CURRENT STATUS AS OF May 2019
E-Commerce is working, the Merchant ID was the issue all along, although Innovative had to restart something on their end once the changes were made and then everything started working!
Project/Issue Details
Our E-Commerce module stopped functioning in the Summer of 2015, below is a history of what has transpired between then and now and where we are as of a status, including action to take.
BACKGROUND - Purchased Product at the end of 2012 for $3,250. We started the beginning stages of trying to get implemented in January of 2013. Due to delays in getting a University created PayPal account to link to our E-Commerce module, the process took nearly 2 years. E-Commerce module finally activated and ready for use by late Quarter 4 of 2014.
October 2nd, 2015 - We had been experiencing issues with get the transactions to process. This had been ongoing since June. I opened a ticket with Innovative TX-60831057. I reached Kristin Garrity. Cynthia and I then tested and by October 5th, we felt it was back up and running.
October 16th, 2015 - Cynthia reported that E-Commerce was not working and we were getting the following error. I then proceeded to reach out to Kristin again.
October 19th, 2015 - Kristin reported back to us and said it was a PayPal issue and we should reach out to PayPal to see if we can resolve it on that end.
February 2nd, 2016 - After priorities being placed elsewhere and getting the run-around for a few months with PayPal and Innovative, we got our own IT Department involved. Jacob Reinelt from IT reached out to Kristin at Innovative directly. Jacob had been dealing with the controllers' office here and had the thought that our PayPal password may have changed, which caused the issue in 2015 but needed to understand better how the internal specifics worked.
March 24th, 2016 - By late March, we had been re-assigned to an III System Engineer, Paul Marcelino. He determined that the configuration or setup was correct but needed the login credentials for PayPal to further test. Ticket #356872
March 25th, 2016 - Reached out to Steve McPherson for the first time and copied Paul from III and Jacob in IT, stating that we needed Steve to contact Paul so that he could provide login credentials to Paul.
March 28th, 2016 - Paul from III responded to our email thread and let Steve know where to reach him and what the best time was.
April 5th, 2016 - I reach out to Steve with no answer back.
April 18th, 2016 - Attempt to reach Steve again (emails).
April 18th, 2016 - Paul from III contacts us, copies everyone letting Steve know what he needs in the form of screenshots.
May 5th, 2016 - Jacob reaches out to Steve since we haven't heard from him on a password, when he could call III, etc.
May 18th, 2016 - I reach out to Anita, letting her know what we need from Steve so she can help us get the ball rolling. She calls him that day and gets a hold of him and he said to Anita, he would take care of it (Call Paul from III).
June 8th, 2016 - Jacob attempts to contact Steve to see if he reached out to III.
June 24th, 2016 - Still no movement on this, loop Anita back in and get he up to date on inactivity.
August 1st, 2016 - Met with Thom and organized a new push, gave library staff involved an update on where we were and what we were going to do. At this point, we still need the PayPal password from Steve.
November 22nd, 2016 - Anita calls and leaves a voicemail for Steve and then lets him know she will follow up with him the next week.
December 20th, 2016 - Anita sends a detailed email to Steve, letting him know what we need from him and proposes to meet to get this straightened out.
DEAD PERIOD
April 5th, 2017 - We are able to get everyone together and the password to Kristin and Innovative. We tested on our end and it 'seemingly' worked.
April 12th, 2017 - One week after running a successful transaction through the system, it was no failing again. Reached back out to Kristin at III with specific error text. Kristin responds and tells us to contact PayPal, thinks the issue is on that end and gives us a specific contact at PayPal.
DEAD PERIOD
July 27th, 2017 - We had no luck with reaching PayPal but had read on listserves and other documentation that the issue may have been within Sierra, a bug/glitch. We had since upgraded Sierra to 3.1, which fixed issues with other institutions but not us. Cynthia runs testing and we screenshot the errors and reach back out to Innovative. I reach back out to Kristin, re-open ticket and send her screenshots.
August 3rd, 2017 - Kristin responds and ask this of us "Would you please log in to http://manager.paypal.com, go to the settings section, and copy/paste the whole page into a Word document, or save it to a PDF? Whatever you need so that I can see the whole URLs in the fields." We'll need Steve to login and screenshot these pages for us.
DEAD PERIOD
November 21st, 2017 - We get a hold of Steve finally and he gets us the screenshots of the settings and fields within our PayPal account. I send those screenshots to Kristin same day. We test thoroughly with Cynthia and we receive yet another error. I send screenshot to Kristin. She responds asking for patron login to test and fines to be added to account to test. We have a lot of back and forth with Kristin on this day. She gets info from PayPal to change a certain setting inside our PayPal account.
We get a hold Steve McPherson, he makes the recommended change but we still are encountering errors.
November 27th, 2017 - Kristin asks for more info to test on her end, Cynthia provides her with that info.
December 4th, 2017 - Kristin states she hasn't found the issue yet but is still working on it and asks us or more info on our end. She wants the screenshots of the fields inside of our PayPal manager, stating she didn't get ALL of the fields the last time she was troubleshooting.
December 12, 2017 - Reached out to Kristin for a status
December 19th, 2017 - Reached out to Kristin for a status
December 20th, 2017 - Felt like we weren't getting anywhere again so I reached out to our III Salesman, Dennis Carter and asked for help in prodding the process along. Kristin responds back to us the same day and points back to needed the screenshots again, which means I will need to go back to Steve here.
January 12th, 2018 - I finally get back a hold of Steve and he sends us what we need. I send off to Kristin.
January 17th, 2018 - I reach back out to Kristin with a sense of desperation, asking if there's anything else we can do? Can we re-install module, start from scratch, etc.
January 25th, 2018 - We hadn't back from Kristin in a while so I go to the bag of tricks again, contact Dennis Carter and get him involved.
January 31st, 2018 - Kristin responds and states that we need the same information in the PayPal settings manager but in a different format. We are back to having to get a hold of Steve McPherson.
February 15th, 2018 - We get a hold of Steve and then forward documents/PDFs of settings to Kristin.
February 20th, 2018 - I follow up with Kristin at III since I have not heard back from her.
February 22nd, 2018 - Kristin acknowledges she received the info from us and states she will reach out to PayPal herself.
March 1st, 2018 - Follow up with Kristin to see if she has heard back from her contact from PayPal and she has not.
March 19th, 2018 - Reached out to III with no response.
April 2nd, 2018 - Reached out to III with no response.
May 14th, 2018 - Reached out to III with no response.
May 29th, 2018 - Reached out to III with no response.
May 30th, 2018 - we receive a response from Innovative, a new contact. Angela wants some patron info and the login to test out before she reaches out to PayPal herself.
June 4th, 2018 - I talk to Angela over the phone and we reach out to PayPal to try and get further along with this issue. It turns out they aren't much help to us, unless we are inside of our PayPal account at the same time.
June 15th, 2018 - I meet with Steve McPherson in his office and we call PayPal together and find out the issue is with the Merchant Bank and a valid ID that needs to be put into one of the fields. PayPal sends Steve the form they need filled out, Steve will then contact PNC, the bank the University does business with.
June 28th, 2018 - Follow up with Steve to see if he has heard back from PayPal yet. He he was going to fill out the form still and send it to PayPal.
July 2nd, 2018 - Sent email to Steve asking if he had sent form into PayPal.
July 10th, 2018 - Followed up with Steve to see if we had a resolution yet on the form submission and verification on if he heard back from PayPal.
July 11th, 2018 - Steve responds and says he has talked with Terry Parris and they were going to provide PayPal with the correct info.
July 18th, 2018 - Asked Steve if we had an update.
July 19th, 2018 - Steve responded and said he was going to contact Terry to get a status.
July 26th, 2018 - Terry sends me a case number from PayPal.
August 2nd, 2018 - I ask Steve and Terry for an update. Terry responds and says PNC is in the process of setting up what we need with PayPal.
August 9th, 2018 - Email the two of them asking for an update.
August 27th, 2018 - Ask again, for an update from Steve and Terry.
August 30th, 2018 - After the previous attempts, calls, etc. I go to Anita and have her send me an email asking for a status and to purposely copy Steve and Terry. I respond saying I have not heard back from them on a reply all.
September 4th - Ask for a status on if Merchant ID is good to go? Steve responds with this "I have what I believe is the last document we need to provide our credit card processer. I should be able to get it signed today and sent it."
September 12th, 2018 - Asks for an update from Steve/Terry.
September 14th, 2018 - I go to Anita and she sends an email asking for a status update directly from Steve.
September 21st, 2018 - I meet with Anita in person, She finally gets a hold of him and asks him to meet to get this resolved.
September 24th, 2018 - Steve responds with "I will have to reach out to bank and get an update. I will get back with you once I get some information. Sorry for the delay."
September 24th, 2018 - Anita has asked Thom for the pricing of what we paid for the E-Commerce Module. We are going to work together to decide the next steps and go back with everything we have on this issue.
September 26th, 2018 - talked with Anita this morning, let her know I am sending this. She will have this at her disposal for her talks with the higher ups for our next step!
October 2nd, 2018 - Update from Steve stated that he talked to PayPal and PayPal gave the information to the bank so we could get the Merchant ID from the bank when they read over PayPal form. Like Heather said, sounds like we have heard that one before.
Regardless, I told Steve that I will be following up with him on Thursday to check status.
October 18th, 2018 - Got a hold of Steve today. He said he hadn't heard back yet from PNC. He said he would contact them. I replied and asked him specifically when he would contact him because my department needed to know. He said he will contact them today. I'll follow back up with him tomorrow, we'll see!
October 24th, 2018 - There's still plenty of room for deflection but Steve made a legitimate step forward today.
He has obtained the NEW Merchant ID from PNC Bank and he said he will not get a hold of PayPal to give them the new Merchant ID to implement. This is the last step in the current process of what we think can fix this, or at the very least, know where we stand.
However, that opens up another game of cat and mouse for him calling PayPal. I asked him flat out if the Merchant ID is just something he can type into a field inside the PayPal manager because I think it is. He didn't know but would check. I 'suggested' to him that I can come over at a time that's convenient to him and we can call PayPal together, that is where the convo ended and where I will need to follow up on.
October 29th, 2018 - Here goes in dash form to get points across :)
- Met with Steve we looked up all the emails, opened up PayPal account and updated what we could on our own
- Called PayPal PayFlow support together
- Rep told us that we need to fill out form and fax information with New Merchant ID over to them at specified number
- Steve and I filled out form and also agreed it would be best to send over the form that PNC sent us to give PayPal everything they want and then some, plus PayPal rep said we could do that
- Steve Faxed info over
- We can expect to get an email confirmation back in 2-3 Business Days
- I will follow up with Steve on Thursday
- Once we have the Merchant ID in place, entered in by PayPal themselves, that is the last step for this current thread, we will then try to run a transaction through
November 6th, 2018 - Steve responded that he would have called but didn't have the number to call, only the Fax Number. I just emailed him, giving him the number he needed to call directly and said he would call tomorrow. I will follow up tomorrow afternoon.
November 9th, 2018 - Have been emailing (at the least) every day. But trying to throw something different at him each day so it's not a robotic like email. I asked yesterday for some information, that would be Controller's Office sensitive but would allow me to call PayPal on my own OR again for me to come over and let's call them together.
November 13th, 2018 - Left Steve a message just now. Stated that I was under fire to produce movement on this issue and we needed to make one of two things happen. That we needed to arrange another phone call this week with PayPal or we needed to find a way to get Anita access to the PayPal account (so I could work on the account and test things that Innovative tells me to try), if that was possible (which I know is probably not) but hopefully will put a sense of urgency on his end to respond to me.
November 14th, 2018 - We are currently waiting to hear back from Steve on if he has received confirmation from PayPal on them setting up new Merchant ID. I have been sending him emails daily and proposed I go over there again and we call PayPal together. I had Cynthia run a fines test for the heck of it on Monday and it was still a no go.
December 6th, 2018 - Have not had any reply from Steve since November 6th. At that point, he had not heard back from PayPal yet. I had Cynthia try running a fine payment through just for the heck of it and it was a no go. I sent an email today, to Steve, requesting that we meet on either Friday or Monday.
March 12th, 2019 - Have not had any reply from Steve since November 6th, 2018, with many attempts between then and the end of January to garner a response. This was then pushed up to Anita and Thom to attempt to get a response with contact. The Week of March 4th, Thom was able to not only get a hold of Steve but arrange a meeting with him on Thursday the 14th with himself, Steve, Anita and me. As far as what we are looking for, is confirmation from PayPal that they have received our Merchant ID from PNC Bank and have approved it and that it's in place in our account settings.
March 18th, 2019 - Heather (F) had asked for an update on how the meeting went last Friday so I wanted to post this here for others to see.
Thom and I did meet with Steve on Thursday. It was good and productive, doesn't guarantee anything but it shed some light on some options and gave us a few hard dates to enforce.
In terms of the PayPal E-Commerce solution that is in place but has give us trouble for years now, Steve and I are going to meet in his office before April 15th and work on it together, calling PayPal and whomever we need to, to make sure the new Merchant ID that was setup with PNC is good to go and that, this is not the thing holding us back.
We also talked about an alternative which may end up being a more stable solution regardless of what becomes of our work with the E-Commerce application. This would be utilizing something that is already taking place in other areas around campus, with being able to take credit cards that wouldn't touch Sierra or the E-Commerce system. We have a couple of outstanding questions that I sent to Steve on Friday as a follow up to see how viable this solution would be for US, since it already seems to be a viable solution for the other branches on campus that are using it.
Will keep everyone posted as we move along. The plan is for me to follow up on getting those answers for the Alternative as much as possible but to make sure we are, rock solid, set on a date for the meeting when I go over to Steve's office in April.
April 25th, 2019 - When we left off, Steve had promised to get us squared away after Tax Day, I had sent several reminders and asked several questions on days leading up to that, between our March Meeting and April 15th, with no response.
Then he pulled an 11th hour email on Sunday before tax day, a pre-emptive strike! Saying that he was still working on it and would get with us in a few days, well, we know how that went.
I am back to bugging him again in a professional manner, Thom has even sent out an email asking what we can expect. I queried his calendar, set up an appointment for next Tuesday morning and then sent him an email letting him know, copying Thom.
April 30th, 2019 - There was questions from up here about where we were with this and wanted to give a detailed up date of what transpired.
- Last week I queried the calendar, his and mine and set a date for Tuesday at 10:30AM (today). I called him and emailed him to follow up but didn't hear back at all.
- After talking with Thom yesterday, he wanted me to call him and then email and copy Thom on it.
- At 8:22AM this morning he finally responded, the first response in quite some time. He asked if we could do the meeting on Thursday instead, I said ok, Thursday at 10:30 AM and switched it on the calendar.
- I will give him a courtesy call/email tomorrow afternoon and then regardless, head over on Thursday to his office.
May 6th, 2019 - Time for an update, after the events of the last few days and after my talk with Thom this morning.
- The stall tactic last week was Steve saying he didn't have the PayPal login info and was getting that reset, which prevented me from meeting with him Weds-Friday
- Before Thom and I talked early this morning, I talked with Steve. He had said he got into PayPal, talked to them and they didn't have the new merchant ID info. This really goes against months and months of a certain narrative that Steve had sent them everything they had needed and got us on a wild goose chase so now there's even more cloudiness to the past of how much effort was put into it on the SVSU controller side.
- Thom gave me a few things to follow up on today and execute, the first being to get a hold of Innovative to make sure that we are good on their end, which created a ticket for and am following up on but as a recap with them, they are 110% on the that it's a PayPal issue, which makes sense, from not only how they explained it but also how the functionality is to this day. When we try to process a payment, it accepts the data and send it for transaction approval and it's there where the 'bank' approval portion fails. What I wanted to make sure of is that nothing changed on the III end so, we don't run into something where we get PayPal all set and then we have to contend with another III issue.
- The other thing was no matter what Steve is saying, to get over there face to face, with Thom and I. I queried the calendars and set up a meeting tomorrow morning.
That's where we sit as of right now but are applying the heat as much as possible.
May 7th, 2019 - Had some decent movement today. Steve called PayPal and had them implement the new (PNC Ban) Merchant ID.
He sent me back the proof and responses from PayPal. It's going to take about 48 hours til the changes take affect. What that means is the moment of truth is upon us and on Thursday around noon, I will give the E-Commerce app a test to see if it's good to go.
I have updated the III ticket I put in yesterday with the latest developments.
May 8th-13th, 2019 - Cynthia tested the day after and it didn't work. I then realized she was getting a different error than what we had gotten before the Merchant ID was changed. I opened a ticket with Innovative, after a a day, the restarted a process and then everything started working again. The main issue turned out to be that SVSU had changed Merchant Banks but didn't change the Merchant ID in PayPal and then after that III needed to do something on their end to restart the E-Commerce Module.
Related Tickets (III)
Innovative - #356872
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