PayPal Payments Fail with s2Member Pro Forms

Hello,

We had a thread going and then s2Member dropped it.

http://www.s2member.com/forums/topic/members-pay-to-upgrade-but-are-not-promoted/page/2/

This was not resolved.

The last responses indicate that the reason transactions were failing was because we were trying to pay for test memberships using the same account we use for processing.

That is not the case.

Payments to PayPal fail from would be members all of whom are (of course) NOT using our account.

The final response from Jason was to send a screen shot with an error message and URL.

There is no error message.

1. A user selects PayPal as the payment source.

2. The user submits the correctly completed form.

3. The user is taken to PayPal and the left side of the PayPal page does not show the subscription information.

4. The user logs into PayPal in the right side of the PayPal page.

5. The user chooses their personal funding source (credit card, checking account, etc).

6. The user clicks the required button to complete the payment.

7. No transaction occurs.

8. The user is immediately returned to our payment page where they started.

9. That payment processing page has NO error message.

10. That payment processing page has all of the form fields UNFILLED.

From the support ticket URL above Jason has all the login details.

I’ve tried many ways to hide PayPal as an option even though according to the terms it is a required option. That is junk when it fails and makes us look like clowns who can’t process a PayPal payment.

I tried using this must use PHP file and nothing changed on the site whatsoever:

http://www.s2member.com/faqs/#s2-faqs-pro-form-template-mods

We really, really need a resolution to this. Our solution right now is to put a lame note in big bold red letters that there are PayPal payment processing issues so please use a different payment source. That is so bad when anyone can go to any other site and make a PayPal payment the same day.

Thank you for the possibility of a solution.

Chris

Hello Chris.

I see in your PayPal integration that you entered the PayFlow API credentials, but from the other thread and though you had the version that uses PayPal Pro’s API. Could you verify if you have PayPal Pro (PayFlow Edition)?

If so, would it be okay with you if I enable logging, create a test page with a pro-form for 1 cent and do a test purchase to see what the problem may be?

Hello Cristian,

In our s2Member settings, under PayPal Account Details we have a PayPal email address, PayPal API Username and password and a PayPal API signature.

Under PayFlow Account Details we have a PayFlow API Username and Password, and PayPal is listed as our PayFLow API Partner. A version of our business name is listed as the PayFlow API Vendor.

Inside the PayPal business accound I’ve literally gone page by page, link by link and I cannot find anywhere where it says, “Your account type is: PayPal Pro,” or “PayPal Payflow edition.”

From the links below I believe we have Payflow Pro because we do the credit card payments on our site–except when someone chooses PayPal as the payment source–then they are redirected to PayPal–which is where this fails (per above and the other ticket). We do not have secure order pages that PayPal hosts and we customize (as with PayFlow Link).

https://www.paypal.com/ca/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_payflow-feature-comparison-outside
https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/payflow-faq

PayPal is hilarious with their naming soup!

PayPal Pro
PayPal Payments Pro
PayPal PayFlow Link
PayPal PayFlow Edition
PayPal Payflow Payment Gateway
PayPal Website Payments Pro

…and NO header on your account page that says, “You are using PayPal X and Y.”

I hope this answered the question.

For the past few months we have kept a really lame notice on the checkout pages that advises people NOT to use PayPal as a payment source even though it is shown on the form (and even though I’ve tried using every CSS trick I can to hide it! And even though I know it is a required option in PaPal TOS).

Now we’ve tested and PayPal buttons work. So we will offer PayPal buttons right below the form and advise people to use the form for credit card checkout but to ignore the PayPal payment option and instead to use the PayPal payment button on the page. Wow that makes us look like amateur hour.

Chris

Hey Cristian,

I forgot to add: Test, yes, please test!

Thank you,

Chris

Oh, I couldn’t agree more, they have made a mess with the names, and the services themselves can be confusing too.

I believe we have Payflow Pro

I see. s2Member doesn’t integrate with PayFlow Pro, so you need to verify this. s2Member integrates with PayPal Pro (PayFlow Edition). See: Knowledge Base » PayPal Pro, PayFlow, DPRP, Express Checkout

That article also mentions that you need Reference Transactions enabled for the Express Checkout integration to work if you have PayPal Pro (PayFlow Edition) and are selling a subscription.

Contact PayPal to verify the account type you have, please.

As soon as you confirm this, I’ll go ahead and do that test purchase. I’ll be waiting for your update.

Hello Cristian,

In the past our PayPal account and s2Member worked relatively trouble free.

Can I send you a screenshot of our s2Member PayPal options page? Or can you log in to the page and see our settings using the admin info I gave to s2Member in the contact form?

Are you able to see what kind of account we have from the settings we use in s2Member?

Mean time I’ll contact PayPal to find out what kind of account we have.

Thank you,

Chris

Hey Cristian,

I just finished a tongue twisting phone call with PayPal determining our account type.

Our account type is PayPal Payments Pro.

And in s2Member PayPal Options > PayPal Account Details, I have the PayPal Email Address, PayPal API Username, PayPal API Password, and PayPal API Signature.

Below that in s2Member PayFlow Account Details I have the Payflow API Username, Payflow API Password, Payflow API Partner, and Payflow API Vendor.

Should I only have one or the other? Is our problem caused by having both sets of API info in the s2Member PayPal Options?

Chris

Our account type is PayPal Payments Pro.

Thanks for confirming it.

Should I only have one or the other? Is our problem caused by having both sets of API info in the s2Member PayPal Options?

If you have PayPal Pro (PayFlow Edition), then you need to have all those. If you don’t have the PayFlow Edition, then you should leave the PayFlow panel empty in your s2Member configuration.

Did they mention that you have the PayFlow Edition of PayPal Pro? Can you confirm that?

Also, make sure that your account is tied to the PayFlow account, they have different logins and I remember a site owner having trouble because the account seemed to not be tied together, if I remember correctly.

Also, if you want to sell a subscription you’ll need to have Recurring Payments enabled in your PayPal account, and if you have the PayFlow Edition, for Express Checkout to work you’ll need to have PayPal enable Reference Transactions.