Gift Certificate Redemption Notification

Gift Certificate Redemption

I really like the way ZenCart can automatically redeem a new gift certificate the instant the recipient logs in to their account. But this creates a problem when the customer does not NOTICE their new certificate has just been redeemed.

A new customer of ours did not notice that the certificate was automatically redeemed the instant she logged into her account on our ZenCart Store.

Therefore she tired to enter the redemption code in the box on the checkout page, and naturally she received an error message telling her the certificate was already redeemed or that she had entered an invalid redemption code.

As a first time recipient of a gift cert, she also did not notice, nor did she even know to look for the “Available Balance” just above the redemption code entry field.

Consequently we had to field a tech support call from this brand new customer who was totally frazzled because she thought her redemption code had been stolen and redeemed by the thief - or that our web site was malfunctioning.

Frankly, I too did not notice the small text message on my screen the first time I experienced the auto-redemption feature on login.

This problem could be avoided if the automatic redemption on login was MORE PROMINENTLY DISPLAYED WITH AN IN-YOUR-FACE POPUP, which must be manually closed by the user. :lamo:

I have been experimenting with this, and Here is a second situation that can create the same problem: I was already logged in to my store customer account when I checked my email and received a new gift certificate. The instant I clicked on the link in my email, the auto redemption took place without my doing anything in my browser, because I was already logged in. This could happen in real life.

Again, I could easily have missed that small text message, and it was literally an accident that I noticed it. The IN-YOUR-FACE POPUP is needed to notify the recipient that the auto-redemption has just occurred.