Paypal 'return to merchant' confirmation and receipt

[feemish]

Hi All,

V7.0.3

Something at Paypal has changed recently I think... on Tuesday 26th June.

Up until then, on the paypal confirmation page, there was a 'return to merchant' button.
Clicking this sent the customer to my actinic receipt page, which triggered an email, and also provided google with the data for my conversion tracking.

However since Tuesday 26th i havent received a single confirmation email or any conversion tracking data. It was working fine till then, and no changes were made to my site.

I went to paypal and made a test purchase on my site, at the end of the process i noticed there was no longer the 'return to merchant' button, but a 'return to arka' button ( my site) The design of this page was also different.
Anyway, clicking this button, did not take me back to the recipt page !! It took me back to my site, but to a regular catalogue page !!

Something has definately gone wrong with the Paypal-Actinic integration, probably due to the re-design of the page by paypal.

I have raised a ticket with Paypal Technical support, I'll report back later.

Has anyone elso seen this... maybe if we all raise the issue with paypal they may repair the changes they have made.

Mark

http://www.arka-shop.co.uk

[pinbrook]

Other have been talking about the lack of Paypal emails in this thread

http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=30987

this is V8 but i wonder if the common thing here is the loss of "Return to Merchant Site"

[feemish]

Hi Jo,

Yes, I saw that. Its possible that the problem isnt v8 at all, just a coincidence.
The paypal confirmation page has definately changed very recently. That coincided with my loss of confirmation email and adwords tracking... and as I say, I'm still on V7.0.3 with no recent changes.

Regards,
Mark

http://www.arka-shop.co.uk

[leehack]

Hmmm, maybe it's Paypal then and not actinic after all.

[Darren B]

Sound like a bit more work need to find the cause, maybe a comment from actinic on this and perhaps they can take a look for us aswell

D

[Bruce]

I am checking this for you.

Kind regards,

[feemish]

thanks Bruce, as paypal are not being very helpful at the moment.
Mark

http://www.arka-shop.co.uk

[feemish]

Hi,
Hhmm,
Paypal denying all responsibility.
But I'm not sure.

As i say, for over a year this has been working fine. The 'return to merchant' button used to forward people to my receipt page, where it would trigger the receipt email and update my google conversion data. (My conversion code is and always has been in 'Act_receiptprimary.html'
This all stopped working last tuesday, when i noticed paypals pages had changed. Coincidence or not??

The paypal guy is saying my code is corrupted...?

I dont know what code might be corrupted.
As far as i remember when i set this up, all the return URL data was contained in the paypal integration. I didnt really do anything, just chose the paypal option in actinic and it all worked fine. I've never specified a return URL... thats donre in the integration.. no?

As far as I'm aware, as nothing has changed my end, the problem is that the paypal confirmation page is no longer returning people to my receipt page... thats it.

Any advice ?, Clues ?

Best regards,
Mark

These are the paypal replies

I have just made a test payment using the "return" variable and I did return to the specified URL.

Please review the code to make sure you're using the right value of return url.

The solution you are refering to is not offered by PayPal. Please contact the developers of this 3rd Party Solution to resolve the problem, alternatively you may visit their forum and refer to the documentation provided.

The text on the Return to merchant button may be customized by using the "cbt" variable (which is probably used by your 3rd Party Shopping Cart as well as the "return" variable). I have created the payment button using the "return" and I provided the url to the Thank you page - for your information it does not matter what was my return URL specified, the fact is that I was redirected to the specified return page http://myhomepagerandomaddress.com/thankyou.html

Looks like your code is corrupted. Please re-install the script, contact the provider of that solution to enquire what may be the reason of this behavior.

This is not a problem on our end.

[feemish]

By the way.
on my paypal account, auto return is off as paypal account is optional.
so i dont specify a return url at my paypal account.
Thanks,
Mark

http://www.arka-shop.co.uk

[Bruce]

In that case you will be best assigning one.. check the bottom of http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=30200

Kind regards,

[feemish]

Hi Bruce,
Thanks for the reply.

For the last 18 months this has worked fine.
I have had email receipts sent out and google conversion data sent, shoppers have been being directed back to my receipt page.
How ?
I have never specified a return Url, yet this has always worked. Does the actinic integration contain the receipt page url ?

Why do you now suggest using a return Url ?

the reason i never did this is because it wont work anyway...
The paypal website says;

Note: If you have enabled Auto Return and have chosen to turn on PayPal Account Optional for new users, a new user will not be automatically directed back to your website, but will be given the option to return.

I'm loathe to start tinkering changes... as it was all working fine.
Could the actinic integration code be corrupt as paypal suggest. Should i try a websit purge and refresh?

Thanks,
Mark

[feemish]

Hi Gravity,

which version of actinic are you running?

[feemish]

If i were to specify a return Url... which should i use.

http//:www.mysite.co.uk/receipt.html

or

http://www.YourSite.co.uk/cgi-bin/os000001.pl

Regards,
Mark

http://www.arka-shop.co.uk

[feemish]

Nope..
No joy here.

I've refreshed the entire site.

I've tried activating the 'auto return' and have tried both URLS

http//:www.mysite.co.uk/receipt.html

and

http://www.mysite.co.uk/cgi-bin/os000001.pl

I then made test payments.
After clicking the 'new' return to arka button, i was sent straight back to my homepage! Neither attempt sent me to the receipt page.

Paypal no longer sends customers back to my receipt page.
Thats it.

It used to no problem, i cant believe that its a coincidence that the paypal checkout pages changed at the same time!!.

Can anyone tell me how it used to work..? Seeing as i never specified a return URL before anyway. How is it that for the last two years, paypal has correctly returned people to my receipt page, triggering both email receipts and google conversion code? This function must be built into the actinic integration , no? So why has it stopped working.

Any help please,
Thanks.
Mark

http://www.arka-shop.co.uk

[feemish]

thanks anyway gravity,

youre on v8 so it might not be affected in the same way.

I host myself, so i know i've not changed anything, and i only use stable releases of controlpanel etc.

I also refreshed the website in case it was a corrupted script.

Mark
http://www.arka-shop.co.uk