I just updated to 4.13.1 and am unbelievably disappointed to learn that any vendor that applies is now automatically granted an admin account without our ability to review them first and decide if they are a good fit for our marketplace!
Marketplaces of the future will not just allow anyone to sell on them. They will research the brand and first ensure they have similar ethics and values such as sustainability, and only after that will vendors be granted permission to access their admin panel and begin selling.
Now with this update and change, any vendor that applies is automatically granted an admin account and approved... this is terrible! This dilutes our marketplace brand as there is no limit to access and just any unethical, garbage vendor is immediately accepted with no waiting period or ability to be reviewed!
With no barrier to entry - this makes our marketplace look like some poor version of Amazon and as a result we have had to stop our marketing campaign until this gets fixed.
Does anyone have a solution to change this without restoring an old backup?
I've looked into it in detail, with a developer and not from what we can see.
1. The default is now set so that vendors are automatically granted admin site panel and access after completing the application without the ability to review them, ask for further info etc before being accepted.
2. Or, they are not - in which case they are not automatically granted acceptance and admin access, but their status is listed as pending as opposed to the helpful thumbs up or down so we knew which account was a new application and not just a vendor making changes that need moderation. In this scenario we have to seek out which is a new account, review it, then manually set up a new administrator account for them and then notify them as there is no automatic notification sent once a new admin account has been set up.
* For both scenarios - upon completion of the application the vendor receives a message that they have now been emailed access. In scenario 2 - no email is ever sent in-spite of the message.