Paying for your order

This page picks up at Place order, the last button of Checking out. What happens next depends on how you chose to pay: a card on Stripe’s own page, or later, with the organization’s instructions.

Which ways to pay you can choose is up to each fundraiser, and a fundraiser may take only one. If you see no choice on the review step, the fundraiser takes only that one way. If your cart holds items from fundraisers that have no way of paying in common, it cannot go to checkout at all; see When items can’t be paid for together. Payment methods explains the two ways from the organization’s side.

Choose Pay by card now if the review step offers a choice, then select Place order. You are sent to a payment page run by Stripe, which handles card payments for the organization. The review step says your card details go straight to Stripe.

When you are sent there, your items leave your cart and the fundraiser sets them aside for you. The order is not paid until you pay on Stripe’s page. If you use up the time there, the order lapses. The items set aside for you can stay that way for up to 35 minutes from when you went to pay.

If a card is declined, the order is not canceled. It stays open while the Stripe page does, so you can try again or use another card there. What the page says about a declined card is Stripe’s wording, not the fundraiser’s.

When you pay, Stripe sends you back to the organization’s confirmation page. A card order’s label reads Payment processing until the payment is confirmed. After you order explains that page and the emails.

A card order must total at least $1.00. A pay-later order has no such minimum.

If you use the back link on Stripe’s page instead of paying, you land on a page on the organization’s site. What it says depends on whether leaving canceled your order.

• Order canceled. “Your order is canceled and nothing was charged. Your items are back in your cart.” A Go to your cart button takes you there.
• Some items may not go back. The page then says “1 item could not go back in your cart. You can add it again from the shop.” or, for more than one, “2 items could not go back in your cart. You can add them again from the shop.” If none went back, the button reads Back to the shop instead.
• Payment not finished. “If you left the payment page before paying, nothing was charged and the order isn’t complete.” and “If your cart is empty, the items you picked can stay set aside for up to 35 minutes from when you went to pay, so anything low in stock may show as sold out until then.” The button reads Back to the shop. You see this page when there was nothing for the visit to cancel, or when Stripe could not be reached.

If your payment had already gone through, for example because you paid in another tab, the link takes you to the order confirmation instead.

If you close the tab or press your browser’s back button on Stripe’s page, no one cancels the order for you. Your cart is empty, and the order lapses on its own after about 35 minutes. Once it does, the items are free for others and you can add them again from the fundraiser’s page.

If you choose to pay later, or the fundraiser takes only that, Place order does not open a card page. Nothing is charged, and you go straight to the confirmation page. Your order is placed and shows Awaiting payment.

How to pay is the organization’s own text, which it writes for each fundraiser. You can read it in three places:

• In the No payment today box on the review step, before you place the order. If the fundraiser has no instructions, the box says the organization “will tell you how to pay.”
• On the confirmation page, in a box headed How to pay, with the line “Include order” and your order number “with your payment.” Under What happens next, a step reads “Pay” and the amount due “as your receipt above explains.” When the fundraiser wrote no instructions, it reads “when” the organization “tells you how.”
• In the confirmation email, under the same heading, How to pay.

These instructions appear while the order is waiting for payment. Once the organization has recorded your payment, they are gone.

You pay the organization directly, in the way it describes. You do not pay on the website, and nothing you do there marks the order paid. The organization records the payment on its side, and an email with a payment receipt goes to the address you gave. See Pay-later orders.

If Place order is refused, you stay on Check your order. Your details are kept, and a message at the top says what to change. Fix it, then select Place order again.

Message	What it means
Your cart changed while you were checking out. Review it, then place your order.	Something in your cart changed since you last saw it, such as a price, a quantity or an item that can no longer be ordered.
Some of what you picked sold out while you were checking out. Go back to your cart to change it.	Another order took the last of an item.
The delivery or pickup time you chose just filled up. Go back to your details and choose another.	The time you picked has no room left.
The delivery or pickup time you chose isn’t taking orders anymore. Go back to your details and choose another.	The time you picked is no longer open for orders.
Delivery needs an address. Go back to your details and add one.	You chose delivery and the address was missing.
One item is over its limit per order. Go back to your cart and lower the quantity.	An item has a limit per order, and your order is over it.
Paying online needs a total of at least $1.00. Choose to pay later, or add to your order.	The card minimum. When your cart can’t be paid later, the message reads “Add to your order.” instead.
Paying online isn’t available for this order right now. Choose to pay later, or try again soon.	Card payment cannot be used for this order at the moment. When your cart can’t be paid later, it reads “Try again soon.” instead.
This order is already being placed. Wait a minute, then try again if it didn’t go through.	A second click or a second tab while your first try was still running.
Your order has items from fundraisers that take payment in different ways. Check out one fundraiser at a time.	See When items can’t be paid for together.
We couldn’t confirm this checkout. Place your order again.	The check that runs with Place order was not confirmed.

When an item was removed from your cart because it could no longer be ordered, a box under the message names it, for example “Removed: Wreath – Large. Orders for Holiday Wreaths have closed.” This is how you learn that a fundraiser closed while you were checking out. Items that are still orderable stay in your cart. If nothing is left, you go back to your cart. A changed price shows as “Price changed:” with the item, “is now” the new price and “was” the old one. Both are the same re-check described in Ordering from a fundraiser.

If your cart was already emptied, for example because the order went through in another tab, Place order sends you back to your cart.

If Stripe’s page fails to open for a card order, the order is canceled and you see a page titled We couldn’t open the payment page: “You weren’t charged, and your items are back in your cart.” A Back to your cart button takes you there, and you can place the order again. If some items could not go back in your cart, the page says instead “You weren’t charged. Some items couldn’t go back in your cart, so add them again from the store.” If the order could not be canceled right away, it says “You weren’t charged, but some items may not be back in your cart. Anything missing can stay set aside for up to 35 minutes, so it may show as sold out until then.”

Sometimes the order cannot be completed for another reason you cannot fix. You then see a page titled Something went wrong: “We hit an unexpected error. Please try again in a moment.” with a Go to the homepage button. Nothing is charged. Check your cart before you try again. If it is empty, the items you picked can stay set aside for a while, so anything low in stock may show as sold out until then.

• Checking out: the steps before Place order, the fee lines and covering the fees.
• Ordering from a fundraiser: the cart and what its messages mean.
• After you order: the confirmation page, the emails, and finding an order later.
• Payment methods: card, pay later, and who accepts what.
• Fees and caps: what each way of paying costs.