It has recently come to our attention from customers, that there are some new issues with the PayPal.com IPN payment module in your oscommerce system with the information it is not passing to PayPal.com when I customer selects PayPal as their preferred method of payment. 

These issues include:
1. Taxes: Not passing taxes to paypal.com.
2. Shipping Rates: Not passing shipping rates to paypal.com, and asking customers on their website to enter their zip code so it can give NEW shipping costs.

These are obviously some serious issues causing problems with your order totals. We have discovered the cause of this issue and have discussed this with Paypal.com at great length since it has become a very troubling issue for our customers using this system.

PayPal.com has recently made some changes to how their IPN payment system works (the system your shopping cart uses). The end result is that anyone using the "per item" method it is ignoring the taxes and shipping amounts sent to paypal.com.

PayPal has indicated in so many words that they are unwilling to change this back to how it was previously. As such we have found several work arounds that will benefit you. Anyone using the PayPal IPN Payment Module should make these changes ASAP to avoid this issue. See below to determine if this effects you or not.

WHO DOES THIS EFFECT?

Anyone who is using PayPal.com payment module with the method set to "PER ITEM" instead of "AGGREGATE" method.

HOW CAN I TELL WHICH VERSION I AM USING?

a. Per Item: If your receipts at paypal.com include all items from the order, then you are using this method and should apply the changes below.

b. Aggregate: If your receipts at paypal.com do NOT include all items from the order, and only an order total, then this will not effect you.

WHAT ARE MY OPTIONS FOR RESOLVING?

You have two options. The first one requires you to call PayPal.com by phone and tell them your orders are excluding shipping totals. They will walk you through a 5-10 minute process on how to change your paypal account settings to avoid this issue.

The second more preferable option is described below, and can be done within your admin tools.

STEP 1: Login to your admin tools.

STEP 2: Click on MODULES > PAYMENT MODULES > PAYPAL IPN (it may be listed differently on your site like "credit card/debit (paypal)".

STEP 3: After selecting this module please click the EDIT button to the right.

STEP 4: Verify the following configuration values are set as follows:

- "Force Shipping Address?": Set to TRUE.
- "Transaction Type:" Verify it is set to PER ITEM (else not required to continue).
- "Move Tax To Total Amount?": Set to FALSE to ensure it is sent over as a separate line item to paypal.com.

After confirming these things, scroll to the bottom and click the UPDATE button to complete this fix.

If you do not see these specific entitled items above, then you are probably using an older version of PayPal Module which this may or may not effect.

Please feel free to contact us with any additional questions and thank you for your time.