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When does the Mailchimp module upload email addresses?

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    When does the Mailchimp module upload email addresses?

    Long story short, Mailchimp just dinged me for trying to send a newsletter to suspect addresses and stopped the newsletter from going out to all new subscribers added since a specific date in the second half of December.

    I looked at the addresses they flagged and found something suspicious. In late December, I had a huge number of baskets created by a Google bot that was checking pricing for Merchant Center. (At least that's my assumption based on articles I have read about this...) There were about 20 different email addresses on these baskets that were variants of a person's first and last name with a number appended to the end and @gmail.com. None of these baskets resulted in a sale. They were all abandoned.

    These addresses were in the Mailchimp report and, I believe, were what caused Mailchimp to flag my new newsletter subscribers. Almost all other new subscribers were clearly valid.

    One of two things happened. Either the bot created baskets AND found my newsletter signup page and used the same addresses to complete those fields. Or the Mailchimp module pushed up data off the baskets before the orders were finalized. (I do not use Mailchimp for abandoned cart emails.)

    Can anyone clarify when during the checkout process the module syncs data up to Mailchimp?
    Todd Gibson
    Oliver + S | Sewing Patterns for Kids and the Whole Family

    #2
    RE: (At least that's my assumption based on articles I have read about this...)

    We've run into this twice, and it was not cause by a google bot, rather someone just trying to do something.

    RE: bad addresses. Does not Mail Chimp check for valid email addresses? Seems like kind of a 'duh'. If not, might want to investigate in finding a method to do this. There are several services that can check an email's validity before its used in the store. This also helps your customer who mistype their email addresses.

    Sorry, don't know the actual answer to your question :(
    Bruce Golub
    Phosphor Media - "Your Success is our Business"

    Improve Your Customer Service | Get MORE Customers | Edit CSS/Javascript/HTML Easily | Make Your Site Faster | Get Indexed by Google | Free Modules | Follow Us on Facebook
    phosphormedia.com

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      #3
      I was just able to confirm that the MailChimp module is pushing up email addresses from abandoned carts.

      What I see in MailChimp when an order is completed and the option to subscribe to the newsletter is checked is a record created with email address, first name, last name, and transaction history. The source is listed as Shop | Oliver + S.

      But when a cart is abandoned, what gets pushed up is only the email address (no name, even if it is included on the abandoned cart). And the source in MailChimp is listed as Miva Merchant. All these users are added to my list with status of Subscribed.

      I can confirm that I do not have the option checked for Sync Baskets to MailChimp.

      This isn't the behavior that I would expect or that should happen since these people have not opted in to the list. I can see where if I were using MailChimp for abandoned cart emails these users should be pushed up, but they should be tagged for transactional emails only, not subscribed.

      Is there another setting I should be using to not add abandoned cart emails to my mailing list, or is this an issue with the module? I assume the latter, but I wanted to check.
      Todd Gibson
      Oliver + S | Sewing Patterns for Kids and the Whole Family

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        #4
        Do you have "Automatically Opt-In All Customers" configured? From the looks of it, it appears this "bot" continued through the OCST screen (shipping / billing screen) and you either have that setting configured or the bot was setting the MailChimp_Subscribe flag when continuing through the OCST screen. Either of those scenarios would cause the email address to be sent to MailChimp.
        David Carver
        Miva, Inc. | Software Developer

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          #5
          I don't automatically opt in customers, but if the add to mailing list checkbox is checked when OCST is completed that is probably what is happening.

          But I'm wondering where in the checkout process Miva passes data to MailChimp. I assumed that it would only pass data once the order is completed, not for baskets that are abandoned. But it doesn't appear that Miva is waiting until the INVC screen to pass the data--although when orders are completed the full data set (including transaction data) is passed up it must be sending something from INVC. So are there two trigger points at which Miva passes data--once when the order is completed from INVC and if the checkbox is selected on OCST? And if so, is there a reason why only the email address is passed from OCST and not the name too?

          Is it possible somehow to only have data passed to MailChimp once INVC is reached and not earlier in the process if the basket is abandoned?
          Todd Gibson
          Oliver + S | Sewing Patterns for Kids and the Whole Family

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