Anyway to track why customer cards are being declined?

ver 1.3.8a

Anyway to track credit card declines, that are NOT going outside the shopping cart? IN other words something in the shopping cart is preventing the sale from even communicating with the credit card gateway. ANyway to track this "sale failure"?

For example this happened recently because I was using a Coupon Code from the Coupon Code plugin. Today it happened NOT using a coupon code. Hence, I don't know yet was is causing credit card orders to fail.

What CC module are you using? Generally, you'll have a control panel with your CC provider that can answer these questions.

With most of the payment modules, there is a debug mode that will dump all kinds of information out to a file. That could be helpful to you.

You might also try looking through your server logs. A lot of times you can detect errors from looking at what the visitor accessed when they encountered the error.

Hope that helps.

stevesh:

What CC module are you using? Generally, you'll have a control panel with your CC provider that can answer these questions.

These would be declines that never get to the gateway. An error that occured on the web site

Are you talking about a hypothetical situation? Or are you able to replicate the problem on demand consistently?
If so, what exactly is the error message you're getting?

peytonrm:

With most of the payment modules, there is a debug mode that will dump all kinds of information out to a file. That could be helpful to you.

You might also try looking through your server logs. A lot of times you can detect errors from looking at what the visitor accessed when they encountered the error.

Hope that helps.

Thanks. Good point. I checked the mod settign, but no debug or trouble shooting mode for Linkpoint Mod. But, I will also check the server logs.

DrByte:

Are you talking about a hypothetical situation? Or are you able to replicate the problem on demand consistently?
If so, what exactly is the error message you're getting?

For example, I had two transactions recently that were denied. BUT, my gateway (linkpoint) had no transaction record, so I knew it was not the gateway itself. One was due to the Coupon Mod I was using , apparently that caused a strange error and failure. Then today the customer tried to use a credit card I did nto accept (Amex) and it declined. In BOTH cases no specific error was displayed. So, I am looking for a way to track "internal" transaction history for "internal" failures. i.e. never get out to the gateway. So, I won't have to go into "Scramble mode" trying to troubleshoot without any data to follow everytime an internal function/feature causes transactions to fail. . One idea mentioned above was to look at the server logs.

I checked to see if Linkpoint Mod had any tracking or debug tool but it does not.

Hi Kevin,

The Issue that you had here was you had a credit card type turned on in ZC that you do not accept at the gateway,

The transactions did indeed talk to the gateway
this can be determined by the Approved transaction ( third attempt ) where they actually used a card that you accept at the gateway.

Sorry for the inconvenience, I guess the reply tht we gave you in the local ticket system must have crossed with this post.

Im hoping that you are able to get the ticket replies now that I corrected the spelling in the email address

Should you have any further questions please feel free the expand on the ticket you currently have open

Merlinpa1969:

Hi Kevin,

The Issue that you had here was you had a credit card type turned on in ZC that you do not accept at the gateway,

The transactions did indeed talk to the gateway
this can be determined by the Approved transaction ( third attempt ) where they actually used a card that you accept at the gateway.

Sorry for the inconvenience, I guess the reply tht we gave you in the local ticket system must have crossed with this post.

Im hoping that you are able to get the ticket replies now that I corrected the spelling in the email address

Should you have any further questions please feel free the expand on the ticket you currently have open

Linkpoint has no record of a declined transaction so it never made it to the gateway, i.e. linkpoint. The gateway mod yes, but not the gateway itself. But , what I am really looking for is a way to track these "internal" declines. Do I have access to server logs?
I had a similar situation last week, a decline but never reached the gateway provider. If i had a way to see the errors being produced (just like the info you sent me last week that had the info I needed to see it was the Coupon Mod causing the problem).

P.S. I am not sayingthis is anyine's fault, and oyu provided good service. I am just looking for a way to get the same info you have to see these errors.

Hi Kevin,

Linkpoint wouldnt have a record of the decline cause there was technically no transaction

You can look for these in the linkpoint table in the DB

you will see the following

(xxx, 'xxx', 'xxxxxxx', xxx, '', 'SGS-005002: The merchant is not setup to support the requested service.

This is confirmation that it did indeed reach the gateway and that the gateway responded...

I agree that a quick mod to be able to search the transaction status on an order like this would be quite handy,

and I know you were not saying anything was anyones fault

I just wanted to make sure that you got the information since you were not able to get the ticket replies

Thanks I did find the CC Logs.
P.S. I didn;t see the Amex setting in Payment Mod?

When using the LInkpoint module, if the transaction is being declined, either by Zen Cart or by Linkpoint, you'll see it in the Admin->Customers->Credit Card Review screen.

Unfortunately, invalid coupon codes are not logged, as that's handled by a completely different part of the software. I'm not sure how you think a coupon code is related to a credit card decline though.

As Merlin has stated, if you've got certain cards disabled in your Zen Cart settings, then Zen Cart is going to reject the card before it even hits the gateway. This saves you on service charges. Admin->Configuration->Credit Cards

DrByte:

When using the LInkpoint module, if the transaction is being declined, either by Zen Cart or by Linkpoint, you'll see it in the Admin->Customers->Credit Card Review screen.

Unfortunately, invalid coupon codes are not logged, as that's handled by a completely different part of the software. I'm not sure how you think a coupon code is related to a credit card decline though.

As Merlin has stated, if you've got certain cards disabled in your Zen Cart settings, then Zen Cart is going to reject the card before it even hits the gateway. This saves you on service charges. Admin->Configuration->Credit Cards

No, no. I never said they were related. I was just using that experiece as an example. My point was when there is "credit card" decline error (which also happened due ot the Coupon Code Mod) , how can I track the error? Where/how can I get more specific info on ANY credit card decline, no matter what the cause. Such as server logs, etc.

But, as you mentioned I found the info for BOTH of these errors are in the CC Review logs. For the Coupon Code problem the error the log reported was :
"SGS-002301: Charge total must be the sum of subtotal, tax, value added tax, and shipping."..

My hosting service provided me this same info last week. (I just now realized I can also get it in Admin/CC Review). It didn't tell me specifically it was the coupon code but it gave me enough information and process of elimination (and recreating problem with my own test) that the coupon code mod was causing this error. Once I had customer Re-do transaction without the code it worked fine

Do you have this latest bugfix installed? http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showpost.php?p=563490&postcount=22 (assuming you're using v1.3.8a)