Checkout and Stock Problems

[Debyink]

Since way long ago from CC3 I've always used the reduce stock on order pending, my reasoning in that customers got pretty p'd off if when going to checkout they then found half their basket had then become out of stock.

I've had a couple of problems which have only started over the last week in where if a customer buys the last of a product, goes through and pays by Paypal commerce, on return to the store they are now presented with the message that the item has been removed from their basket as it's out of stock.  Well yes because they have bought the last one.

 

From my customers:

Hi, as I was closing my order last night one of the items was removed from the basket because it was out of stock. To be honest I didn’t think the order had gone through but I have checked my card and full payment for the order has been taken. Please cancel my order if you don’t have all the items. 

Thanks, Sara

 

Hello,

after making my order and paying the screen said one of the items had been removed as it was out of stock but I have been charged for the full order. If you do not have the item that was removed please cancel my order.

Maureen

 

 

The other thing that CC has always done is if during checkout but before paying a customer decides to remove an item from their basket, that item is never returned to the stock levels.

[bsmither]

"Only started over the last week"

Please review if there were any changes made to your store from a week ago - upgraded CubeCart, upgraded the payment gateway extension, etc.

Your forum sig says you are using CC645. There has been a fix for when an admin deletes a Pending order (or maybe also when a customer empties their basket), the inventory was not restored. That fix was implemented in CC648.

[Debyink]

Hi Brian, I haven't done any upgrades etc.

 

The thing where it doesn't restore stock (reduce stock on order pending) is only where a customer removes an item from their basket, this has been going on for years, it used to happen in CC4 aswell - but this is only when a customer is going through checkoutout but before paying, this isn't when a customer deletes an order or when an admin deletes it ( I never delete an order I mark them as cancelled so the stock does get returned).

[bsmither]

Please let us know the exact version of CubeCart you are using (admin, Dashboard, Store Overview).

 

[bsmither]

I am still not clear on what are the exact conditions (I will try them all to try an replicate your observations on CC651) your customers find themselves in: logged in or not, the skin being used (some skins have a separate page to choose the payment gateway - or maybe that was CC5), removing the suspect item or removing any other item causes the suspect item to be reported as out of stock, etc.

And the way you describe the situation is not identical to how I read your customer's description of their experiences.

 

[Debyink]

Version 6.5.1 is available but you are running 6.4.5. skin Cburst .

Customers were guest checkout - customers purchased several items but one of those items was the last in stock.

Reduce stock levels set to : Reduce stock on pending

Customer goes through checkout, pays via Paypal commerce and upon returning to the store is informed one of the items is now out of stock and has been removed from their basket, total shown is now less the removed item, even though they have just paid in full for the whole order.

Have sent you the rquest log from when one of them made their order.

[bsmither]

"and upon returning to the store is informed"

Do you have an idea how the customer returned from PayPal? Which is to ask, did the customer click the "Back" button on their browser, or was there a link on the payment page, that when clicked, returned them to a specific page on your store? A 'proper' return to your store should have the customer shown a 'Thank you' page with the Shopping Basket having been emptied.

Please know that I have no idea how PayPal works. I've examined all the changes to CubeCart from CC645 to present and no issues have been fixed related to this situation. The Request Log entries (thank you for supplying them) do not have anything that makes me suspicious of a problem.

[bsmither]

Regarding these orders, did they get set to Processing (the PayPal module is supposed to do this on a successful transaction), or were they still at Pending?

Also, please let us know the History of that order.

 

Edited June 11, 2023 by bsmither

[Debyink]

Yes they were correctly set to processing after making payment.

I've no idea if they were auto returned to my store or they used a link to return .

History for order shows:

Order Complete	Jun 09 2023, 11:42 am
Order Packed Ready For Dispatch	Jun 09 2023, 11:25 am
Processing	Jun 09 2023, 00:26 am
Pending	Jun 09 2023, 00:26 am

[Debyink]

Brian, I think you are right, those couple of customers must have clicked the back button instead of allowing Paypal to return them (or them clicking the return to store link).

 

[Debyink]

forget that, another customer just said that Paypal returned her to the store and it said the same to her:

Just tried to put in an order, my PayPal is showing a payment transaction to you however it sent me automatically back to your website to say one item not available but wanted me to complete order again despite PayPal transaction having been taken inclusive of the unavailable item.

[bsmither]

"wanted me to complete order again"

To me, that would mean the gateway: is not getting the fact that the transaction was approved, or is getting the fact that the transaction was not approved.

So, if this is a problem caused by PayPal (since you said this started a week ago with not having your environment or CC version changed), @Al Brookbanks will need to track this.

 

[Debyink]

Just to add she did make a new order on her return to the site but didn't pay for it (left in pending state) as by then she realised that the original order had been paid for so double checked with me, I cancelled her second order.

 

Also to note I had already changed the store to reduce stock on processing .

[Debyink]

This is now getting beyond a joke, more customers complaining about when they are returned to the store by Paypal (after paying in full )and they have bought the last of an item , they are told that an item is no longer in stock, a new order basket is made and recalculated and they go make payment again. I'm having to refund the second order which costs me the non-refundable Paypal fees and my customers are getting P'd off. I've now got buyers opening Paypal claims.

"Hi, I reported a duplicate order to PayPal because I didn’t do anything to trigger two orders. I thought there was a PayPal fault. After I paid the first time, PayPal returned me to your store,  I didn’t press anything but a screen message said there were insufficient items of one thing (I can’t remember what) in stock and it had been removed from my cart, I clicked ok  then it transferred me straight back to PayPal. After this I got the order confirmed message. I didn’t get one for the first attempt but then found there were 2 orders both paid"

 

Paypal commerce customers are also complaining that when clicking the Paypal Checkout button link that it takes them there and then nothing, sometimes spinning circle, sometimes nothing. So I am left with customers not being able to pay for orders.

[bsmither]

Previously, you said: "Also to note I had already changed the store to reduce stock on processing."

Is this still the case?

 

[bsmither]

If the customer is at PayPal, with a "spinning circle", I have no theory that this could have anything to do with the CubeCart code.

Regarding getting bounced back to PayPal:

Quote

I didn’t press anything but a screen message said there were insufficient items of one thing (I can’t remember what) in stock and it had been removed from my cart, I clicked OK, then it transferred me straight back to PayPal.

The phrases CubeCart has are, most likely: "Sorry, but [product_name] is no longer available and has been removed from your basket," and less likely: "Sorry, you can't buy more than we have. We have automatically reduced your quantity to the maximum available."

These phrases get displayed when the basket contents are 'updated', and that happens more frequently than you might imagine.

But, again, it seems PayPal is sending the customer back to your store with bad info (the wrong querystring).

[Debyink]

It doesn't help my work flow having it set to reduce stock on processing, we manufacture 80% of  items and buy other complimentary items in, of which there is limited stock, some people spend ages looking through the store whilst adding items to their basket, I would get complaints from customers that once they went to checkout - items had been removed from their basket, so for the last 10 years (since Cubecart 3) I have used the reduce stock on pending.

So when the customer checks out - all in stock but just 1 item in their basket is the last 1 in stock, they click the Paypal checkout - go to Paypal and pay, then Paypal auto sends them back to my store, they will then get the standard cubecart phrase that is used when an item has been removed "Sorry, but %s is no longer available and has been removed from your basket." and the Paypal checkout link is there again so they go and make another payment. upon auto returning they have 2 orders, 2 order references.

[bsmither]

It is still confounding that this "only started over the last week".

Here are a couple of edits that were implemented in CC646 to fix an issue with CubeCart's "cart". This will likely not have any effect on your situation.

In /controllers/controller.index.inc.php, near line 78, find:

$GLOBALS['cart'] = Cart::getInstance();

On a new blank line after that, add:

$GLOBALS['cart']->init();

In /classes/cart.class.php, near lines 94-95, find:

    final protected function __construct()
    {

Change to:

    final protected function __construct() { }
    public function init() {

 

[Debyink]

Have done above, will see if it helps.