customers encounter "system error" when paying invoices online

[brettminers]

Is anybody else hearing from their customers that they are having trouble paying their invoices online? 

We have issued invoices through PayPal for years without issue. Over the last week, a number of customers have said that they can't pay the invoice online as they usually do. They encounter a "system error". 

This is not an isolated incident, but is happening across different devices and browsers. It's affecting our accounts receivables, as we have to ask customers for their credit card details and do manual entry using PayPal Here.  

[peterhoa]

This apparently is an Australian issue which started in October, according to PayPal Australia support, due to some austrac requirement.  But PayPal has not advised Australian merchants that this is the case. Nor is it in their updated policies. They suddenly -- without any notification or warning to merchants --  made it impossible for customers to pay with a credit card. They can only pay if they have a PayPal account which many businesses do not have.  The customers still see the option to pay without a PayPal account, but after they enter their card details it then fails with a meaningless error message: "We're sorry. Things don't appear to be working right now". 

Vey unprofessional of PayPal not to advise merchants of the change in policy, not to update their policies (I confirmed this with their support), and for payments to fail with a meaningless message when customers try to pay the invoice.  PayPal Australia support can't provide any information on whether this is a permanent policy change or temporary. Very shabby way to treat its merchants.