Layaway Program

[hassonmike]

Hello,

We are exploring options with integrating a layaway feature into or our AC store. I am thinking we could add the option for Layaway under "Shipment Options" (or anywhere before it gets to "payment Methods"), which would offer the same options for payment, but with the option of specifying an initial down payment. It would also be preferable to set a minimum down payment price based on percentage of total cost.

Or if anyone else has any other ideas of a way that this can be implemented, I am open to other possibilities.

Thanks!

[hassonmike]

Ok, so I was able to get a basic system in place, but I was hoping for something much less "manual". I am open to suggestion on improving this sequence, but for now, with the tools I have available, this is what I came up with.


1. Customer does some shopping, goes to checkout, under payment options, I have used to option for "phone payment" (as it is not being used) to manipulate the text to specify "Layaway". Where it would usually show a phone number to call and a button to finalize the order, I have disabled the button, and shown instructions on how the customer should proceed, which are as follows:

• "1. To finalize your order, Contact us at XXX-XXX-XXX or by email at XXX@trickconcepts.com - be ready with the account holder's Email Address (this is how we find your existing shopping cart) - not having them finalize the order allows us to find the cart, and to complete the order from the backend, designating the payment type as "Deferred" which will allow the customer to make a payment from the "Account" page later in the front end, our rep will also set the order status Manually to Layaway to seperate it from the other orders
  
  2. Make your initial payment to secure your purchase. captured manually, by our customer service representative
  
  3. Log into TrickConcepts.com, click "Account" in the top right corner of the page, browse to the specified order and click "View Order", find your balance aboive the invoice and click "Pay Now" (you are free to make payments in any increment). this only seems possible if the payment is manually set from the backend as deferred

2. If the customer wants to set up automatic payments, we will help them with that, otherwise, we will have to track the order status, payments made, ect manually. This doesnt seem like too much of a pain, except that when the order is fully paid for, it disappears from the layaway order status, and gets mixed in with the other Paid items. At this point the order gets lost. As a workaround (barely), i have set up email notifications that notify us anytime a payment is made, up to, and including the final payment. However, i cannot seem to get anywhere with showing any more (relevant) information than a customers name and the order number. Ideally I would like to show the amount of the payment made, the date, and the remaining balance. I have opened a separate topic for this custom email ( viewtopic.php?f=44&t=15781 ). So with this, any time we receive one of these emails, we need to manually check the order number to see if it has been fully paid, and if so, it gets expedited to shipping. (whew)


So anyway, that's what we have so far, and theirs plenty of room for improvement...