PayPal Button Doesn't Work

After months of trying to make s2Member Pro work we still can’t get any new signups. They can click on the PayPal button. The default ps=”paypal” has been replaced with the name of our Template but it doesn’t bring it up. We are most definitely still seeing the standard “paypal” default checkout template. Next, when someone enters their password they receive the error message “Return to merchant. The link you have used to enter paypal system is invalid.”

I’m not using sandbox. I haven’t turned sandbox on and have never tested using sandbox. I re-did the set up videos and re-read all of the set up instructions and carefully checked and double checked each of the recommended settings both at PayPal and within s2. I cut-n-pasted both the short code and then later at another trial the long code into the HTML window to test if the short code was corrupt. It wasn’t. Both the long code and the short code work. I replace the rr=”1″ value with rr=”BN” and it works. I try to do any type of recurring payment plan and it fails producing the above message.

I’ve scoured the support forum and found things related to sandbox (which does not apply) or “never mind we fixed it” without naming the source of the error. We don’t have any known conflicting plugins installed.

So in summary, I’ve two errors I can’t seem to resolve:
1) my check out page customized in paypal though correctly typed, spelled, etc. clearly stated instead of “paypal” is not loading.
2) the recurrent payment buttons all produce the “Return to Merchant” button with the “The link you have used to enter paypal system is invalid.” error message.

• This topic was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by  swiss-cheese.

Hi there.

Do you have logging enabled? What do the logs say for those transactions? You can test with live, 1 cent transactions if you are enabling logging now and need to generate log entries for this. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Options -› Account Details -› Logging[/hilite]

Could you also read this article and try the suggestions there? Knowledge Base » Common Troubleshooting Tips

Thanks Cristián. Yes, we do have logging enabled. I didn’t realize the log captured these attempts as I thought the problem could possibly be the communication between our website and PayPal wasn’t working correctly, since our custom checkout page isn’t displaying, but should be. However, when I check the log I can see the info is being sent to PayPal so that’s not it.

Per the log PayPal is returning this error message:
‘__error’ => ‘Error #11928. Invalid Argument. The email or merchant ID specified is invalid.’,

That doesn’t make any sense to me as the information is correctly displaying right in the log even and it verifies with the info in our PayPal account and in s2. Obviously the s2 return info is working or I wouldn’t have the log, correct? Anyway, I verified all of this info yesterday as well making sure the “User” PWD and “Signature” info all match correctly. I just verified it again today comparing the log values to the s2 value and the PayPal values.

There was one issue I wasn’t 100% certain about so I tested it both ways. Both tests failed. Our “signature” as listed in PayPal ends with a period as its final character. So it was difficult to tell from the display if the period was a part of the signature or not. So I tested the button with the period and without the period as the final character in the signature. Both tested methods failed and produced the same user-end error message/result. However, according to the log they produced different error messages.

With the period as the final character the error message is: ‘__error’ => ‘Error #11928. Invalid Argument. The email or merchant ID specified is invalid.’,

Without the period as the final character the error message is: ‘__error’ => ‘Error #10002. Security error. Security header is not valid.’

I’m not able to get a $0.01, $1.00 or any other test transaction amount to work byclicking on the PayPal recurring monthly subscription button (except Buy It Now) always produces the “The link you have used to enter PayPal system is invalid.” error message as soon as you type in your PayPal account email and password. So far none of the folks who want to sign up as members and also me myself cannot get past that point to approve the payment(s).

The rest of the items in the Common Troubleshooting document do not seem to be the issue in our case. I did recently update a few plugins so I can double check those updates didn’t cause a conflict–but I don’t think so as we’ve had the same problem all along (prior to the plugin updates) and it just doesn’t seem to be something we can find the solution to.

Thanks for your help. We appreciate it.

Okay, so did you double-checked that all your integration values are correct?

[hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Options -› Account Details[/hilite]
PayPal EMail Address
PayPal API Username
PayPal API Password
PayPal API Signature
[hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Options -› PayPal® PDT Integration[/hilite]
PayPal PDT Identity Token

Make sure you don’t have Sandbox mode enabled in s2Member. Sandbox would use its own credentials, different from your live account’s. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Options -› Account Details -› Sandbox[/hilite]

When you try the test purchase, for payment are you trying to login to the same PayPal account you use as the merchant? That won’t work with PayPal, they need to be different accounts.