PROCESSING_ERROR
PROCESSING_ERROR
The payment could not be processed because of a temporary fault somewhere in the processing chain — a terminal, gateway, or processor timeout, or an unreachable issuer. No decision was made about the card.
Summary
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Appears as | errors[].code |
| Response | HTTP 200 — Order with isValid: false and a populated errors[] |
| Retry the same card | Yes — after a short delay, and only after checking for an existing payment |
This is a reason code, not a top-level error code
PROCESSING_ERROR is an errors[].code value on the order. It is not a top-level
ProblemDetail.errorCode, so it carries no HTTP status, errorCategory, or retryable field of its
own. See Unified OrderError shape.
When This Fires
POST /v1/marketfront/orders/place— payment processing failed transiently rather than being declined.
Recommended Action
This is the only payment reason code where retrying the same card is honest advice. Everything else in this group is a decision about the card; this one is a fault in the machinery.
- Wait briefly (1–3s with jitter).
- Resubmit
POST /v1/marketfront/orders/placewith a freshIdempotency-Key. You received a response, so that attempt is finished — see Idempotency for the rule and why replaying the old key cannot work here. - After 2–3 failed attempts, stop and offer a different payment method or ask the customer to contact their issuer.
Re-attempting is not free — this code carries a real charge risk
A processor or terminal timeout is precisely the case where the authorization may already have
succeeded at the processor even though the order came back failed. A fresh-key re-attempt can
therefore charge the customer twice, and no Idempotency-Key can prevent it — our idempotency
record covers our order, not the processor's authorization.
Retry at most 2–3 times, and reconcile first where you can. If a customer reports a charge for an
order you never saw succeed, treat this code as the likely cause and contact support with the
requestId.
Do not describe this to the customer as a decline. The card was never refused, and sending them to find a different card is the wrong instruction for a fault that will likely clear on its own.
Example
Code