This week a customer in Canada called to complain about an order he placed using his PayPal account, through our PayPal Checkout v2 integration.

The order was authorized for $205.35, but before we captured it the customer called to change to a lower-cost shipping method - so we manually edited the order, pasting in a reduced $37.25 UPS shipping cost we found in Shipstation (not using the shipping Calculate button), and captured only $156.25 using the Inform PayPal button on the cart Order page.

Today the customer noticed that PayPal charged him the original authorized amount of $205.35, and not the expected $156.25 we captured in the Cart.

We logged into PayPal and verified that the original authorized amount of $205.35 was charged and credited to us, and not the expected lower amount.

Screen shots from our Cart page and PayPal payment page are below.

When we contacted PayPal Merchant Technical support, they shared the transaction log (below) showing that the Cart communicated the unexpected higher capture amount of $205.35.

Is it possible that our user error might be the cause?

If so, can anyone suggest a way to handle a reduced capture amount so that these errors don't reoccur?

Thanks in advance for any help with this.

"purchase_units": [
{
"amount": {
"breakdown": {

"item_total": {
"currency_code": "USD",
"value": "119.00"
},
"shipping": {
"currency_code": "USD",
"value": "86.35"
},
"tax_total": {
"currency_code": "USD",
"value": "0.00"
}
},
"currency_code": "USD",
"value": "205.35"

Hi Paul
I presume you didn't enter an amount when you captured the order in the ECT Admin -> Orders page, no? Unfortunately that will Capture the amount that was originally authorized as by default in the orders page the actual order amount is only a "placeholder". I've changed now so the value itself is set there and will get the change into the updater, but as a workaround if you actually enter the amount when you capture if the order has been edited that should sort this out.
Sorry for the problems but thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Vince

Click Here for Shopping Cart Software
Click Here to sign up for our newsletter
Click Here for the latest updater

To clarify, am I right that we need to copy-and-paste any changed order total into this Capture Amount box?



The repercussions have been challenging, BTW.

We found 22 orders overcharged since switching to PayPal v2 two months ago, and as a result have now sent $1,171.49 in refunds. This will create some bookkeeping challenges.

We also found 14 orders that were undercharged, but that money is long gone.

It's unfortunate that no buyer complained sooner – likely because most of the overcharged customers are overseas.

On the plus side, we were able to issue those 22 refunds before seeing any chargebacks. I imagine that a dozen or more simultaneous disputes would have gotten us into serious trouble with PayPal.

Note that very few carts will have this issue.

It applies only to those with the PayPal v2 integration and the Transaction Type set to Authorization, on orders where the order total is changed before capture.

Hi Paul

quote:

---

To clarify, am I right that we need to copy-and-paste any changed order total into this Capture Amount box?

---

Yes, that's right but the changes are in the updater so if you want to get a new copy of the incorders.php page then that will happen automatically from now on.

quote:

---

We found 22 orders overcharged since switching to PayPal v2 two months ago, and as a result have now sent $1,171.49 in refunds. This will create some bookkeeping challenges.

We also found 14 orders that were undercharged, but that money is long gone.

---

I'm very sorry to hear that.

Vince

Click Here for Shopping Cart Software
Click Here to sign up for our newsletter
Click Here for the latest updater

Vince, it's understood what an astoundingly difficult job it is to keep a shopping cart application secure... let alone to develop the new features needed to attract customers.

Ecommerce Templates is the best cart we've found, by far.

And, we really appreciate that fast fix that you've provided.

After uploading the new incorders.php we verified that our unusual use case now works as expected.

FYI, below is a portion of that test Orders page, and part of the odd-looking PayPal payment screen that resulted from an $11.80 test order being authorized, and the pricing arbitrarily changed to $1.07 before capture.

We spare no expense with our test orders.



Again, that fix is much appreciated.

quote:

---

Vince, it's understood what an astoundingly difficult job it is to keep a shopping cart application secure... let alone to develop the new features needed to attract customers.

Ecommerce Templates is the best cart we've found, by far.

And, we really appreciate that fast fix that you've provided.

---

Thanks for saying this Paul and I really appreciate your understanding on this matter. My apologies again but I'm glad it all seems good now.

Vince

Click Here for Shopping Cart Software
Click Here to sign up for our newsletter
Click Here for the latest updater