Message "Your payment gateway was in test mode when this order was created."

[alake17]

I received my first real order this morning but when I clicked on the order this message appears: "your payment gateway was in test mode when this order was created."

All of my payment accounts are set up properly but I think I must have forgotten to disable "test mode" when I was setting up my store and accidentally started running my ads while still in "test mode". Will this order need to be fulfilled, should I collect payment, or do I just ignore the transaction entirely?

Please help as I am brand new to this 🙂

[Luna]

Hey, @alake17.

Thanks for reaching out in our Community forum. Congrats on making your first sale! I'm happy to help. 

Just to confirm, was the test order placed with Shopify Payments? When test mode is enabled, for Shopify Payments you must use one of our test credit card numbers to simulate a successful transaction. If the order was placed through Shopify Payments, and you receive a message that the order was placed while the gateway was in test mode, there is no refund required. In this case, I suggest reaching out to the customer to update them. If they decide to proceed, you can cancel the test order and have them place it again. Or, you can create a draft order for them. 

Please let me know if you have any questions about that. In the meantime, I'd love to hear more about your business. What type of products do you sell?

Warmly, 

[alake17]

How do I create a draft order for them without access to their complete credit card details?

[Luna]

Hey, @alake17.

That's a great question! If you create a draft order for a customer, then you can share a link to the checkout page for the order so that the customer can enter billing information, select a shipping method, and submit payment. After the customer completes the checkout process using the link, the draft order becomes an order in the Orders page and is automatically marked as Paid. There are two ways to do this: 

• Send an invoice to your customer, which contains a link to the checkout page.
• Share a checkout link with your customer on a mobile app.

For more information, check out the steps for both of these options here: Share Checkout Link with Customers. Does that sound like it would work okay for you? This just saves your customs the steps of going through each step of the purchase again.

Best, 

[alake17]

It seems as though the transaction was actually able to go through despite the site being in "test mode" since the purchase was made through PayPal Express Checkout. 

[Luna]

Hey, @alake17.

Thanks for getting back to me with this additional context. Third-party gateways such as PayPal Express have their own steps for placing test orders. If you've confirmed that the payment has been processed, you can go ahead and fulfill the order normally and the payment will be paid out from PayPal: How you Get Paid. 

Please let me know if you have any questions about that. Just a quick note, if you're ready to start taking orders using Shopify Payments as well, you can follow these steps to disable test mode.

Warmly,

[MikeBasden]

Hi,

I just had the same thing happen to me, but the customer used Amex via Apple Pay. I'm going to fulfill the order because I'm not sure if the payment will be captured or not, but it's not showing in my upcoming Shopify payments...

Any ideas on if I'll be paid or not and how this works with Apple Pay/Google Pay?

Thanks,

Mike

[Greta]

Hey, @MikeBasden!

You can look at the timeline for the order to find more information about the payment and whether it was processed. If you still aren't sure, I recommend getting in touch with our live support team so we can investigate further. Simply head over to the Help Center, enter the details of your issue into the chat assistant, and click I still need help to be connected with a Support Advisor. 

Please let me know if you have any other questions! 

[aqeeq]

Hi Mike

I just had the same issue with a customer placing their order while on test mode via Apple Pay and it went through, I have dispatched the order when I saw that the payout is scheduled, but unfortunately it wasn't transferred to my bank account. The customer is not responding to my emails nor paying for the draft order created. Shopify support simply said there is nothing to be made but to try to get in touch with the customer. Real orders on test-mode should either go through normally or at least get declined, I don't understand why a company as big as Shopify did not solve this issue. What I'm worried about is that what if there are users who are able to recognise shops with test-modes and use that by placing orders using Apple Pay and always get away with it, that would be scary. I sell expensive products and I am afraid I have lost the order.