Dangerous new Order status: “on-hold”

Hi,

I’m writing to report an issue with the new Order management behaviour with the last update to v2.2.1.

For context, before this update this is what happened to new orders:

1. Users on checkout click to submit order and they are redirected to Satispay pay page -> order is created with “Pending payment” status;
2. Users complete payment -> order goes to “Processing” status.

After last release, step 1 changed:

1. Users on checkout click to submit order and they are redirected to Satispay pay page -> order is created with “Pending payment” status but it immediately goes to “On hold” status;

Well, I think this new behaviour is very dangerous, because the “On hold” status is used in a improper way: this status should be used for deferred payment methods. For example, BACS is a payment method where users make payment, but it needs 1-2 days for the Shop Manager to receive the funds: in this case it is right to confirm the order and therefore to reserve the products reducing the stock, because the payment has been done. When funds will be received, the order will go to “Processing” status and so the shop manager will then prepare the order for the shipment.

But as you know, this is not the way Satispay works: Satispay payments are instantaneous, so there is no need to reserve stock (indeed, to do so would be dangerous, see next paragraph) or confirm order because funds are immediately received from Shop Manager that will prepare the order right after the user creates it.

Adding the “On hold” status will generate the following bug:

1. User creates order and tries to pay with Satispay;
2. For any reason, user doesn’t complete payment;
3. User comes back to checkout but sees only a notice saying the order couldn’t be canceled;
4. User goes to their Profile page -> Orders and sees the order, but cannot do anything with it (he can’t cancel it or pay for it);
5. Shop Manager has an “On hold” order, without a real reason because there is no payment to await for, and has products stock reserved for no reason (what if they were the last in stock… other users nor the same user himself wouldn’t be able to buy those… very bad).

As you can see from the last point, this update could generate also an important economic damage to the store.

Please, give a look at the definitions WooCommerce itself give for all the Order statuses: https://woo.com/document/managing-orders/

Summary:

• Pending payment?— Order received, no payment initiated. Awaiting payment (unpaid).
• On hold?— Awaiting payment – stock is reduced, but you need to confirm payment.