Why is the Bill Me Later option greyed out when paying?

jaholmes
Contributor
Contributor

(Reposting this from the Archives, since it was just archived today!  Whoops!)

 

Despite having Bill Me Later linked with my PayPal account, having a $0 balance and a $4000 credit line, the Bill Me Later option is not available (greyed out) when I try to check out on eBay.  Any idea why?  The item listed Bill Me Later as an acceptable option, and is certainly not one of the non-BML-approved types of items (it's baby clothes!).

 

I know from past experience using Bill Me Later directly (not through PayPal) that it's extremely sensitive about addresses and whatnot, but as far as I can tell, my email address, physical address, name, etc., are consistent across eBay, PayPal, and Bill Me Later.

 

Ideas?  I really wish the reasons for this type of stuff would be displayed somewhere!  It's so frustrating to just have options disappear without any explanation.

 

Thanks for any help!

Aaron

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3 REPLIES 3

PayPal_Adrian
PayPal Employee
PayPal Employee

jaholmes -

 

First, welcome to the Community!  I wanted to stop in and say hello as your post was the FIRST POST in our new Community!  That's an automatic kudos as far as I'm concerned.  Smiley Happy 

 

As for not being able to submit the payment, normally, this indicates that the seller hasn't enabled Bill Me Later as a way that they can be paid - but, we know that simply isn't the case because you're checking out on eBay.  So, there's really only one or two possibilities that exist.

 

The seller hasn't signed up for a PayPal account using the email address they listed on the auction, or they don't have that email address on their PayPal account.

 

Especially if they listed the auction as accepting PayPal (which, since you were shown Bill Me Later, they likely did), this may seem a bit odd to you at first.

 

What usually happens in these scenarios is that the seller puts up the listing with an outdated email address, although the possibility exists they just haven't signed up for a PayPal account yet.  If they haven't signed up, they'll want to do so using the email address they listed when they created the auction.

 

If they do have a PayPal account, they just need to add the email address to their PayPal account so that they can accept the payment (and you should then be able to use Bill Me Later).

 

How do you convey this to your seller?  I would send them a message via eBay and let them know about the issue with the auction - feel free to link to this topic for their review. 

 

Your seller can locate the email address they used on the auction by bringing up the item and clicking on "Sell Similar." Check the payments section and note the email address there.  Then, they can either add (and confirm) that email address on their existing account or sign up for a PayPal account using that email address.

If they don't have access to this email address, they can provide you their current email address and you can then use the Send Money tab to send it to their existing PayPal account.  Or, you could provide them your email address and they could use the PayPal Request Money feature to send you an invoice via PayPal.

 

So, bottom line, the email address you're attempting to pay isn't registered in PayPal.  Bill Me Later won't be an available option in that scenario, as technically the recipient hasn't agreed to accept Bill Me Later (yet).  Once they do register and confirm that email address, you should be much more successful in submitting the payment.


Thanks!

 

Adrian

 

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jaholmes
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks a bunch, Adrian!  I really appreciate the quick reply!  I'll contact the seller with this information and see what happens.  Hopefully it is indeed an email snaffu.

 

It would be super cool to have this in a FAQ somewhere! 🙂 (If it is, then I apologize for not finding it!)

 

Best,

James

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PayPal_Adrian
PayPal Employee
PayPal Employee

jaholmes,

 

I think that's a great suggestion!  If this works out for you, consider relaying your tip for the rest of the Community - we have a brand new Tips for Members section where anyone who has excellent advice can write articles for everyone to read.  Check it out here.

 

And let us all know how it turns out!

 

Adrian

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Did my post solve the issue? If so, please accept it as a solution!
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