Returning customers confirm their email with a 6-digit code

When a customer books with an email address that already belongs to one of your customers, Renta no longer signs them straight into that customer's record. It emails a 6-digit code to the address on file, and the customer must type it in before they can continue. This keeps a stranger from booking under, and seeing the details of, someone else's customer record just by typing their email.

Where to find it

There is no setting for this and nothing to turn on. Customers meet it on your booking page, on the account step, right after they type their email and press Continue.

How it works

1. The customer types their email and presses Continue. 2. If that email does not belong to any customer at your shop, nothing extra happens and they carry on as a new customer. 3. If it does belong to a customer, the page says "We sent a code to your email" and asks for the 6-digit code. If the customer is already signed in with that same email, the code step is skipped. 4. The email is titled "Your (your business name) checkout code" and is sent to the address already saved on the customer record, not to whatever the person typed. 5. The customer types the code and presses Verify and continue. They carry on as that returning customer.

The code behaves like this:

• It works for 10 minutes and only once.
• Five wrong tries lock it. The customer sees "Too many wrong tries. Send a new code." and presses Resend code.
• Asking for a new code cancels any older code that was not used yet.
• After 10 minutes the customer sees "That code has expired. Send a new one."
• A wrong code shows "That code isn't right. Check your email and try again."

What to tell a customer whose code does not arrive

• Ask them to check spam or junk, and to wait a minute before asking again.
• The code goes to the email saved on their customer record. If they now use a different address, the code goes to the old inbox. They can press Continue as a new customer instead and enter a different email, but that creates a second customer record for them. Alternatively, you can make the booking for them from the admin side: see Creating a booking for a customer.
• Resend code is limited. A single email address can get 3 codes in 15 minutes and 10 in a day. Past that the customer sees "Too many requests. Please try again in (some) seconds." and has to wait.
• If the page says "We couldn't send a code to (email) right now. You can try again, or continue as a new customer with a different email", Renta could not store or send the code. Trying again a little later is the right move. The customer is never let through as the existing customer without the code.
• If the checkout later says "Please confirm your email to continue. Re-enter it and we'll send you a code.", the customer's session lost track of who they are. They re-enter the email and get a new code.

Good to know

• The code is for the customer's email at your shop only. A customer at another Renta business has a separate record.
• Choosing Continue as a new customer instead attaches nothing to the existing customer. They must use an email that is not already yours on file.
• You cannot see or look up a customer's code, and Renta does not store the code itself, only a scrambled version of it.