Not in testmode, but sometimes getting an AuthCode of "000000"

[esdictor]

Background: We have had an "annual renewal" application running successfully for a couple years. A year ago we added code to start saving Customer Profiles on Authorize. Now we are sometimes (often) getting AuthCodes of "000000" for transactions. We have an ASP-MVC application written in C#.

What we're seeing: The transaction goes like this:

1. We connect to the API with our API Login, Tran Key, and set IsSandbox to FALSE
2. We create a customerAddressType object with the information from the customer
3. We create a customerPaymentProfileType object with the Card Number and Expiration, setting the Bill To using the object from the previous step
4. We add the objects from the previous 2 steps to profiles and addresses
5. We then create a customerProfileType object using data from the customer
6. Using the object from step 5, we createCustomerProfileRequest, then createCustomerProfileController, and finally Execute
7. In most cases, the profile will be a duplicate, and we will get message "E00039" - this is normal for us. If we don't get that message (first time renewal) skip the next step
8. We get the Customer Profile ID from the error, and use that going forward
9. We get the customerProfilePaymentType using the Customer Profile ID and Payment Profile that have been created
10. We now create the transactionRequestType using the amount and paymentProfile
11. We createTransactionRequest using the object created in the previous step
12. We createTransactionController and Execute it
13. The API Response messages.resultCode is OK
14. The API Response transactionResponse.transId is valid
15. The API Response transactionResponse.authCode is "000000"
16. The API Response transactionResponse has no detailed messages

At this point our code has made the determination that the customer was charged successfully, but the charge has actually failed. Looking at the actual transaction, I see:

Transaction Status: Declined (Card declined by issuer - Contact card issuer to determine reason.)

However, there are 2 reasons I feel this is on our end, and not an actual card issue:

• It is happening in about 75% of all charges
• As I said above, this started happening suddenly, exactly one year after we started saving Customer Profiles. Since this is an annual renewal application, these are the first charges to happen with customers who previously used this latest version of our credit card processing (with the Customer Profile IDs).

I appreciate any help in determining how to fix this issue.

Thank you,

Evan

[Aaron]

Hi @esdictor,

Instead of looking for the presence or absence of an authCode, you should be looking for the transactionResponse.responseCode. Anything other than 1 is not approved. In those cases, there should be an error in transactionResponse.errors with detailed error codes/messages.

Error codes can be further analyzed at https://developer.authorize.net/api/reference/responseCodes.html

[esdictor]

Thanks Aaron.

I just added some code to look at the responseCode. We were already using the transactionResponse.errors when the messages.resultCode was NULL or not messageTypeEnum.Ok

I believe your response only covers half of the issue. The other half is that we're getting these authCode "000000" in over 50% of our charges. This is a huge increase from our normal rate, so I can't help but think there's another variable somewhere that's causing this. That's why I tried to give so much detail in my description.

Evan

[Aaron]

Hi @esdictor,

I was assuming from your text that you get the authCode of "000000" when the transaction is declined or errored, (i.e. responseCode <>1). Are you also getting this on successfully charged transactions?

[Aaron]

Hi @esdictor,

I also just wanted to give a quick thanks for making your initial post so detailed. That really was very helpful!

[esdictor]

No. It appears that we are only getting "000000" with unsuccessful transactions. So far in all the ones we've checked the Transaction Detail shows:

Transaction Status: Declined (Card declined by issuer - Contact card issuer to determine reason.)

Evan

[Aaron]

That's normal and expected, then. I would expect to see it that way on all declined transactions, but again, that's not the indicator that the transaction has been declined.

[esdictor]

---

@Aaron wrote:

Hi @esdictor,

I also just wanted to give a quick thanks for making your initial post so detailed. That really was very helpful!

---

I almost missed this post. Thanks, I didn't want to miss anything that might help.

Evan

[esdictor]

---

@Aaron wrote:

That's normal and expected, then. I would expect to see it that way on all declined transactions, but again, that's not the indicator that the transaction has been declined.

---

So the question now is, why are there so many declined transactions suddenly? That can't be a coincidence ... there must be something that's causing them on our end.

Evan

[Aaron]

Could be something on your end, or could just be the result of using a year old card number.

Have you signed up for our Account Updater service? If you're going a year between charges, it's likely that a good percentage of people have had card numbers replaced or expired. Account Updater will actually keep those cards in the profiles updated for you without any interaction from the cardholder by getting new card numbers or expiration dates directly from the card issuers.