Customers Awaiting Approval

Just noticed in the admin dashboard under Overview that there are 'Customers Awaiting Approval: 184'.

If I go into customers and filter by 'Approved: no', sure enough there are 184 customers set to 'Approval: no'.

Just wondering what exactly 'Approval' does though, as they can all log in and make orders just like any other customer, so what difference does it make? And is it safe to approve them? (I have a feeling all the customers that aren't approved seemt to all be customers that we have added manually, i.e. from telephone sales. Would kinda make sense in a way)

lloydmedley wrote:Just wondering what exactly 'Approval' does though, as they can all log in and make orders just like any other customer

This is not correct.
What version of OC?

v1.4.9.4 (sorry, I always forgot to point that out!). Should they not be able to log in then? They are set to 'enabled', just not 'approved'.

Any news as we now have several hundred, seems a bit strange

I'm using the 1.5.2 version, but -> There is a setting in the System Settings for the Store(s) that may be confusing.

Approve New Customers: [ Y or N ]
Don't allow new customer to login until their account has been approved.

If Y, it means -> make the customer wait. When set to N, admin approval is rendered pro forma. No orders seem to get lost either way, so worry not lloydmedley, as long as they are getting properly enabled.

Meanwhile, below that one is Guest Checkout: a setting to allow checkout without creating an account at all, except for downloadable product, it says ...

Sorry to necro this thread, but I am seeing the same thing with 1.4.9.6. I have disabled the need to approve new customers.

On the dashboard, it says Customers Awaiting Approval: 8, but if I go to the customer list, and choose to filter by Approved: No there is only one. This number has been slowly creeping up over time.