some sign-ups unable to confirm e-mail

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by tsabar, Apr 8, 2005.

  1. tsabar

    tsabar Guest

    A large number of people registering on my site (maybe 10%) are unable to verify their e-mail. They receive the link to confirm their address, but when they click on it, it doesn't work. I want to confirm e-mail addresses, but too many people are complaining they can't access the site because they cannot confirm their address. Has anyone else experienced this problem? Is there a bug or solution?

    Thanx!
    Ohad
  2. alex

    alex aMember Pro Customer Staff Member

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    Try to ask them, what means "cannot verify"? What exactly happens?
  3. tsabar

    tsabar Guest

    cannot verify

    what they said is they receive the email verification link in their e-mail but when they click on it, it doesn't work. they are unable to log in and amember has a pending status for them.
  4. pilot

    pilot New Member

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    This happens to my sign ups sometimes, and I have noticed that this is usually a hot mail account that this is happening on.

    I am not sure what causes it, but customers say that the link is dead or does'nt work. I have put a message that asks them to copy and paste the link into the web browser.
  5. tsabar

    tsabar Guest

    Dead link

    Yeah, I added a line to the verification e-mail suggesting they copy and paste if the link doesn't work, but I am still getting complaints. I wonder if this is something that can be resolved in the next version?
  6. pilot

    pilot New Member

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    I do not think this has anything to do with Amember.

    I have yet to have a problem with a 'normal' email address, normally it happens to a hotmail account, I tried it myself and the link just did'nt work. That was on a msn account.

    I also think that when some spam or junk filters on hotmail accounts see a link to an external address, it ends up in the junk mail, this again has nothing to do with Amember. But it is a problem

    The only alternative is perhaps is to have a button to fire off an email from the signup page to the users entered address. say a button next to the email address to test it. users email@address.com << TEST >>

    The content of the email would ask the user to return the email that would be addressed to Admin.

    So during the process of registration there would be the normal confirmation email, that would let the user in straight away if returned, and also an email from the user. The point of this would be that if the user was left in pending because the link did'nt work, there would be a second confirmation email so Admin could let the user in manually.

    The user would see two emails from amember, if the 1st doesn't work then the user could just return the 2nd that would cofirm the address.

    Just an idea, I do not think there is any other way round it.
  7. tsabar

    tsabar Guest

    or verification code

    huh, or what about a verification link with a code that can also be entered manually. for instance "click this code to verify your e-mail address or goto this page and enter in the following code" so users can verify their e-mail address manually with the code if the link doesn't work.

    i think the way amember is set up right now this feature could be added pretty easily, no?
  8. alex

    alex aMember Pro Customer Staff Member

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    I cannot promise, but we will try to implement something like this in next version.
  9. pilot

    pilot New Member

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    The users email would actually have to be received to prove it's valid, the entering of a code wouldn't prove that, but a returned email would.

    What I am doing is emailing pending members and asking them to mail me back so I can let them in, but unfortunately sometimes the trail has gone cold by then.

    I have often thought of a 'test my address' button next to the field that the user enters their email address, and shelved it untill I had thought it through properly.

    One thing is for sure is there cannot be a fully automatic way of doing it, other than the way Amember is doing it.
  10. pilot

    pilot New Member

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    Still thinking . . . . I think it would be a good idea to find out exactly what the problems are:

    1 =>There is a dead link because of the subscribers email system
    2 => The confirmation email ends up in the junk folder why? is something in the email being recognised as junk?
    3=> subscriber has entered the wrong email address
    4=> email system is down when email gets sent off

    these reasons are why the subscriber may not get or can not return the link.

    there has to be an idea that gets round thre of the four problems
  11. tsabar

    tsabar Guest

    don't think its 2,3,4

    i don't think its 2,3,4 because for the most part users are receiving the email, so they entered in the address correctly, and their e-mail is working, and even if the verification ends up in junk mail (typical for first time automated messages until they address your address to their address book) they are still finding it.

    i wonder if maybe there's a possibility that multiple people sign up simultaneously and amember sends out several verification codes, maybe some code is not processing the different codes correctly when there are multiple outstanding verifications? just a thought...
  12. pilot

    pilot New Member

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    Ok, reason 1 and 2 the user gets the email but Amember doesn't get it returned . . subscriber doesn't get in.

    3 and 4 the email never gets to the subscriber.

    4 can be resolved by the resend the verification email the Alex added lately.

    but here is another problem NO 3 what if the subscriber puts in a wrong email address. This has happened, and how does the subscriber put this right when the mistake is realized. They cannot get in to the users page to correct it. They can only go through the whole process again or give up and not bother.

    Your code idea is that the code could be issued in the sign up email verification that could be used to log in with to then check their sign up information?
  13. tsabar

    tsabar Guest

    clarification?

    i didn't understand your question, could you rephrase?

    currently amember sends an e-mail with a verification link. the idea is to add a line to this e-mail which states something like "if the link doesn't work, goto [x] page and enter the code manually." obviously a new page would need to be added to amember which would ask for their username/password and code, and upon entering the correct code amember would change the user's status from pending to active.
  14. alex

    alex aMember Pro Customer Staff Member

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    I have another idea. Currently user sees page like:

    Please check your email - verification email message has been just emailed to you. Once
    you receive this message, read this and follow instructions in this email to
    complete your subscription.

    I will add an input box to this page, with text "Please enter your account activation code here" and submit button. This way user has 2 choices:
    click the link in e-mail OR enter code (that will be present in e-mail message) on already opened page and continue.

    I hope it is working solution. I wish to have time to implement it right now, but I don't have it ... :(
  15. pilot

    pilot New Member

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    I think we mean the same thing, if they have the code then they would have had to have received the email, so in turn proving the email address.
  16. pilot

    pilot New Member

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    OK Alex that looks good.

    I could get something like this developed for your approval in the near future lets see what we can come up with.

    cost . . I owe you a few favours!
  17. pilot

    pilot New Member

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    Untill such time a mod can be put together, I changed the wording on my email confrimation text that has had surprisingly good effect.

    Yesterday 11 new members signed on and 3 was not able to use the email link. Instead I got the confimation email returned to me, so I could add them manually.
    All three are now full members as well, and didn't loose one.

    Just below the email link I just added " If you find that this link does not work, please just hit 'reply'and 'send' and we will complete your membership manually after a short delay. Thank you"

    The reply goes straight back to admin, and you got proof that the email address is correct, then add manually. Second best to Alex's solution, and Tsabar's idea, but better than nothing for now.

    :cool:
  18. DennisH

    DennisH Guest

    Email Links

    We had the same problem - some people not able to click on the link to verify their email.

    The way we got around it is to have aMember automatically generate the first password (so the user doesn't enter it during signup), then send it in the email to the customer. aMember generates a string of I think 6 alphanumerics, so its actually gibberish.

    The welcome email says here's your first password, with a link to the member profile. The email instructs on how the user can change his password to something he can remember.

    Dennis

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