PayPal CUSTREF Not Appearing in PayFlow Pro Transactions with Secure Token (Transparent Redirect)

Question

I'm using PayPal PayFlow Pro to process transactions. We've opted to use the secure token with transparent redirects to try and address PCI-Compliance issues.

In my token request, I am specifying the CUSTREF parameter like so:

&CUSTREF=461

I have also created a hidden field for this in the transaction form. I have the HTTPS proxy enabled for Fiddler and I can see these values coming through in both the secure token and transaction requests. The transactions complete successfully on the live PayFlow gateway.

However, when I view the transactions under https://manager.paypal.com/ > Reports > Daily Activity, the Cust Ref #: field on the detail page is empty.

The parameter is discussed for use in inquiry transactions on page 71 of this document: https://www.paypalobjects.com/webstatic/en_US/developer/docs/pdf/payflowgateway_guide.pdf

I couldn't find much documentation on this field other than this. I had a look at some code samples, and it looks like the CUSTREF parameter should be passed in the transaction request (which was the first thing I tried), e.g.

https://github.com/angelleye/paypal/blob/master/PayFlowTransaction.php

Has anyone encountered this before? I have a ticket open with PayPal.

Answer 1

I received confirmation from PayPal that this is a bug.

This appears to work with the regular Payflow Pro API calls, but fails when passing the CUSTREF using a Secure Token API call or hosted pages (using Secure Token).

The recommended work-around was to pass the field through in the comments.