Why is a customer's delivery address not recognized on my site?

[Greentailmodels]

I have received this from a customer:

"I have just placed an order and have paid via Pay Pal but when it takes me back to you website your system won't accept my delivery address even though I have not long purchased from you.It doesn't even tell me what needs to be changed in order to comply and allow the order to be finalised,this is frustrating as Pay Pal have taken the payment from my account."

The customer is based in the UK, and they have successfully ordered before. This lates order has not been registered by my Shopify shop, and I have not received any payment. According to the customer, Paypal says their payment is 'pending'.

Can anyone point me in the direction of a solution to this?

Thanks in advance.

[Elias]

Hey, @Greentailmodels.

Thank you for reaching out and posting this question!

I understand that you have a customer reporting that they're trying to place an order using PayPal and the funds have been taken from their account; however, they're unable to complete the order due to some delivery address issues. While it's possible that the payment was taken out as an authorization, the authorization will expire after a certain amount of time if your store is unable to capture the funds. So if you don't see their order on Shopify, then it's likely the authorization will expire and the funds will be returned. In this instance, we'd recommend asking the customer for screenshots of the errors with the delivery address so you can begin to investigate the problem. Otherwise, we'd recommend having the customer get in touch with PayPal about their transaction so they can help resolve the issue and place their order again. You can also have the customer learn more about why the payment they sent is pending and they'll be able to cancel their payment. 

On the other hand, if you do see their order on Shopify but the payment is still pending, then we'd also recommend for you to get in touch with PayPal so you can learn more about why the transaction is stuck in pending. It's best to play it safe and make sure that you've received the funds before you begin to fulfill an order. 

That being said, I noticed you're a new member of our Shopify Community! I'd love to hear more about your business and share some resources to help you get started. What kinds of products are you selling? Do you have a marketing plan prepared for your store?

[Greentailmodels]

Hi,

Many thanks for your reply.

I don’t think this is a PayPal issue. The order never appeared on my shop because the shop refused it.

I tried running a dummy order with myself as the customer, and tried to buy exactly the same products as the other customer had tried to buy and got the same result. The order was refused on the grounds that I couldn’t deliver to that address.

Still none the wiser I’m afraid.

David

[Elias]

Hi, @Greentailmodels.

Thanks for following up, David.

I don't recommend making the purchases on your own store using your own PayPal account or credit cards as it could present a problem with the payment gateways. Instead, we'd recommend having a friend or family member try making a purchase on your store and then you can refund their order afterwards. While we're not seeing any other reported cases of checkout issues using PayPal, it's possible that there is an issue with your shipping zones. Does checking out with a credit card (not using PayPal) work when you enter the customer's address? 

We'd also recommend having the customer check with PayPal on the transit of their funds and getting help with cancelling their payment. Once that's done, they can try placing the order again. If the issue continues to persist, then it looks like we'll need to take a closer look at your account in order to identify the problem. While we're unable to provide account-specific support via the Shopify Community, we'd be happy to assist you through live chat. Please visit the Shopify Help Center and login to your account to create a support request.

If you have any other questions on this topic, don't hesitate to let me know!