Automated payment reminders

[Guest]

Every month I send out a dozen or so emails to customers who have old unpaid orders. Most of these people just forgot, and will pay soon after they are notified; some of them no longer want to make the purchase, or are unresponsive, so I need to cancel their orders (with another polite email explaining why). Very boring and repetitive, and sometimes hard to keep track of as well.

 

A quick solution:

 

In /admin/orders.php, find the line where $email is defined. It will look something like this:

 

$email = STORE_NAME . "\n" . EMAIL_SEPARATOR . "\n" . EMAIL_TEXT_ORDER_NUMBER . ' ' . $oID . "\n" . EMAIL_TEXT_INVOICE_URL . ' ' . tep_catalog_href_link(FILENAME_CATALOG_ACCOUNT_HISTORY_INFO, 'order_id=' . $oID, 'SSL') . "\n" . EMAIL_TEXT_DATE_ORDERED . ' ' . tep_date_long($check_status['date_purchased']) . "\n\n" . EMAIL_TEXT_STATUS_UPDATE . "\n\n" . EMAIL_TEXT_THANK_YOU;

 

Above the $email code, paste this:

 

          if ($comments == 'remind') {
           $email = 'REMINDER TO PAY';
         } else {
           if ($comments == 'cancel') {
             $email = 'CANCELLATION';
           } else {

 

Below the $email code, paste this:

 

            }
         }

 

Replace "REMINDER TO PAY" and "CANCELLATION NOTICE" with the appropriate text, whatever you like.

 

Now, when you're viewing an order in the admin, you can type "remind" (without quotes) in the comments area and click "Update" to send your reminder email. You'll easily be able to see which people you've already reminded; if you need to cancel an order, type "cancel" (without quotes) in the comments area and click "Update" to send that email, and then delete the order as normal.

 

Obviously this is NOT very user-friendly -- this is not exactly a finished contribution, just a quick hack. Don't typo "remind" or "cancel" or the email will be different than you intended. Practice on a test order first! :thumbsup: