PayPal and unconfirmed addresses

[Paula]

I received several orders today that show as not being eligible for PayPal (standard) seller protection because the addresses are unconfirmed. When I look at the buyers' records on the PayPal transaction history, each shows "We have no shipping address on file." I thought I read somewhere that Shopsite does this for security purposes, and that's a good thing. But my concern is that if something goes wrong, I will receive no seller protection from PayPal because of "unconfirmed addresses." Is there a way around this? Thanks.

[Jim]

The statement "We have no shipping address on file." is from PayPal not ShopSite, Since the transaction is all done on PayPal's site ShopSite only get information that PayPal chooses to provide, and that is all that can be included with the order in ShopSite.

It was the shopper's choice to not provide a shipping address so that is the reason that PayPal doesn't provide seller's protection for this type of orders.

[Paula]

I will have to ask PayPal. The addresses show up in my dashboard but not the email from PayPal. Also, in the item description it just says "Shopsite order" without any details of what they ordered. Thanks.

[Paula]

I contacted PayPal about this. They said the reason the buyers' shipping address and order details is not appearing in the PayPal emails or on my PayPal transaction history, is because they are not receiving the information from the shopping cart provider. This makes sense, because my other store (other cart) provides the information just fine.

So, is there a setting I can change for the buyers' address (and purchase info) to appear in the PayPal transaction history? My main concern is with seller protection; I am not covered if the address is not provided.

Thanks.

[Jim]

PayPal will only allow Seller protection if they have verified the address the order is being shipped to.
In the backoffice of your store under Commerce Setup > Payment >PayPal Standard > configure there is a check box "Allow PayPal shipping address". If you check that box then the shopper can use an address that they have associated with their PayPal account and that PayPal can validate. This will give you the PayPal seller protection (if you meet all their other conditions too). Here is a quote from PayPal's site about this "You ship the item to the shipping address listed on the PayPal Transaction Details page. ... This means that you’re shipping to an address that PayPal has validated to help reduce chances of fraud." from
https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=security/seller_protection_learn_more&fli=true

If ShopSite were to send a shipping address to PayPal there is no way that PayPal could verify it is associated with the PayPal account that the shopper uses to pay for the transaction. There would also be nothing to stop the shopper from changing the shipping address on the PayPal side to something different than what they put on the ShopSite billing screen so you could end up with 2 different ship to addresses, on on the PayPal transaction details and one on the ShopSite order.

There are several limitations when using the PayPal Standard payment method. You would be much better off switching to the PayPal Express checkout option. You won't have to worry about not receiving orders because of IPN issues. The shoppers address and shipping address info is passed back to ShopSite and the shopper remains on your site and sees your Thank You screen instead of staying on PayPal and having to hunt for the link to get back to your store. If you have no other payment methods configured except PayPal Express checkout and are using at least ShopSite 11sp1 then shoppers can pay on the PayPal site with either a credit card or a PayPal account.

[Jim]

I found another page on PayPal's site that gives more info about how they confirm addresses.
https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-content&fli=true&content_ID=security/seller_protection and click on the Address confirmation tab in the middle of the page

When a buyer's address is "confirmed", it means their credit card billing address has been verified.

Why Confirm a Buyer's Address?

While most unconfirmed addresses are not fraudulent, a confirmed address provides an extra layer of protection, as it helps to identify stolen credit cards, prevent identity theft, and reduce the likelihood of fraud-related chargebacks.

Shipping to an unconfirmed address is generally safe, but not entirely without risk. Take a look at our safer selling tips to get some helpful pointers.

How to Confirm a Buyer's Address

Let your buyers know why address confirmation is a good idea. Here are a few ways for them to do it:

They can add a credit card to their PayPal account. PayPal will then confirm the credit card billing address.
They can apply for a PayPal Plus Credit Card or an eBay MasterCard. If approved, the address on their application will be a confirmed address.
They can opt for Alternate Address Confirmation. This takes several days and is only available for US accounts.

So just sending even a valid billing address that the shopper enters on ShopSite would not allow for immediate address confirmation because at the minimum PayPal has to contact the credit card issuer and verify that the shipping address matches what the shopper put in the address fields. If someone has a PayPal account, this could already have been done if they have linked a credit card to the account.

[Paula]

Thank you for the info, Jim. I checked the "Allow PayPal shipping address" but am wondering if there's a way to enable the order information (name of item, quantity) to show on PayPal transactions as well as the emails they send me when someone purchases. I see next to "Order description displayed by PayPal" are the words "ShopSite Order."

I used to have PayPal Pro on my other site and may enable that for this store at some point. I thought PayPal Express was used in conjunction with accepting "regular" credit cards?

[Jim]

There is no option to send the line items from an order to PayPal. This is the same with almost all payment methods in ShopSite. ( Personal comment START-- What business is it of the payment gateway to know what you are selling to the shopper?. The less information that is passed around about a shopper the more their privacy is maintained. The credit card company knows who the card belongs to, so if they also have the information about what they are buying that gives them info that they could possible use /sell to send advertising to them. -- END Personal Comment ) We have also had issues in cases where we have to send the line items to a payment gateway, that their tax and shipping calculation methods resulted in different values than what the shopping cart calculates. That causes confusion for both the shopper and the merchant.

PayPal Express is kind of in between Standard and Pro. The shopper is still taken to PayPal with Express like standard but the shopper ends back on your website and the transaction is all completed in a single connection like it is in Pro. As I mentioned in an earlier post "If you have no other payment methods configured except PayPal Express checkout and are using at least ShopSite 11sp1 then shoppers can pay on the PayPal site with either a credit card or a PayPal account." If you have any other payment method that takes credit cards such as PayPal Pro or Authorize.net and any credit card is checked as being accepted, then the only option on the PayPal side is to pay with a current PayPal account or create a new PayPal account and use that to pay. So this makes it unnecessary to have a separate payment gateway and gives shoppers some flexibility in paying with PayPal (from their balance or transfer from a bank account) or with credit card. I'm not sure how the transaction fees compare but I think express may be slightly more than what PayPal Pro is.

[Paula]

Thanks, Jim.

You make a great point about the line items. It's more of a matter of convenience for me when shipping. But no biggie.