Cancelled/refunded order still shows invoice. Another WTF

[bcsteeve]

Another wasted 5 minutes while I type a problem that won't be resolved.

 

After refunding and cancelling an order.  Customer still gets to download in invoice that makes no mention of it being cancelled or refunded.  Nice. 

[bellini13]

change your order status configuration in the back office so that a PDF is not available for these order states

[bcsteeve]

Yep, another hide-the-problem-don't-fix-the-problem

[PhilCorleone]

Steeve, patience my man is the key!

 

Do think i'm happy too with what Prestashop is giving me when it goes blue.

 

If you tried OpenCart you would grateful to Presta.

[bcsteeve]

No, I think I'm done.  I spent probably 200 hours setting this up only to find the back end order handling is ridiculous.  I feel so stupid that I didn't look at that earlier.  I just assumed that a popular platform that looked so well put-together would be functional at the core.

 

But order management is ridiculous.  I can't even figure out how 1 order works, let alone hundreds when I switch over for real.  Refunds don't work.  Cancellations are a mystery.  Deletion is impossible.  And no documentation at all on how it is even supposed to work.  The documentations says stupid things like:

 

 

 

do not mark an order as "Delivered" when you have sent the package, use "Shipped"

 

THEN DEFINE WHAT THE DIFFERENCE IS. 

 

In other platforms, a status us just that... a status.  Selecting any given status doesn't actually DO anything.  This one has fairly severe consequences for choosing the wrong one, and with no explanation for what they do, no takebacks, and no flow control.  What a nightmare!  

 

If they want to be in so much control AND not allow deletions AND (potentially worse of all) send an email out to customers automatically with every bloody status change... then at the very least the status list should be IN ORDER and you're only able to go from top to bottom (or whatever).

 

I did a test order.  I pretended it was a bad order and the customer asked me to cancel.  So I selected "canceled".  Ok, that did nothing.  Oh wait, or did it?  My inventory went up one, but it still shows that the amount is paid and the product is still there.  Hmm, ok, refund?  Well that didn't refund anything although it shows now as "refunded" and tells the customer it is, when it isn't.  OK, so hit "refund" button... that makes sense.  Status doesn't change, refund doesn't work (no error, but refund didn't go through), it shows "refunded" but still says they paid and the balance isn't zero.  Delete items?  Alright, but can't delete shipping.  Issue a voucher?  Why would I do that when I refunded their payment?  Cancel again??  Now my stock went up another unit, WTF.

 

It is bizarre.  And it is WAY too much work.  Imagine doing that for 100 orders in a day... wow.

 

No, this is too broke.  I have to suck it up and move on.  I think I'm going to cry, but that's the way it is.

 

 

Unless... someone... anyone... can explain EXACTLY what each status is and how to perform BASIC tasks such as cancelling an order, partially cancelling an order, making arbitrary refunds (discounts) after the fact, etc. 

 

 

 

Incidentally, I did try OpenCart and yeah, I can't say it was any better.  I'm already familiar with ZenCart.  It actually WORKS, but it is so ugly and tired looking I wanted to move on.  Even their latest is still butt ugly both front and (especially) back.  I tried Abante cart which was beautiful like prestashop and flawed like prestashop - though now that I think about it, perhaps not as bad.  The best I've seen, unfortunately, seems like a dead project (no forum activity at all) which would be a support nightmare... I can't even remember what it was called.

 

The only majors I never tried were Magento (it seemed complicated and the demos weren't as nice) and the hosted ones because I don't like the idea of hosted.  Having to pay a considerable amount every month AND you lose the flexibility of modification?  No thanks.

 

I'm seriously thinking of hiring my own team of Indian workers and doing what PrestaShop can't - provide a tool that actually works for the merchant rather than just being a pretty face.

[PhilCorleone]

Steeve, hold your horses man. It is obvious that you are under stress right now, totally understandable.

 

So here how it works. If an order is made, you have to go chronologically in setting its status. For example, a customer paid for a product using bank wire, the status would be "awaiting payment", you have to set it to "payment accepted" first, theeen, "shipped", theeen, "Delieverd" and so on. For refunds, "cancel" so stock gets increased by 1 then refund to equalize accounts. For the invoice thing, of course the invoice would be there! you can't buy a tv from best buy and return it later with the receipt to be "kept" to them for good. I mean the receipt was initiated in the system, that's a done action!

 

It works flawlessly with me, I don't blame you for getting angry after all of these hours of hard work but it is obvious that your mind is literally cloudy right now. Take a day off, sleep well and return to it later when you are cool, give it some time while experimenting and you will get a hold of it. Being a tech guy and a store manager at the same time is really daunting.

 

Good luck.

[bcsteeve]

I appreciate the calming post.

Part of the problem, perhaps, is I'm taking a very north-american-centric view on a system that is clearly very euro-centric in nature.  That's on me, not the software.  The process you just described, for example, seems so 1970's.  Bank wire?  I've never even seen a bank wire in my adult life.  It shocks me that they are still in use.  So having a system that appears to be revolving around an antiquated procedure seems... backwards.  But if that is common in Europe (or elsewhere) then I can see why the system is the way it is, and why things like PayPal, which perhaps aren't as popular, are so poorly implemented.

 

I disagree about the invoice.  Again, even calling it an "invoice" is wrong, from my point of view.  Invoices, as a document, have no place in retail ecommerce.  An invoice is not a receipt, it is a bill... a "payment due".  And that makes sense with a wire transfer, again, but not a credit card, paypal or any other instant payment.  Money is never outstanding so the "invoice" proper should never exist.  In any case, if we equate it to a store transaction a customer would have the receipt from their purchase and if they cancel that purchase the receipt would be marked with a return.  In this case, they have a document saying they paid... when they didn't.  It should also reflect the subsequent reversal.

 

I guess it is a minor issue.  My concern was taxes because there would be a document out there that suggested, falsely, that I earned money when I didn't.  But I suppose in an audit I could show the return and justify why the revenue wasn't counted.  So no big deal really.

 

Still, even if I can accept the logic and trust that all the bugs could be worked out with the PayPal and even if I figured I could learn the system as it is so that I knew the difference between a refund and a cancel...  it is too many clicks!  Too much time.  And WAY too many emails going to the customer  (I got 9 emails relating to my single test order/cancellation).

 

I've seen others saying the same thing:  it is painfully obvious that the developers here have very little experience with actual ecommerce.  The "gamification" is cool and the site is pretty... but in the end it has to meet the goal of facilitating SALES.   And asking people for birthdays by default, mobile phone numbers but not home phone numbers, asking them to "sign in" for guest checkout prior to being able to pick the only payment processor.... getting a "something is wrong with your credit card" error when the payment went through and then getting 9 emails and still having no idea where things are at...  none of that fosters sales.  It all fosters frustration.  I can deal with the frustration of getting this working, but it is the obvious ongoing frustration of using it (by both myself and my customers) that I don't think is going to be acceptable.

 

For the time being, I've launched my new "pretty" site and am asking customers to go back over to my old tired website for the actual purchase.  As horrible as that is, I think it is superior to subjecting them to the order flow of prestacart and subjecting myself to having to deal with the horrendous back end flow.