There are many different kinds of voucher issues. This article will walk you through troubleshooting the various potential problems to figure out what is causing the issue. Click on the numbered dropdown sections to see more detail and helpful information.
Do not report voucher issues without first going through this entire article and verifying that none of the items listed are causing the problem.
Questions to Ask the Student
- Name
- School
- Voucher Code
- Kit SKU or Course Name
- Instructor
Make sure the student is entering the voucher code in the correct field--they should not be entering voucher codes in the "Kit Code" field.
Have the student try swapping those characters out for the other one to see if it works (i.e., if their code has what looks like an "O," have them try entering it with a "0" (zero) instead. Same for I (capital letter "i") and 1 (one).
Do they get an error message? Does the screen not load? Does nothing happen? What's happening to indicate to them that the voucher isn't working?
Things to Investigate internally
After you've worked through the questions above with the student and made sure that they are doing everything correctly, check on the following items to see if the issue is a result of our internal errors.
How to find out
Go to the "Orders" tab in HOL Cloud and search for the student's voucher number. If an order comes up with that number in the voucher number column, the code has already been used and the student needs to work out with his or her bookstore why they got a used code.
How to find out
IT is responsible for uploading vouchers and can check to see if the vouchers were uploaded. Vouchers are uploaded daily at 4:00 pm.
What causes this error
Sometimes vouchers get missed in the upload process
How to fix it
Have IT upload the voucher spreadsheet to Cloud
How to find out
In the Voucher tab in the Cloud backend, you can see that vouchers are labeled by type, either "course" or "item." Ensure that the voucher code you are searching is of the correct type for its intended use.
How to find out
IT is responsible for checking this. All files need to be .csv, not Excel files.
What causes this error
Sometimes vouchers get created in the wrong file format
How to fix it
Have IT upload the voucher spreadsheet to Cloud in the correct format
Because the spreadsheet we upload has to have very specific column headers and information to work properly, we should NEVER upload any files that were not created by the voucher code generator.
How to find out
Ask the CSR who submitted the spreadsheet if they used the voucher generator or not. Have IT review the spreadsheet to see if it matches the spreadsheet made by the voucher generator
What causes this error
Going out of process and creating a voucher spreadsheet by hand causes problems. IT can help identify if the spreadsheet uses the correct headers or not.
How to fix it
That has to involve Woodridge to fix, so get in touch with the IT and the Product Manager to make a plan for resolution.
How to find out
Look at the voucher spreadsheet that was uploaded--is the student's code on there? If not, it's possible the school or the student mis-read it or is using the wrong code.
What causes this error
Sometimes students get old or incorrect codes from their school
Sometimes students mis-read the code and enter it wrong
How to fix it
We would need to be in contact with the bookstore to see how the student got this code. How we would fix it likely depends on the answer, but the simplest solution is that the bookstore needs to provide the student with a new code from the list we provided them.
Every time a voucher is redeemed, Cloud checks to make sure the voucher code is associated with the course the student is using it in.
How to find out
Look at the SKU for the course the student is in. Compare it to the SKU listed with the student's voucher number on the voucher spreadsheet.
The entire SKU has to match! For example, if the voucher spreadsheet says the code works for SKU LP-1234-BK-01, but the student is trying to redeem it in course LP-1234-BK-02, it won't work.
What causes this error
- Sometimes, a school will accidentally sell students codes for the wrong courses (this can happen if the school is using vouchers for several courses).
- Sometimes we make a mistake in the voucher spreadsheet and enter a SKU incorrectly
- Sometimes students are provided the wrong enrollment URL by the instructor and enroll in the wrong course
How to fix it
- If the school sold the student the wrong code, the school need to provide the student with a new code for the correct course. In special cases, we can have Woodridge correct the error on the backend, but this must go through the Product Manager.
- If we made a mistake the voucher spreadsheet, we will need to correct the mistake and re-upload the vouchers to Cloud
- If the student is in the wrong course, they need to contact their instructor to enroll in the correct course.
How to find out
Look the SKU up in Cloud to see if a course exists with that SKU. If you don't have the ability to search courses, ask the Curriculum Development team to look it up for you.
What causes this error?
- Sometimes we enter the course SKU incorrectly in the voucher spreadsheet.
- Other times, the course SKU on the spreadsheet is correct, but the course hasn't been built in Cloud for some reason and the student is in a different course.
How to fix it
- If we entered the SKU incorrectly, we need to fix the voucher spreadsheet and re-upload
- If the SKU is correct but the course doesn't exist in Cloud, Curriculum Development needs to build the course, the Sales rep needs to submit a new instance request, Customer service needs to build the instance, and the instructor needs to figure out why all her students are enrolled in the wrong course, then have them re-enroll in the correct one.
What to do if none of the steps above identify or resolve the issue
If you have carefully gone through all of the above processes to identify the cause of the issue and you still can't figure out why the voucher may not be working, send the Product Manager a report of the issue that includes the following information:
- Student name
- Institution
- SKU
- Instructor
- Whether it's just this number that isn't working or if all the vouchers for that school (or all vouchers for all schools) aren't working
- Voucher number that isn't working (or all numbers that aren't working if there are more than one)
- Screenshots from the student
- All the things that you ruled out from the list of possibilities.