I'm considering firing Paypal as a payment processor, because of ONE webpage

[DexSinister]

I like Paypal. I've been using them as a payment processor on my websites for over a year now.

BUT, I've become aware that I'm losing more in sales per month than it would cost me to get a merchant account, because of Paypal's insistence on putting a single confusing webpage in the way of my customer's credit card payments.

Usually, I just lose sales - as someone who is confused and scared away by this webpage generally loses interest and momentum in the sale and is no longer interested in the purchase.

Because my website gathers sales info before transferring to Paypal, I can tell the sales I lose to Paypal. I get a notice of sale, and then "Payment completed: No". When I contact them and ask, the answer is always exactly the same:

"There was no option to pay by credit card, only by Paypal, and I don't have a Paypal account, so I didn't complete the sale."

What do customers mean when they say that? They mean that they've gotten to this screen, and been confused by the obvious obfuscation in the design of the page:

Yes, I'm aware that there is tiny text, with an even tinier link that says "Don't have a Paypal account? Use your credit card or bank balance (where available) Continue".

But, time, after time, after time, paying customers, who are attempting to buy from me and generate fees for Paypal only see this as a part of the "Paypal is the swellest company in the universe" verbiage, utterly fail to see the tiny 8-character link, and stop the payment process cold because they do not possess a Paypal account.

Just this evening, I received an email from a customer - a journalist for a major newspaper - who wrote me:

"I tried to order, but PayPal was the only way offered to pay for it. 

I'd rather just send a money order, if that would work.  Otherwise I need to use a credit card.  Please let me know if a money order will do."

Frankly, I don't care if Paypal thinks it needs to tell people that they can "use their creditcard without exposing your credit card number to merchants" - because Paypal can't do that if it confuses the customers and fails to collect the card number in the first place.

Since there is no place, as far as I can tell, where someone can sign up for Paypal on that page, if that page confuses customers and scares them away, it is totally useless. And it is costing me upwards of $50-$100 in lost sales each and every month!

What do I want the page where my customers land, intending to enter their credit card information (or to sign into Paypal if they have an account) to look like? That's easy! I want it to look like the exact screen that they actually get to if and only if they get past the one that they obviously don't read and which confuses them.

I want them to land on the screen that results from clicking the "continue" link! This one:

Why is this difficult? If the statement "Paypal securely processes Payments for X Corp. You can finish your payment in a few clicks" is important, it would easily fit on that page. That one statement is the only thing that is not accessible on the second page, which is on the first.

Please fix this, and stop chasing away customers who are trying to make payments that earn Paypal its revenue!

[DexSinister]

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@Dumbledore wrote:

I'm sorry? I'm confused. I am new to this whole thing. Are you employed by Paypal? I wouldn't think you would want to tell your customers to stop whining. It is their privilege to complain to the company if they are not satisfied with the service. The other thing that bothers me if you work for Paypal is, your antagonizing manner in telling customers to go elsewhere if they don't like it. What? How is that helpful? How is that attitude profitable to the company?

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Hi Dumbledore,

I'm not exactly sure what you're referring to here, but I'll give it a stab.

People who regularly discuss things in forums adhere to a general code: Discussions of different specific problems are kept separate, for two reasons. Number #1, so that people who have the sort of expertise one is looking for can find the discussion, and #2, so as not to hijack the topics already under discussion.

No, I'm not a Paypal employee. I'm a business owner who started this particular thread to complain about Paypal's practice of confusing customers during the payment process by inserting confusing pages that customers don't read, but assume mean that they have to sign up for Paypal. They then abort buying stuff and cost businesses (and Paypal) revenue.

I replied to EFrank as I did, because discussing his desire to suspend his Paypal account because he has apparently allowed sellers of "third party health, fitness, bromolide, acai berry, etc" to successfully bill his account with repetitive billing. It is a completely legitimate question -- but it is a completely different topic than this discussion thread.

What I told EFrank was that he ought to start a thread (topic) of his own pertaining to difficulties with automatic billing, so that people could find and answer his question.

All the best,

Dex

[FES_Auto]

I agree 10000000%! When we do a special e-mail to our customer list for a special that is processed through PayPal, we have to put in special instructions with screen captures and the like so that the customer can navigate through all this stuff. It's a real pain with little or no value to us as a PayPal business account holder.

I understand PayPal wanting to get people to become members, but why not have a screen show up after the easy to do CC transaction that says something like "If you join PayPal, this stuff will be easier in the future!" Then sales won't be lost to those that have to navigate through the laborynth, our time won't be wasted explaining how to navigate through this stuff, an PayPal will still capture some new memenber!

Matt

[ebfinster]

This subject is interesting.  As a relatively new user I've been exploring Paypal as method of emailing requests for online payments to eliminate a lot of the burden of pci requirements for credit card processing.    I generated a link to use through Create Buttons->Buy Now.  When I emailed the link to myself and then accessed it  I was taken to the same front page that the poster was talking about, so I thought "We're going to have to develop instructions in our email template to explain to the customer where the link is they don't get confused."  What's interesting however is that when I emailed the link to my accounts receivable person to show her and she clicked on the same link, the second  - Pay with credit card or log in - page came up. 

I too would love to be able to have that second page come up all the time, and it seems to be doing it for some people, but I can't figure out why.  It must be something in the person's browser environment ...

[talon121]

This sounds something that could be considered a class-action lawsuit; if you can find other businesses using it for their payment processor. (having similiar complaints)

I agree as well..

[DuncanE]

If you are considering payment processing for you company i would HIGHLY recommend Google Checkout. I have used them in the past and they are a dream compared to the PayPal nightmare!

http://checkout.google.com/sell/

[BigKahuna97]

Have to say that since moving to google checkout my sales have in fact gone up and customers are no longer leaving my site without finalizing the purchase.  Sure PayPal was good to have at times but all the "limited accounts" and "parting of ways" e-mails are non-existent with google.

[ebfinster]

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@DuncanE wrote:

If you are considering payment processing for you company i would HIGHLY recommend Google Checkout. I have used them in the past and they are a dream compared to the PayPal nightmare!

http://checkout.google.com/sell/

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I looked a google checkout and there's a couple of things I don't like. 

I don't like that the customer is required to create a google account.  It's just plain inconvenient for someone who just wants a low hassle way to pay with a credit card, but more importantly in a business  environment the payables person may not have authority to create an account on behalf of the company, so that adds more complexity, more people, etc in the mix.  I can see it if you have customers who buy from you many times a year, but in our case most customers make a payment once a year, so its just not a good fit. 

In addition, I did not like the idea that I couldn't specify funds transfers to my bank and had to leave that up to google to decide when and how much ...

[Phoenix50]

Boy, I'm with you. However from a buyer's point of view. Paypal would not assist me with an unauthorized charge because it has some sort of relationship with the company, IGN. The response I received, after explaining I had tried everything and the results achieved (including calling the company) the response I kept getting is that the company provides contact info on their website, which I could NOT access because I did not set up an account! The tagline they have on the invitation to set up an account is "Like a friend, PayPal can keep a secret". Well, I don't want friends that treat me the way PayPal has! Our family purchases $150-$200 a month using their services. UGH!!!

[BluesIguana]

Since Ebay bought Paypal they do whatever they want. I am going to get my own merchant account since they will not allow Google.

[the-gourmet]

Well, thanks to all of the information and insight provided in this thread, I have fired PayPal as my credit card processor!  When I spoke with a very nice supervisor, he explained to me that, in fact, the decision about rolling rerserves IS driven by information on your credit report.  It doesn't matter how long you've been a PayPal customer, or whether or not you've ever had any problems with them.  They come up with a percentage of what they are willing to risk, and they keep the rest of it.  It DOES NOT stop 90 days after you sign up for a virtual terminal.  It goes on forever.  In other words, for as long as you have the terminal, they will keep that percentage of the sale in reserve for 90 days.  I suppose you could look at it like enforced savings, but, if you're a small vendor like me, and cash flow is critical to your operation, then you're being forced to set aside money that you could be using to stay current with vendors, buy new, inventory, etc.

Perhaps virtual terminal is a good idea for someone who cannot get a processor anywhere else, or has so much money they don't mind enforced savings, but it is not the right venue for me!