PAYPAL Payment but no order !

**Gwiazda** · 16 May 2008, 01:02 PM

But is there any way to recover the order data?

Paypal Sessions Viewer addon (versions 1 or 2) don't work - I get an error message so I guess they're not compatible with 1.3.8 running on PHP/MySQL5.

It would make life so much simpler if there was an order recovery facility for this problem, which seems to happen a lot

**DrByte** · 16 May 2008, 03:03 PM

It's also worth noting that PayPal has been having system problems off and on all week.

**tzeyangng** · 16 May 2008, 04:52 PM

i agree. If there is a log to record what is the item the customer order if they press complete the order. Even though they did not click the return button. There are still a way to for us to track back the payment amount and the order total. um.................. i am not a good php programmer, if any one willing to code the code, i think i can contribute the logic.

**alexexela** · 17 May 2008, 02:05 AM

Here is my logic, if there is anything wrong, please let me know:
1. As soon as a customer click "Confirm", the order is sent to the list of orders as "pending"
2. Simultaneously, he is sent to PayPal for payment.
3. Idealy, a successful payment would trigger a handshake and change the order status from "pending" to "processing" (or any status)
4. If a handshake was unsuccessful and we know the order is paid (via email, etc.), we can manually update the order's status.

I will try to implement this. Please let me know if I'm missing something.

**Merlinpa1969** · 17 May 2008, 02:23 AM

the issue with this is the number of orders dropped at paypal,
the change of many open unpaid invoices is more of a hassle than just remonding the customer to PUSH THE BUTTON to come back to the store to complete the order

**alexexela** · 17 May 2008, 02:34 AM

Thanks for the reply.

Before PayPal IPN was used on my client's site, he would have to send an invoice manually via Email Payment Request. More than 90% customers who clicked "Confirm" would make the payment.

Somehow, I feel customer satisfaction is more important than worrying about deleting unpaid orders. In some cases (small percentage but still happen), customer would pay but somehow did not return to the site for completion. This results in his order getting "lost". This could be as simple as Internet connection problem.

My logic mentioned before is just a fail-safe solution. I really don't see how opening unpaid invoices with a "pending" status is going to confuse anyone. Plus, most customers would go through the transaction in my experience.

**alexexela** · 17 May 2008, 06:18 AM

I have done more reading. I'm not sure if I understand this correctly.

If I use a PDT token, the transaction should be posted (and show up as an order) as soon as customer made the payment. It doesn't matter if the customer come back to the site or not. Is that correct?

**Merlinpa1969** · 17 May 2008, 06:32 AM

Zen Cart relies on return url

the flow is
clisnt -Shopping cart -> checkout shipping-> payment -> confirm -> paypal -> ( auto return sends back to ) -> checkout_process -> ( paypal sends IPN info to site if its setup correct ) -> ipn_main_handler.php

**tzeyangng** · 17 May 2008, 07:26 AM

Originally Posted by alexexela

Here is my logic, if there is anything wrong, please let me know:
1. As soon as a customer click "Confirm", the order is sent to the list of orders as "pending"
2. Simultaneously, he is sent to PayPal for payment.
3. Idealy, a successful payment would trigger a handshake and change the order status from "pending" to "processing" (or any status)
4. If a handshake was unsuccessful and we know the order is paid (via email, etc.), we can manually update the order's status.

I will try to implement this. Please let me know if I'm missing something.

Hi Alex,

Please keep me posted. I definately interest in this module as well. This is definately a problem to us. Since you cannot "force" the customer to hit the return button and as a "service" provider, we need to make sure the customer is well taking care and the software is easy to use. Honestly, to me as a developer (not PHP though) this is really a huge bug. I am also currently thinking how to solve this problem.

thanks for taking the initial effort.

regards,
TY

**tzeyangng** · 17 May 2008, 07:27 AM

Originally Posted by alexexela

I have done more reading. I'm not sure if I understand this correctly.

If I use a PDT token, the transaction should be posted (and show up as an order) as soon as customer made the payment. It doesn't matter if the customer come back to the site or not. Is that correct?

I dun think this is correct, i already enable the PDT, but it did not solve the problem.