Error message at ebay checkout

[BubblesUK]

This payment cannot be completed and your account has not been charged. Please contact your merchant for more information.

Return to merchant and try a different payment method

We are not able to process your payment using your PayPal account at this time. Please return to the merchant's website and try using a different payment method (if available).

I have tried to pay for items purchsed on ebay using my paypal account but everytime I get the above message I have £68.00 in my paypal balance and money on in the accounts linked to paypal so not sure what the problem is

[eddieoneill]

I have exactly the same problem. I've had my account for years, no issues. I have just recently moved to the USA and this is the first time i have used my paypal account to purchase items. As suggested by others I have asked the question on Twitter, as the normal customer support is very poor.

[justistar]

I just got this error today and I'm in Canada....not sure what the issue is, and there is no one from PayPal responding :S

[alkrantz]

Of course they are not responding. Theyare obviously having issues. It's the "Ostrich" technique. Pretend you dont have a problem when your consumers cant really do anything about it since there are no other payment options. Obviously the next time I have an option OTHER than paypal I will use it.

[ks7777777]

Hello, I have exactly the same problem....

"We are not able to process your payment using your PayPal account at this time. Please return to the merchant's website and try using a different payment method (if available)."

Never ever have such a problem like this before, been using paypal for 5 years++

My story was, I was about to pay to ebay seller from ebay page, somehow, paypal asked me security questions which I totally forgot, then, I log in to paypal.com to change my security questions, and answers.

After I've done it, I was willing to pay the seller from ebay page again. Consequently, it just shows the above mentioned.

paypal, if you see this, please bear in mind that there is nothing to do with our credit cards or so.

IT MUST BE SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOUR SYSTEM!!!!

Many people are suffering right now. Why not to fix?

I do not think I shall receive negative feedback while I do nothing wrong.

Hope to understand, and please do something as soon as you possibly could!

 KS.

[Z91]

Hey guys I went on twitter to @askpaypal as the rest of their customer service is rubbish They made my account work again! So seeing as that worked for me I'd recommend you try the same.

The very best of luck to you all 😄

[wle]

Did this work.Did you do anything else?did they not asked anything.Actually i am facing the same problem from previous week.IS THERE REALLY ANY SOLOUTION.iN THIS FORUM  ALL THE PEOPLE ARE STILL FACING IT...Let me know and it will be appreciated.

[Z91]

Dude, it was literally as I said above.

I tweeted them saying I had a problem; we added each other so we could direct message each other; all they asked me for was my email address and what country I was in and that was it, they'd sorted it.

Seriously all you need to do is tweet @askpaypal and wait for them to reply.

[Z91]

https://twitter.com/AskPayPal

That's the URL if you're stuck by the way

[PayPal_Frank · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone,

I'm glad to hear that some of you have found a resolution to this error through customer service or through twitter.  I wanted to let everyone know that this error can be caused by many different things from card declines to the PayPal security system.  Our customer service and twitter team will do everything they can to help but there may be some situations that can't be fixed by PayPal or situations where the PayPal security system will not allow a payment to be sent.  There may also be situations where we need to verify your identity to ensure that your account is not being accessed by someone other than you.

Your security is our top priority and I know most security measures can make things frustrating at times.  Thanks for your patience and understanding and thanks for using PayPal! 🙂

- Frank

[fabrik]

So why not say that in the error message?  At the moment the error is :

"This payment cannot be completed and your account has not been charged. Please contact your merchant for more information."

I have several clients contacting me asking why their payments are not working, how should I as a seller know!?! The word 'merchant' is misleading. So to paraphrase what you wrote a more useful error message would be:

"This payment cannot be completed and your account has not been charged

This may be caused by many different things from card declines to the our security system. 

Please contact us at https://twitter.com/AskPayPal so we can help to ascertain if we can complete the payment

There may also be situations where we need to verify your identity to ensure that your account is not being accessed by someone other than you.

Your security is our top priority and I know most security measures can make things frustrating at times.  Thanks for your patience and understanding and thanks for using PayPal"

Remember error messages are for END USERS not coders 🙂 They should explain in plain english what the issue is and what possible steps can be taken to resolve the issue.