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Customer Profile and Addressfield questions

Several things are missing from the ordering forms for customers.

Shipping requires ways for people to be specific about locations for shipment.
Customers expect computerized assistance.
The USPS has a widget popup form to assist people to find zipcodes by address, which is good. I'm not sure about Canada and other countries having similar tools from their postal systems, This is very efficient tool and the information the user receives it competent for using in shipments.

Phone Numbers are important, UPS,USPS,FedEx and almost all shippers want phone numbers. Phone number verify/validation is important, just assurance of a working phone number is generally enough.

Email addresses are important for seller, buyer and recipient, Often, people cannot be reached on a timely basis and email is a great help to provide information needed.

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I spent the day yesterday trying to resolve some of these issues associated with the above requirements. No solution, in fact, I concluded by just removing and reinstalling kickstart2. Yes, part of the problem was poorly documented modules I tried. The billing profile got corrupted and I couldn't find a fix.

Now, I've concluded to share with others and hopefully get information to handle the above requirements. I am sure there are probably solutions, possibly with some workarounds.

If you have solutions for one or more of the above I would appreciate to read them.

Asked by: domineaux
on February 27, 2014

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I think one needs to use the AddressField module for that, though I do not understand how it works myself. I can add a field, but for the rest I do notunderstand. Maybe that is the way to finally create a real customer list. Extra problem: editing an address and saving it creates a clone of that address so you end up with an address list as a total mess. There seems to be a way around this, but I have been searching many days now and can not find it. So I am stuck like you.

Theo Richel
Answer by: Theo Richel
Posted: Feb 27, 2014
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It is amazing to me how well things have been thought out for the more complicated issues with Drupal commerce. Yet, the basic interface for customers is treated like a waste of time.
Customers will not put up with any inconsistencies, when they are spending their money.

If you can't process customer information in an efficient manner to facilitate their very personal information, competent shipments and payments you lose their confidence. The end result is no sale!

Commerce guys need to pay attention to all the news. The whole world is caught up in fraud, identity theft and other abuses of personal and financial information. A sane person with an ounce of intelligence should be aware of any inconsistencies when buying online.

I'm sorry to say this, but someone needs to lay it out in spades. If Commerce doesn't produce the tools internally they need to check out recommended contributed modules to assure they are what doing what they should in Commerce installations.

My client shut me down on this project and has moved onto Magento. I won't argue the benefits or troubles with Magento it would profit me nothing. When you lose you lose, no sense going on about it.

I'm just projecting the complaints abit, hoping someone will pay attention and perfect a competent Customer interface. Amazon has a good store interface for working with customers, and it doesn't please everyone I'm sure. Yet, the do an enormous online business, which is should be persuasion enough to follow the leader.

Answer by: domineaux
Posted: Feb 28, 2014

Comments

At the risk of poking a sleeping bear, I thought a reply might go a long way in explaining our thinking at Commerce Guys. I really like to use analogies because they skip over emotions and typically get straight to the point. Here it goes:

No one blames Lego for not giving them enough blocks to build their very custom one of a kind idea.

What we've built with Drupal Commerce is not only free, it's open source. We want it to be legitimately flexible, which means unopinionated and in many cases a framework to build upon, not a complete out of the box solution full of stringent workflows. Could we improve it? YES. We are constantly looking at and accepting community-supplied patches and ideas over on drupal.org.

Contact us directly if you have more ideas on how we might be able to keep our flexibility but also "streamline" the workflows that matter to you. Ultimately, we want to encourage store builders to create a backend for their merchants that is as customized as the front end is for the customers.

- Josh Miller on March 5, 2014