Express Checkout Automatic Account Creation issue

Hello there,

We are recently experience the issues with automatic account creation, after search through the forum and internet, I think it might related to express checkout, we have set Express Checkout Shortcut Button to off and Express Checkout: Automatic Account Creation to no, therefore customer have to go through all steps to completed the order, however, sometimes we found same customer register twice in a very short time address are same but with different email address, until recently we received enquiry from customer, who could not found her order details in registered account, and we found the order was in the second account she registered, but she state that she never use the paypal email account to register and also no password to access such account on our website. here is the problem, we go through all registered customer's details and found that about 10% orders have such issue, a new account been created when customer finish payment, and order went to the automatic paypal email created account. we try to monitor a customer processing an order, and found that at the moment when customer finish the paypal payment, at admin we see a new account been created.

we have the Fast and Easy Checkout addon which was build in with the template, but we have use this template for a year, and only recently the problem getting worse, I am not sure if it cause such problem, and I also contact with
paypal support team, they state that this is sound like the express checkout automatic account creation did not setting properly, they ask me to tune it on and tune off again, but it's still not working. I also use gocompare to compare the paypal related php file with our original backup, and clean 1.5.1 files, still did not notice any issue.

Could anyone point our a direction where should I look at? a paypal support team member told me that if I could find the php file which control the automatic account creation and comment out few lines may have the problem solved. however, I just could not found which one control such setting .


Best Regards

That's the way it was written.

You said you're using Zen Cart v1.5.1 and PayPal Express Checkout. The way Zen Cart v1.5.1 works with the "Automatic Account Creation" in Express Checkout may seem confusing. Zen Cart will always create an account for the customer who uses Express Checkout. The "Automatically Create An Account" setting only controls whether that account is treated as a permanent user-account. If "Automatic Account Creation" is ON, then your Zen Cart will send a welcome email to that customer, along with a generated password for that account, and they will be able to log into that account for reviewing their purchases or to make new purchases. If the settings is OFF, then that welcome email is not sent, and the account is flagged as internal-only and no password is issued.
The account is necessary for the internal workings of the store, which is why a record is always created in the customers table regardless of whether "Automatic Account Creation" is turned on or off.

To tie back to the OP, the setting of auto-create an account doesn't work like described by the OP. Setting to true won't shortcut going through the checkout process, data that is needed for the store to process the purchase will still be collected. If you have something between the shopping cart page and checkout_payment that needs to be filled out which is bypassed by use of expres checkout with paypal express then two things, evaluate how badly you need that extra information (customers tend to prefer quick and easy checkout) and two if needed, then disable the express checkout portion, but would still recommend the auto-account creation...

DrByte:

That's the way it was written.

You said you're using Zen Cart v1.5.1 and PayPal Express Checkout. The way Zen Cart v1.5.1 works with the "Automatic Account Creation" in Express Checkout may seem confusing. Zen Cart will always create an account for the customer who uses Express Checkout. The "Automatically Create An Account" setting only controls whether that account is treated as a permanent user-account. If "Automatic Account Creation" is ON, then your Zen Cart will send a welcome email to that customer, along with a generated password for that account, and they will be able to log into that account for reviewing their purchases or to make new purchases. If the settings is OFF, then that welcome email is not sent, and the account is flagged as internal-only and no password is issued.
The account is necessary for the internal workings of the store, which is why a record is always created in the customers table regardless of whether "Automatic Account Creation" is turned on or off.

Hello DrByte,

Thank you very much for your reply, guess I misunderstand how the automatic account creation working, because the symptom is looks like a new account been automatically created, I search it through google and found there is a "automatic account creation" setting in Express Checkout, if it is the way v1.5.1 and paypal express checkout work, May I ask does V1.5.3 working in the same way, we are currently working a a responsive template and will use it for current store later.

I carefully checked all these automatic created account, and found that they all due to customer's paypal email address doesn't match the email they initially registered. fast and easy check out module allowed customer only use email and password to create a account, and they could filed all personal and shipping information later, I am not sure compare with original create account way, whether it good or not, but indeed some customers do not want use their paypal account email to register in a web store. even we put the "Automatic Account Creation" in Express Checkout on, there are will still created a new account for customer prefer using different email account, to be honest the way it work may not convenience for customer. we were use paypal stand payment for many years, that was no such setting. but sometimes which got duplicate orders. :blink:

I am curious there are enormous zen cart store use paypal express, why no one have similar issues like us? even paypal support team told me that
our case is rare to them. I am still thinking there are something wrong with our side or paypal's

Paypal express checkout is the only one payment method for our web store, if at the moment there no solution for such issue, Should I put a notice to customer that they have to use the paypal email to register account with us otherwise a new account will be created during checkout? that will sounds weird

Best Regards

mc12345678:

To tie back to the OP, the setting of auto-create an account doesn't work like described by the OP. Setting to true won't shortcut going through the checkout process, data that is needed for the store to process the purchase will still be collected. If you have something between the shopping cart page and checkout_payment that needs to be filled out which is bypassed by use of expres checkout with paypal express then two things, evaluate how badly you need that extra information (customers tend to prefer quick and easy checkout) and two if needed, then disable the express checkout portion, but would still recommend the auto-account creation...

Hi mc12345678,

Thank you for your comment, yes, I totally misunderstand how the auto create account work, it was just the symptom for our issue.

we understand quick and easy checkout is preferred by customers, however, what 's happened if customer prefer do not use paypal payer email to register with us? we selling girls clothing and a portion of customers use their boyfriend card or paypal account to make the payment, even their address are same, there are still a auto created account！ we have use zen cart for 8 years, and I have read lots of post from you and DrByte, I am really appreciate what you guys done for all of us. however, is there any way to get ride of things? let customer choose the email they want to register and separate the paypal payer's email with zencart account?

Best Regards

If the customer creates an account in your store before commencing PayPal Express checkout, Zen Cart is designed to use PayPal only for payment, and the rest of the transaction is placed inside that existing customer account. No new account is created in that situation.

Hello DrByte,

That is exactly same in our store, customer create account before using paypal checkout, (we do not have paypal express checkout button shown in product or shopping cart page), even before they add any information , the account just simply created by email and password only, which is fast and easy checkout do, and when they try to checkout from shopping cart, they have to provide all shipping data, on the check out page only paypal and west union option can be chosen, however, it's looks like when customer using paypal make the payment, and their paypal email not same as register email, after payment completed, a new account been created.

If this is not normal, guess something wrong with our code. May I ask where should I look at for the error? the paypal support team thought it is our zen cart store

allowed a new account been created during paypal page return to store.


Best Regards

I have no experience with Fast And Easy Checkout, other than I know it changes a LOT of what Zen Cart normally does. Perhaps it interferes with the way a normal Zen Cart and PayPal Express transaction are designed to behave.