paypal sucks

every time we have high website traffic, we will notice a thorny intermittent problem.
random customers will encounter this paypal error page when they try to make payment for their order



well, it is NOT a problem at our end.
there is absolutely nothing wrong with our code, or email address, or account or whatever.

this is a known paypal bug.
you can search for it right here.
this bug hits random customers and is an intermittent problem, and has yet to be solved.
you may think it is a joke. but no, this problem has been randomly occurring since we were first able to track customer checkout activity 2 years ago.
it is because it occurs randomly, thus it has been so difficult to track the problem.
can you imagine if we had not improved our code to track our website's back-end activity, we wouldn't have known about this??? is ignorance really bliss???

and yes, our customers have also been contacting us about it.
the higher our web traffic and online sales, the more crap we are getting about this.
and i always get a whole load of crap whenever i send out newsletters, because that is when our web traffic will surge.
few days ago when i sent out the email newsletter, i basically had to mass email more than 10 customers whom we knew encountered this problem, giving them our apologies and telling them the real explanation and reasons as to what was going on, and how we may go about it.
many more customers who encountered the problem but we don't know of.
and the handful of 6 customers who were our regulars and trusted us, bothered to take the initiative to email us about it and thus we had the chance to manually send them a paypal invoice to complete their purchase.
those whom i mass emailed, basically, i only received 2 thank you emails, and heard from no one else.
because shoppers simply do not like to deal with hassle. hassle!!!! screw you paypal. for all the hassle you have given us. me. them.

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Original Message ----
From: "webform@intl.paypal.com"
To: "Lynda L. @ littleoddforest"
Sent: Tuesday, 27 May, 2008 5:43:16 PM
Subject: Re: SendingaPayment (Routing Code: C702-L001-T11084-S111-W000000) (KMM50491703I96L0KM) :ppk1

Yes, this is a bug, we discovered after the last upgrade. It has to do with the address. A temporary workaround is to set no_shipping to '1' to not require the address.

The engineering department is aware of this bug and is working on resolving this error.

Frank I.
PayPal Certified Developer
PayPal PayWatch Analyst
http://www.paypaldeveloper.com
PayPal, an eBay Company

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Original Message ----
From: "Lynda L. @ littleoddforest"
To: webform@intl.paypal.com
Sent: Sunday, 25 May, 2008 12:17:05 PM
Subject: Re: SendingaPayment (Routing Code: C702-L001-T11084-S111-W000000) (KMM50416941I96L0KM) :ppk1

hi Charlotte,

I have attached the exact web page error that my customers are receiving.
And that message clearly pinpoints a problem on my end, instead of anything else.

Almost all of the time, shoppers don't take the hassle in making payment too nicely. And taking the extra step to contact me or even Paypal is just something that they'd just "forget it", and move on.
Thus, only a small handful are even willing to reply to my emails, and complete their order payment manually with the Paypal invoice I send them.

Which brings me to my next question
- Why are they able to pay up when I manually send them a Paypal invoice? If the problem is indeed this security measure thing you insist on, then shouldn't they be unable to make any payments with their Paypal accounts at all?

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Original Message ----
From: "webform@intl.paypal.com"
To: "Lynda L. @ littleoddforest"
Sent: Sunday, 25 May, 2008 9:22:07 AM
Subject: Re: SendingaPayment (Routing Code: C702-L001-T11084-S111-W000000) (KMM50416941I96L0KM) :ppk1

Dear Lynda Lye Siew Ping ,

Hello, my name is Charlotte, I will be happy to assist you with your
question regarding your PayPal account.

Understand your concern on cannot receive credit card payment sometimes.

For the fully examination of the issue, could you please kindly forward
your customers who claimed cannot pay you via PayPal to us ? It would be
better for us to check the detailed reasons firstly, and then take the
investigation. We are willing to have the direct contacts from your
buyers who have this problem.

Secondly, there is something should be highlighted. System security
measures exist in every user country including the U.S. It is absolutely
impossible that the US-based website can override our security guard.

Thirdly, the security measure is a unique protection feature applied to
every member of PayPal, and it is not a system error. Therefore, it is
not a website error which you may think it as a website problem.

For the buyers claim as cannot pay you, you can forward them to contact
PayPal.

It is my pleasure to assist you.

Sincerely,
Charlotte
PayPal, an eBay Company

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Original Message ----
From: "Lynda L. @ littleoddforest"
To: webform@intl.paypal.com
Cc: SiJun
Sent: Saturday, 24 May, 2008 1:57:35 AM
Subject: Re: SendingaPayment (Routing Code: C702-L001-T11084-S111-W000000) (KMM49997505I96L0KM) :ppk1

hi Milo,

I understand what you are saying, and we have been given this explanation before. The problem is, this doesn't seem to be the issue.

The customer was able to make her purchase at other websites (US-based) and pay via Paypal, but not at our website.

And if this was really the case, shouldn't the error message tell them what you just explained to me, instead of pin-pointing the error as fault on my part? The error message specifically states that there was a problem with the seller's email address. Why? This is very misleading and results in our customers thinking we are an unreliable seller, when we are not.

Could you kindly please do some checks or at least help us to investigate the problem?
And maybe if your explanation was truly the case, the error message should be changed to explain to the customers what they should do?]

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Original Message ----
From: "webform@intl.paypal.com"
To: Lynda Lye Siew Ping
Sent: Friday, 23 May, 2008 4:42:59 PM
Subject: Re: SendingaPayment (Routing Code: C702-L001-T11084-S111-W000000) (KMM49997505I96L0KM) :ppk1

Dear Lynda Lye Siew Ping,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your concerns. I am
happy to assist you further.

You are inquiring about why some payments were denied, right?

Now please let me explain the reasons to you.

To ensure the integrity of our network, PayPal may take security
measures, which may affect some accounts in good standing. We regret any
inconvenience may have caused.

PayPal employs complex statistical models to identify patterns of
behavior. This is similar to the way banks and credit card companies
identify patterns of behavior those are abnormal when verifying
individual transactions. When our system rejects a certain funding
source for a transaction, it is merely an indication that the individual
transaction fits a pattern may cause a high risk of failure.

If you encounter your buyers involved in this trouble, you may explain
to them and advise them to take the following advices:

If a transaction has been denied, the user may be able to complete the
transaction using another funding source such as U.S. bank account or
PayPal balance.

If she/he still wishes to use the credit card, please recommend him/her
not to try at this time. Please take another try after 24 or 48 hours.
If his/her card hasn't been verified, you can also advise them to link
and confirm the credit/debit card in the first place to increase
feasibility.

I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your
understanding on our product feature. Please feel free to let me know if
you need further assistance.

Please let me know if you need further assistance.

Sincerely,
Milo

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