Custom number in download history for subscription buttons

[harps]

Ive emailed support about this but think it will be valuable to include here as well since i have not seen a solution.

We currently use hosted buttons for recurring payments with the "custom" property set to our internal customer number. We set the custom value dynamically based on the current user. This all works perfectly and paypal correctly informs our back end via ipn of the the customer that has made a purchase.

The issue we have is that the "custom" field value does not appear in the paypal transaction history logs as specified here under the "custom number" column.https://developer.paypal.com/docs/classic/admin/download-history/

--------------------------------------------
Field Name : Custom Number

Description: Specified by seller in any of the following button-creation fields:
PayPal Shopping Cart Custom Number
Buy Now Custom Number
Subscription Custom Number

Format: alphanumeric

Payment Button Variable: custom

Related IPN Variable: custom
-------------------------------------------

we desperately need every line in the transaction log to contain the custom value for each subscription so that we can tie transactions to customers.

[harps]

just tried this with encrypted subscription buttons instead of hosted.... same thing... no custom number

[harps]

UPDATE, Recieved a reply from technical support saying that this is intended behaviour. 

"Kindly be informed that it is an intended behavior that the value passed in custom variable will not reflect in transaction history but can only be seen via IPN. My sincere apologies for the inconveniences caused but that is how it works."

I dont quite understand this when developer.paypal.com/docs/classic/admin/download-history/ explicitly states that this field IS available in the the report AND I can confirm it works for other button types.

"
Custom Number

Specified by seller in any of the following button-creation fields:

PayPal Shopping Cart Custom Number
Buy Now Custom Number
Subscription Custom Number
"

Aslo it works for the non subscription button types. 

I probably being fobbed off.

[joz]

Looks Like they heard you. I have noticed that the custom value started appearing in my transaction history logs for subscription button payments. It works even for the old transactions now 🙂