PP forcing my customers to open PP accounts in order to buy!

[angryman]

PP has always had a unfortunate habit of trying to trick customers into opening a PP account in order to buy with a credit card. About once a week I have to lead lead someone through the procedure for buying without as  the PP labeling is (deliberately, one suspects) confusing.

Lately I have been getting more complaints, and a few screen shots showing that the screens my customers see are different from the ones I see if I do a trial order, and do indeed seem to refuse to allow them to buy with a CC unless they open an account. Several of my potential customers have refused to open an account, thus losing my a sale.

What is going on? It this intentional of the part of PayPay? Do I have any way around it? I choose PP for my payment engine precisely because it allowed customers to buy by CC without a PP account. If PP is changing the rules they should at least tell us business userss up front.

[snowshoe]

Not sure how long you've used PayPal but, their goal is to sign up new users.  Don't forget they are a corporation and growth is how corporations succeed.  We've been with PayPal for a quite some time and there are ways to deal with the what your customer sees.  If you're using Payments Standard, you don't have too many options for your customer's checkout experience.  If you want total control of your customer's checkout experience, switch to Payments Pro, then you can create any experience you desire. 

Here's a few tips for Payments Standard:

The PayPal Screens are designed to be displayed in a specific way and what you see is based on the cookies and/or your PayPal Account configuration. 

 PayPal relies on the use of cookies to track what's in your cart and retain other info about you and therefore the screen that is displayed may not be the screen you expect to see.   If you are a new customer visiting PayPal for the first time, the Credit Card Option will be clearly displayed.   You will see "Don't have a PayPal Account" pay as a guest ..... 

 If this is your second or third visit to PayPal and your previous cookie has not expired, PayPal now views you as a returning customer.   You will get a screen with a small link to the Credit Card Option and you will see "Have a PayPal Account" section expanded.   Although this is not as obvious to the customer, the Credit Card Option is still available however, you have to click on the "Don't have a PayPal Account" link to expand where to fill in your credit card information.   Note, the cookie that holds the cart info will retain that info for up to 21 days.   The only way it will change is if you remove the items selected from the cart or delete the cookie. 

 There is a way to force the "Don't have a PayPal Account" option to be expanded by tweaking your item button code.   Note, this is an undocumented tip and there's no guarantees as PayPal does change things behind the scenes but, still worth a try.   If you manually code your item button (meaning you did not use the online button creator) you can insert the following line in the HTML Form: 

 <input type="hidden" name="landing_page" value="billing"> 

 If you are using the online button creator, the following applies: 

 You can modify button code using the "Advanced Variables" in Step 3.   Note the text box near the bottom of the page.   There you can insert extra variables.   For example, to insert the "landing_page" variable and it's value just enter: 

 landing_page=billing 

 There's no HTML extras, just the name of the variable, an equal sign and the value. 

[angryman]

Thanks for the quoted material, I had not seen it. It's pretty much beyond me, but still usefull.

.

I  cannot agree with your position that since Paypal is a business it has the absolute right to seek growth at the expense of me and my customers. Paypal promised when I signed up that customers would be able to  pay using a credit card without opening a PP account. I am paying PP for this service - they are not paying me to bring them new customers. Therefore my need to present my customers with a clear, unambiguous ordering and payment environment should take precedent over PPs desire to hustle up a few more accounts by deliberately obfuscating the payment process. Do you run a business? If you do, I would  expect you to understand this. 

[snowshoe]

Been running both an online business and brick and mortar store since 1999. We all have our opinions for sure but, unfortunately what we think and how PayPal functions can be quite different.  We use PayPal and it works for us however, as with anything else that is done in life, you do have a choice.