PayPal Express Checkout keeps returning to Step 2 after confirmation

[drysdaleandco]

Hi,
I am fairly new to ZC, using v1.3.8a
Having a problem with PayPalExpress Checkout - it seems to be processing orders but not receiving or displaying any payments. When a user adds any product to the cart they arrive at the shopping_cart page that has the PayPal EC Button. Clicking the EC button redirects to the PayPal login screen and then to the Review Information screen. Clicking Continue returns to our checkout_payment (Step 2 of 3 – Payment Information) page.

The rest of the checkout process remains on our site and works normally. We receive the Order Confirmation email properly and it shows the correct information for the order but when we login to our PayPal account there is no record of the order, no payment capture shown, no sign of any activity.

If a user takes the full checkout process by logging into their account on our site the PayPal process is working properly. Payments are able to be seen in our account. It's just the Express Checkout button that is having the problem.

I have searched for hours but I can`t find a solution to the problem. We have recently recovered from a hack and I'm not sure if this is related.
Can you please help me?

Susan

[stevesh]

Is it possible you applied the latest security patch to the cart side of Zencart rather than admin?

[drysdaleandco]

Hi. Thanks for your reply.
I don't think so. I contacted my webhost and he applied the patch to fix the hack (I'm sure he knows how to apply the patch corectly) and everything seems fine now except this PayPal button issue.
I also realized that when and order is placed using EC the Order Confirmation email has no Auth Code or Trans ID at the top but the rest of the order info is shown fine -- it's like the PayPal functionality is there for the user but the actual transaction doesn't exist.
I'm trying to get support at PayPal to have a look and see if they can make sense of what's happening. I still stumped.

Susan

[DrByte]

Does this happen when customers are using coupons or discounts of any sort?
Which other payment modules are enabled in Admin->Modules->Payment? and why?

PayPal isn't going to be any help to you in this case, since as far as they're concerned the payment is completed.

[drysdaleandco]

Hi
I don’t know if this matters or not but I forgot to mention that I am in Canada.

It happens regardless of whether you use a disc. coupon or not.

The only payment menthod we allow is PayPal and we are using PayPal Express Checkout in the Admin>Modules>Payment because I want users to be able to “express pay” and also because I want users to be able to pay with Credit Cards even if they don’t have a PP account. I’m sorry, it’s been a few months since I was researching my options but I recall that in order to allow users to pay with CC and not have a PayPal account I was best to use PPEC.

Right now the payment module only works properly if a user does a full checkout process. If they choose the yellow “check out with PayPal” button on the left side of the shopping cart page, instead of the “checkout” button on the right, then we get an order confirmation page with no Auth Code or Trans ID and PP has no record of the transaction at all, so even though it appears to the user that they are taken to the PP site and have completed the purchase, they have not. And PP confirmed that there is no record of these transactions at all, even though you are clearly on the PP site thru part of this process.
You are right though, they aren't really able to help because from their point of view the transaction doesn't exist.

I tested another transaction yesterday and this was what happened:

This time, after arriving at our shopping_cart page I clicked the “check out with PayPal” button and logged in to PP the screen that came up offering me address and payment options But after about 3 seconds that page changed in front of my eyes without my touching anything and the options went away. I was still able to continue thru the checkout process but there is no "Pay Now" button, just "continue" which takes you back to our cart. Again we received a confirmation email but no Auth Code or Trans ID.

I’m so frustrated and exhausted by trying to figure this one out. PP has taken a look but they say it’s the cart, my webhost has taken a look, he can’t see anything and doesn’t think there is anything malicious going on. So I don’t know what to do next.

Susan

[DrByte]

... we get an order confirmation page with no Auth Code or Trans ID and PP has no record of the transaction at all ...

In your admin area, under the list of Orders, the first column is the order number, and the 2nd column has 2 rows, listing the payment module and shipping module codes. What payment method is listed for the order that gives no authcode?

[drysdaleandco]

Under Admin>Orders the orders that were placed by clicking the “Express Checkout” method all show Payment,CC, Shipping,CandaPost

The orders that were placed with the full checkout process show
show Payment,paypalwpp, Shipping,CandaPost

I take it paypalwpp means WebsitePaymentsPro, but I don’t have that module on.

[DrByte]

Under Admin>Orders the orders that were placed by clicking the “Express Checkout” method all show Payment,CC, Shipping,CandaPost

so it's treating it as though the payment happened via the "Offline CC Module". Why do you have that turned on?

I take it paypalwpp means WebsitePaymentsPro, but I don’t have that module on.

Actually, that's the Express Checkout module. I know, the naming is confusing ... that's changing in v2.0. The WebsitePaymentsPro option would show as paypaldp (DP=DirectPayment)

[drysdaleandco]

Dr. Byte I LOVE YOU!
I turned everything off except the PPEC module and it worked!

I had no idea why that was on, perhaps it was on as a default when I set things up and I didn't turn it off.

My bad it seems. I'm happy it was such a simple (yet stupid on my part thing!). I was so stressed about finding that we had been hacked this week that I wasn't sure if this was a hack-related issue. It was only post hack that I started major testing on everything and discovered the problem.

I have tested it several times and we are now getting Auth Codes & Trans IDs for the EC checkout method. I am also finally getting the IPN emails from PP as well now so we are communicating correctly. We will continue to do some tests but it looks like it's all good now!

Thank you so much. You have released me from a world of stress over this!!

Susan

[DrByte]

Glad you got it sorted out.

The only payment module I'd leave enabled other than the main one you're using would be the freecharger one, since it's necessary if someone wants to do a checkout where the price comes to 0.00, either because of a free product or because of a coupon/discount of some sort. But if you're not doing those sorts of things, leaving that "removed" too is fine.