paypal and maestro/switch

powerbase · 15 March 2007 at 11:16PM

Hi,

This question is ebay related but paypal related but I thought it would be the best place to post here. One of my websites uses paypal for taking payments as much as people hate it you don't have to have an account to pay with it and it's cheap.

Two of my customers have now emailed me saying they cannot pay when they select switch/maestro. They say that they fill in every field but when they click OK they are asked for the 3 digit number on the back of the card yet their is no field to fill this in. I have gone through the process of checkout and selecting switch/maestro and I can see there is no field for the 3 digit number. I haven't completed a transaction in case paypal think it is dodgy.

I'm guessing this is a paypal problem. I haven't had this before or should I say no customer has complained before. Any ideas what is going wrong? Anyone else had this problem?

Anyway I can test it without looking like I'm doing something dodgy. I would really appreciate it as I fear this is driving business away.

Thanks

powerbase · 15 March 2007 at 11:56PM

OK this one gets even weirder.

I decided to clear my cookies for some bizarre reason and then go through the payment stage and when I got to the paypal payment page it looked completely different (like it had a face lift) and now when I select maestro/switch there is a field for the 3 digit number which fixes the problem (well maybe).

Problem is I went to IE which didn't have the 3 digit field either and deleted the cookies (expecting this to work) but the 3 digit field has not appeared and the layout of paypal payment page has stayed the same.

Anyone have any idea what is going on? I'm rather concerned about all this.

Thanks

rare_stuff · 15 March 2007 at 11:57PM

not 100% sure, but don't switch / maestro have issue numbers that are used for this and that is filled in elsewhere in the form? if not filled in I am assuming it thinks it should ask for the 3 digit security code.

A lot of e-commerce forms have this sort of set up and for these cards require an issue number not security code.

perhaps they are selecting visa, or similair rather than maestro switch which is why they are getting asked for the security number

powerbase · 16 March 2007 at 12:14AM

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. The person is not selecting anything wrong as I am not testing this out myself on my own machine.

The switch card has a issue number and digits on the back. Paypal asked for both. I have just got a friend to test the site with their card. They can purchase via firefox and what seems to be the new pament gateway for paypal which provides a field for the 3 digit number.

Also the issue number can only contain two digits so it's not confusing the two.

I always thought switch cards had an issue no, expiry date, numbers on the back but not necessarily a start date (which you leave blank) and use the issue no instead. I may be wrong.

When it went through on firefox the card no, expiry date, issue no, 3 digit back no were filled in and start date was not. The money has been debited from the account and is in the business account. So everything is working on the firefox end of things after clearing cookies but not IE. IE is still wanting the 3 digit security code which I'm not finding unreasonable apart from the fact there is no space to put it in.

Another thing has anyone else noticed that the paypal payment gateway has had a facelift?

Thanks

Sugar_Coated_Owl · 16 March 2007 at 12:25AM

powerbase wrote:

always thought switch cards had an issue no, expiry date, numbers on the back but not necessarily a start date (which you leave blank) and use the issue no instead. I may be wrong.

Switch/Maestro cards definately don't have a start date.

powerbase · 16 March 2007 at 12:41AM

Now checked it works on netscape as well. So it's just IE that is the problem. Weird!

rare_stuff · 16 March 2007 at 12:49AM

powerbase wrote: »

I always thought switch cards had an issue no, expiry date, numbers on the back but not necessarily a start date (which you leave blank) and use the issue no instead. I may be wrong.

Knew it was something like that! Sorry for misleading.

Though hardly surprising that IE is behaving badly again!

colin79666 · 16 March 2007 at 1:07AM

razorbladekisses wrote: »

Switch/Maestro cards definately don't have a start date.

My RBS Maestro does :j

I think they went to start dates with maestro and dumped the issue number which switch had

Sugar_Coated_Owl · 16 March 2007 at 1:10AM

How weird. My switch/Maestro has exp. date and issue no.

powerbase · 16 March 2007 at 1:28AM

I think it varies but I would have said the norm is no start date but an issue no. I think most online payment processors allow for you to have this. If you don't enter a start date but have an issue no it's OK, and vice versa. You must have at least one. I'm convinced in the past I was helping someone order something online (it may have been an old ulster bank switch card which seemed to be a nightmare for ordering online) and it didn't have a issue no so you put in 0 for issue no and it worked.

So lets have a quick poll, who thinks it is paypal problem and who thinks it is IE? Could be my website but I don't see how. It's a weird one. I googled it and didn't find anything. It is one of those things I'm sure someone else has experienced.

digerati · 16 March 2007 at 2:31AM

powerbase wrote: »

So lets have a quick poll, who thinks it is paypal problem and who thinks it is IE? Could be my website but I don't see how. It's a weird one. I googled it and didn't find anything. It is one of those things I'm sure someone else has experienced.

It's a known PayPal problem with Switch/Maestro cards. No word on when PayPal will fix it, but they have known of the problem for around 3+ months...

paypal and maestro/switch

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