Why assign an order #?

[doberer]

Can somebody explain why an order number gets assigned to a cc transaction that doesn't process? They go into a step 4 status, get an order number and then the customer "thinks' they have a valid and PAID order...when it actually doesn't. Then we fight over "proof" that the cc transaction didn't post.

It would seem all too logical to only assign a valid order number once the transaction happens and the order comfirmation screen appears.

edit: further proof this doesn't make sense. If you look up the customer the "fake" order doesn't show up under their account...you can only find it if you scan thru the "not completed" orders.

dumb!

/rant...

[GonzaloGil]

When you do a payment transaction, the gateway asks for an Invoice #, so the invoice # is given at that time, now depending on the transaction, it might be marked as paid or not.

If we were to give random numbers for invoice #'s, it would be hard for you to track down a transaction at your gateway.

So, ignore orders until they are in NEW status, having an invoice # doesn't mean that its a paid order.

[elightbox]

This is new to me, but I can see where confusion might arise if the customer actually sees an order number.

Fighting with customers over confusion is not fun and unproductive . It is hard to say to the customer it is very clear, you are just stupid.

Maybe, it can be stated next the invoice # "where that the customer sees it" that it is unpaid. That would make more sense, and eliminate confusion.

[doberer]

anything to clear up the confusion would be appreciated on 3dcarts' side of things. I wouldn't even mind if it created an unpaid order but at least linked to the customer record for easier retrievel and searching.

[Evolution]

When you do a payment transaction, the gateway asks for an Invoice #, so the invoice # is given at that time, now depending on the transaction, it might be marked as paid or not.

Gil, is there a way to pass something more specific to the gateway? By that I mean say a variable that can be dynamic.

One of the things that is frustrating, and I don't know anyone else that is set up this way, is if a shopper errors out because of a typo, the gateway will not let them process the same transaction, usually resulting in abandonment.

How about passing something like System.DateTime.Now (or whatever would result in the date and time).

Then, have the invoice number generated after successful completion.

Would that help resolve both issues?

[3dcartadmin]

Gil, is there a way to pass something more specific to the gateway? By that I mean say a variable that can be dynamic.

One of the things that is frustrating, and I don't know anyone else that is set up this way, is if a shopper errors out because of a typo, the gateway will not let them process the same transaction, usually resulting in abandonment.

How about passing something like System.DateTime.Now (or whatever would result in the date and time).

Then, have the invoice number generated after successful completion.

Would that help resolve both issues?

Actually most gateways, with the exception of Linkpoint, will accept the same invoice #, specially if the original transaction failed. For linkpoint we do pass invoice #+ random string, to prevent this from happening.

I am not aware of any other gateway with this issue, but, if yours has this issue, please email me gil @ 3dcart.com, and I can look into this for you and perhaps fix it with the similar approach we did for Linkpoint.

[3dcartadmin]

This is new to me, but I can see where confusion might arise if the customer actually sees an order number.

Fighting with customers over confusion is not fun and unproductive . It is hard to say to the customer it is very clear, you are just stupid.

Maybe, it can be stated next the invoice # "where that the customer sees it" that it is unpaid. That would make more sense, and eliminate confusion.

I am not sure were the confusion is...
Can you tell me how your customer is seeing the invoice#?
If you are buying something from the store, and enter a bad credit card (or something to trigger a decline), the order is declined and customer gets a message that their credit card did not go through. They do not get an email or anything like that. So, its pretty clear that the order did not go through.

Could you tell me how your customer is seeing an invoice #?

[Evolution]

Actually most gateways, with the exception of Linkpoint, will accept the same invoice #, specially if the original transaction failed. For linkpoint we do pass invoice #+ random string, to prevent this from happening.

I am not aware of any other gateway with this issue, but, if yours has this issue, please email me gil @ 3dcart.com, and I can look into this for you and perhaps fix it with the similar approach we did for Linkpoint.

Well, it's auth.net which I would think is pretty well covered. They get a "Duplicate transaction" error in which case I delete the failed order, and have them try again.

I'll shoot you an email with this info also.

[doberer]

I will try to make my credit card not work tonight on a sample order to see what I can duplicate and post back info. We use 3dcart's merchant account program.