Paypal refund stopped working

Hello
This isn't a rush but the paypal refund (and partial refund) quit working on my site. It worked on 11/14. Now, it kind of flashes and sits there. There are no errors in my logs. I turned on Paypal debug and no errors in the log files. I don't remember doing any changes to any files (but I would not swear to it in a court of law).

Since I can go to paypal to do the refund, there is a work-around.

But I do want to solve it....

So if anyone can point me at something to look at that I haven't already, thank you.

Zencart 1.5.4
php 5.4.45

alot of add-ons; non recent

Shipping modules: USPS, Zone rates

lruskauff:

So if anyone can point me at something to look at that I haven't already, thank you.

Is it possible that the PayPal TransactionID (or similar record) didn't get recorded into the ZenCart database? (I've seen this on several occasions with no rhyme or reason, but it's never bothered me as long as the money appears in our account)

No other ideas at the moment, but you really must avoid refunds. They tend to be bad for profitability. Give 'em a store credit instead <grin>

Cheers
RodG

lol. No, unfortunately, or fortunately, the money is still in my account.

Thanks for looking.

Turn on the PayPal debug, then you can see the transactions pertaining to the refund between your store and PayPal.

lat9:

Turn on the PayPal debug, then you can see the transactions pertaining to the refund between your store and PayPal.

Hmm, the Op turned on PayPal debug (post #1) - to no avail. Are the PP errors stored anywhere else but in the /logs folder?

They're not myDEBUG*.log files, but ones that start with Paypal*. For v1.5.4, the PayPal logs are present in the /logs folder.

Thanks but I didn't have zany of those either. Last night I tried again but on my iPad, and it worked. So now I'm stumped cause it failed on both chrome and Firefox (I had tried both to see if browser thing and I tried for 3 days ).

My next step is to try again on computer to see if it now works there but I have to find someone to send me $ first :). I guess I could take out of production to try.

lruskauff:

Thanks but I didn't have zany of those either. Last night I tried again but on my iPad, and it worked. So now I'm stumped cause it failed on both chrome and Firefox (I had tried both to see if browser thing and I tried for 3 days ).

My next step is to try again on computer to see if it now works there but I have to find someone to send me $ first :). I guess I could take out of production to try.

You could create a test product for $1 or $5 and then do a test order using a credit card which is not registered at PP as your business credit card. Then give yourself a partial or full refund which you initiate from admin.

Guess what, it works again. I did that Frank, and it is working. I hate problems like these, makes one doubt ones sanity.

lruskauff:

Guess what, it works again. I did that Frank, and it is working. I hate problems like these, makes one doubt ones sanity.

The question now, is it working only for your test purchase/refund or is it now also working for the refunds that you were originally having a problem with?

If it is working in all cases, then I'd be assuming the problem was with PayPal itself. Not even their software or servers are immune to bugs or problems.

I once had (well, still have) a client that used to think that occasional problems with his site (or server) shouldn't exist - even though he'd often go for months at a time without problem (and even then more often than not the problem was PayPal related). It was only after I started feeding him all the PayPal alerts that I received that he came to realise that they had more issues than he ever did. He now has a better appreciation of how reliable his store really was/is :)

My point, of course is that when it comes to PayPal related issues, 99.9% of the time the problem is at their end of things, so sometimes it's best to just wait it out rather than seeking the cause elsewhere.

Cheers
Rod.

BTW, you run an online store don't you? On that basis, even I will question your sanity (as I do my own)

lruskauff:

Guess what, it works again. I did that Frank, and it is working. I hate problems like these, makes one doubt ones sanity.

Interesting indeed.

Can you PM me a link to your test product and I test it by doing an order using my PP account.