Is There A Way...

Hi,

I was wondering if there is a way to setup the PayPal Express Module to not automatically charge the customer’s credit card for their items. I need to be able to check availability on items before I can charge them.

Or, would I need to use a different payment module?

I do not believe tht PayPal provides for this type of transaction but you can check with them

we currently use paypal express checkout, and when a customer purchases, the funds are "authorized". when we have verified availability and confirmed shipping rates, we then "capture" the funds. Paypal actually allows you to capture up to 15% more than the original authorization amount.. (or less, if needed)

in zen cart admin, go to payment modules, paypal ec, and there is a "payment action" option that you can set to authorize only. this will still hold the customers funds, but you can capture less or more when you're ready. (be sure to read up on how long authorizations are good for, etc)

if you're not wanting them to not get any type of hold at all until you're ready, only thing i could suggest is having them checkout with the check/money order option then sending a paypal invoice manually after you get the totals?

What do you mean by "capture" the funds? Would the customer actually be charged for the ammount or would PayPal wait until I confirmed it?

not trying to intentionally pass the buck, but you'd probably want to check with PayPal for clarification on that. As far as I understand it, it is treated just like a credit card transaction that is "authorized". This means that they would secure the funds on your customers credit card, but not actually charge them. (sort of like when you get gas, they "authorize" a small charge to make sure your card is valid, then capture the full amount when you're done.. in the meantime the "small charge" isn't available to you, but it hasn't actually been "captured" yet)

However, since PayPal is in fact different from a cc processor, I could be misunderstanding this.

Alright thank you, I'm trying to look into that right now.

In general credit card providers will assume that you are doing your job of managing stock before you offer the goods for sale.

Nevertheless, if goods have to be ordered in, or go out of stock in fast moving environments, or need to be customised, then it is legitimate for orders to be placed for goods that won't be shipped immediately.

In many countries best practise (sometimes even required though not followed by all merchants) is to charge for the goods when they are shipped. Authorising a transaction for collection later is the normal way of doing this. It implicitly confirms that the transaction would have gone through, and puts a hold on the customer's funds until you are ready to "capture" them.

These holds roll off fairly quickly (typically in a range of 14 - 30 days) after which a new transaction would be needed. If a transaction isn't needed it can usually be cancelled or voided before then (check with Paypal about the specifics of their service in your region).

There is an alternative approach that just checks the legitimacy of the card by passing a small transaction that often doesn't actually hit the customer's card anyway. But I'd be surprised if Paypal offer that. That's more likely to be used by a large retailer who has the infrastructure to store card details and go back to pass a fresh transaction when they are ready to ship, and of course has the drawback that there's no guarantee that the funds will actually be there.