Can customer email address be checked for basic validity

I’ve just had another unpaid order. I know though that the customer wants what she has ordered as she is a repeat customer and probably just was affected by one of the too frequent disconnections between Folksy and Paypal which leaves the customer thinking they’ve paid and me knowing they haven’t.

My normal solution to this won’t work though as this customer, not registered (though it’s her 3rd purchase from me), has this time mistyped her email address and ended up with a full stop in the wrong place. Immediately obvious when I looked at it and when I emailed her I used the correct format.

Problem is that as she used the wrong email address the standard order acknowledgment email sent out by Folksy will not get to her. She will therefore not have received the 24 hour link to let her back in to pay.
I have had to send her a Paypal invoice as otherwise she cannot pay.

This is by no means the first ‘bad’ email address I have received. As I always acknowledge orders I know, because emails to the bad addresses bounce and I then have to try to work out what it should be.

An email address of homail.com is accepted by Folksy - I know I just tried it, as is one suffixed co.a.cuk. Both these misspellings could very easily be filtered out by some pretty basic validation - or maybe the customer can be asked to confirm the address by retyping as lots of sites do. @sianfolksy ??

It wouldn’t be a problem if the Folksy / Paypal connection was a little more secure, a little less likely to fail before the payment is completed but I get at least one a month.

“Bad” email addresses quite possibly account for quite a few of the non-payers that other Folksy sellers complain of.
For my part I think I’ve only ever had 3 genuine non-payers / had to cancel only 3 orders because of it but I do Always try to contact the customer if a payment isn’t made and point them to the Folksy order email for the payment link, . I’ve several times been paid via Paypal invoice or cheque as a result)

Ooh that’s a bit of a long message - hope you can understand it. Got a headache so typing in a relaxed pose on the sofa
Joy xx

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Ditto! I had a guest order yesterday with a comma in the email address in place of a dot … still awaiting payment.

Comma’s are not valid characters in email addresses (as far as I’m aware), so I’m surprised it was able to have been entered like that in the first place.

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Good suggestion Joy - could you add it to the tech improvements list thing and we could use our votes? I know I have a few remaining! :smile:

OK I’ve registered an official request :smile:http://folksy.uservoice.com/forums/117463-suggested-features/suggestions/6692756-can-customer-email-address-be-checked-for-basic-va

I’m fairly sure I’ve asked about this before and it’s not been possible, but I will certainly ask again!

Thanks Sian. A lot of sites ask you to type your email in again and then compare to see they match.That usually sorts out my own mistypes. xx

Yep, I did suggest that as I recall. I’ve added it back onto the list anyway!

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