AbleCommerce Shopping Cart Software

I've reviewed other posts about this (viewtopic.php?t=6894 and viewtopic.php?t=6857) and need to choose between two options:

Option 1 - Notify Customer of Order with Follow-up Failed Payment Email

Keep the current customer order notification email triggered by Order Placed.
Send an additional customer notification if the payment fails (Payment Authorization Failed and / or Payment Capture Failed triggers) so they know their credit card wasn't charged.

Option 2 - No Order Notification; Send Different Emails for Authorization Success and Failure

Remove the current customer order notification email triggered by Order Placed.
Set the customer order notification email triggers to Payment Authorized / Captured / Captured Partial.
Create a new Failed Payment order notification email triggered by Payment Authorization Failed and / or Payment Capture Failed).

While option 2 seems more natural, I'm concerned that some order scenarios wouldn't be handled. For example what happens in option 2 when gift certificates or coupons are used or when payment is by PayPal or even if the user is applying a credit balance. Please note that we have our gateway set to Authorize and Capture, so we would just use the payment authorized / payment authorized failed triggers.

Questions

1. Which option is recommended or is standard practice?
2. Will I run into problems if I go with Option 2?

Thank you in advance.

I think either way would work. If you have a lot of failed cc transactions, then Option 2 would probably work out best for you.

You are correct that triggers like 'Payment authorized' and 'Payment captured' have only to do with credit card transactions. There are other triggers that could be used to cover an order paid with a coupon or GC - such as the 'Order Paid', 'Order Paid Partial, and 'Order Paid Credit Balance' triggers.