Instrument declined. Order status changed from Pending payment to Failed.

Hi,

we have the same issues, too. Some orders are flagged with “instrument declined”. Problems started today.

Johannes

Hi there,

We are working on providing more relevant and user-friendly information about payment failures within the order notes and also in the frontend, as the current error messages may not be very clear.
When we receive an API response with a failure from PayPal, we can only assume so much about the actual problem though. PayPal provides a slightly more detailed error description for some failures:
INSTRUMENT_DECLINED: The instrument presented was either declined by the processor or bank or it can't be used for this payment.

This error is usually not related to the plugin or PayPal, but to the bank of the buyer. For example, when a credit card is connected to a PayPal account but is temporarily blocked from the bank when the user tries to pay with it.
The order would first be set to a “Failed” status but the user receives the opportunity to try it again (up to three times). If the user does try again and successfully completes the payment, then the order status should be changed from “Failed” to “Processing”.
Do affected orders remain in a “Failed” status even after the user successfully completed the payment for you @smgdarien?
Thanks!

Kind regards,
Niklas

The failed orders remain in a failed state even after the payment is successful

This can also be a red flag if you’re using retention rules, failed orders are deleted after X about of time. By the time the issue is flagged, the order is deleted.

Hi @smgdarien,

When the order status does not change after the payment, then it could be related to the webhooks not being registered properly.
To make sure the webhooks are registered correctly, please first enable “Logging” in the plugin settings and then visit the “Webhooks Status” dashboard from the settings:

Then click on Resubscribe and afterward Simulate to verify that the webhooks are received.
If it takes a while and displays an error after trying to simulate, then we would be interested in a copy of your logfile which you can access from here:
WooCommerce > Status > Logs > select “woocommerce-paypal-payments-[…]” in the dropdown and click on view.
The logs can contain some sensitive information so if you prefer to share them privately you can reach out from here:
https://paypal.inpsyde.com/docs/request-support/
Thanks!

Kind regards,
Niklas

I checked a bit further and noticed that our developers are already aware of a bug that can cause this very behavior.
So I linked this thread and will try let you know when there is a fix available.

Kind regards,
Niklas

The webhook was received successfully.

I’ve had a few orders today continue to get the same error, Instrument declined. Order status changed from Pending payment to Failed.

This needs to be actioned asap, in the meantime I’m disabling PayPal

Hi @smgdarien,

If you are experiencing an unusual amount of Instrument declined errors, then I suggest additionally reaching out to the PayPal MTS: https://www.paypal-techsupport.com/s/login/
The PayPal MTS can find more information about eventual transactions if you share the plugin log files, or more importantly the Debug ID of these declined payments.
The plugin would be responsible for changing the order status to Processing if the user recovered after a failed payment, but the scenario of a payment being declined like this should be an exception rather than a rule in the first place. The actual decline happens at PayPal, or more precisely the bank of the cardholder so there is not much we could do about that particular error from the plugin perspective.

Could you please give it a try with a sandbox merchant account connected to test it in a controlled environment where external factors like blocked cards can be disregarded? Thanks!

Kind regards,
Niklas

Same issue occurred on a client’s site -> Instrument declined error, Order status changed from Pending payment to Failed. Several hours later the payment went through for whatever reason but order was still stuck on failed status so confirmation email/download was not sent.

WooCommerce Logs say (among other things):
2022-05-16T05:12:14+00:00 NOTICE debug :: Order ID #xxxxx was pending and is now failed
…
2022-05-16T16:32:37+00:00 NOTICE debug :: Order ID #xxxxx was failed and is now completed
…
2022-05-16T16:34:44+00:00 NOTICE order_submit.success :: addStoreOrder :: #xxxxxx

Please let me know if you require any more info or otherwise when there is a fix for this!

Hi @niklasinpsyde,

Same issue here, by any chance we can get an update on the issue here?

Thank you,

Having this same issue on a client’s site. Could be a coincidence but both orders were being recovered from Cart Bounty (an abandoned cart plugin). Not sure why that would affect the payment process, but it’s weird that it has happened twice in 2 days and both are from recovered carts.