Using Paypal express checkout issue...

latest version of zencart

Well, I installed the paypal express checkout after being advised that the IPN side will be adding new dns etc, and others saying that IPN is antiquated.

Now here's the scenario that arose today.

I tested the new express checkout with two existing clients, one in the U.S. and one in Canada as those are the only two countries I ship to.
First client (u.s.) dummy order went fine..refunded money. All's good right?

Not so fast..Client in Canada places small test order, and gets this at the top of the zencart page as per her email to me:

I just tried to place an order with you, paying vai Paypal. My addresses have not changed, billing OR## ship to. Here is what I get:
A long RED bar along the top of your site, there is a yeloow triangle with an "!" inside and it says : the address you selected at paypal is not a confirmed address. Please return to paypal and select or add a confirmed address and try again.

So I go check out her customer info and see that her main address is more than likely the same as her "confirmed" shipping address with paypal, but the place she is shipping it to is not the same address, it's her place of business..ok...

So I call paypal and tell them the issue and is there a workaround to allow my clients to use an alternate shipping address in Express Checkout like it works in the old IPN checkout..
The tech explains that NO, it doesn't work that way and that the client indeed has to have the main confirmed shipping address chosen in zencart in order to process the order.

This is not good for me as some of my customers do not always have their purchases sent to their homes, sometimes the send gifts to friends, sometimes they send items to their work, etc.

Is there no workaround for this? or am I going to have to stay with the old paypal IPN?

Change your Express payment module setting.

Change: Express Checkout: Require Confirmed Address from Yes to No.

SweetEmotions:

Change your Express payment module setting.

Change: Express Checkout: Require Confirmed Address from Yes to No.

It was already set as such

any other ideas please?

I am going back to IPN until someone has a conclusive answer to this issue. And YES I did have Express Checkout: Require Confirmed Address set to NO.

The bottom line is:
If paypal only takes the confirmed mailing address in the cart, and not the "ship to" address this negates any orders that may be gifts or being sent to a workplace/etc. I have alot of customers that I truly trust to always have their orders sent to their homes but also to friends, family members and their workplaces.

Your "bottom line" statement is understood, and indeed Zen Cart does not impose that limitation, and PayPal doesn't normally pose that limitation either unless you don't want to give up your seller-protection for the transaction. ie: if the destination address isn't a paypal-confirmed address, then paypal won't protect you as the seller if there is any dispute in the transaction ... doesn't matter whether it's express or IPN used to do it.

I'd like to see your store's PayPal logs from that attempted transaction. Those should tell some information about what Zen Cart received from PayPal about that customer's status, address info, and seller protection eligibility, etc. If there's anything we can fix on the ZC side, we'll need the logs in order to know.
I've attempted to replicate the problem but can't, so I must be missing something, and hopefully the logs will give clues.

Granted, if you didn't have the debug logging enabled then there won't be any logs. http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61199

DrByte:

Your "bottom line" statement is understood, and indeed Zen Cart does not impose that limitation, and PayPal doesn't normally pose that limitation either unless you don't want to give up your seller-protection for the transaction. ie: if the destination address isn't a paypal-confirmed address, then paypal won't protect you as the seller if there is any dispute in the transaction ... doesn't matter whether it's express or IPN used to do it.

I'd like to see your store's PayPal logs from that attempted transaction. Those should tell some information about what Zen Cart received from PayPal about that customer's status, address info, and seller protection eligibility, etc. If there's anything we can fix on the ZC side, we'll need the logs in order to know.
I've attempted to replicate the problem but can't, so I must be missing something, and hopefully the logs will give clues.

Granted, if you didn't have the debug logging enabled then there won't be any logs. http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61199

Yes, the logging wasn't on during the tests unfortunately, but the conversation with paypal clearly leads one to believe that if the PP express checkout is consistantly going to loop back a non confirmed "shipping address" back to your site until the client has that address set as the same as their correct pp address, then I am at a loss. IPN does not perform that way and will allow the customer to use an alternate shipping address. As long as IPN is effective then it is indeed not antiquated for some peoples purposes.

As you wish. Evidently you haven't run into "lost orders" by using the IPN module. Good luck.

DrByte:

As you wish. Evidently you haven't run into "lost orders" by using the IPN module. Good luck.

Not in the over 8 yrs I've been using Zencart and paypal IPN. But, again there is the "lost orders" modules for just such a problem right? :)

Hi,

I was reading this post before upgrading to Paypal Express (I am currently using Website Payments Standard) and it caught my attention with the "confirmed address" not allowing a customer's payment because the addresses didn't match.

I sell downloadable products, and with a fair number of customers they provide simple "123 anytown" addresses. As there is no physical shipping this is not a problem for me in their account. Will this cause me problems with payment if I change to Paypal Express?

Jeff

NWCE:

Hi,

I was reading this post before upgrading to Paypal Express (I am currently using Website Payments Standard) and it caught my attention with the "confirmed address" not allowing a customer's payment because the addresses didn't match.

I sell downloadable products, and with a fair number of customers they provide simple "123 anytown" addresses. As there is no physical shipping this is not a problem for me in their account. Will this cause me problems with payment if I change to Paypal Express?

Jeff

Jeff: It has been my experience through testing that Paypal will not accept an address that is not a "confirmed" address when using express checkout as opposed to the IPN standard version. And, I have actually spoken to the powers that be at paypal that have confirmed that for me. In any case, they explain the reason for this is strictly for security reasons which I understand, but it does cause a huge problem for me when I need alternate shipping addresses to be used for whatever reason.

After having several lost orders using Paypal Standard lately, I have switched to Paypal Express over the weekend. Have had 2 successful orders come in through so it seems to be working ok. I also sell downloadable products, "Require confirmed address" is set to NO.

Just today I got an email from paypal saying that my IPN were failing and if this continues they will disable IPN on my account.

Have checked my recover cart sales, no abandoned cart, no errors in my debugging log. So I'm wondering if this was referring to the lost orders previously or is this related to my switching over to Paypal Express?

Thank you Wondergirl and Sunflowertami for your input into this. As I have not had any significant problems in the past 6 yrs with using Paypal standard, like you Wondergirl, I think I will stay put with it.

It seems that the problems associated with our particular situations it is best to remain with Paypal Standard.

Thank you both for your responses,

Jeff

Hey Jeff,

A question about downloadable products with the regular Paypal IPN:
I'm getting ready to sell my first downloadable product.

The reason I started checking out Paypal Express is because I noticed with the IPN, the customer has to click on Return to Website at the end in order to see the download button. I was afraid they would miss it.

PP Express does not need this.

So I was wondering how you handle this with your downloadable products if you're using the standard IPN. Do you find the customers miss seeing this link and then never see the download page?

--Susie

Hi,

One more comment about PP Express.

I put in a test order. I was NOT logged into ZenCart.

On the Shopping Cart page I saw two buttons: the regular Checkout and then Checkout with Paypal at the bottom.

I noticed that if I click on the regular checkout button, I get to the PP page that has the login fields and the very hard to find 'or put in your credit card without logging in.'

BUT if I click on the Checkout with Paypal button it takes me to a PP screen with fields to fill out for my address and my credit card number on the left and a PP login box on the right.

This is something I've been wishing PP had for years: a way to enter CC info in without having to click on "or enter your cc number."

So I think this solves my problem. I have a feeling that 99% of my customers will just enter their CC number on the PP screen and not log in.

And 99% will also not log in on the ZenCart side since this is a one-time sale; not a repeat sale.

Since they haven't logged into ZenCart, PP has no address to compare with. So I assume the problem with the confirmed address goes away.

I'm going to try to tweak the page so that the normal Checkout button isn't there, and the PP checkout button just says Checkout.

susb8383:

I noticed that if I click on the regular checkout button, I get to the PP page that has the login fields and the very hard to find 'or put in your credit card without logging in.'
...
This is something I've been wishing PP had for years: a way to enter CC info in without having to click on "or enter your cc number."
Um ... you're making assumptions that your customers are seeing what you are seeing.
Your customers will ONLY see the PayPal "login" fields IF they have actually ever logged into PayPal from that browser on that computer in the past. If they've never used PayPal before, or never created a PayPal account on that computer, then the PayPal cookie won't be set, and thus they'll see the full "credit card" screen instead.
You can test this by clearing all your browser cache and cookies, and then doing a transaction fresh.
More detail in this FAQ article: https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=29

Now ... this thread is discussing a particular concern related to EC and confirmed addresses. If possible, can we keep other discussions separated into other threads instead?

DrByte:

Now ... this thread is discussing a particular concern related to EC and confirmed addresses. If possible, can we keep other discussions separated into other threads instead?

Well DrByte, I do think my comment is applicable to the original topic. The comments above were about 'should I use Express or go back to IPN based on the problem of the address not being verified.'

My point is that if the person doesn't log into ZenCart or Paypal, there's no address check so the problem goes away.

Relevant, IMHO.

Lest we take it even further off topic, you'll note that I was addressing your 2nd reply, which was talking about PayPal login screens.

Hi Susie,

In response to your first question about the customer not seeing the "return to website" I find that I do not have a problem with this. When they are automatically returned to our website, it also tells them (in highlighted text) how to access their downloads. I do not find this a problem.

If you're customer is not logging in and making an account in your Zencart Store then I am guessing that using Paypal Express will not be a problem for you, as Paypal has nothing to compare it to. My customers have to log in at our store to purchase, which also helps us for marketing etc as we are a repeat sales style of business.

Hope this helps,

Jeff

NWCE:

When they are automatically returned to our website, it also tells them (in highlighted text) how to access their downloads.

Hi Jeff,

Not following. I thought you said you were returning to using the IPN instead of Express. Doesn't that mean that they are NOT automatically returned to your website? (That's the whole reason I switched to Express; so that they would be).

Thanks, Susie