PayPal forcing customer signup?

bwatford
Contributor
Contributor

All of a sudden customers can't checkout as a guest.  Anyone else experiencing it?  It has all but killed sales.

 

My settings in the business setup are still clicked for optional.

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39 REPLIES 39

JustDuckyDesign
Contributor
Contributor

I'm using EcommerceTemplates software for my shopping carts and all my sites are affected. I have one site that is using a simple payment button, created from the PayPal website and that is also having the same problem.

Someone has suggested using Amazon Payments or having them pay with cash - that's not really an option for every site. I have over 2 dozen clients affected by this issue - who's going to pay me to change their payment providers, set up and test their new accounts, and take the time to explain to all of them how to integrate these new paymetn providers into their accounting? All because PayPal can't fix this?

 

PayPal created this problem when the changed the interface - the bug is somewhere in that interface. They told me that the reason it's taking so long is because it can be an intermittent problem and that not all sites are affected and not all browsers will always display the issue.

This needs to get fixed soon!

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jeslaughter
Contributor
Contributor

I called again today and the rep again confirmed that they are aware of the problem and working on it.  I asked specifically if this was a change in policy.  She said no and not to worry. She was unable to provide any kind of estimate as to when it will be resolved.   Switching to another service is a major headache because of the need to modify the IPN processing.  I've run for years with very few problems.   

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JustDuckyDesign
Contributor
Contributor

I have one site that seems to be working correctly. I've uploaded two photos - the first shows the way it looks when working correctly, the second shows the error. I've also added them below in case anyone doesn't want to click the link.

 

http://justduckytestsite.com/PayPalError/

 

Working correctly:

 

PayPal Checkout Working Correctly

 

The error - not allowing checkout without creating account:

 

PayPal Not Allowing Checkout without creating account

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WideRanger
Member
Member

I just got off the phone with a Paypal rep after I was notified of the same issue of forced Paypal signup for guest credit card checkouts. The lady told me that Paypal has changed their policies and will now only be allowing guest credit card checkout for Payment Pro accounts, which costs $30/month!

 

This is outrageous to me for two main reasons: First, I already give Paypal thousands of dollars per year in transaction fees, now I have to pay $30/month for this privilege?

 

Second, this major change of policy seems to have been implemented silently with NO warning or notification. I only became aware of this issue when a client notified me. Additionally, none of Paypal's documentation has been updated to reflect the new policy, which the rep was aware of. This is so unprofessional it makes my head explode.

 

This is so crazy, I can't understand why Paypal would do this. They're going to lose millions in transactions fees when people like me migrate to a different payment gateway.

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JustDuckyDesign
Contributor
Contributor

I just spoke with a rep at PayPal. I hope what he told me is accuarate. Here is the scoop:

 

  • The issue IS a technical problem.
  • They HAVE suspended guest checkout for all credit card transactions.
  • This suspension is TEMPORARY - they don't think the problem will be fixed until sometime in January.
  • In the meantime they have suspended the guest checkout to allow them an easier path to fix the problem.
  • If you call them and give them your account details they will re-enable your account to allow guest check out (they just did this for me for 2 of my accounts).
  • The PayPal account owner must call and request this.

 

The rep I spoke to said he was going to send me an email with these details, outlining what they are doing and how to fix it for individual accounts. As soon as I receive that email, I will post it here.

 

 

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DPCreations
Frequent Advisor
Frequent Advisor

Perhaps everyone who calls will get a different answer, depending which technical department answers.

The answer I just got was that it is a technical issue on which they are working.  She also made a note to escalate the issue for my account so I would be notiffied when it is fixed, but no promise of an immediate fix.

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sharpiemarker
Esteemed Advisor
Esteemed Advisor

Not surprising really because half the site is in new site architecture and the other half in old.  Half man, half beast.  lol  Settings and functions in the old site architecture no longer work properly.  There are problems being posted everyday that seem like they should not happen and can't even begin to explain and puzzling.  And PayPal can't openly announce that their [blank] is not working right. lol I would imagine their CS is off the hook with the multitude of calls.  The PayPal Payment Pro by nature is a different architecture because it fully customizable.  Otherwise you're using PayPal Payment Standard which depends fully on PayPal site architecture.  2016 coming to an end cannot not come soon enough.  Been a cra**ppy year.


Kudos & Solved are greatly appreciated. 🙂
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DPCreations
Frequent Advisor
Frequent Advisor

@sharpiemarker

Your insight makes a lot of sense.

I've figured for a long time that PayPal was having problems upgrading to be more than just a simple payment service; the foundation wasn't built to expand into an inventory managment system and local credit card apps.

On the other hand Square was built for local credit card processing and inventory management.  PayPal is having problems to catch up to Square in that regard as others such as CoverGo are big for local payments and inventory management.

I hope PayPal gets it all figured out soon, too.

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sharpiemarker
Esteemed Advisor
Esteemed Advisor

@DPCreations wrote:

@sharpiemarker

Your insight makes a lot of sense.

I've figured for a long time that PayPal was having problems upgrading to be more than just a simple payment service; the foundation wasn't built to expand into an inventory managment system and local credit card apps.

On the other hand Square was built for local credit card processing and inventory management.  PayPal is having problems to catch up to Square in that regard as others such as CoverGo are big for local payments and inventory management.

I hope PayPal gets it all figured out soon, too.


 

But don't PayPal Here have inventory management and credit card processing?  They should.  Be kinda weird without that.  I simply use PayPal Payment Standard with the button code/email links and noticed that some of the seller preferences which are still in the classic view, aren't working properly recently.  This is where the PayPal Account Optional setting is situated for PPP standard.  But one must soldier on.  I have a Stripe account that's sittin' around idle, wished they can host checkout forms instead of me.  Tired of coding at the moment, that stuff kinda makes you loopy after awhile.


Kudos & Solved are greatly appreciated. 🙂
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JustDuckyDesign
Contributor
Contributor

Here is the message I just recieved from PayPal:

Thank you for contacting PayPal Customer Support. My name is John and I am happy to assist you with resolving your guest checkout issues.  I apologize for all the miscommunication.  What I have done is added both of the accounts we discussed to an existing issue ticket.  Our engineers are addressing these accounts one at a time and making those changes go into effect.  The expected resolution time is within 24 hours of being reported.  Rest assured, we will have both of those accounts able to process guest checkouts by this time tomorrow.

 

Thank you for being part of the PayPal community.

Sincerely,
John
PayPal Customer Solutions
PayPal

 

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