Auto returns with PayPal??

[PA.com]

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone here uses PayPal with the Auto-Return feature switched on. Are there any particular gremlins anybody has found with this, or any issues with IPN or PDT to worry about?
Am I correct in thinking that the return URL to specify would be

http://www.mysite.com/acatalog/order4.html,

or would it be something like

http://www.mysite.com/cgi-bin/os000001.pl?

I was wondering specifically if Auto-Return might solve the following problem:
I'm finding that at the moment, if customers without a PayPal account opt to 'Save My Info' in PayPal after completing their transaction, when they get offered the chance to return to my site they are sent to the home page and not the receipt page, and hence don't get their digital downloads. Doh!
In other circumstances the 'Return to Merchant' button returns to the receipt page like it should, just not after 'Save my Info'. Is this a job for Auto-Return?!

Any replies greatly appreciated,

Paul

[TraceyG]

Hi Paul,

http://www.mysite.com/cgi-bin/os000001.pl?

The returning URL would definitely be to the os script but there will be other paramaters included with it so it knows which stage of the checkout process it is at. We have had some issues with customers using IPN with Paypal, so could you try switching this feature off to see if that is causing the problem.

Actinic automatically sends the return URL across to PayPal so if this is being stripped out to just leave the main URL of the site (ie to return you to the home page), then you need to contact PayPal to find out why that is happening.

I'm finding that at the moment, if customers without a PayPal account opt to 'Save My Info' in PayPal after completing their transaction,

Is it only happening for these customers? If so then it may be something to do with the 'Save My Info' feature within PayPal.

[PA.com]

Hi Tracey,

Thank you very much for your reply. I do currently have IPN running with Paypal, and 99% of the time this works perfectly well, i.e. the customer makes a purchase, goes through PayPal and clicks 'Return to Merchant' and they are brought safely back to the receipt page with details of what they have bought and which files to download.

It is only when they choose the 'Save My Info' in PayPal before returning to my site that the problems occur. The customer does indeed save his/her info (credit card number etc.) and set up a PayPal account, but at the end of this, when they have to click 'Return to Merchant', it deposits them at my home page and they don't get their receipt. Hmmm...

The active text on my OCC_PayPal template looks like this:

<FORM NAME="formOCC" METHOD=POST ACTION="NETQUOTEVAR:OCC_URL">
NETQUOTEVAR:OCC_VALUES
<P>
<input type="hidden" name="rm" value="2">
</FORM>
<FORM METHOD=POST ACTION="NETQUOTEVAR:OCC_URL">

I guess I could add a return URL to this text and see if that gets round the 'Save My Info' problem, the trouble is I don't know how the return URL should look. Perhaps all I can do is warn my customers not to create the PayPal account!

Paul

[TraceyG]

Hi,

I've asked our development team if we can do anything about this. I will post back as soon as I hear from them.

[TraceyG]

Hi,

Can you check with Paypal whether they set the return URL if a customer chooses to save their details please. We already pass the return URL across which is why it works for the majority of your customers but something is happening to change this link when a customer saves their details.

[PA.com]

Hi Tracey,

I'll send off an email to PayPal this afternoon to see if they can explain why this is happening. If and when I get a reply I'll post back on this thread.

Thanks

Paul

[Guidepost]

Hi Tracey,

You said

"The returning URL would definitely be to the os script but there will be other paramaters included with it so it knows which stage of the checkout process it is at."

Are you able to tell me what these parameters are? I need to enable the Auto-return feature on order to track affiliate sales correctly.

Thanks,

Rosalyn

[TraceyG]

Hi Rosalyn,

Do you have to enter a static return URL into the 'Auto Return' feature? Is there any other information that it requires? I'm not sure that we can support this feature but if you can give me a bit more information about it I will find out for you.

[TraceyG]

Hi Rosalyn,

If the Auto-Return feature of Paypal requires a static URL then I'm afraid that this will not work with Actinic. The link that Actinic returns to must also contain the Order Number. This is generated at the time the customer places the order and is passed over to the payment service provider to use within the return URL. Maybe you could ask Paypal to allow their Auto-Return feature to pick up this information from what Actinic passes them.

[Kermy]

I know this is an old post, but did anyone come up with a solution?

[Bruce]

The solution there is to leave the IPN value blank and Actinic will create the return URL.