Paypal "Payment skipped" error

I don't think you should do anything at this point - this is between your customer and paypal. There was some reason the payment wasn't processed. If it was just a glitch, it will process in 5 days.

If anything about the credit card on the account changed - the customer needs to reverify their subscription through paypal. That is a legal thingie as you can't just substitute a new card (even same account with new expiration date) as the original agreement was based on the old credit account.

If you are in communication with the customer - that's what he should check on.

kay

Payment skipped means that there were not enough funds in the customer's Paypal acct to cover it. Contact the customer and you may have to cancel his membership or whatever you are selling by subscription payment. The only time I get that message is when the customer doesn't have the funds. I guess if he's paying by credit card, there could be a credit card issue as well.

Suzanne - not true! As a subscriber, I have had this happen on more than one occasion, and the amount of funds in either my PP acct or the attached 'back-up' methods had nothing to do with the failure of the payment.

I've been in payment processing for 20+ years and am very familiar with the underlying technology of PayPal and payment processing systems in general - and the fact is, that PayPal recurring payments often fail for no reason that can be attributed to the customer side of the equation.

But on PayPal's side it can be a number of things - but usually, it is simply a 'time out' issue in communicating with the customer's bank, as subscriptions do NOT have to be pulled from the customer's balance. It can also be set to pull from their bank account or their credit card.

The bottom line is that in most cases, it will go through fine in the next attempt - especially if the customer is insisting that everything is okay.

And as Kay mentioned - if the customer has changed any details on their account recently - even an email address added, deleted or changed - this can also cause the payment to fail.

The best course as Kay mentioned is to stay in communication with the customer, but I would not make them go through the hassle of re-registering until it fails on the second attempt, because there is an excellent chance it is entirely on PP's side.

And - even if it fails the second time - it still doesn't mean that the customer has insufficient funds. Some banks only allow a certain number of months for recurring billing now to protect the customer - and sometimes - PayPal in it's infinite wisdom - simply screws up.

I know because it has happened to me when my account has been well funded and a boatload of 'backup' options were available...and it still failed!!

melody

I think you can contact paypal on it, or wait for few days b'coz it is an issue between the other guy and paypal. Thanks.

I think you should listen to melody, she obviously knows what she's talking about. I had it happen to me a few times when I had my subscription sites and the payment usually went through fine the next time

Kim

Thanks everyone. Really appreciate your advice here.