nicolas, thank you for your help.
looking at the test paypal emails -there is no mention of the order pending - there is merely a confirmation of payment email from paypal sent to both the vendor and the purchaser. in fact, the vendor email from paypal says that the order can now be shipped. is this normal behaviour? the only mention of a problem with a pending order is in the hikashop email, which says the status is pending (and the order has clearly not changed status to completed). the test user paypal account has the amount deducted from it.
with thanks,
mark.
(p.s. i am trying to log-in to the test seller account on sandbox but sandbox is throwing up a system error...argh!) if this problem has to do with a user address not being verified, then i take it the seller must verify payment on the paypal sight. when this happens, does hikashop send an email to the admin and the purchaser that the order has completed - or must this be done manually?