reference to newsletters, they won't receive any from Zen Cart unless you explicitly send them out. It's just a bit of unused information in the background, though I'm sure you could hack the code to make it default the other way.

kuroi:

I suspect that if you turn the checkbox off giving them the option, Zen Cart signs them up by default. But why is this a problem? They've not seen any reference to newsletters, they won't receive any from Zen Cart unless you explicitly send them out. It's just a bit of unused information in the background, though I'm sure you could hack the code to make it default the other way.

Normally it would not be, I just did not expect zen-cart to automatically sign people up. I was going to import my zencart database into php.list one final time to merge the two lists. There were some people who signed up under the old version of zen-cart that I was using, who are not in my php.list database. I guess I can go ahead and import the list and people can unsubscribe. I just do not like sending emails, etc., to people who do not want to receive them. Had I known that this would happen, I would have imported the list before I upgraded my zen-cart. In the older version, I had the newsletter subscribe box on.

Zen Cart does not "default" customers to be signed-up to your newsletter.

In fact, it specifically warns you to not choose auto-signup defaults.

Admin->Configuration->Customer Details->Show Newsletter Checkbox
Show Newsletter Checkbox
0= off
1= Display Unchecked** (DEFAULT)**
2= Display Checked
Note: Defaulting this to accepted may be in violation of certain regulations for your state or country

Zen Cart does not "default" customers to be signed-up to your newsletter.

In fact, it specifically warns you to not choose auto-signup defaults.

Admin->Configuration->Customer Details->Show Newsletter Checkbox
Show Newsletter Checkbox
0= off
1= Display Unchecked (DEFAULT)****
2= Display Checked
**Note: Defaulting this to accepted may be in violation of certain regulations for your state or country **
I have mine set to 0 and new customers are NOT signed up for the newsletter, I Want them to be automatically signed up, what am I missing?

JOhn ><>

In a real business word forcing customers to be signed up is one thing but to make it friendly you can have the box checked automatically when they do sign up for an account.

As dr byte said above

Admin->Configuration->Customer Details->Show Newsletter Checkbox
Show Newsletter Checkbox
0= off
1= Display Unchecked (DEFAULT)
2= Display Checked

choose option 2 and they will be automatically signed up when they click submit however Defaulting this to accepted may be in violation of certain regulations for your state or country

As far as I know this is the only way to do it.

DrByte:

Zen Cart does not "default" customers to be signed-up to your newsletter.

In fact, it specifically warns you to not choose auto-signup defaults.:oops: Sorry

DrByte:

Zen Cart does not "default" customers to be signed-up to your newsletter.

In fact, it specifically warns you to not choose auto-signup defaults.

My admin newsletter checkbox is set to 0, and I have removed the newsletter sign-up from the account creation, but, every time a customer creates an account, the newsletter subscriber count in the admin increases by one. So, it does appear that zen-cart is automatically signing people up. Otherwise, why would the subscribers keep increasing, when there is no newsletter subscribe box?

Zen Cart's normal behavior, unless the customer checks the box, is to leave them unsubscribed.
What addons/contributions have you installed to your site?
What kinds of customizations have you made?

DrByte:

Zen Cart's normal behavior, unless the customer checks the box, is to leave them unsubscribed.
What addons/contributions have you installed to your site?
What kinds of customizations have you made?

I have these mods on my site:

user tracking
quick updates
email address exporter
sales report
cross sell

Other than the mods, there is not much customization, only a background image. If you go to my create account page, you will see that there is no option to subscribe to the newsletter.

Should I also remove these two lines from my create account form:?

Newsletter and Email Details
☐ HTML ☐ TEXT-Only

Sadie
https://www.vintageknits.net/store

sadie:

Should I also remove these two lines from my create account form:?

Newsletter and Email Details
☐ HTML ☐ TEXT-OnlyOnly if you don't want your customers to be able to opt to select which format to receive their emails in.

sadie:

I have these mods on my site:

user tracking
quick updates
email address exporter
sales report
cross sellYou also seem to have a "How did you hear about us" referrals mod installed.
Did it make any changes to your /includes/modules/create_account.php or /includes/modules/YOUR_TEMPLATE_NAME/create_account.php file?

DrByte:

You also seem to have a "How did you hear about us" referrals mod installed.
Did it make any changes to your /includes/modules/create_account.php or /includes/modules/YOUR_TEMPLATE_NAME/create_account.php file?

I made these changes to get the referral box:

1. includes/languages/template_custom/english.php

   (a)	change this:   define('ENTRY_CUSTOMERS_REFERRAL', 'Referral Code:');
   
   to:  define('ENTRY_CUSTOMERS_REFERRAL', 'Referred From:');
   

   (b) change this: define('TABLE_HEADING_REFERRAL_DETAILS', 'Were You Referred to Us?');

   to:  define('TABLE_HEADING_REFERRAL_DETAILS', 'How did you hear about us?');
   

   2. admin/includes/languages/english/customers.php

      change this: define('CUSTOMERS_REFERRAL', 'Customer Referral<br />1st Discount Coupon');

      to: define('CUSTOMERS_REFERRAL', 'Referred From:');

Sadie

If you're using v1.3.8a, did you use the How Did You Hear About Us contribution designed for 1.3.8a? or an older version?
http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?main_page=product_contrib_info&products_id=186

If you used an older version, it may not have the newer updates to the create_account module file.

One of those is on line 28 of /includes/modules/create_account.php:```
$newsletter = (ACCOUNT_NEWSLETTER_STATUS == '1' ? false : true);

You could try changing that to this:```
  $newsletter = (ACCOUNT_NEWSLETTER_STATUS <= '1' ? false : true);

I don't know specifically what's wrong with your setup, but it's obviously not working as you expect.

But then again ... if you're not using Zen Cart to handle your newsletters, why does it matter whether it's tallying newsletter counts or not? If you're not using the data, and you're not giving the customer an option, perhaps it's a moot point?

I did not use a how did you hear about us contribution, I just made the changes noted above to a few files.

Why it mattered, is that I rebuilt my store over several months. Had I known this version would have done this, I would have imported my 1.2.6 newsletter subscribers’ emails to php.list before upgrading my store to 1.3.8a. Now, the databases are merged, and I have no idea who signed up for the newsletter (either through my 1.2.6 version, or directly through my php.list link) and who zen-cart signed up automatically.

In any event, I will just use my old database in php.list. It does not have all customers who may have wanted the newsletter, but I have other things to do. Thanks anyway.

Sadie