Recurring Payments PayFlow Error 36 Failure

I have s2member Pro installed using PayPal Payflow Pro as my payment gateway. I have recurring billing setup with PayPal as well. All my credentials are perfect, everything is setup flawlessly but there is only one error.

I keep getting : Error #36. Transaction failed: Fail to obtain approval for the online transaction.

I have read all the other threads on this matter and after 14 hours of searching I have decided to submit a ticket. I can’t find the answer. PayPal’s support team suggests that s2member is running a method of processing recurring payments that PayPal has not accepted for over 1 year.

On my website, http://www.websiteschool.com/pricing you’ll see the two membership options. If you choose either option and choose to pay with any credit card, everything works perfectly. HOWEVER, if you choose PayPal as your payment method, you get the Error #36. Transaction failed: Fail to obtain approval for the online transaction.

I have verified this has nothing to do with the funding source at all. Everything is perfect. I have also verified I am setup for recurring payments on PayPal, so its not that. I have also verified my SSL certificate and all security is perfect.

I have ALSO visited the thread about this here on the forum, and I installed the Patch located on this thread: http://www.s2member.com/forums/topic/cant-do-recurring-billing-via-paypal-payflow/

That patch did not fix anything. The only error I get is Error #36. Transaction failed: Fail to obtain approval for the online transaction

Thank you so much for your help, I have tried literally 14 hours of other options and I am stumped. I have been building sites for 10 years and I can’t figure this out.

Hi Brett,

Thank you very much for the detailed summary of what you’ve tried.

Could you please confirm that you’re getting this error when using a PayPal Pro-Form and choosing “PayPal” as your payment type? I tried signing up and got as far as the “confirm payment” screen on PayPal’s website without receiving any errors. Where exactly in the process of signing up do you see this error?

Thanks Raam, yes that is correct. The error only comes when you actually try to pay for the service. It will get you to where you “confirm payment” and “agree and continue” (while on PayPal.com) — then it sends you back to the website and gives error #36 after you click “agree and continue”

According to PayPal Support, the account needs to have “referenced transactions” enabled for the PayPal account. Which is a 2-3 day process requiring some higher level employees to pass on approval. It doesn’t cost anything else.

I will post the results of this here once they come in on (hopefully) Tuesday. Am I the only person that has ever had this problem? If not, seems weird nobody ever mentioned it here in the forum?

Hi Brett,

Thanks for the update. I haven’t even heard of “Referenced Transactions” before, so I’m not sure. Let us know if you still have issues after that feature gets added to your PayPal account.