Lack of interest Handle PayPal IPN 'new_case' as a reversal

[DragonByte Tech]

We just received a PayPal chargeback, but XF2 says "Information: Transaction already processed. Skipping."

Here's the the log, censored:

array(17) {
  ["txn_type"] => string(8) "new_case"
  ["payment_date"] => string(25) "07:42:37 Jan 17, 2019 PST"
  ["case_id"] => string(xx) "xxx"
  ["case_type"] => string(10) "chargeback"
  ["business"] => string(xx) "xxx"
  ["verify_sign"] => string(xx) "xxx"
  ["payer_email"] => string(xx) "xxx"
  ["txn_id"] => string(xx) "xxx"
  ["case_creation_date"] => string(25) "09:46:17 Mar 05, 2019 PST"
  ["receiver_email"] => string(xx) "xxx"
  ["payer_id"] => string(xx) "xxx"
  ["receiver_id"] => string(xx) "xxx"
  ["reason_code"] => string(12) "unauthorized"
  ["custom"] => string(32) "xxx"
  ["charset"] => string(12) "windows-1252"
  ["notify_version"] => string(3) "3.9"
  ["ipn_track_id"] => string(xx) "xxx"
}

The words "Transaction already processed. Skipping." only appears in AbstractProvider and in PayPal, so it's unlikely this is a bug in eCommerce. If I'm wrong, any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Chris D]

At the point at which the case has been settled, is the point we should get a relevant callback from PayPal.

Specifically we're waiting for a notification that has a payment_status of Refunded or Reversed.

 

[Snog]

I'll bet if you log into your PayPal account the funds for that transaction are on hold. If you can reply to the dispute with anything that might cause PayPal to find in your favor, I would.

 

[DragonByte Tech]

At the point at which the case has been settled, is the point we should get a relevant callback from PayPal.

Specifically we're waiting for a notification that has a payment_status of Refunded or Reversed.

Would it be something you'd consider changing, so that it can handle the instigation of a case as a reversal, and finding in the seller's favour restores it just like a reversal and cancelled reversal does just now?

If this is something you'd be interested in, I can go dig up the details for the last time we won a case.

I'll bet if you log into your PayPal account the funds for that transaction are on hold. If you can reply to the dispute with anything that might cause PayPal to find in your favor, I would.

Sadly I don't believe that's gonna work;

The sender of the payment outlined below has requested their financial institution to reverse (part, or all of) this payment. They've cited the following reason:

The buyer stated that they did not authorise this purchase.

In our experience, PayPal generally doesn't care about any evidence on our end since the chargeback has bubbled up from the PP account owner's bank.

 

[Chris D]

Would it be something you'd consider changing, so that it can handle the instigation of a case as a reversal, and finding in the seller's favour restores it just like a reversal and cancelled reversal does just now?

I've left the bug report open, but I'm not totally sure I see a compelling reason to make a change in the short term (i.e. would likely be more of a suggestion, at best).

I presume these are likely cases of genuine fraud where perhaps a hacked account or stolen credit card has been used (well done PayPal) and therefore you want to prevent access to the purchased item as soon as possible.

In my experience it's extremely unusual for such things to happen, and them not to have immediately downloaded the product and by that time the damage is already done. Whether the purchase is reversed sooner rather than later doesn't appear as though it would make any difference, as far as I can see, unless I'm overlooking something?

 

[DragonByte Tech]

Whether the purchase is reversed sooner rather than later doesn't appear as though it would make any difference, as far as I can see, unless I'm overlooking something?

You're absolutely right in that the damage has already been done (the product is downloaded).

It feels wrong to let them keep the product while PayPal sorts things out. I realise feelings don't stand up to logical scrutiny, but it still feels pretty terrible that the scammer is "getting away with it". It doesn't matter whether they are using stolen credit card information or whether they are opening a dispute regarding the item for "significantly not as described" (i.e. I didn't bother reading the feature list or contacting the developer for pre-sales questions), it still feels like they have unlimited access to ill-gotten gains.

If I'm about to drop a major new beta or release, and someone charges back that product but it isn't removed from their account because it's a "case" and not a "reversal", it's going to sting that much more. They can download it, leak it to warez sites, and do Odin knows what else. If a PayPal "case" was handled the same way as a reversal, I would feel safer dropping that new version.

I do realise that it's a niche scenario, but it's not so far outside the realm of possibility that I'm willing to say "yeah you're right, bin this thread"

 

[Chris D]

We're not 100% against ever making any changes here but at this point we'd be considering this as more of a suggestion than a bug.

Taking the PayPal documentation as an example, in your specific example, you haven't actually lost the funds, yet:

Some complaints don't cause the reversal of funds. In such cases, no reversal IPN is sent and you receive a new_case IPN, as it wouldn't affect your balance.

There may be some cases which cause the reversal of funds and these would get picked up by us automatically.

If this is something urgent for you, you may want to consider extending the PayPal provider to inject the additional behaviours that you want.

 

[DragonByte Tech]

Fair

It's not urgent per se, and I'd rather not risk breaking something by extending PayPal's handling (the fact that XF handles the core logic is why I was even comfortable releasing eCommerce in the first place ).

Might be an idea to rename the thread to something like Handle PayPal IPN "new_case" as a reversal so it's easier to remember when you review this later down the line