Paypal payments fail but card payments succeed

[mikehenrysr]

On my site, a user can register (free), register monthly recurring (first month free) or upgrade to monthly recurring. The payment options are Paypal, Visa, MC, Amex, Discover. We have Paypal Pro with recurring payments.

If a user registers with a card, everything works as expected. The initial registration sets up the payment profile in the merchant account and the upgrade does the same thing. Everything is fine.

If a user tries to register or upgrade using Paypal, the transaction doesn't complete and the user is returned to the payment page with no error message, no profile created, and no record of anything happening anywhere. I'm using a personal Paypal account to test against my merchant account, but I discovered this problem when a user upgraded the other day and she told me she didn't get a receipt.

Does anyone have any idea what I have configured wrong or what's keeping this from working? It's very frustrating.

WP 3.2.1, BuddyPress 1.5.1, S2Member 111105 and Pro 111105.

I turned on logging and have attached the log minus the API Keys

[Eduan]

Take a look into WP Admin -> S2member -> PayPal® Options -> Account Details and see if ALL the fields are correctly filled. It's normally this that causes this problem.

This video may also be of interest:
http://www.s2member.com/paypal-options-buttons-video/

Have you tried going over the WP Admin -> s2Member -> PayPal® Buttons -> Shortcode Attributes ( Explained )?
It may help clear some things up, just check your button code compared to what's in this section.

Remember to create new buttons with the new info, just to make sure it works.

Also remember to report back.
Otherwise you leave me worrying.

[mikehenrysr]

I'm curious how this would affect my problem. I'm using Paypal Pro and a Pro form, not a button. The beginning of this video says this is for the free version. I have a donate button that works as expected and the Pro forms work as expected when the payment method is a credit card. But when the payment method is a Paypal account, it says "Success" in the API log, but nothing happens.

[Cristián Lávaque]

Mike, could you post the shortcodes you're using for the recurring profiles? And does it happen only for account upgrades or for new accounts as well? Thanks.

[mikehenrysr]

Monthly Signup -
[s2Member-Pro-PayPal-Form level="3" ccaps="" desc="1 Month free / then $24.00 USD / Monthly ( recurring charge, for ongoing access )" ps="paypal" lc="" cc="USD" dg="0" ns="1" custom="leadchangegroup.com" ta="0" tp="1" tt="M" ra="24.00" rp="1" rt="M" 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" /]

Monthly Upgrade -
[s2Member-Pro-PayPal-Form modify="1" level="3" ccaps="" desc="$24.00 USD / Monthly ( recurring charge, for ongoing access )" ps="paypal" lc="" cc="USD" dg="0" ns="1" custom="leadchangegroup.com" ta="0" tp="0" tt="D" ra="24.00" rp="1" rt="M" rr="1" rrt="" rra="2" accept="paypal,visa,mastercard,amex,discover" accept_via_paypal="paypal" coupon="" accept_coupons="0" default_country_code="" captcha="0" /]

Both new signup and upgrade fail the same way. I just realized I've got to get the maestro & solo options out of there.

[Cristián Lávaque]

Thanks Mike. I'm emailing Jason about it, cause I don't know what the problem is. The log says it doesn't need to do anything with that user after the payment, but I'm guessing the user that paid for Level 3 had a lower level before, right? I'll wait for him. Thanks for your patience!

[mikehenrysr]

Actually, I have some S2Member levels and some who are not S2Member levels in the system because it was a legacy system and I never changed everyone's level. So the first attempts I made were to "upgrade" from a WordPress Contributor to S2Member Level 3. I still need them to be a blog Contributor on WP so I am also using the User Role Editor plugin and I was planning on editing the Role once it changed.

However, when it failed, I tried registering a new member using Paypal and that failed. So I tried registering a new member as level 0 and upgrading and that failed too.

One other thing, In the last couple of weeks, Paypal changed my rate on my account because we became a non profit. Once again, that doesn't seem to affect card payments.

So I'm stumpped too. If Jason has any ideas, I'd be happy to try them. Thanks.

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for the heads up on this thread.
~ and thanks for reporting this important issue.

Upon returning from an Express Checkout process at PayPal, you should end up with a URL like this in in your browser, which includes the token from PayPal Express Checkout:

Code: Select all

/?s2member_paypal_xco=s2member_pro_paypal_checkout_return&token=EC-580251029L0238347

s2Member Pro will process and record an entry for METHOD: GetExpressCheckoutDetails.

The absence of any API calls to: GetExpressCheckoutDetails, in your log file, would indicate to me that your Customer is being redirected in some way upon returning from checkout, preventing s2Member Pro from processing the transaction. Or, perhaps there is a PHP error occuring elsewhere in your plugins/theme? You might take a look at your PHP and/or Apache error logs for things like this.

If the problem persists, please send me a Dashboard login and we'll run diagnostics for you. Please use this private contact if you submit those detais: http://www.s2member.com/contact/

[mikehenrysr]

Thanks for the reply. I will check what you suggest. But is there some reason why there is no record of the transaction in Paypal, either for the merchant or the seller? This works perfectly with credit cards payment methods. Could this be something related to the way the Paypal page loads to accept the payment?

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for the follow-up.

Well, PayPal Express Checkout is handled quite differently than standard credit card transactions. A Customer goes to PayPal and agrees to the purchase. Upon returning from Express Checkout, PayPal will provide s2Member with a token variable in the URL, which s2Member uses to obtain details about the Express Checkout transaction they submitted at PayPal. At this point, no transaction has actually been processed. It's up to s2Member to submit the transaction using the token that PayPal Express Checkout provided ( in other words, PayPal has no official transaction at this point, not yet ).

So, understanding this... if s2Member has no API log for GetExpressCheckoutDetails, there is no way that a transaction would be recorded by PayPal. Something is happening immediately upon return from Express Checkout. At this point, my best guess is a redirection of some sort, or a PHP error that is preventing s2Member's routine from succeeding upon return from Express Checkout.

[mikehenrysr]

Paypal said this (and I can't translate). Does S2Member use Express Checkout for the Paypal Payments?

Hello Mike Henry,

Thanks for contacting PayPal today. I understand your recurring payment profiles are being created and billing correctly for Website Payments Pro recurring payments, but not Express Checkout recurring payments. I reviewed the log files you included and see only SetExpressCheckout API calls and CreateRecurringPaymentProfile calls with a credit card- no CreateRecurringPaymentProfile API calls using the Express Checkout token as the funding source/reference. Please confirm with your third party tool that their software makes such a call, and please include the log file for it in your next response.

I look forward to assisting you further when I receive your response.

Lane
Merchant Technical Services
Response (Administrator)

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for the follow-up.

Exactly, and since s2Member has no recorded log entries for those API calls, that indicates there is a problem with s2Member Pro on your installation. s2Member Pro DOES make those calls, but for whatever reason, your installation has a hiccup in it somewhere, which is causing s2Member's routines to either fail, or be bypassed completely.

If the problem persists, please send me a Dashboard login and we'll run diagnostics for you. Please use this private contact form if you submit those details: http://www.s2member.com/contact/

[Jason Caldwell]

Details received. Thank you.
~ Investigating now.

[mikehenrysr]

Any update?

[mikehenrysr]

Jason, any update? I'd at least like to know if you're zeroing in on this or if it's going to be a while?

[Jason Caldwell]

Oh, I am so sorry. This got brushed aside somehow. I'm taking a look right now.

[Jason Caldwell]

Investigation completed.

This bug seems to disappear whenever the W3 Total Cache plugin is disabled on your installation. I also tested your installation against some more recent compatibility considerations for this plugin, but to no avail, it still does not work as expected, for some unknown reason at this point. I suspect the underlying issue is related to Object caching by the W3 Total Cache plugin.

The W3 Total Cache plugin has been a problem for many site owners in this regard. I'm still not absolutely sure if it's the fault of W3 Total Cache, or if it's something that s2Member is not communicating properly to this plugin. At this point though, I would suggest going with Quick Cache instead of W3 Total Cache to resolve the issue that you're having. We will continue to work on this in future releases of s2Member.

The Quick Cache plugin was also developed by us, WebSharks, Inc. It is the recommend caching solution for any site powered by s2Member, since it has been more thoroughly tested in this environment.

See: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/quick-cache/
Related article: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=6309&p=29559#p29559

[mikehenrysr]

That's not going to get it. I've spent more money configuring their cache plugin than I've spent on S2Member Pro. Turning it off isn't an option. I'll contact them, but if this is what it's going to come to, I'll go with their product and drop S2Member. This is very disappointing. I'll let you know what they say.

[Jason Caldwell]

Hi Mike. Thanks for the follow-up.

Well I certainly understand your frustration and disappointment with this. Please feel free to point the W3 Total Cache support team to this thread and perhaps we/they can resolve this issue.

s2Member currently sets these Constants recognized by W3 Total Cache, in order to avoid caching during the checkout experience. This works fine with Quick Cache, WP Super Cache, and appears to work fine with W3 Total Cache as well ( based on debug output from this plugin ). However, in practice, the W3 Total Cache plugin is still caching data in some way during checkout.

Code: Select all

DONOTCACHEDB
DONOTCACHEPAGE
DONOTCACHEOBJECT

Debugging output from W3 Total Cache indicates that caching is disabled as it should be, though problems remain with this plugin active. I'm not sure why yet, but we will continue our investigation for the next release. In the mean time, please consider Quick Cache. Short of that, you might be able to configure exclusions with W3 Total Cache via your Dashboard, so that the Posts/Pages that contain your s2Member Pro Forms are not affected by this. That being said, since we don't quite understand the underlying issue between s2Member and this plugin yet, this may or may not work for you.

[mikehenrysr]

Thanks. I have installed Quick Cache. The speed drop off isn't that drastic, but this whole thing is very frustrating. I'll keep you posted, if I actually do follow through and chase them down about this. Thanks.

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for the follow-up.
~ The W3 Total Cache team has been notified again about this issue.

Hello there. I'm the Lead Developer for a WordPress plugin called s2Member. We have some customers reporting conflicts between your W3 Total Cache plugin and ours. We've made attempts to resolve these conflicts through the application of these PHP Constants you make available to disable caching, but to no avail.

DONOTCACHEDB
DONOTCACHEPAGE
DONOTCACHEOBJECT

I'm hoping that you might be willing to contribute to this thread with some helpful hints/ideas. See: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=15808&p=53206#p53193

[Jason Caldwell]

I received a response via email from the W3 Total Cache team, and we are collaborating to find a solution. This thread will be updated once the issue has been identified in either s2Member or W3 Total Cache, or both perhaps. Not really sure at this point.

[mikehenrysr]

Thanks very much. Mike...