[jobosales]

Will there be a 2.0.15 before 2.1?

At first I was thinking that I do not really want a release before 2.1 but, after giving it more thought, I think it might be a good idea. There are currently about 25 patches in the Bug Tracker which have not been delivered in a production release, the most important of which addresses a Paypal Express problem (http://forum.cs-cart...w&vbug_id=1860). I think that they should work at addressing as many bugs as they can in the next couple of weeks and then package them up for a release at the end of April/beginning of May. They should also include in this 2.0.15 release whatever patches are necessary to address the new MasterCard/Discover requirements (http://forum.cs-cart...w&vbug_id=1861).

Then they can deliver a 2.1 beta late May or early June (using their same optimistic schedule).

Bob

[Traveler]

At first I was thinking that I do not really want a release before 2.1 but, after giving it more thought, I think it might be a good idea. There are currently about 25 patches in the Bug Tracker which have not been delivered in a production release, the most important of which addresses a Paypal Express problem (http://forum.cs-cart...w&vbug_id=1860). I think that they should work at addressing as many bugs as they can in the next couple of weeks and then package them up for a release at the end of April/beginning of May. They should also include in this 2.0.15 release whatever patches are necessary to address the new MasterCard/Discover requirements (http://forum.cs-cart...w&vbug_id=1861).

Then they can deliver a 2.1 beta late May or early June (using their same optimistic schedule).Bob

I am testing the PayPal express bug fix and so far it is working well and I am happy.

It sounds like the Authorize requirements are more than a year of so no current issues. Which is very good.

The 2.0.15 bug fix idea sounds good.

Then 2.1 can be a smooth new feature upgrade.

[snorocket]

Will there be a 2.0.15 before 2.1?

Last I heard 2.1 would be out in ~ 2 months, unless they change there plans it doesn't sound like any releases will be in between - Sno

[jobosales]

It sounds like the Authorize requirements are more than a year of so no current issues. Which is very good.

The MasterCard and Discover requirements went into effect yesterday. Authorize.net has negotiated a 2.5 month reprieve (until 6/30/10).

Bob

[Traveler]

The MasterCard and Discover requirements went into effect yesterday. Authorize.net has negotiated a 2.5 month reprieve (until 6/30/10).

Bob

"...However, Authorize.Net, MasterCard and Discover have worked together to extend these dates for all merchants using Authorize.Net solutions. Our merchants will now have until June 30, 2011.."

From the post - although I am not sure as I do not use Authorize and have no plans to do so. Although I am always open to a better rate and service.

I called Intuit/Innovative yesterday and they had no new requirements yet.

Meanwhile, I have a backup plan to use PayPal if need be for all transactions.

[tbirnseth]

Note that the major change applies to gift-card and pre-paid cards only and that is to:
1) Apply the partial (residual) amount to the purchase and then provide the customer with an alternate payment method
2) Show remaining balance on the card after payment.

There are no facilities in cs-cart for PartialPay nor is there any mechanism to display feedback from the provider (Anet in this case). A brief notification box won't meet the requirments.

It will be even more difficult for other payment provider interfaces since the order simply stays in the open (O) status until a response from the provider callback. The user is disengaged from the process at this point.

[Traveler]

Note that the major change applies to gift-card and pre-paid cards only and that is to:
1) Apply the partial (residual) amount to the purchase and then provide the customer with an alternate payment method
2) Show remaining balance on the card after payment.

There are no facilities in cs-cart for PartialPay nor is there any mechanism to display feedback from the provider (Anet in this case). A brief notification box won't meet the requirments.

It will be even more difficult for other payment provider interfaces since the order simply stays in the open (O) status until a response from the provider callback. The user is disengaged from the process at this point.

Good points - partial payments sound like a bad idea.

[tbirnseth]

Good points - partial payments sound like a bad idea.

They're a great thing for the consumer, a mess for the merchant to process! And an even bigger pain for the integrator (cs-cart, other back-end order management systems).

I'm sure there's a way to detect whether a CC number is a gift-card and/or pre-paid from the number, but I don't know what it is. One could then accept credit cards but not gift-cards or pre-paid since you could mask them out from the cc number.

[jobosales]

"...However, Authorize.Net, MasterCard and Discover have worked together to extend these dates for all merchants using Authorize.Net solutions. Our merchants will now have until June 30, 2011.."

I read that several times and could have sworn it said 2010. ANyway, my mistake but it at least provides more time for developers (not just CS-Cart) to address this issue.

Bob

[jobosales]

Note that the major change applies to gift-card and pre-paid cards only and that is to:
1) Apply the partial (residual) amount to the purchase and then provide the customer with an alternate payment method
2) Show remaining balance on the card after payment.

There are no facilities in cs-cart for PartialPay nor is there any mechanism to display feedback from the provider (Anet in this case). A brief notification box won't meet the requirments.

I just figured this is what the developers would need to address.

I wonder what the statistics are on the use of prepaid and gift cards. From a merchants standpoint, it probably amounts to higher fees but if enough people are using them (and if your competition accepts them) the benefits of accepting them might outweigh the disadvantages. I wonder if the bigger shopping cart vendors are addressing this.

Bob

[Traveler]

I just figured this is what the developers would need to address.

I wonder what the statistics are on the use of prepaid and gift cards. From a merchants standpoint, it probably amounts to higher fees but if enough people are using them (and if your competition accepts them) the benefits of accepting them might outweigh the disadvantages. I wonder if the bigger shopping cart vendors are addressing this.

Bob

Very good questions.

I think that as a business gets bigger prepaid cards - gift certificates etc become more important.

Large companies look at gift certificates as an interest free loan.

At the moment speaking for myself our business is quite small and I do not like extra bookkeeping work. This morning I had an out of stock item for $35 and the customer was kind enough to tell me that he would soon be placing another order so we could give him a credit.

Which in theory is good but I do not have a system in place to track this type of thing so i will make a refund and pay the fees just to keep everything simple.

[pbannette]

Hello,
I process credit cards off-line through QuickBooks. I have no way of knowing a gift card/prepaid card from a standard card. Or, a way to process multiple methods on a sale.
Traveler said in a previous post

I called Intuit/Innovative yesterday and they had no new requirements yet.

.
It should be interesting to see how intuit implements the new requirements with manual processing in QuickBooks since the customer is out of the picture once they leave the cart and the order is processed later.
Bob

[adodric]

I read that several times and could have sworn it said 2010. ANyway, my mistake but it at least provides more time for developers (not just CS-Cart) to address this issue.

Keep in-mind that the 2011 date is only for Authorize.net users. All other merchants that accept Discover and/or Mastercard are required to be compliant by the dates set by the credit card companies, which are:

MasterCard’s rule changes go into effect May 1, 2010, and Discover’s rule changes go into effect April 16, 2010.

This is for everybody that accepts these two card types, not just those that were notified of it.

Note that the major change applies to gift-card and pre-paid cards only

The changes to the Debit Card processing is much more of a concern for me. Now when a debit card has a daily limit it will no longer be declined and we are required to allow for a partial charge to the debit card and then an additional charge to another payment option/credit card.

Partial authorization transactions – When a customer’s transaction amount exceeds the balance available on their debit, prepaid or gift card, instead of declining the transaction, a partial authorization for the amount available to the customer will be returned. This will allow the customer to pay for the remaining amount with another form of payment. This is called a split-tender transaction.

This is just a way for the credit card companies to squeeze every last penny out of a customer that they can. It's easy for them to make new rules. Merchants and cart programmers are the ones that have to find a way to implement them.

[tbirnseth]

This is just a way for the credit card companies to squeeze every last penny out of a customer that they can. It's easy for them to make new rules. Merchants and cart programmers are the ones that have to find a way to implement them.

And then when the customer does not want to complete payment by some other method, we can pay a fee for refunding what was partially applied.

[adodric]

And then when the customer does not want to complete payment by some other method, we can pay a fee for refunding what was partially applied.

Yeah, or we pay transaction fees for the second payment type, doubling our transaction fees for these types of orders. I really don't like these new rules.

[Traveler]

Keep in-mind that the 2011 date is only for Authorize.net users. All other merchants that accept Discover and/or Mastercard are required to be compliant by the dates set by the credit card companies, which are: This is for everybody that accepts these two card types, not just those that were notified of it. The changes to the Debit Card processing is much more of a concern for me. Now when a debit card has a daily limit it will no longer be declined and we are required to allow for a partial charge to the debit card and then an additional charge to another payment option/credit card. ......

I just called Quickbooks/Innovative again and they have no plans currently to make changes - they said that if changes happen we would be notified in writing in our statements with a warning time.

I am not sure that we need to worry to much about what credit card companies say as we do not deal directly with them. This is what we pay our payment gateways/merchant accounts to take care of.

It is very unlikely that only Authorize will get extra time to comply - probably all gateways will get extra time for all new changes.

The credit card companies do not want to lose millions of merchants overnight...

[jobosales]

zeke-

Are we going to get the ability to display a message in the "Create account" area of the landing page? It is really important that we have a chance to pitch the benefits of registration.

Also, will the landing page display the order number so that customers have all the information they need to complete their order? For instance, if the payment method is "phone order", the customer needs not just the payment instructions but also the order number to reference when he calls.

Bob

[Darius]

I still do not get the point of incomplete order different compared to open order? Can someone explain me the difference? Is the only difference in email sent or not sent?

I had this sorted long time ago by sending invoice.tpl only with status completed...

I thought incomplete order will not create order number at all?

[kingsleypress]

I have an incompleted order. The customer was not registered. Is there any way to send them an email with a link to their cart (name and address information was filled in) so that they can come and try payment again? Their payment method was PayPal Express. Presumably there was a failure there somewhere.

What will happen to this incomplete order? Will it just auto-delete after so long?

[Hetha]

We change the status of these orders to 'failed'. This generates a failed status email with invoice included and a link to their order. The 'failed' status email has been re-written completely and tells customers that their order has failed for some reason and that if they would like to complete their purchase to return to the store using the link or telephoning us directly.

We try to change the status within 2 hours of the order and have a 40% success rate with this. We send a similar message with the abandoned carts but we email directly within 2 hours as one day is too long.

Hetha