[ic] Re: Shipping calcs with gift certificates

[John Young]

Melissa Gruenhagen asked:

> Have you actually been able to get the Gift Certificate feature to work? If
> so what version are you using and what did you need to go through to make
> this happen? What is the output? Meaning what does the customer have to do
> to obtain and then redeem to G/C?
 >
 > So far all the documentation we've seen has suggested that the G/C 
feature
 > is buggy and that no fix had been found yet.

Keep in mind that online store functionality bundled with IC these
days (as Foundation/Standard) is a demo... enough to give a nice
idea of how things can work, but not complete or optimized.

Gift certificates are one feature that is not complete.  Even with
IC 5.2, there is still a lot that needs to be done for robust G/C
functionality.  Most of it is outside of the core, although there is
at least one core patch that needs to be done, IMO (credit code
Ed L. added many months ago, then withdrew, and I don't think it has
been added back in).

G/C use has a number of issues -- purchasing: non-taxable, non-shipping,
refundable or not, included in an order with other items, security, etc.,
and for redemption: cases where G/C is more/less than order total, can
it be used to purchase other G/Cs, etc.

So, I wouldn't say it's buggy... I'd say it's a feature that was
not fully added to the demo -- only hinted at.

Depending on skills, knowledge, and desired functionality, one could
spend a couple of days to two or three weeks solid working on this.
One of the better consultants would be at the lower end of that.

Someone else might feel that it is easy, but to me it is a bit of
work to do properly (and depending on how automated your order process
needs to be).


Good luck,
John Young