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Resolving Payment Capture Failures and Stuck "Pending" Orders

If a payment won't capture from your WSM admin panel, an order is stuck in Pending even though your gateway shows the charge, or all transactions on your store suddenly stop working, this article will help you understand what's happening and what to do next.

These situations are different from ordinary card declines (wrong number, insufficient funds, AVS/CVV mismatch). For those, see "Troubleshooting Payment Issues at Checkout."

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Symptom 1: Capturing a payment buffers endlessly

What you'll see: In the order, you select Capture from the final confirmation window, and the screen spins indefinitely and never completes — often on every order, not just one.

What it usually means: This is typically a connection problem between WSM and your payment gateway (for example, Authorize.net), not a problem with a specific customer's card. A helpful sign is that the charge may still go through successfully when you capture it manually inside your gateway's own portal.

What to do:

    • Confirm the problem affects multiple orders, not just one. If several orders behave the same way, the issue is account-wide.
    • Check whether one payment method still works (for example, PayPal captures fine but credit cards do not). This helps pinpoint which gateway is affected.
    • As a temporary measure, you can capture the payment directly in your gateway's portal (such as the Authorize.net portal) so the customer is charged and the order can move forward.
    • Contact WSM Support and let us know it affects all orders. Re-authenticating and re-configuring your gateway connection often resolves this.
Note: If your store uses more than one site (for example, a .com and a .ca), it's possible for one site to be affected while the other works normally. Let us know exactly which site is impacted.

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Symptom 2: Order stuck in "Pending" with no payment recorded

What you'll see: An order sits in Pending status in WSM with no payment showing — but when you check your gateway (Authorize.net, PayPal, or Affirm), the charge went through.

What it usually means: The payment succeeded at the gateway, but the confirmation didn't post back to WSM, so the order never advanced.

What to do:

    • Open the order in your admin panel and note the order number.
    • Confirm in your gateway that the charge was actually captured (not just authorized or pending review).
    • Contact WSM Support with the order number and confirmation that the gateway shows the charge. We can reconcile the order so its status matches the payment.
Warning: Do not re-run or re-capture the payment before checking your gateway. If the charge already went through, running it again can double-charge the customer.

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Symptom 3: All transactions blocked — "merchant login ID or password is invalid"

What you'll see: Every checkout attempt fails, with an error such as:

> Payment: Credit card processing error: The merchant login ID or password is invalid or the account is inactive. Response Code: 13

Or customers report being "locked out" with a generic processing error across the board.

What it usually means: This points to a gateway credential or account problem — not a single customer's card. The most common causes are outdated or changed API credentials, or an inactive/suspended gateway account. Because it affects the whole store, every customer sees it.

What to do:

    • Verify your gateway account is active and in good standing by logging into the gateway directly.
    • Check whether your gateway credentials (login ID / API keys) have recently changed or expired.
    • Contact WSM Support. Re-entering and re-confirming your gateway credentials in WSM typically restores processing.
Symptom 4: PayPal shows "There was an error connecting to PayPal"

What you'll see: At checkout, PayPal returns:

> There was an error connecting to PayPal. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try again.

What it usually means: This is a connection or authorization issue between WSM and your PayPal account.

What to do:

    • Log into your PayPal account directly to confirm it is active and that your login works.
    • Reproduce the error yourself by adding an item to the cart and starting a PayPal checkout, so you can confirm whether it affects all attempts.
    • Contact WSM Support to re-verify the PayPal connection.
A note on legitimate orders held for fraud review

Sometimes an order isn't stuck because of a technical fault — it's being held for fraud review (for example, by Kount). A legitimate order can be flagged and paused until it's reviewed. This is expected behavior, not a payment failure.

For how fraud review works and how to release held orders, please see our existing fraud review articles rather than treating the order as a processing error.

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When to contact WSM Support

Reach out to us if:

    • Payment capture buffers endlessly across multiple orders
    • An order is stuck in Pending but the gateway confirms the charge
    • All transactions are blocked by a credential or account error
    • PayPal repeatedly fails to connect
Please include: the affected site (if you run more than one), example order numbers, the exact error message, and confirmation of what you see in your gateway portal. This helps us resolve the issue quickly.