echeck cancellation didn't disable account

Hi,
I think the subject said it all :-)

We had someone pay with an echeck, and it was cancelled 5 days later, but s2member didn’t take the subscription role away. Logically it should have been.

Is this a bug or maybe the IPN didn’t come through?

Thanks
Tom

Hello Tom,

What payment provider were you using at the time? s2Member isn’t integrated with a payment provider that has electronic checks, I believe…

– Eduan

Hi,
We are using normal PayPal, you can accept echecks there. But I think this is only for the USA, I’m not sure they use checks anywhere else.
Tom

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by  Tom.

Ah I see. I think the problem is that s2member is not integrated with PayPal eChecks. s2Member does not mention eChecks any where in it’s documentation and code I think.

– Eduan

s2Member can receive payments from a checking account if it’s a funding source in the PayPal account… Here’s a quote from a chat I had with Jason some time ago:

Jason said:

Auth.Net… no, no checks. They do have a service that allows for the acceptance of checks, called eCheck.net, but we don’t support it, and we never will. I’ve worked with it in the past, and there are MANY issues, so I don’t even want to make that option available.

PayPal allows for checks. Or, ACH debits really. A PayPal account can be connected to a checking account, so that payments via PayPal Buttons or through Pro Forms with Express Checkout are actually funded by a checking account.

Yes, this works with Pro Forms also, so long as PayPal Express Checkout is offered as the solution for any customer that wants to pay by check (i.e. please signup for a PayPal account and connect that to your checking account).

I hope that helps.

Yes, s2 can receive PayPal echecks and act on them, but my question was why it doesn’t act accordingly on a cancelled recheck. Echecks take about 5 days to clear, and the customer is promoted to the given role at the moment of signup, not when the echeck clears. This isn’t that big of an issue, since most customers won’t try to game the system with this, but we just had one that did.

I would say that 1 in 20 customers pay by recheck, so it is not super common, bit they do exist.

I’m guessing this is probably a bug in s2, so in the next update, please make s2 act on cancelled echeck ipns as well.

Thanks
Tom

Thanks for the info, Tom. I’ll ask Jason about echecks with PayPal and their cancellations as you mention.

Do you have logging enabled? Are there any entries in the logs for the echecks that didn’t clear? I’d like to know if PayPal is telling s2Member at all when that happens.

Do you have any way to do a test purchase with an invalid echeck to try getting it logged so you don’t need to wait for it to happen naturally?

Thanks for the heads up on this thread.

I’m reviewing this thread now. I’ll post a reply for you shortly :-)

Thanks for your patience.

Yes, s2Member will handle IPNs sent from PayPal in response to a failed eCheck payment. If this is not working on your installation, let’s begin by taking a quick look at your IPN log files. Please submit those privately through this form: s2Member® » Private Contact Form

It’s common for an eCheck to pass s2Member initially, even if it’s in a PENDING state while you’re waiting to see if the check clears. s2Member will grant the customer immediate access and hope for the best. Short of making an online member wait 4-7 days before we grant them access, that’s all we can do :-) It works best on most sites.

In the event the eCheck fails to clear, the customer will lose access, and PayPal sends the customer a notification about their eCheck having failed to clear against the transaction on your site.

Again, if this is not working properly for you (i.e. customer access is NOT being terminated when you expect they would be), we’ll be happy to review your log files and provide you with an explanation, or a solution.

Thanks for the reply!

There is no problem with s2 giving access right away, it’s just the cancelled eCheck thing that bothers me, it should have revoked access as you said.

Where can I find the IPN log file you mentioned? I can’t see it on my PayPal account nor s2 admin area anywhere.

You’ll find the logs here: /wp-content/plugins/s2member-logs/.

@Tom

Thanks for the follow-up :-)

Please note that logging MUST be enabled for you to have log files. You can go to:
Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Options -› Account Details -› Logging
and turn it on there please.

Wait a couple days, then send us the log files privately via this contact form.
s2Member® » Private Contact Form
/wp-content/plugins/s2member-logs/… sends us all files in this folder please.

I was disabled until now, so I don’t have any logs of the eCheck cancellation IPN unfortunately.

Thanks for the follow-up :-)

OK. No worries. With logging enabled now, if this happens again, please update this thread and I will personally take a look for you. You can submit your log files privately using this form: s2Member® » Private Contact Form