Somewhat a Paypal problem

[JohnW]

Hi,

Okay, this one is a little unusual, I guess. It seems like I saw something similar posted somewhere but I can't find it.

Anyway, has anyone had the problem of a customer that pays with Paypal exiting after paying and not going to the confirmation screen?

I got the money but not the order, so I played with it and I'm looking for suggestions. Everything works but if the customer doesn't hit continue from the Paypal confirmation the order is lost. So, I'm interested in what others have done to notify the customer ahead of making that mistake?

John

[Manymanymunchkins]

I have a snapshot from around July 2002, but didn't encounter this problem until December. Just happened again today. Got a payment notification through paypal, no notice from my site, and NOTHING - no order in admin.

I would like to know what you did to handle the situation (if anything). I have a paypal payment now and no idea what they ordered! I sure don't want to have to email everybody who orders from me to repeat their order...

<--me after reading way too many posts

~MMM
http://happybabymoon.com

[Manymanymunchkins]

Okay, I found quite a bit about this on the oscommerce forums and here is a link to help out other noobs like myself

http://forums.oscommerce.com/viewtop...t=paypal+order

I will be adding the text *commanding* my patrons to click the continue button. LOL! But not tonight!

[kodersoftware]

So THAT'S what they're doing... a HA! well, thanks for saving me a crapload of trouble because I was going to start nosing around in the code looking for a bug. I do have a lil bit of information that *may* help a few soles who have a low volume site. If you have access to your database via phpMyAdmin, the mysql console, or through MySQL CC, and you know the customer's name (based on their paypal payment), you can trace their basket like this: find their customer info in the customer table, note the customers_id value. now SELECT * FROM customers_basket WHERE customers_id = 'whatever'. note the products_id for any rows that show up. now SELECT * FROM products_description WHERE products_ids = 'id1' OR products_id = 'id2' OR...

No, it might not work if you have a lot of traffic, or if they somehow deleted the items in their basket after they place the order, or probably a thousand other scenarios, but it worked for me 3 times. If I ever have time, I may write a contributeion for fishing this info out and making orders out of it, but that'll be another day.

[cfields]

You may also want to consider adding this in case they don't click continue on paypal site and return to your site to finish transaction


Just in case someone doesn't click continue to get back to your site
here is a mod to include into your PayPal module to you can see what the customer ordered on your PayPal payment notification (just in case they don't return to your site to complete the process and generate an invoice) -

BACK UP BACK UP BACK UP

change the following code:

function process_button() {
global $order, $currencies, $currency;

if (MODULE_PAYMENT_PAYPAL_CURRENCY == 'Selected Currency') {
$my_currency = $currency;
} else {
$my_currency = substr(MODULE_PAYMENT_PAYPAL_CURRENCY, 5);
}
if (!in_array($my_currency, array('CAD', 'EUR', 'GBP', 'JPY', 'USD'))) {
$my_currency = 'USD';
}
$xx = '';
for ($i=0; $i<sizeof($order->products); $i++) {
$xx .= $order->products[$i]['qty'] . '-' . ($order->products[$i]['name']) . '**';
}
$process_button_string = tep_draw_hidden_field('cmd', '_xclick') .
tep_draw_hidden_field('business', MODULE_PAYMENT_PAYPAL_ID) .
tep_draw_hidden_field('item_name', STORE_NAME . ' ' . $xx) .
tep_draw_hidden_field('amount', number_format(($order->info['total'] - $order->info['shipping_cost']) * $currencies->get_value($my_currency), $currencies->get_decimal_places($my_currency))) .
tep_draw_hidden_field('shipping', number_format($order->info['shipping_cost'] * $currencies->get_value($my_currency), $currencies->get_decimal_places($my_currency))) .
tep_draw_hidden_field('currency_code', $my_currency) .
tep_draw_hidden_field('return', tep_href_link(FILENAME_CHECKOUT_PROCESS, '', 'SSL')) .
tep_draw_hidden_field('cancel_return', tep_href_link(FILENAME_CHECKOUT_PAYMENT, '', 'SSL'));

return $process_button_string;
}


the above code snippet replaces the code snippet in the catalog/includes/modules/payment/paypal.php file

look for

function process_button() {

and then copy and paste and replace that section of code with the code above

[kodersoftware]

nice idea. i thought about doing that, but will that cause a product list to be shown on their bank statement or credit card statement? for my store, i wouldn't want any info about the order going into anything that would be on any kind of permanent record because we sell glass pipes, which some morons perceive to be drug paraphernalia (which is total crap unless razor blades and credit cards are too) =)

[cfields]

I'm not sure, but I think that sends the product info to you and them in the e-mail but not their bank account. I would try a test order with a secondary paypal account to be sure

[kodersoftware]

the newest release has paypal IPN support built in so that your server/site gets instantly notified to record the payment, even if they don't hit continue from paypal. that's what i'm using now at my site (www.moondreams.net) and it works well.

[fridgemags]

kodersoftware,

Not sure if you are aware but, I just visited your site and the header is pushing the content all the way to the right,

When I entered your site I thought there was nothing there and then noticed my horizontal scroll bar.

Just letting you know.

I use mozilla firefox for my browser.

[kodersoftware]

Originally Posted by fridgemags

Not sure if you are aware but, I just visited your site and the header is pushing the content all the way to the right,

ARG! Thanks for telling me - I hadn't tried testing in firefox. I probably have some extra stuff in my css sheet because i tried to do a table-less design, but ended up resorting mostly back to tables.

2004/11/17 - update: ok, i fixed it.