Subscriber error

Hi. Someone from the Far East tried to subscribe but received the following error:

Error #10501. Invalid Configuration. This transaction cannot be
processed due to an invalid merchant configuration.

Any ideas what this is about? Received other subs with no problem. Should tell you that this person is already a subscriber at Level #0 – is this the issue in some way?

Thx.

• This topic was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by  Nigel.
• This topic was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by  Nigel.

Hi Nigel.

I can’t tell from that message alone. Do you have the log entries for that transaction? [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Options -› Account Details -› Logging[/hilite]

Thanks. :)

I hope you saw my other post on this? Does logging require special permissions on the folder?

The script should be able to access the directory in order to keep the log. It usually isn’t a problem but maybe your server has stricter permissions?

OK found a log…cam I email it to you? Where? Thanks.

Yeah, please send it using the contact form: s2Member® » Private Contact Form

Does the log include the entries for the Far East transaction that gave you the problem? If not, leave logging running until it happens again and we get log entries related to it, and then send the log files to me.

Thanks! :)

Thanks, got your email. Was what you sent me the whole log or just the transaction with the error?

I see the 10501 error you mentioned earlier. What’s weird is that you say other transactions went through fine.

https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=developer/e_howto_api_nvp_errorcodes#id09C3GA00GR1

Occurs when the billing agreement is disabled or inactive.

I suggest that you contact PayPal support about this, seems to be a problem on their end.

Let us know how it goes, please. :)

Contacted PayPal and finally – after 3-4 tries got this out of them:

You are receiving that error because in that cases your Website is using the Direct Payment API. In other, successful transactions, your Websitre is using our Express Checkout API.The Direct Payment API is specially designed to process Credit cards directly on your site without redirecting the customer to paypal. This API is part of our Payments Pro package which is currently not enabled on your account. You will need to sign up for this add on product first, before you can use this API. You can do that here:

https://www.paypal-business.co.uk/process-online-payments-with-paypal/index.htm

Once you signed up and you are approved for Pro, your Direct PAyment API will work. If you don’t want Pro, you will need to disablke that API in your shop and only use the Express Checkout API.

This must be something s2 Member is doing? I can’t find any way to turn this off.

Are you using only Express Checkout then? Could you post your shortcode for the pro-form, please? Thanks!

[s2Member-Pro-PayPal-Form level="2" ccaps="" desc="$5.99 USD / Yearly ( recurring charge, for ongoing access )" ps="paypal" lc="" cc="USD" dg="0" ns="1" custom="mysite.com" ta="0" tp="0" tt="D" ra="5.99" rp="1" rt="Y" rr="1" rrt="" rra="2" accept="paypal,visa,mastercard,amex,discover,maestro,solo" accept_via_paypal="paypal" coupon="" accept_coupons="0" default_country_code="" captcha="0" /]

Looking at this I can see that the ‘accept’ includes cards I wouldn’t normally allow but not sure that’s anything to do with it.

Hi Nigel,

You can certainly edit the accept= attribute and remove any of the values that are not appropriate.

Don’t think that is the problem – maybe this happened after I upgraded your software – I seem to recall there was something about PayPal Pro when I did this. Somehow, S2 is sending the message that I have PayPal Pro… that is the issue – not the kind of card they are using. e.g. they wrote:

“…your Website is using our Express Checkout API.The Direct Payment API is specially designed to process Credit cards directly on your site without redirecting the customer to paypal. This API is part of our Payments Pro package which is currently not enabled on your account.”

To enable Pro you have to pay for it. These is something S2 is sending to PayPal which says I am using Pro – which I don’t want to do. Please take another look… many thanks.

Nigel, Express Checkout doesn’t enable on-site payments. For onsite payments you need PayPal Pro. http://www.primothemes.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=2634

OK so it was a stupid error on my part – I was taking the module for PayPalPro without really considering that we needed to be subscribed to this service – is there not some way you can invalidate the shortcode if the parameters haven’t been completed – many other types of service do this e.g ZenCart? In part because normally Express Checkout permits cc purchases just not on site. Thanks.

Hi Nigel,

The Pro-Form Quick Start Guide, which can be found inside the plugin (Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Quick Start Guide), explains what you should do if you want to use the Pro-Forms without the PayPal Pro service:

*PayPal® Pro is NOT Absolutely Required* s2Member is very flexible. It is now possible to integrate Pro Forms without a PayPal® Pro account, whereby the enhanced Form Shortcodes that s2Member provides can be integrated ONLY with PayPal® Express Checkout. In other words, if you get declined for PayPal® Pro service, you can still use s2Member Pro Forms. Ask PayPal® to activate Express Checkout for you. ( it’s free ). Once Express Checkout is enabled, you will have access to your PayPal® API Credentials. Log into your PayPal® account, and navigate to Profile -> API Access (or Request API Credentials). You’ll choose ( Request API Signature ). Now … here is the tricky part; whenever you generate a Pro Form Shortcode with s2Member, be sure to change accept=”paypal,visa,mastercard,amex,discover,maestro,solo” to just accept=”paypal”; thereby excluding the on-site credit card processing functionality; which is available only with PayPal® Pro.

This is what PayPal (finally) told me which makes sense and perhaps has been addressed in your last upgrade?

Also, all that option (WPS Premium) does is unlock the credit card option for standard subscription buttons which is what you are using on the /subscribe/ page. If you signed up for that service, you wouldn’t have to make any changes to your buttons and they will then have the option for the customer to sign up with a debit/credit card instead of a PayPal account. The difference between that and Pro is that you are still using our standard buttons with our checkout pages so you don’t have to be PCI compliant. Pro has you gather the information on your website directly without directing them to a PayPal checkout page so you need to have a secure site and go through PCI Compliance to be able to accept credit cards directly.

To answer your second question, yes, if you were to use Buy Now buttons or Add to Cart buttons instead of Subscription buttons, they would have the option of guest credit card checkout without PayPal will work just fine. It’s just that Subscription buttons are PayPal only by default. Also, Express Checkout (that you use on your /buy-this-issue/ page) is always going to be PayPal only when you use it with recurring payments. Just one-time payments with Express Checkout can be set up to accept a credit card without a PayPal account, but not with recurring payments.

Clear?

Yes, that makes sense. Thank you for sharing, Nigel.