New customers - no Gender, Telephone # or Date of Birth info stored

[wonged]

Today I had a new customer register, and from the Customers Admin, I decided to look at his customer info, and just as with the last customer who registered on 2/13/2017, this customer had no Gender, Telephone # or Date of Birth info in those fields ... they were blank !! So I went to the storefront and tried to register a "dummy customer" leaving those fields blank, and was told those are Required Fields, so I suspected those customers did fill-in those fields !!

So I did some more digging, looking into the customers that have registered in past few months:
4 others that registered this month did NOT have this problem, but 1 in early February did.
4 of them that registered in October 2016 also had this problem ... yet 3 of them actually were able to make purchases !!
What I see common to all 7 of these customers missing this info is that in the CUSTOMERS table in the DB, they have hashed(?)-entries for 'customers_paypal_payerid', and none of the other nearly 300 customers have anything in this field !! Below is a snippet from my CUSTOMERS table, after I sorted by customers_paypal_payerid. You can see that the 7 customers I refer to above have entries in this field, but none of the other do.



But when I search the zen-cart PHP files for the 'customers_paypal_payerid' term, the only file I find it being used is the 'paypalwpp.php' payment module. There is code there that updates the CUSTOMERS table, but only with gender and telephone # ... no change for Date of Birth field.
So I am befuddled.

Background:
storefront is at
https://www.gottahaveitnwi.com/shop/...ain_page=index
though I don't think that will help with seeing the problem ?

in July 2016, I upgraded the store to v 1.5.5a
in December, I separately applied the upgrades for 1.5.5b, then 1.5.5c, and then 1.5.5d,
Since I was already getting this problem in October (but didn't know it) it appears NOT to be related to the upgrades ?

And because of problems fulfilling orders, in late November until early January, I put the store into showcase mode (no new customers could register), until I got a handle on my inventory. Since 1/8/2017 the store has been back to normal operations, thus the new customers in February.

I hope I gave enough information and that someone can help me figure this out ?

[DrByte]

Those customers have registered to your store by commencing a purchase using PayPal.
Unfortunately PayPal doesn't share those personal details with your store, so those fields are left blank.

[wonged]

Those customers have registered to your store by commencing a purchase using PayPal.
Unfortunately PayPal doesn't share those personal details with your store, so those fields are left blank.

OK, I see that the last two customers did put a product in their basket, but neither bought it. Two questions ...
1) are you saying they probably used PayPal Express but didn't buy ?
2) I can understand that PayPal doesn't share the Gender, Tel # and DoB info, but why are they now blanked-out by the PayPal interaction ? As I mentioned above, the 'paypalwpp.php' payment module updates the CUSTOMERS table, but only with gender and telephone # ... no change for Date of Birth field. So not sure where the DoB field is changed.

Still seems like a bug to me, that a customer can start a PayPal transaction, and that causes info that they entered at Registration to be deleted !?!?

[wonged]

Still seems like a bug to me, that a customer can start a PayPal transaction, and that causes info that they entered at Registration to be deleted !?!?

OK, I think I understand what you are trying to tell me ... the new customers put something in their baskets; then went to checkout, and rather than registering through the web store, they clicked the Paypal Express button, and their customer profile was filled-out from there ? Since PayPal doesn't return those 3 pieces of info, then those 3 fields are left blank. Do I have that right ?

If so I may have to consider turning-off PayPal Express

[wonged]

OK, I think I understand what you are trying to tell me ... the new customers put something in their baskets; then went to checkout, and rather than registering through the web store, they clicked the Paypal Express button, and their customer profile was filled-out from there ? Since PayPal doesn't return those 3 pieces of info, then those 3 fields are left blank. Do I have that right ?

If so I may have to consider turning-off PayPal Express

One more follow-up ... Does PayPal Payments Pro have the same behavior ? I want to go back to the "old way" where when a customer clicks Checkout, it makes them register through the store so I can collect the DoB. Required to prove they are 18 and older. Thanks.

[mc12345678]

There is an option for PayPal express to allow the express checkout on the shopping cart and "login" pages. You can disable that option within modules->payment->paypal express. Your customer would then be directed through the standard login process that you have in place on your store.

Regarding your recent understanding, I would say that yes, you have come to the correct conclusions.

[wonged]

I am looking at / editing my Payment Modules -> PayPal Express Checkout, but it's not obvious to me which option I should change.
My current configuration is ...

Enable this Payment Module
True

Payment Zone
--none--

Express Checkout Shortcut Button
On

Express Checkout: Require Confirmed Address
Yes

Express Checkout: Select Cheapest Shipping Automatically
Yes

Express Checkout: Skip Payment Page
Yes

Express Checkout: Automatic Account Creation
Yes

Payment Action
Final Sale

Which one should I change ? My guess would be ... Express Checkout: Automatic Account Creation = No ?
Thanks !!

[mc12345678]

Wrong guess, try again. :)

It would be: Express Checkout Shortcut Button

Which has a description of: The Express Checkout Shortcut button shows up on your shopping cart page to invite your customers to pay using PayPal without having to give all their address details on your site first before selecting shipping options.
It has been shown to increase sales and conversions when enabled.
Default: On


If you modified the setting suggested (having the following description):
If a visitor is not an existing customer, a Zen Cart account is created for them. Would you like make it a permanent account and send them an email containing their login information?
NOTE: Permanent accounts are auto-created if the customer purchases downloads or gift certificates, regardless of this setting.

Then you would basically not have the customer data at all when using PayPal express as no record would be created (unless downloadable product or gift certificates were purchased).