How to handle guest accounts when wanting to stop using guest checkout?

[Mister Denial]

Hello,

 

I am considering dropping guest checkout completely, but I am having this issue: if a customer has used his primary email for a guest order, he can not create a registered account because Prestashop error message tells him "email already used" (because of previous guest orders). Customers then usually try to retrieve their password, and then get the error message "email not registered" - which is very confusing (because no account was created).

 

How can I handle this? I have many recurring customers, and don't want to lose them.

 

Many many thanks for your help with this!

 

Dan

[Joel Bardsley]

Hi Dan,

 

In the back-office, go to Customers > Customers and click on a guest customer you wish to keep. In the top corner there's a button to 'Transform to customer account' - clicking that will assign them a random password string, which is emailed to their associated email address. They'll now be able to login as a regular customer and place orders at will.

 

Hope that helps!

Joel

Edited May 2, 2013 by Joel B (see edit history)

[vekia]

let us know if this solution provided above by works for you

 

regards

[Mister Denial]

Hi Joel,

 

thanks about your reply. I am familiar with this option, the only issue is, I don't feel comfortable transforming all my guest accounts into registered accounts without asking the customers first, it seems a little "unethical" from the privacy point of view.

 

So I was actually hoping for a more global solution.

 

Another problem is, if a customer ever places an order through guest checkout, they will never be able to place a registered order again, without contacting tech support... wouldn't it be more logic that the PS software not only checks if this email is in use, but ALSO if it is associated with a registered account?

 

Seems like a design flaw to me.

[pel024]

I was just about to start a thread about this very topic. I too am fed up with the numerous support queries I get from customers unable to create accounts after previously checking out as a guest. It's also a hard thing to explain to customers as it frankly makes no sense.

 

I'm also thinking about dropping it but I have lots of guest accounts! Converting these to registered accounts on the customers behalf is out of the question for the reason @Mister Denial mentioned.

 

There has got to be a way to get PS to check for the email address and the is_guest field in the ps_customer table during authentication. i.e email address found and is_guest = 1 - customer allowed to register...

Edited May 17, 2013 by pel024 (see edit history)

[Mister Denial]

Indeed, it does not make any sense, and it is hard to explain to customers. It makes you look unprofessional, like you're relying on a faulty or unreliable software, and by extent makes your shop look unreliable.

 

Which is a shame, because Prestashop is clearly not unreliable, it's a great software, we've had very little bugs with it. But this minor design mistake casts a big shadow, so to say.

[ajensen27]

No one's ever figured out a solution to this?? Seems like such a horrible design flaw.