Support FAQ

Your users may encounter problems when registering for complicated events. Here are some of the issues that may arise:

It won’t accept my credit card!

There are many reasons the payment gateway could refuse to accept a credit card. Unfortunately, this is a private matter between the purchaser and their credit card company, so there is not much you can do about it. If they cannot get their credit card to go through, and they have no other credit cards, then their only option is to pay by invoice. To avoid them needing to go through registration and checkout again, you can find their failed purchase by looking up up their account in the Pay module, selecting All transactions from the toolbar (which will include failed purchases in the account statement), and selecting the unpaid invoice. Then you can set the invoice to “active” and arrange an alternative method of payment. When you record the payment, check off Perform final processing of sale to make sure the receipt goes out and the registrations are confirmed.

I messed up, and now I’m in the system multiple times!

If a user starts over, it will remember their previous attempts for a short time. Their 2nd attempt will be tagged with a “#2” (or 2nd try), their third with a “#3” and so on. This is done to make sure their re-tries do not get confused with their originals. (They could have both registration sessions going simultaneously in different browser windows, for instance.) However, only one set of registrations will be accepted in the end—the ones they actually check out and pay for. In other words, the registrations that are actually in their shopping cart when they checkout are the ones that will be processed. The other attempts can be safely ignored. Once the registration system is certain that the user has truly abandoned their earlier registration attempts (this may take a day), it will stop showing them. If the user is confused by all their previous attempts showing up on screen, they can wait 24 hours before re-trying.

If a user accidentally registers twice for something, and both registrations are in their shopping cart, they can simply delete the redundant one from the cart. If they neglect to do this, and actually pay for the duplicate registration, then you can cancel the redundant registration (from the roster, click the registration # and then click the cancel button), and then click on the account name to jump to the Payments module where the redundant registration can be refunded.

If a user actually completes the registration process multiple times from start to finish, then they will end up in the roster several times, and have multiple invoices owing. The usual solution here is to cancel the redundant registrations (from the roster, click the registration # and then click the cancel button), and then click on the account name to jump to the Payments module where the redundant invoice can also be canceled (or refunded, if necessary).

Can I get a special discount or comp?

If you have not setup any special fees or coupon codes for this, instruct the user to pay by invoice. If the registration is being completely comp’d, you can manually confirm the registrations (go to the roster, click on the registration # in the leftmost column, and click the confirm button), and manually cancel the invoice in the Payments module.

If paying by invoice is not an option, have the user proceed through checkout, but stop when it is time to pay by credit card. Then you can proceed as above. Select include inactive registrations in the roster options to find their incomplete registration, and activate the main registration there. You may not need to do anything to the invoice, since it will not be active to start with in this case.

If they only get a partial discount, then you can edit their invoice using the Point of Sale module, and resend it to them. Do not edit paid invoices, however: it can create untraceable problems in your financial audit history. If they paid their invoice by credit card, but want a discount after the fact, then best practice is to do a separate refund transaction.

Can you cancel my registration in X?

Cancelling registrations is easy. Go to the roster, and click on the registration # in the leftmost column. Click the cancel button. This will also automatically cancel any activities under it. (If you are only cancelling an activity registration, it does not affect the main registration or other activities.)

Note that this does not issue any refunds for the cancelled registration. Whether or not you need to do this depends on your cancellation policy. If a full refund is in order, you can go to the Payments module, visit the invoice in question, and use the refund tool to issue the refund. If a partial refund (or refund less an admin fee) is required, then you may need to put together a custom invoice using the Point of Sale module.

I forgot to register for an important activity! Can you add me to X?

There are a few tricks to allow additions to one’s registration package after registration has been completed.

1. Go to their original main registration in the roster, and click on the registration # in the leftmost column. Then click the Add to registration button. This will restart a registration session for that person, and allow you (the admin) to select new activities. If the user is a member, they can find their invoice and pay by credit card using the My Account feature. Otherwise, you will have to arrange payment from them by some other means.
2. You can setup a special “Add to registrations” page on your site for self-serve additions to their registration choices. Insert the EvtReg module onto the page, and choose the “Add to registrations” option. When members visit this page, the system will look up upcoming events that they have registrations in, and allow them to resume their registration session to add new choices. Note that this feature only works for logged-in members and guests.
3. The administrator can force-register people into activities using the register tool on the administrator control panel. If the activity requires payment, you can tie this registration to the user’s original account when going through checkout. Members can use their account management tools on the website to pay this by e-commerce. Non-members will need to submit payment another way.
4. If you have a free top-level registration fee for comps, you can use this to get past the main fee and register for new activities. Then when someone needs to come back to add registrations, you can give them the comp link and password to bypass the main fee, and they can do it themselves. (Note that this option does not work well if there is a registration limit on the main event, since the new registrations are treated like a whole new registrant.) If the comp fee does not work (for instance, because it also comps the activities), then set up an additional comp-like fee that only comps the main fee and not the activities.

I want to change my meal choice! (or other registration form question)

Find the registrant in the roster, and click on their response #. This brings up their registration form answers. Click on “edit” to make changes.

Can I transfer my registration to another person?

This can be as simple as changing the registrant name in the roster. Find the registrant in the roster, and click on their registration #. Click configure to change their name. You may need to do this for multiple activities if numerous ones are being transferred. You can optionally edit the registration form responses as well, as per the previous question.