Constant Failed payments

Hello @curiousrob

thank you for reaching out to us, we are here to help.

We have seen this error before and believe this issue occurs when the buyer is overcharged, meaning a certain amount has been pre-authorized (e.g. via express checkout), but the final payment amount is significantly higher than the authorized amount.
In that case, PayPal requests to restart the transaction at PayPal.

We have a bug open to get this situation resolved. When this situation happens the customer should be redirected to PayPal to try again, possibly to update the checkout amount again.

I will link this thread to the bug so that you will be updated once a workaround or fix becomes available.

Kind regards,
Joost

Hi Joost,

Thanks for your response.

This is what happened to me when testing.

Added product that cost ￡0.90 to cart
At the checkout a shipping charge of ￡1.50 is added.

Would this trigger that bug? The item price is still ￡0.90 – that doesn’t change.

If I add a few more quantity to the order (to test) it should not trigger this issue?

Here’s the product/website: https://www.pufflower.com/product/sheep-applique/

Cheers,
Rob

I just tested the checkout again added ￡6.00 worth of the products, plus the ￡1.50 shipping at the checkout, I get the same error message.

[UNPROCESSABLE_ENTITY] The requested action could not be performed, semantically incorrect, or failed business validation. https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/orders/v2/#error-PAYER_ACTION_REQUIRED

Hello @curiousrob

we would expect this issue to only occur when you use the express checkout option. Can you confirm that is also the case with you or are you using the standard checkout process?

We have created a package we think might resolve this issue. Can you please test this and let us know: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iaCPsjyyVguuyvoH0p_tviGArY9f8B2n/view?usp=sharing

This is not a final/official release, since there need to be made some other adjustments to complete this fix. This package is to confirm our expected cause and fix.

Pending your response.
Kind regards,
Joost

Hi Joost,

Thanks for helping on this, it’s much appreciated.

We are currently using the Standard checkout process.

But I have been disconnecting the account and reconnecting trying to fix the issue.

We are on the second option “Standard Card Processing”.

I have also unchecked the “Securely accept all major credit & debit cards on the strength of the paypal network”, but I’ll check that back on as it did not make a difference.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i42OFEecesQF7K3PlRH6lBLZDzQf-SoE/view

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vEtQCFAJFUhoQuLmLNKZ_tfYiDzkE1jE/view

I’ll try the update soon.

Cheers,
Rob

Hi Joost,

Thanks for that plugin update.

I’ve installed it, and tried to place an order myself, my first payment attempt was failed, I changed the product tried again and completed the checkout successfully.

However, I noticed that a Failed payment email was sent immediately before the success payment email.

We’ve had a few more orders come through successfully, that also triggered the Failed payment email first.

I’ve had to put a notice on the checkout saying:

PayPal Issues
If you are having trouble checking out with PayPal, please use our standard checkout method.

Thanks for trying to get to the bottom of this, I hope you can get it sorted soon.

Cheers,
Rob

Hello @curiousrob

we have received some more reports of this issue and have gotten the same request from PayPal, so we have opened a bug for this and raised the priority on this. Another merchant reached out to PayPal MTS and provided us with some details we are now looking into, in order to find a fix for this issue.

If you have the time, you could also reach out to MTS and get confirmation on the findings we got, so we are sure what is happening with these failures.

Our developers will be looking into this soon and hopefully get a fix for it as well.

Kind regards,
Joost

Hi Joost,

Thanks for updating me, hopefully get to the bottom of this bug soon!

I have contacted PayPal MTS, which they said it was because of “trying to capture an amount more than the one that the customer approved” and “we stopped supporting overcapture since April 2022”.

I replied with a link to the website showing that the item prices do not change.

They said: “From our perspective, as long as the final capture amount passed to PayPal is no more than the pre-authorized amount then the payment will be processed without problems. If not, please reach back out with order details and we will look into it further.”

Cheers,
Rob

Hello Rob,

Thank you for sharing the response from MTS with us.

Would you be able to provide us with the logs of the day that the events occurred that you had MTS investigate? You can share them via a link or open a private service desk ticket with us via these instructions.

Kind regards,
Joost

Hi Joost,

Just checked, the PayPal Logging option was not enable unfortunately. I have enabled it now.

But we also have your hotfix plugin installed now, so I don’t know if that will help you find the cause now.

I’ll keep an eye on it today and if we get a few PayPal orders I’ll send the log over.

Cheers,
Rob

Perfect, thank you Rob!

Hi Joost,

We just had a PayPal Payment come through that was first failed (failed email was sent) but also then immediately accepted (due to your hotfix update).

So I’ve just sent you the WooCommerce Payment log file using the ticket support system you linked to above.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,
Rob

Thank you Rob!

Hello Rob,

I have sent you a testing package of the fix via the direct ticket you opened with us. We believe that will fix this issue. It will be included in the next release, but if anyone is looking for this package before version 1.9.2 is released, they can reach out to us via these instructions to get the same package.

Please let us know if you run into this same error after you install the test package.

Kind regards,
Joost

Hello @curiousrob

since we provide a package and the last release also included the fix, we will mark this ticket as resolved. If you are still encountering this issue, please open a new thread and mention this older thread, so we have the history available to us.

However, we believe this issue should be resolved now.

Kind regards,
Joost