Signed up for PayPal Payments Pro, got Advanced

Is PayPal running a scam?

[MrFishGuy]

For one of my websites we signed up for PayPal Payments Pro (I know, but it suits our needs).

We applied for it, got an email saying we applied for it, and a few days later got an email congratulating us on being accepted.

Tested my shopping cart using their Sandbox, and then went live to find out that my API info wasn't working.

When I called them, the rep said that it wasn't working because we weren't signed up for Payment Pro, but for PayPal PayFlow Advanced. The main difference being that with Pro, PayPal does the processing on the backend and it's all done through your own shopping cart.

I questioned why everything states I signed up for Payments Pro and he couldn't answer but stated that according to my account I am signed up for PayFlow Advanced and THEY CAN NOT SWITCH IT! He told me in order to have Payments Pro, I would have to sign up for a totally new PayPal account and oh yeah, I can't use the same email addresses or banking information!

He was more than willing to assist me in trying to change my cart so that I can do PayFlow Advanced and took every opportunity to sell me on it, but left me with only two options: Sign up for a brand new PayPal account and hope that when I sign up for Payments Pro on that one too, I actually get it, or stick with PayPal Payflow Advanced which I don't want.

Their PayFlow Advanced window screams PayPal all over it, and frankly there are people who wouldn't put their cc info in if they know it was PayPal.

Does anyone know anything about this? Is PayPal PayFlow a different company(a partner) and I was talking to a rep that wasn't really PayPal?

How is it possible that they can't switch me over to the account I signed up for?

[dpd1]

I don't know about that particular situation, but I do know that a lot of the people they have doing support are incredibly under-trained in technical matters. Either that or they just choose to keep 99% of their people in the dark on how stuff works, for fear of fraud.

I'm not one of the hysterical PP bashers. I do think it has a place in many situations and can work well most of the time... But it also has many issues that should be fixed, and good luck if you run into a tech problem. But the same could be said for most large companies.

I had one the other day where I received an email from PP that said it was confirming that I had modified an invoice request and that it had been re-sent. I was like... Uh, OK. It was an invoice the guy never paid, from like... 7 months ago. I looked at the invoice (no I didn't click through the email) and it did in fact say it had been updated that day. But the main account list showed no re-send. I didn't really think it was actually sent. I called them up and the guy told me that the system sends out a copy of unpaid invoices to the recipient every month. I'm like... No it doesn't. He argued that it did. I said, look... I know you get a lot of idiots calling, but I know what my stuff is doing, and I know it doesn't send a copy of an invoice every month. I bet my life on it. He says that he "talked to somebody else, and they said it does". Whatever... I gave up.

A month goes by and the same thing happens with another one, and this time the person it went to actually confirmed it was sent to them. This time I called and actually got a guy with a brain. He asked around and hadn't heard of that happening, but listed it in the database in case somebody else calls it in, and I got rid of all my old unpaid invoices. So it's a mystery still. But anyway... Point being, I'd call back a couple times and run the same thing by a few people. I wouldn't be surprised if you got a totally different answer.

[ectect]

PayPal have just changed the naming conventions so it might be worth going onto their site yourself and comparing Payments Standard, Payments Advanced and Payments Pro - maybe the rep hasn't caught up with that yet.

[enigma1]

the rep said that it wasn't working because we weren't signed up for Payment Pro, but for PayPal PayFlow Advanced.

So what were the steps you followed to create the account? You went here:
[registration.paypal.com...]
and you created a new account, or you followed some other link?

[jwolthuis]

PayFlow was bought by PayPal from Verisign several years ago, and is the API used by the UK-version of Payments Pro. The US-version of Payments Pro is a unique animal, not used in other parts of the world.

Is PayFlow "Advanced" something new? Is it a redirection-based product, like Express Checkout? I'm not clear on how this is any different than the old account-optional Express Checkout, where you could pay with a Visa Card, even if you didn't have a PayPal account.

If they signed you up for the traditional PayFlow API, you have no worries. You simply have to program against the PayFlow API (yea, some extra work involved), but it's probably nicer than the Payments Pro API. It's a stay-home API, and it's been around a lot longer than Payments Pro has. For recurring payments, PayFlow is the absolute *best*.

As a bonus, you can accept credit cards on eBay on the same account, using the Payflow gateway.

[MrFishGuy]

. Point being, I'd call back a couple times and run the same thing by a few people. I wouldn't be surprised if you got a totally different answer.

Ding Ding Ding! Winner! I was finally able to talk to someone else at PayPal today who stated the person I talked to Friday was completely incorrect. He helped me out and all is working fine now.

[dpd1]

lol As a wise man once said... If at first you don't succeed... Try, try again.

What's funny is, when it's painfully apparent I've got a dud support person somewhere, I've actually just stopped them 30 seconds in and said I'd have to call back later. lol Why even waste your time?

[rocknbil]

Edit: oops, jwolthuis already raised this point above . . .

Is it costing you any more money to use PayFlow? If it is, that's a deal breaker. If not,

Their PayFlow Advanced window screams PayPal all over it

PayFlow was bought by payPal and used to be one of the premier gateways with robust methods (can't remember the name of the company.) It has an advanced interface that allows silent post, which means that users can come to your checkout page, enter CC info, and it posts to payPal "behind the scenes" so that they never leave your site.

This really steps up your game and makes your checkout process so much more professional. All you need is an SSL cert on your site and a good coder to put it together for you. When the smoke clears you should take a serious look at it, it's worth it.

[wingslevel]

i checked out payflow and payment pro. both seem to be targetted for the merchant who wants to 1. accept paypal payments and 2. use paypal as a gateway for credit card processing.

in my case, i have my own secure server and credit card processor etc. - i don't want to change any of that - just looking to add paypal as a payment option. so, when a user checks out and gets to my payment page, they can either input their cc info, or click the paypal button and be whisked over to paypal (along with the transaction details) where they can make their payment to my company, then they are whisked back to my order confirmation page.

does anybody know what paypal product i need?

[jwolthuis]

You need PayPal Express Checkout.

[wingslevel]

Yes! Thx jwolthius....