inventory problem (ver 2.1.1)

[kshipgroup]

OK I have a client that uses inventory control because they sell rare items and may only have 1 of any item in stock.

If a client adds an item to their cart where only 1 exists it takes that item to 0 showing out of stock which makes sense. We do not want another person to come along at the same time and purchase it if someone else already has it in their cart.

Now...if the person manually removes the item from their cart by hitting remove... it then adds the item back in stock for someone else to buy it. Working great.

If the person just closes their browser window and leaves... the item never seems to make it back in stock and shows as out of stock when it really does exist. This is becoming a problem for this client since HUGE amounts of their inventory they only have 1 of.

Anyone have suggestions regarding this? The session time out in the cart settings is set to 180.


Thanks,
Ken

[heater]

http://www.ldev.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2499

I have been watching the sessions and at the interval set(now only 60) it seems to be putting the inventory back. I do however notice every once in a while a difference that can not be explained. If I find out what it is I will let you know. otherwise the support here is great!

Terry.

[kshipgroup]

Thanks for the reply heater. We are watching it as this client is a very busy store and does a BUNCH of sales. We have yet to see a successful restock if the browser window is closed while having an item in their cart.

Ken

[kshipgroup]

so the cart is supposed to re-add whatever products were in a users cart if they just close their browser window and leave the site after the allotted session time has expired?

Ken

[Jamie]

Hi Ken,

so the cart is supposed to re-add whatever products were in a users cart if they just close their browser window and leave the site after the allotted session time has expired?

Yes, that's correct. However, keep this in mind...the restocking only occurs when someone loads the storefront page. It does not happen the instant the session expires. To test this, try the following:

1. Open your storefront to an item you want to test with
2. In another window, open your control panel
3. In the control panel, open the product record you are testing, and note the # in stock for that item.
4. Set your session timeout to 2 minutes (or 1 if you are quick)
5. In the other window, add 1 of the test item to the cart
6. In the control panel window, verify that the stock was reduced
7. Go back to the storefront window and wait at least 2 minutes
8. Click any link on the storefront page to reload it
9. In the control panel window, you should see that the stock has returned to it's original value

If this does not work in your cart, open a helpdesk ticket and we can check it out for you.

[kshipgroup]

thanks. I will report back on this. I can only do this at night when the site has less traffic. This site has about 200 people on it at any time during the day.

Ken

[Jamie]

Hi Ken,

You can actually test this during the day, but you would need to wait the full session timeout. Changing it to 2 minutes is just to make the testing easier.

[paydepst]

I tried to find a thread that was at least marginally related to the issue I am having (and have been having for some time) and this looks like the one. I am using version 2.6.1 of the cart and I recently had to disable inventory control because of repeated issues with stock on hand once the totals got down to two or less. These items would frequently display as zero when in fact there was at least one of the item on hand. I'm certain it is the way a customer closed their browsing session but is there no "fix" for this as I can't very well tell my customers how to open and close a browsing session. Any help would be appreciated as not having the inventory control enabled is a bit of an inconvenience.

[Jamie]

I'm certain it is the way a customer closed their browsing session

How did you make this determination?

but is there no "fix" for this

If you are running a version that old, your first step should be to upgrade at least to v2.6.5, though upgrading to the latest version (v3.2.2) would be your best bet. It is not worth troubleshooting a problem when you aren't running software that is out of date as you have no idea if the problem you are having is due to a bug in your version.

[paydepst]

How did you make this determination?


If you are running a version that old, your first step should be to upgrade at least to v2.6.5, though upgrading to the latest version (v3.2.2) would be your best bet. It is not worth troubleshooting a problem when you aren't running software that is out of date as you have no idea if the problem you are having is due to a bug in your version.

Just an educated guess really based on some of the other posts I've read here.

Is the upgrade to 2.6.5 a paid upgrade? I don't see it listed in my download options unless I am overlooking it. Many thanks.