I have just applied the b-planet.com patch for the 'pending order email' problem [legacy paypal, not the API]; it seems to work fine, and I'm grateful for it - except that if I cancel the paypal page on return I get a big red cross and 'An error occured while processing your transaction. The status of your order could not be updated.'
At first I thought this was some configuration error on my part; but no, this is what was intended; 'If the confirmation hasn't been received, the client is informed that the payment is still pending' is howb-planet.com describes it.
You can improve this message as follows:
edit administrator>components>com_virtumart> html>checkout.result_confirmation.php
line 29; just comment this out; it's the red-cross image
Then edit the language file languages>checkout>english.php
line 41:'PHPSHOP_PAYPAL_ERROR' => 'An error occured while processing your transaction. The status of your order could not be updated.'
edit this to say something more friendly. It would be nice to have 'Cancel Order/Return to order' button on this return page, but... thanks anyway guys
[oh, and there are several spelling errors/typos in the english language file: 'troublshoting' for instance, 'occured' should be 'occurred' and 'payement' -sorry guys, it's 'payment' :-)
Thank you pencaitland. I followed your advice and my return page makes more sense now :).