Phone Ordering?

torola · #**131** 08-17-2005, 05:37 AM

I think that might be good enough for starters, we can already using it and trouble shoot and test the mod, and just update later when you have the tax and shipping calculations ready. I'm ready to buy if that is the only thing that you're still behind with.
Do you have an idea how much longer will it take to have those features functioning?
How much will this mod cost?

Thanks
Tom

CenturyPerf · #**132** 08-17-2005, 06:46 AM

The whole point of being able to take a phone order and entering it through the cart is to give the customer an accurate order. It is necessary to be able to send a complete and accurate confirmation to the customer as soon as the order is finalized. You are not going to tell the customer to sit and wait by their e-mail for the accurate order total.

They will want to know what it is while they are on the phone. In cases with a high-volume store (like ours), you will want to get that rep off the phone and working on another order, not trying to manually calculate shipping rates or looking up a sales tax rate.

Being able to pull taxes, and shipping costs from the real-time connection, is extremely important. Especially if you have some new employee taking orders who does not have experience in anything close to an accurate guess at the shipping charges. With a store as complicated as ours, a goof in the shipping costs can send the order into a pretty deep loss.

BCSE · #**133** 08-17-2005, 06:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CenturyPerf

The whole point of being able to take a phone order and entering it through the cart is to give the customer an accurate order. It is necessary to be able to send a complete and accurate confirmation to the customer as soon as the order is finalized. You are not going to tell the customer to sit and wait by their e-mail for the accurate order total.

They will want to know what it is while they are on the phone. In cases with a high-volume store (like ours), you will want to get that rep off the phone and working on another order, not trying to manually calculate shipping rates or looking up a sales tax rate.

Being able to pull taxes, and shipping costs from the real-time connection, is extremely important. Especially if you have some new employee taking orders who does not have experience in anything close to an accurate guess at the shipping charges. With a store as complicated as ours, a goof in the shipping costs can send the order into a pretty deep loss.

Right Sam, I realize this. Thanks for your input. There are those out there who do not use realtime shipping and only use a flat shipping rate. So I was just trying to get an idea of how many there are out there and if it were worth me releasing (or maybe pre-releasing) the mod for those that do not need the auto shipping/taxes.

Thanks again for your input! It may be a moot point me asking the question as I may decide to not release it until the shipping/taxes are completely ready.

Carrie

What's wrong with this thread??? There are new posts on page 10 but you can't get to them!

torola · #**134** 08-17-2005, 07:23 AM

BCSE Please don't base your release on one man's opinion. I do agree that the calculations are important and I will need them too, however I'd rather have the pre-release version now and start selling, eventhough it might require me some additional time to complete the orders (not all of us have hundreds of calls), so this would be sufficient for time being untill the final version comes out. I understand that some people like CenturyPerf will have to wait for the final version and we will too, but I'm sure many of us could use the version without those calculations in the mean time.

Thank you and I hope you will take this into considerations.

Others that agree with me please drop a note.

Thanks
Tom

heartsfire · #**135** 08-17-2005, 07:44 AM

It seems that some folks are missing part of the equation here. Their signatures all indicate that the working pre-release version is for 3.5 not 4.x.

For me I would prefer that you take your time and get it right rather than have to go through the repeated bug fix process. We've managed to urvive both OSCommerce and XCart for two years without a direct phone entry process a few more days / weeks won't kill us......

BCSE · #**136** 08-17-2005, 09:52 AM

Thanks everyone for the comments. This is what I need to see so I know if it's useful for a pre-type release.

Don't worry about "patching" for any upgrades, all you would need to do is replace some files. Right now, this mod is created with NO modifications to X-cart AT ALL.

We are trying to be very careful with this mod and not have it interfere with the cart at all if possible. That is why it's taking so long. We want to get this one right the first time. We are fine though with releasing it early and adding the rest of the features in if that's what people need.

As far as the status for the version 4.0.x of this. It is almost to the 3.5.x stage. It is behind a bit though because of product variants.

The person originally wanting this from me needs it for 3.5.x that's why it's more complete than the 4.0.x

Keep the comments/questions coming!

Carrie

innuendo000 · #**137** 08-18-2005, 04:50 PM

I agree - make it right from the get go.

pavant · #**138** 08-20-2005, 11:09 AM

I am interested in this mod also but I am running Gold 4.0.14. Will you mod run with this version?

pavant · #**139** 08-20-2005, 11:10 AM

Boomer,
also it the mod runs with 4.0.14 when will it be available and how much will it cost?

CenturyPerf · #**140** 08-20-2005, 11:17 AM

Hmmm ...

I thought I was the person that originally spoke to you about it.