Paypal directing to two different pages

My site mainly sells registrations/bookings for events and when we direct the users/customers to the paypal page to complete the transaction which i want set up with the option of paying via credit/debit card if the user/customer doesn’t have (or doesn’t want to create one) a paypal account. That has been working perfectly except for when users/customers are using Internet Explorer or Google Chrome. When using IE or Chrome, the user/customer get’s directed to a completely different page both in appearance and functionality. This incorrect page ‘requires’ users/customers to have or create a paypal account to make the payment, no option to pay via card is available. I tried calling paypal and of course they say it is something wrong with my site.

It’s worth noting that Safari and Firefox work perfectly but Safari will not work correctly when used on a smartphone.

I don’t know if this relates but i had completely forgotten to enter the security token into the s2Member plugin until this morning, is it possible that IE and Chrome were too strict and redirected users/away form the page i wanted them to see as a result of not having this security token?

Without hijacking my own thread, now that i’ve entered the security token, does that mean that i get some added security symbol on my site somewhere? I thought i read that somewhere a long time ago – so much info to absorb in a short space in time.

Thanks very much, any assistance is greatly appreciated

I don’t know if this relates but i had completely forgotten to enter the security token into the s2Member plugin until this morning, is it possible that IE and Chrome were too strict and redirected users/away form the page i wanted them to see as a result of not having this security token?

Sorry. What security token are you referring to? What is the label that s2Member® gives this?

I was referring to this one “PayPal® PDT Identity Token”. It didn’t make any difference anyway so it’s obviously something else. Have you ever heard of such a problem where paypal directs to different pages depending on what browser is used?

I really need this fixed asap but its been days already and paypal technical support NEVER get back to me.

I was referring to this one “PayPal® PDT Identity Token”. It didn’t make any difference anyway so it’s obviously something else. Have you ever heard of such a problem where paypal directs to different pages depending on what browser is used?

To be honest, no. I’ve never heard of PayPal redirecting to a different location based on browser, as that would be extremely confusing for folks integrating PayPal with their site and services. Mobile devices see a different layout (that’s normal) but it should not reduce the functionality and make things impossible to accomplish.

My site mainly sells registrations/bookings for events and when we direct the users/customers to the paypal page to complete the transaction which i want set up with the option of paying via credit/debit card if the user/customer doesn’t have (or doesn’t want to create one) a paypal account. That has been working perfectly except for when users/customers are using Internet Explorer or Google Chrome. When using IE or Chrome, the user/customer get’s directed to a completely different page both in appearance and functionality. This incorrect page ‘requires’ users/customers to have or create a paypal account to make the payment, no option to pay via card is available. I tried calling paypal and of course they say it is something wrong with my site.

That’s really interesting. I’ve not heard this before now. If you hear something back from PayPal, please let us all know. One way to get a faster response is to post this question at StackOverflow.com for PayPal techs. See: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/paypal

When you post a question, tag it “paypal”. The techs monitor this area.

You can also try: https://ppmts.custhelp.com/

Can you also post some screenshots of this problem here?

This first image is the screen customers should be directed to.

This second screen shows where customers a re being sent to in IE and Chrome

I would post this question over at stackoverflow.com if i could figure out whatever their rubbish issue with adding extensions.. no matter what i try it won’t let me add an account.
I’ve already post a technical support ticket with paypal, they said 1 day to reply but still no reply. I don’t see much point in posting another one. I was kind of hoping that somebody here might be able to make some suggestions as i’m not getting any help anywhere else.

One possible source of confusion here, could be the difference in cookies. I have experienced subtle changes in the past, in cases where I had previously logged into my PayPal account. Even though I was not currently logged in, PayPal (through cookies in my browser) knew that I was an existing user of their service.

In short, testing from one browser to the next (if it’s not the one you normally use); can also create changes in the layout. This occurs because of the way PayPal analyzes cookies from previous logins.

Thanks Mike, that’s very interesting. The only problem is that i have absolutely no idea where to start with making changes in the layout. Literally i wouldn’t know where to start or what to do.

Are their people who specialise in these kind of problems? I’m going to need some assistance and fast.

Thanks Mike, that’s very interesting. The only problem is that i have absolutely no idea where to start with making changes in the layout. Literally i wouldn’t know where to start or what to do.

I’m not sure that I understand. You can’t change the layout at PayPal.com. You can only request that they make changes for all of their customers by altering the PayPal® service itself.

That being said, we commonly recommend Elance.com as a great place to find freelancers.

I just noticed two weird things about the two pages that users are getting. On the page that allows customers to use visa/debit card the url bar has a differnt icon/favicon to the left of the url address, from the page that only allows customers to use their paypal account to pa.

Both url addresses are exactly the same except for that icon. I’ve attached screenies of both to see if that makes any sense to you guys.


Paypal are absoltuely useless and they keep saying that it is a problem with my site and the s2Member plugin, surely there is a s2member tech support members on here that can log in and check to see if my settings are all correct and tell me if i’ve done something wrong?

Please help

If it’s the exact same URL, I can’t imagine why there would be a difference.
Is this from the same browser also?

Hi Mike,

The first URL screen shot with the ‘P’ favicon is from Safari whilst the second favicon with the ‘PayPal US’ is from google Chrome. Firefox and Safari always go to the first page whilst Internet Explorer and Chrome go to the second and wrong page. I do know that one person used Chrome and it went to the correct page but he’s the only one.

Does this help at all? As I said before PayPal just keep blaming the s2member plugin so I need to get this sorted ASAP.

Thanks for your help

I’m sorry. I have no explanation for this, and I can’t offer assistance in debugging browser behavior when it comes to the icons that are displayed from one site or service to the next.

This would be a question for the folks at Safari.