periodic donations to SPI

Hi all,

One of the contributors to GNU TeXmacs has experienced difficulties with
periodic donations to SPI via Paypal:

[...]
I find that, after some new regulations about on security of my bank card
(probably "3D Secure"), I am no longer able to donate periodically to SPI on paypal.
[...]

Did anyone else report such problems? Can it be fixed?

Best wishes, --Joris

* vdhoeven(at)texmacs(dot)org <vdhoeven(at)texmacs(dot)org> [2021-01-06 23:11]:
> Did anyone else report such problems? Can it be fixed?

Unfortunately there have been problems with recurring payments on
PayPal for the last weeks. I've been in contact with PayPal support
but alas their support isn't very good.

One donor tried to cancel and re-create the recurring payment and we
should find out today or tomorrow if that workaround works. (I still
hope for PayPal to find a proper resolution, though.)

I don't think it's related to 3D Secure, although that's an
interesting theory.

--
Martin Michlmayr
Contractor, Software in the Public Interest, Inc.

Hi Martin,

On Thu, Jan 07, 2021 at 10:59:17AM +0800, Martin Michlmayr wrote:
> * vdhoeven(at)texmacs(dot)org <vdhoeven(at)texmacs(dot)org> [2021-01-06 23:11]:
> > Did anyone else report such problems? Can it be fixed?
>
> Unfortunately there have been problems with recurring payments on
> PayPal for the last weeks. I've been in contact with PayPal support
> but alas their support isn't very good.
>
> One donor tried to cancel and re-create the recurring payment and we
> should find out today or tomorrow if that workaround works. (I still
> hope for PayPal to find a proper resolution, though.)
>
> I don't think it's related to 3D Secure, although that's an
> interesting theory.

Thanks for looking into this problem.
Here follows some further info from our donator:

---
Thank you for forwarding the email. I have suffered from the issue for at least several months, not just
+weeks. The last payment was in October. I saw the failure of payment in November and I thought that it
+was due to a technical issue which should be resolved but it continued to fail in December. I tried to
+"confirm" my bank card on PayPal, and then tried to "cancel and re-create a recurring payment" around
+Christmas, afterwards I received a message of failing in January. I thought that it is PayPal that failed
+to get money from my bank card, but this message indicates that there are other possibilities.
---

Best wishes, --Joris

* vdhoeven(at)texmacs(dot)org <vdhoeven(at)texmacs(dot)org> [2021-01-07 23:16]:
> Thanks for looking into this problem.
> Here follows some further info from our donator:

Yes, that's unfortunately in line with what I'm seeing.

The new recurring payment another donor setup also failed yesterday.
I've reached out to PayPal again.

Can you put me in contact with this donor (off-list), so I can ask
some more questions.

I'm sorry about these problems. Unfortunately, PayPal's support is
extremely poor, so it's hard to work out what's going on.

--
Martin Michlmayr
Contractor, Software in the Public Interest, Inc.

* vdhoeven(at)texmacs(dot)org <vdhoeven(at)texmacs(dot)org> [2021-01-06 23:11]:
> Did anyone else report such problems? Can it be fixed?

This issue appears to have been resolved as of January 11.

We've had several successful recurring donations in the
last few days. I'll verify and collect outstanding balances.

--
Martin Michlmayr
Contractor, Software in the Public Interest, Inc.

* Martin Michlmayr <tbm(at)spi-inc(dot)org> [2021-01-14 19:00]:
> We've had several successful recurring donations in the
> last few days. I'll verify and collect outstanding balances.

I can confirm that recurring donations via PayPal are working
again.

--
Martin Michlmayr
Contractor, Software in the Public Interest, Inc.