# Problem with Google Checkout



## LauraMJ (Mar 18, 2004)

Hi, all,

I am on the board of directors for the Virginia Horse Council......our website is here: http://www.virginiahorsecouncil.org/

We've been having problems of various kinds with the Google shopping cart since it was set up. Now, I did not set up the website nor the shopping cart. The council paid someone to do that and as time has went on, the designer has become less and less communicative and is now completely ignoring our requests for help. We've had no response from this website design company in months.  The arrangement was that we would have control over the website contents to edit and whatnot, but it's a WordPress website and the majority of the elements are simply NOT THERE in the Admin dashboard thingy to edit.....there are only a few elements we are able to change at all ........so that is not how we wanted things, and this shopping cart has given us problems from the get-go, so I have no idea what they did or did not do properly to set it up in the first place. These people also set up all our email through google services and we've had problems with that ranging from inconvenient such as none of us individual board members can access our email properties to do even simply things like change passwords ourselves, it all has to go through the main office as it's all set up so whoever logs in can see everyone's email accounts and change things, so only the Office Assistant has that ability to try to keep it as secure as possible, which makes all of us have to go through her to change anything.  (That's a pain for all involved.) to major, such as the Office Assistant keeps email folders to keep important emails in, and many of those folders have disappeared at times or opened up to find most, if not all, the emails in them gone. 

Currently, however, our biggest problem is with the Google Checkout.

We have a board meeting next week and we'll be discussing how to get control back from Google.  

But, back to our most pressing problem.........

If you go here: http://www.virginiahorsecouncil.org/membership/ you can see the cart system. The way it works right now is the members fill out fields during their checkout to give us the information such as name and address for us to add their memberships. In the past, when a membership has come in, Google sends an email to the OA, and the OA has been able to log into the Google system and see this information along with viewing the payment. It generally takes more than one try for the stupid thing to accept the password, but she's always been able to get in, eventually. Now, however, as soon as it accepts the log in, she's redirected to a page that wants her to use Google Wallet and wants her to enter a credit card. She doesn't HAVE a credit card to enter, because she's not BUYING anything. She just wants into the Admin panel so she can process the membership!

Does anyone have any idea what is going on and how this can be fixed so we can just get into the Google checkout system to process the waiting memberships? It seems that the money transfer has gone through,.....but we have no idea WHO to apply it all to and send their membership materials to because we can't get in there to see who the money is from!

While we are going to try to get a different set up and all, but that is going to take time, of course, so for now, we need to try to get this Google shopping cart working again.

As well, if anyone has suggestions for simple, easy, and reliable shopping cart software, I'd love to hear about it.  And yes, Paypal is on the table, but of course some people are not happy with having to use Paypal, so we are open to all suggestions. Personally, I think Paypal would be easiest and I know they DO answer their phones and they DO have good customer service......at least I've always found it so. 

Thanks for any help anyone can provide!


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## Cookiegal (Aug 27, 2003)

I really don't know anything about this but have been trying to research it for you.

Do you have a seller account set up in Google Wallet?

https://accounts.google.com/Service...://checkout.google.com/merchantSignInRedirect


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## LauraMJ (Mar 18, 2004)

Well, so far as I know, we have not since the Office Assistant had never seen the term "Google Wallet" when processing orders or accessing the Merchant account....nor have we ever needed one before. I'm wondering if this is something new? But why should WE have to give a credit card?? 

I had a google shopping cart on one of my websites for a while (took it off because no one used it), and I never had to do anything with a "Google Wallet" when I set that up. I can still log into my personal Google shopping cart area and it doesn't ask me about any wallet thingy. What I have is, I believe, what the VHC has always had......yet mine is allowing me access to my account without demanding I give a credit card for a Wallet account.


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## Cookiegal (Aug 27, 2003)

I don't know. Is it possible you provided a credit card number on your other account when signing up? That would explain why it's not asking for it now.

http://support.google.com/checkout/sell/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=25402


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## LauraMJ (Mar 18, 2004)

I'm sure they had things like the bank account information and tax ID number already there, as they've been using Google Checkout for quite some time now. What's confusing us is why, now, upon sign in, is it saying she has to create a Google Wallet account and give a credit card number. That just sounds fishy to us.


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## Cookiegal (Aug 27, 2003)

Yeah, I don't know. Is there some way to contact them for support to ask the question?


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## LauraMJ (Mar 18, 2004)

They've been trying to contact Google support for days. No response, just automated reply emails.


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

I know ZERO about it but is this of any interest
http://support.google.com/wallet/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=105822

especially


> Legitimate messages sent by Google may ask you to click a link to verify your email address. If we're unable to verify the information in your Google Wallet account, we'll request additional documentation from you by sending an email from [email protected] or [email protected]. This email will ask you to sign in to your Google Wallet account and submit documents that verify your billing details. Google won't ask you to provide this sort of information until you've successfully signed in to your account.


The only other contribution I have to offer is that I an extensive user of Paypal and it has never let me down in any manner.


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## LauraMJ (Mar 18, 2004)

I suggested Paypal to them to begin with.   Didn't listen to me. 

Thanks for the link,.....but I don't think that will help, as we don't HAVE a Google Wallet account.  Which is why we are confused. We've only ever had a Google Check Out account.


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## ckphilli (Apr 29, 2006)

Laura, unfortunately...like the others...I have no experience here, but on the hunch that google checkout changed to google wallet I googled google checkout (say that 10 times fast ) and learned this: https://accounts.google.com/Service...://checkout.google.com/merchantSignInRedirect



> New! Google Checkout is now Google Wallet for buyers. Google Wallet is a fast, secure checkout process that helps increase sales by bringing you more customers and allowing them to buy from you quickly and easily with a single account, online or in-store.


Now it doesn't _seem_ as if it's google wallet across the board, but is there a possibility she's trying to sign in with the wrong account? (buyer instead of seller)


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## LauraMJ (Mar 18, 2004)

I, too, found that Wallet is basically for buyers......and of course we're not buyers--we're sellers. She's trying to log into the same account via the same link as she always has, and on the off-chance something had gotten screwed up, I had her delete all her cookies and log into it fresh. Same thing.  I've also found forums on Google for "support"  for Google Checkout and they said there that for sellers, nothing had changed and there was no "transition,"......just buyers would have to create an account with Wallet. 

It all seems extremely confusing.


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## ckphilli (Apr 29, 2006)

LauraMJ said:


> I, too, found that Wallet is basically for buyers......and of course we're not buyers--we're sellers. She's trying to log into the same account via the same link as she always has, and on the off-chance something had gotten screwed up, I had her delete all her cookies and log into it fresh. Same thing.  I've also found forums on Google for "support"  for Google Checkout and they said there that for sellers, nothing had changed and there was no "transition,"......just buyers would have to create an account with Wallet.
> 
> It all seems extremely confusing.


Very confusing.. no phone number...have you tried this email addy? : [email protected]

I know you aren't in the UK, but maybe they can push some buttons. Found that here: 
http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/checkout-merchant/_XU98v_Kte4


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

Re Paypal I realise you had suggested it I was just reinforcing has served me well

As you and especially Cookiegal know that I have NO knowledge regarding malware I could not even offer a suggestion, but I sent the link as I had read weeks ago about the scam link to ask the user to enter full credit card details and wondered if by chance the website had been compromised.

I THOUGHT but of course I will stand corrected that Google checkout was what the merchant used and Google wallet was what the customer used. 
https://developers.google.com/checkout/developer/Google_Checkout_XML_API

EDIT - my reply HONESTLY was started before 10, 11, and 12 were visible - I just could not find the link I have included.

Only as interest please see change from 23 Jan on link


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## LauraMJ (Mar 18, 2004)

> I THOUGHT but of course I will stand corrected that Google checkout was what the merchant used and Google wallet was what the customer used.
> https://developers.google.com/checko...eckout_XML_API


Yes, that is what we understood it to be, also. Which is why we can't figure out why once logged into our merchant Check Out account, it will not let us go to the "process order" page or the "settings" page or anything else like it used to, but only shows that "create a Wallet" page that wants a credit card.


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

LauraMJ

Did you solve the problem please.
If not wonder if it is worthwhile creating a google wallet account in a sandbox
http://support.google.com/checkout/sell/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=134469


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## LauraMJ (Mar 18, 2004)

Sorry, everyone,.........I forgot about keeping up with this thread. 

We actually haven't resolved it yet, but we think we know what we need to do. It seems that when the original person set up the website and google shopping cart, for some reason, they made two google accounts. One is a business account that hosts the website and gives us our email addresses. The other.......is a personal, TEMPORARY, account that has the shopping cart linked to it. It actually has "temp" in the address bar. In digging around, we finally received an error message from Google that said there were two, conflicting accounts and would we like to merge them. When we tried to merge them, Google then said that we could not because one was a temporary account and we'd lose the shopping cart.  So.....we are going to just delete the temporary account and re-set up shopping cart of some sort on our existing site. We are able to access the Google shopping cart right now though it requires one to jump through several hoops and the blood of a virgin  but we can get in.

It seems Google caught up to all this when they incorporated the Google Wallet and had to link that to all the Google shopping carts out there. And once they did, it totally messed up how we can access the existing cart on an account that is not "normal." 

However, this business being run by a board of directors, approving and then making all these changes will be a bit of a ....process. 

Thanks, everyone, for your help. It did point us in the right direction to find the issue.


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

Pleased you are on the right line now



> However, this business being run by a board of directors, *approving and then making all these changes will be a bit of a ....process. *


"You can take a horse to water but it can be difficult to make it drink" - suitable I think


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## Cookiegal (Aug 27, 2003)

I'm glad you're on the right path to getting it sorted out. :up:

So when did Eliot Spencer replace Jack Bauer?


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

_Jack Bauer _: Trust me, you don't wanna go down this path with me.
Eliot Spencer ?

please remember I am in UK
Is it a Canadian - somewhere back in the Mountain, Virginia - quip
Or am I being slow


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## Cookiegal (Aug 27, 2003)

I dunno. I was asking Laura. 

I guess it's him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Kane


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

I surrender


> You can lead a horse to water........and Eliot Spencer can make him drink


Honestly did not see that when I posted 12 - knew that Laura was connected with horses - as I was once told I would have to clean the stables.


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## Cookiegal (Aug 27, 2003)

Macboatmaster said:


> I surrender
> 
> Honestly did not see that when I posted 12 - knew that Laura was connected with horses - as I was once told I would have to clean the stables.


LOL! I thought that's what you were referring to.


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## LauraMJ (Mar 18, 2004)

Cookiegal said:


> I'm glad you're on the right path to getting it sorted out. :up:
> 
> So when did Eliot Spencer replace Jack Bauer?


Quite some time ago. 



Cookiegal said:


> I dunno. I was asking Laura.
> 
> I guess it's him:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Kane


Yep.

Here's "Eliot Spencer"

http://forums.techguy.org/8056350-post8.html

http://forums.techguy.org/8056354-post9.html


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## LauraMJ (Mar 18, 2004)

In that series........Christian Kane did ALL his own stunts.


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

All above me that, but returning to my post
If the horse is the board of directors - I hope you manage to make it drink. 

I will shortly have two back - but not mine - in my paddock I let a local stables use - as they wish
Saves me cutting the grass


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## Cookiegal (Aug 27, 2003)

LauraMJ said:


> Quite some time ago.


LOL! I'll have to keep an eye out for the next change.


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## LauraMJ (Mar 18, 2004)

Macboatmaster said:


> I will shortly have two back - but not mine - in my paddock I let a local stables use - as they wish
> Saves me cutting the grass


We do the same in our yard.  Put up some electric fence and let them out in the yard to "mow." 


Cookiegal said:


> LOL! I'll have to keep an eye out for the next change.


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