Testing Protx - will this mean I can't receive orders

[PA.com]

I am hoping to shortly set Protx up as my new PSP (VSP Form), in conjunction with a merchant account from HSBC.

On the Protx/Actinic integration pages, they suggest testing the payment system before going live, and while this seems logical I can also see possible problems with this. My current Advanced Network settings are obviously set up to detect my current web-hosters. As soon as I change these settings to that of a test server (which I shall set up on my machine), will Actinic lose all contact with the live site, and hence no orders or emails will be received during the testing procedure?
The other problem with this is that my site is approaching 3Gb of data, and transferring this amount of data over to a test server could take a whole load of time.

The alternative is, I imagine, to simply set Protx up on the live site, and announce on the website that no payments can be made for perhaps a couple of days while I ensure Protx is working properly. I would actually prefer to do this, but I'm not sure if this is possible.

I would appreciate any advice from anyone who has introduced a new PSP while their site is already functioning live. What are the best procedures to follow?

Thanks,

Paul Gardner
www.piano-accompaniments.com

[Sally Dickson]

it won't take you a couple of days..

I had a similar experience recently when I added Paypal to my site.

I added the payments details, uploaded it to the live site, and then ran three orders, checked they worked, and there we were live.

Just bite the bullet!

[wjcampbe]

When you have PROTX in test mode, any visitor attempting to pay by PROTX would be informed that PROTX is in test mode and no actual money would be deducted from their card number. Most would go back and choose an alternate payment method.

If they do not, you would need to telephone them and explain they had not processed an order and either process them off-line or invite them to redo their order using an alternate payment method.

As Sally says, PROTX are usually happy to go live after only three or so 'test' orders (usually including at least one refund and/or a manual transaction).

You should be able to put PROTX test online, do your test transactions in about half an hour, switch PROTX off again, with no problem.

Then send your go-live request to PROTX and be online with PROTX live, the very next day.

[PA.com]

Thanks guys, sounds like it won't be as problematic as I first anticipated!

Paul

[TraceyHand]

I'd be inclined to change the wording where customers choose their payment method to something indicating that it is a test method only. That, coupled with placing it at the bottom of the choice list, should deter folk from selecting it at all...
I'm assuming you don't have a current PSP to use meantime? You could always temporarily place the java encryption as first choice and collect the details that way to process them through the virtual terminal when your account is live again?

[Jan]

When I added protx to my website, I tested it first by adding it and changing the name of the payment method to Internal - Do not use, leaving the old one in place until it was live. This seemed to work fine.

Regards,

[chris ashdown]

When Protx say test the site they mean the protx settings not change the Actinic site to Test mode, you do not have to change your network settings