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!

[Socialsmartkids]

Does anyone have experience with Amazon Payments?

[SAMSASSON]

I TRIED ADVERTISING ON AMAZON BUT HAD A LOT OF TROUBLE GETTING MY ITEMS POSTED AND I REALLY WASN'T GETTING TO MANY HITS. I NEVER CONSIDERED THERE PAYMENT ARM.

[DexSinister]

Yes.  I run PP, Google checkout, and Amazon Payments on my website.

In terms of numbers of customers selecting one over another, Google seems currently more popular than Amazon (and more of my sales complete through PP, than either of the others [speaking in relation to choice of payment method by customers]).

Google operates very much like a true merchant account, where they authorize the transaction and notify you of it, and you are responsible for charging the transaction to the customer's card. Then, you must mark the item as shipped (with space for an optional tracking /delivery confirmation number), and Google notifies the customer of the shipment. Then Google automatically releases/transfers the funds to your bank account four days later.

Amazon, OTOH, notifies you of a sale. However, unlike their Z-Seller accounts (independent book sellers, of which I've also been one) there is no provision for contacting the customer, or for indicating shipment. Pretty much all that is on the Amazon payments order detail is a payment amount, and a refund / partial refund option. Like PP, the money sits in your payment account until you manually withdraw it.

@After signup, Amazon runs a SIX MONTH LONG rolling reserve period of "all sales @ +14 days, plus any disputed amount" when you establish the account -- though it appears to me that it is actually "six months, or until you complete 99 sales, whichever is longer". They say they can waive the rolling reserve if "you've been in business longer than 6 months, and your business has a good credit rating". I haven't explored that yet.

Additionally, I recently did a partial refund of the newest sale I had in the rolling reserve on Amazon -- and the refund amount was subtracted out of my cleared funds OUT OF RESERVE, (that I had not transferred to my bank account yet,) instead of from the uncleared funds in reserve as it should have been.

Twenty-four hours later, or so, this was corrected - but I saw no excuse for such an error, as the refund was obviously issued on a specific transaction done on a specific date, and should not have affected the "disbursable" funds that I was alreay entitled to withdraw.

All in all, I never had a problem with Amazon as an Amazon Z-seller, but I'm utterly unimpressed with their payment option so far. Nor did it amuse me that they could have looked at my refund claim-rate as an an established seller with a years-long history on their own site, instead of treating me as a "new" seller simply because I signed up for Amazon Payments.

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@Socialsmartkids wrote:

Does anyone have experience with Amazon Payments?

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[SAMSASSON]

THANKS SO MUCH FOR THAT INFORMATION. IT HAS BEEN VERY HELPFUL.

[Socialsmartkids]

So you have all 3 payment processors as options for your customers?  Do you know what percentage the sales are allocated to each?  Offering all 3 may be a way around this mess.  Thanks so much for your input.

[DexSinister]

Roughly 70-75% PP, 15-20% Google checkout, 7.5-10% Amazon payments, I'd say. Yes, shopping cart > checkout > once the checkout page has collected the customer's address, it offers all three payment options for checkout.

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Socialsmartkids wrote: So you have all 3 payment processors as options for your customers?  Do you know what percentage the sales are allocated to each?

[independentlou]

I could not agree more!

This is the worst set up ever! Google checkout is a touch better, but also very confusing. I see no way to avoid an authorize.net type account. This is utterly unprofessional and so 1998.

Get with it PayPay or go the way of every other online service provider who thought they were too big to need to adapt.

[JOPETRO]

POAY PAL **bleep**

[Shack]

So Mr. DexSinister says the hidden credit card option is eliminated with Website Payment Pro.  I'm wondering why I'm not reading about anyone switching to Payment Pro.  Why isn't everyone jumping on that?  Would like to hear from someone who has switched.  Many thanks.

[fyrstopr]

GET RID OF PAYPAL NOW! I have had issues with Paypal in the past and only use them because it is cheaper than a traditional bank. I have been waiting two weeks for a $2500 transfer from my personal account. The funds left my account so I cannot access them and Paypal says it will take an additional 3-5 business days, if I understood the non-English speaking person at their so-called customer service. Oh, and by the way, I was on hold for 45 minutes trying to find someone who could speak outside of their predetermined answers based on a script. STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!