Testing - Email Confirmation
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• Testing - Email Confirmation
  

  I have created a quick Shopify site to see how it all works… I have placed a few test orders so I can get a feel of the whole process (http://bellocafe.com). A couple things concern me:

  1. I never received a confirmation email (as the customer) for any of the orders I placed. Is this somethig that needs to be “turned on” or is there no way to receive a confirmation email on test orders? In the Admin area, it tells me an email was sent for each order… but I received nothing.

  2. As I see the orders in the admin area appear, I see that I need to actually click on “Accept Payment” to process their creidt card? I use Authorize.net as my gateway. My question is this: If the credit card is not processed in real-time as the customer is placing the order, how can we be assured the card number is correct and the address associated with the account matches? I sure dont want the customer to have the ability to enter erroneous information just to require my Customer Service people to have to call them to get good credit card information later. Can the shoppig cart be set to authorize AND charge the card automatically when the customer places the order? This will save us time in processing the order later.

  Any help you can provide would be appreciated.

  Scott Bello Montana Roasters http://bellomontana.com

  BTW, is this forum the ONLY form of Technical Support Shopify offers (I find ALL of the documentation less than informative)? I get concerned doing bsiness with a company that doesn’t publish a phone number, email address or physical address… especially when it involves my customers, their credit cards and orders. Am I the only one that feels like this?

• Richard Quick commented
  

  Hi Scott,

  I don’t know the answers to the other qestions (Tobi – any ideas?), but Shopify’s address is here: http://shopify.com/about

  And the email’s here: http://jadedpixel.com/contact/

  - Rich

• Richard Quick commented
  

  Guess I should link those:

  http://shopify.com/about

  http://jadedpixel.com/contact/

• tobi commented
  

  Jscott,

  Welcome to shopify. Besides this forum there is also a feeback form in the Shopify andministration and a contact address on jadedpixel.com which is linked from shopify.com. This forum is very active and has the big advantage that it often answers questions before you even know you have them.

  1) An order confirmation is dispatched once an order is placed. This is the first report I hear about the confirmation not being received. In fact I bought something off a shopify store yesterday and got the confirmation fine. Can you see if the confirmation was maybe filed as spam by your email provider? This would be bad and maybe something we could address.

  2) Authorized means that the money is in “escrow” between the credit card holder and you. Its reserved and counts against the card holders credit limit. Usually credit cards authorize money for 7 to 14 days. In this time period you can capture the amount by using the Accept Payment tool to get the amount secured.

• Jscott commented
  

  Hi Tobi,

  Thanks for the response. I actually sent 4 orders through and I havent received any confirmation emails. Maybe I will send one through with a generic Yahoo accout… if that will tell us anything. Now understand that the gateway is set to Bogus… maybe that is the problem? Anyway, I used an email address that I have been using for years… and I receive email everyday (more than I want actually!)... so I dont know what the deal couls be.

  In fact, I have corresponded privately with Rich Quick using email just today… so I dont see how my address is bad.

  I DID check my junk mail folder and nothing there.

• Richard Quick commented
  

  Scott,

  I just tried placing a trial order and I got the email fine.

  I’ve forwarded it to you.

  It’s worth noting that I sent you an email (to jscott@) the other day which bounced as it said your inbox was full – so I used you customer care email address instead (info@).

  Perhaps that’s the problem?

  Did you try with a different email?

  - Rich

• Jscott commented
  

  I am receiveing emails now… totally my fault! Rich helped me with this. Thanks again Rich!

  Back to the “Authorizing & Charging” issue… can we set the shop to Authorize AND Charge the card when the customer places the order? This is a very standard proceedure that is offered by most every cart… even Google Checkout lets you set this.

• tobi commented
  

  Currently you cannot set shopify to automatically do the capture.

  I’m curious as to why you would want this. The nice thing about authorization is that the money is virtually yours but if the customer chances his mind you can just let the amount expire and never have to pay any chargeback fees to your credit card institude ( up to 18$ ).

  Its also illegal to charge money before the goods have been shipped out in some parts of canada and some states. Most other e-commerce systems have been developed aeons ago and usually ignore more recent laws ;)

• Jscott commented
  

  The reason is simple… it is just another step (I know it is a small/simple click) but another step just the same. When we receive an order, we have a number of steps we have to take as it is to fill the order (roasting, labeling, packaging, printing documentation and shipping). Its just one more thing.

  Its curious… if its illegal to charge the card before you ship why Google Checkout allows you to set their system to do it?

  Oh well, I guess its not that big of a deal.

  Thanks Tobi!