Paypal Sandbox recurring payment with initial amount pending

Question

I'm using the PHP library here to create a new subscription profile. If I set an initial amount, the profile appears as "Pending".

Example:

Pending
Customer Mark Wally Verified
Profile start date Feb 18, 2013 | Profile ID I-BE824P6F9PER

On the other hand, if I set no initial payment amount, the profile will be "Active". I am setting the initial payment and the start date 1 month in the future since I want to bill monthly and get a payment right away.

I've already verified:

• Account is set to accept money in any currency
• The seller account has digital goods enabled (created via automated process)
• Both accounts are verified
• The buyer account has a credit card as well as a paypal balance
• Both accounts are US based
• I've tried with multiple accounts

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Code snippet to create the subscription that use the library listed above:

$subscription_details = array(
  'description'    => 'Premium membership: $4.95 every 30 days',
  'initial_amount' => '4.95',
  'amount'         => '4.95',
  'period'         => 'Day',
  'start_date'     => gmdate( 'Y-m-d\TH:i:s', strtotime( '+30 day' ) ),
  'frequency'      => '30'
);

Answer 1

Just in case someone else has this trouble, my findings are:

There is nothing to solve -- the sandbox is just really slow, sometimes it took a couple days for the profile to become active and send the IPN. In other words, sandbox isn't good to test these functions at all, just go live and refund a couple tests. Even live sometimes takes a bit of time... I've seen it take a few hours sometimes, so don't go crazy.