The most used eCommerce platform for our Event Tickets Plus plugin is WooCommerce, and one of the most used gateways is PayPal. This is a great combination if you would like to sell tickets for your events. However, the plugins are produced by three different parties, which can sometimes lead to different glitches.

A support question we receive often is that “the ticket stock doesn’t change when I sell a ticket.” And in most cases, the users have the outlined setup: Event Tickets Plus, WooCommerce, and PayPal.

Since the ticket sale goes bad the first reaction usually is that there is an issue with our plugins. It very well might be, but before we can state that we have to eliminate the possibility of the other plugins being faulty. To do this here is the recommended process for getting close to the source of the issue and to help speed up the support process:

Step 0 – Create a backup

Before doing any major changes to your website (updates and testing included), it is always recommended to create a full backup of your files and your database. If something goes wrong you can always go back to your backup.

Step 1 – Conflict testing

We need to make sure that other plugins, theme, or some custom code don’t interfere with the functionality of our plugins. So the first step is going through our conflict testing guide.

In brief: deactivate all plugins except for The Events Calendar ones and WooCommerce in this case. If you use a separate plugin for the PayPal gateway then leave that one active as well (using a PayPal sandbox account is recommended), and switch to a default theme like Twenty Twenty. Then check if the issue with the stock not decreasing still exists.

The issue is gone? One of the plugins, themes, or custom code you are using is causing the trouble. To find the source of the issue, follow our conflict testing guide.

The issue is still there? Go to the next step.

Step 2 – Use a different gateway

Activate the ‘Cash on Delivery’ (CoD) payment gateway in WooCommerce.

WooCommerce CoD settings

Now do a test purchase of a ticket for an event and use CoD for payment.

Once the purchase is done go to the back-end and check whether the stock of the ticket has properly decreased.

If the stock adjustment was right, then our plugins seem to be working right.

If the stock didn’t decrease, then there is some issue with either WooCommerce or Event Tickets Plus.

Step 3 – Check your PayPal configuration

See our guide to troubleshooting PayPal issues. Check your Auto return and Payment Data Transfer settings.

Step 4 – Make a test purchase with a regular WooCommerce product

Set up a new WooCommerce product, one that has nothing to do with tickets. On the Inventory tab ‘Enable stock management at product level’ and set a stock.

screenshot of WooCommerce product inventory settings

Make a test purchase of the product with CoD and check if the stock was adjusted accordingly. If yes, hurray. If not, then there is an issue with the stock handling of WooCommerce.

At last, make a test purchase of the product with PayPal. If the stock adjusts for this product but didn’t adjust for the ticket, then WooCommerce and PayPal are working well, and there might be an issue with our plugin.

If the stock does not change, then there is an issue with the interaction between WooCommerce and PayPal, and not our plugin. In this case, it is recommended to make your voice heard in the WooCommerce support forums, they will be the ones who can help you out.

If you performed the above tests and they indicate that our plugin is faulty, namely:

  • Stock decreases for WooCommerce product with PayPal / CoD

AND

  • Stock doesn’t decrease for a ticket product with the same gateway

Still having issues? Then get in touch with us and our friendly support team will be happy to help you out!