Error message at when checking out with Paypal after upgrade

Can someone tell me whats going on here:

Latest paypal-api.log

LOG ENTRY: Thu Dec 10th, 2015 @ precisely 10:25 am UTC
PHP v5.4.43 :: WordPress v4.4 :: s2Member v150925 :: s2Member Pro v150925
Memory 44.75 MB :: Real Memory 45.50 MB :: Peak Memory 44.91 MB :: Real Peak Memory 45.50 MB
https://www.moneypigz.com/matched-betting/yearly/
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_10_5) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/47.0.2526.73 Safari/537.36
——– Input vars: ( Thu Dec 10, 2015 10:25:08 am UTC ) ——–
array (
‘METHOD’ => ‘SetExpressCheckout’,
‘RETURNURL’ => ‘https://www.moneypigz.com/matched-betting/yearly/?s2p-option&s2member_paypal_xco=s2member_pro_paypal_checkout_return’,
‘CANCELURL’ => ‘https://www.moneypigz.com/matched-betting/yearly/?s2p-option&s2member_paypal_xco=s2member_pro_paypal_checkout_cancel’,
‘PAGESTYLE’ => ‘paypal’,
‘LOCALECODE’ => ”,
‘NOSHIPPING’ => ‘1’,
‘SOLUTIONTYPE’ => ‘Sole’,
‘LANDINGPAGE’ => ‘Billing’,
‘ALLOWNOTE’ => ‘0’,
‘L_BILLINGTYPE0’ => ‘RecurringPayments’,
‘L_BILLINGAGREEMENTDESCRIPTION0’ => ‘Gold Membership – ￡114.99 / Year’,
‘MAXAMT’ => ‘114.99’,
‘PAYMENTREQUEST_0_CURRENCYCODE’ => ‘GBP’,
‘PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPTONAME’ => ‘Saam Ali’,
‘PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPTOSTREET’ => ”,
‘PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPTOCITY’ => ”,
‘PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPTOSTATE’ => ”,
‘PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPTOCOUNTRYCODE’ => ‘GB’,
‘PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPTOZIP’ => ”,
‘EMAIL’ => ‘[email protected]’,
‘VERSION’ => ‘71.0’,
‘USER’ => ‘osama.ali_api1.hotmail.co.uk’,
‘PWD’ => ‘xxxxxxxx/PWD/SIG’,
‘SIGNATURE’ => ‘xxxxxxxx/PWD/SIG’,
)
——– Output string/vars: ( Thu Dec 10, 2015 10:25:08 am UTC ) ——–

array (
‘__error’ => ‘Error. Please contact Support for assistance.’,
)

LOG ENTRY: Thu Dec 10th, 2015 @ precisely 11:34 am UTC
PHP v5.4.43 :: WordPress v4.4 :: s2Member v150925 :: s2Member Pro v150925
Memory 44.52 MB :: Real Memory 44.75 MB :: Peak Memory 44.62 MB :: Real Peak Memory 44.75 MB
https://www.moneypigz.com/matched-betting/monthly/
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_10_5) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/47.0.2526.73 Safari/537.36
——– Input vars: ( Thu Dec 10, 2015 11:34:27 am UTC ) ——–
array (
‘METHOD’ => ‘SetExpressCheckout’,
‘RETURNURL’ => ‘https://www.moneypigz.com/matched-betting/monthly/?s2p-option&s2member_paypal_xco=s2member_pro_paypal_checkout_return’,
‘CANCELURL’ => ‘https://www.moneypigz.com/matched-betting/monthly/?s2p-option&s2member_paypal_xco=s2member_pro_paypal_checkout_cancel’,
‘PAGESTYLE’ => ‘paypal’,
‘LOCALECODE’ => ”,
‘NOSHIPPING’ => ‘1’,
‘SOLUTIONTYPE’ => ‘Sole’,
‘LANDINGPAGE’ => ‘Billing’,
‘ALLOWNOTE’ => ‘0’,
‘L_BILLINGTYPE0’ => ‘RecurringPayments’,
‘L_BILLINGAGREEMENTDESCRIPTION0’ => ‘Gold Membership – ￡14.99 / Month’,
‘MAXAMT’ => ‘14.99’,
‘PAYMENTREQUEST_0_CURRENCYCODE’ => ‘GBP’,
‘PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPTONAME’ => ‘Saam Ali’,
‘PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPTOSTREET’ => ”,
‘PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPTOCITY’ => ”,
‘PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPTOSTATE’ => ”,
‘PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPTOCOUNTRYCODE’ => ‘GB’,
‘PAYMENTREQUEST_0_SHIPTOZIP’ => ”,
‘EMAIL’ => ‘[email protected]’,
‘VERSION’ => ‘71.0’,
‘USER’ => ‘osama.ali_api1.hotmail.co.uk’,
‘PWD’ => ‘xxxxxxxx/PWD/SIG’,
‘SIGNATURE’ => ‘xxxxxxxx/PWD/SIG’,
)
——– Output string/vars: ( Thu Dec 10, 2015 11:34:27 am UTC ) ——–

array (
‘__error’ => ‘Error. Please contact Support for assistance.’,
)

The latest s2Member update includes a fix to attempt to resolve a PayPal bug (see this GitHub issue). That change might be related to what you’re seeing.

I suggest trying to change the ns="" attribute in your PayPal Button Shortcode; if it’s currently set to ns="1", try changing it to ns="0" and vice versa.

My site is receiving the same message “Error: Please contact Support for assistance.” My website consultant/developer, who I have to pay to fix website issues after each upgrade, says he thinks this is an S2Member error and not a WordPress error because the issue is that S2Member is not connecting with PayPal. He’s telling me to contact S2Member directly. Apothecarytravels yes I feel the same as you. Getting tired of fixing issues after each upgrade. That’s how I acquired a website consultant/developer in the first place.

Raamdev

I actioned your suggestion and I’m still receiving the same response i.e. “Error: Please contact Support for assistance.”

I contacted my web hosting and they have tested all of the configurations, which leaves it an issue between paypal and S2Member.

What do you think is my next move?

Minielli. I’d love to hire someone, but I havent got the cash yet! I’m going to contact S2Member directly also.

Happening on too much of a regular basis.

The next step to diagnosing this issue would be to review your s2Member log files (assuming you have logging enabled; if not, you’ll need to enable logging and then reproduce the issue so that s2Member can log the results). The logs may give you clues as to what’s going on.

PayPal is constantly changing things on their end with their API, and these changes are often made on some servers but not others, at different times, and changes sometimes only affect a subset of PayPal accounts, making issues like these even more difficult to troubleshoot.

@minielli @apothecarytravels Note that if you’re an s2Member Pro user, you can open a support ticket to request help directly from our support team.

@raamdev, thanks. I am a Pro member and opened up a ticket this morning.

@apothecarytravels I have learned to always check PayPal after a major upgrade. I think this is the 3rd time my PayPal and PayPal Pro have been knocked out in one year. You can hire a WP troubleshooter freelancer at Upwork.com for very reasonable prices. My guy is Mir Rajibul Islam. Great guy, very knowledgeable, does great work, and gives me great advice on various WP plugins.

The error:

‘__error’ => ‘Error. Please contact Support for assistance.’,

Indicates a general connectivity issue. It is likely that there is no problem with your PayPal account, but that there is a problem with the HTTP communication itself; i.e., that HTTP communication with PayPal’s API has failed for some reason altogether.

s2Member keeps a log of all HTTP communication whenever you have logging enabled. I’d suggest a careful review of wp-content/plugins/s2member-logs/s2-http-api-debug.log. Looking for failures in that log file.

A common failure on some sites is related to SSL.
See: SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate?

If you inspect the s2-http-api-debug.log file and find something like this.

[url] => https://api-3t.paypal.com/nvp
    [response] => WP_Error Object
        (
            [errors] => Array
                (
                    [http_request_failed] => Array
                        (
                            [0] => SSL certificate problem, verify that the CA cert is OK. Details:
error:14090086:SSL routines:SSL3_GET_SERVER_CERTIFICATE:certificate verify failed
                        )

                )

            [error_data] => Array
                (
                )

        )

Please see: SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate? for a solution.

Thanks for the coding information. My guy disabled the SSL option and now PayPal Pro is working. So it looks like this is a SSL certificate issue and we need to contact our website hosting services for them to provide whatever we need to have the SSL certificate.

Hi.

Yes, that does seem to be my issue also, so thanks for that info. I’m in contact with my hosting as suggested by the article. However, is disabling the SSL recommended?

Thanks again

No to disabling.

I’m having this problem too and have been unable to accept Paypal payments since Friday (Stripe is working OK). A response to a support ticket pointed me here.

My logs are showing ” SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate ” and when contacting my hosting provider, they have asked ‘what exactly needs updating?”.

A search for ‘WordPress 4.4 SSL’ shows that some changes to wp-includes/certificates/ca-bundle.crt may have caused a number of SSL related issues.

I have had to disable my SSL until further notice. This has cleared up the issue, but has also left me without an SSL certificate to show, which may have other adverse effects. Not ideal in the slightest.

I have questioned my host extensively with regards to updating the CA bundles to match that of the new WordPress installation, but they cant see anything wrong from there end.

So, it’s nothing to do with PayPal or the hosting. Where is it that we go from here?? I’d like to be showing an SSL certificate of course.

I discovered our website did not have a SSL Certificate and you have to buy it. I was also told that we needed to buy a dedicated IP address to run the SSL Certificate. We have PayPal Pro and need to accept international payments. Our webhost BlueHost suggested Comodo https://www.comodo.com/ You can buy the certificate yourself if you are knowledgeable and can install on your own (and do the dedicated IP address stuff). I am not so we paid BlueHost to do it for us. $199 for the SSL Certificate/year with installation and $4/month for dedicated IP address. The help documents WordPress provides on SSL Certificates were very helpful. BlueHost had our site back up and running within 4 hours. I had no idea we had to buy this certificate. I’m not sure how we were getting along with encryption without having one. I have no idea if I paid more than I should have but since I know absolutely zilch about this stuff, I figure we might as well pay to have it done by the host.

@minielli. Now you have the SSL certificate in place, are you experiencing any issues? Because even though all my SSL certs were up to date and functioning, I still had an issue, which suggests theres an alternat problem. I’m aslo with Bluehost. P.s. I found Mr Islam and he helped me out. Thanks for that