VirtueMart 3.0.18 are not notified about the orders the administrator and buyer. After you place your order in the orders list there is a new status "pending". In settings email is set to leave a letter for orders with status "pending". But the letter never comes. If you manually change the order status to "acknowledged", then the letter comes and the admin and the customer. How to fix it?
The status "pending" means that an order has been placed but payment has not been made yet, so no order emails should be sent out. Your payment plugin should return a confirmed or confirmed by shopper if payment was made, so check the plugin configuration.
And what do to if the status is "pending" also send notification. As the administrator learns about a new order, if such payment will be in cash at pickup?