PP Buttons to Pro Forms – now some issues

Okay I’m pretty sure this hasn’t been covered before but to be honest I’ve already searched and if it is out there I just don’t feel like spending hours to find it so here it goes.

I upgraded to “Pro” so I could have some more flexibility and also give the potential client less steps in the purchasing process. So let me explain how it works now before I get into the problems because I’m not sure if what I’m doing is the right way.

Initially I used paypal modification buttons because I have a bunch of free members. So when they logged in they would have the ability to upgrade for premium content. Great, so far so good. But I didn’t want to have two pages for a potential client – one for members and one for non members.

Now that I am a PRO user I decided to use the forms that way I didn’t have to send the members and the non members to different pages to get a subscription. I could consolidate everything into one page so that even if a user is not logged in they could still order from the same page – I have instructions on the order page to log in before continuing.

I do all of this from the PayPal Pro Form level #1 and I DON’T use the paypal pro modifcation forms at all. I hope that I am right in doing this and its not the cause of my problems.

Onto the problems:

When I was using the buttons I would receive two emails from paypal – One letting me know that I have recieved a payment and one to let me know that a recurring subscription was set up.

Since moving to the forms, I only receive 1 email. Letting me know that a recurring payment was set up even though an initial payment was still received.

Now going into the pay pal account. This first image shows a couple missing variables in the right (NEW) side. Which was taken from the forms. This doesn’t really bother me that much, though I thought I would bring it up just incase it makes a difference.

This second image shows the differences between the two methods. Old = Buttons and New = Form.
Since I’ve been paid the first payment from the newest premium member, I’m not too worried about that but its just how the process was gone about with one taking an “Initial payment” and the other one didn’t, that concerns me.

Also there is some missing info in the “Item Name”, the “add Payments” is YES on the new side and that the “Profile will be suspended” is 2 failures where the old side is just 1.

I also noticed something on the paypal homepage where you can see a list of your recent activity.

When I used the Paypal buttons, it keeps the users paypal name inside of paypal but shows a different name on my site (only if the user chose a different name on my site).

But with the PayPal forms i see a different Name on the front page of my PayPal Acount and then when I click on “details” beside a transaction, it then shows the same name that they inputted into my site registration form. Sometimes people don’t want to use their real First and Last Name on my site, I get it. So essentially it seems like its using both names on the paypal site (fake one from my site and the real one in paypal) when someone uses the form. Am I correct? It’s like paypal is using the name from the registration form (on the site) to fill out the recurring payments form, but displays the Paypal User name on the homepage.

Hopefully you understand that.

Anyways I’m just a bit worried or concerned and what like to know if I’m maybe going about something wrong.

As far as the plugin and payments and all that stuff, there doesn’t seem to be any issues thus far.

thanks.

Wow, I never thought after being a paid customer that support would be so slow.

You guys honestly have something with this plugin but the support needs help big time.

Bump**

Thank you for your inquiry.

Sorry about the delay over the weekend.

I do all of this from the PayPal Pro Form level #1 and I DON’T use the paypal pro modifcation forms at all. I hope that I am right in doing this and its not the cause of my problems.

Yes this is fine. s2Member’s regular PayPal Forms will allow for a User to be logged in or not and will work fine.

Now going into the pay pal account. This first image shows a couple missing variables in the right (NEW) side. Which was taken from the forms. This doesn’t really bother me that much, though I thought I would bring it up just incase it makes a difference.

This is because s2Member handles the Shipping and Tax Amounts with Pro Forms. Perfectly normally.

When I was using the buttons I would receive two emails from paypal – One letting me know that I have recieved a payment and one to let me know that a recurring subscription was set up.

Since moving to the forms, I only receive 1 email. Letting me know that a recurring payment was set up even though an initial payment was still received.

What do you have set up under this part of your Dashboard?

See: Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Options -› Account Details -› PayPal® Pro Forms / Recurring Profile Behavior

But with the PayPal forms i see a different Name on the front page of my PayPal Acount and then when I click on “details” beside a transaction, it then shows the same name that they inputted into my site registration form. Sometimes people don’t want to use their real First and Last Name on my site, I get it. So essentially it seems like its using both names on the paypal site (fake one from my site and the real one in paypal) when someone uses the form. Am I correct? It’s like paypal is using the name from the registration form (on the site) to fill out the recurring payments form, but displays the Paypal User name on the homepage.

That’s right. When a User checks out they’re putting the name that’s related to their Credit Card usually, and PayPal uses this as well because you’re using s2Member Pro Forms and the details entered here stick at PayPal. There’s really no way to stop this from happening, but I might suggest that you make it easier to change this by giving Users a direct link to their Login Welcome Page or somewhere they can edit their Profile. You might check out these parts of your Dashboard:

Dashboard -› s2Member® -› General Options -› Member Profile Modifications

Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Custom Return URLs Upon Success

As far as the plugin and payments and all that stuff, there doesn’t seem to be any issues thus far.

Cool. I will also note that s2Member does make it possible to achieve having a Button for both Users that are not logged in and are without having s2Member Pro. Multiple Buttons can be on one Page, and you can even decide which Button to use based on if the User is logged in or not:

Knowledge Base » Simple Shortcode Conditionals