Why one time payments appear in the automatic payment list?

[corneliug]

I made several one purchases using PayPal and now I see those merchants in the "Automatic Payment" list. For example Home Depot or Lowes.

In the same list there are some legit merchants that I have recurring payments to. For example Spotify or GoPro subscriptions.

I can go ahead and deactivate those merchants but I don't know if that will have any impact on the last purchases or future purchases.

Can someone shed some light on this?

I would appreciate if PayPal will correct this issue and make it vary clear on the purchase screen if that is a recurring / automatic payment giving user the option to change it into one time payment.

[PayPal_Olivia · Accepted solution]

Hi @corneliug,

Thank you for your post, and welcome to the community. I'm sorry to hear of the frustration you're experiencing with billing agreements set up by merchants that you have visited. I hope I can help set your mind at ease regarding the purpose of these automatic payments.

Many merchants employ billing agreements/automatic payments in their checkout. This feature enables future purchases to go through without having to gather as much information. You would still acknowledge and initiate the payments unless it is marked as a subscription.

This is a common practice, and in the course of the transaction, there is information regarding the process. This does not necessarily mean that there will be any recurring payment unless stated, only that next time, they will be able to process your purchase with a minimum of fuss. In situations where there is a recurring payment agreement being created, that agreement information would also be shown at that time. 

The merchants who employ this feature may require this as part of the checkout. The optional aspect of it would be to abandon the transaction and opt not to purchase from them.

If you would like to view and/or cancel these as soon as they're set up, that is perfectly fine. To do so, please follow these steps.

I hope this is helpful to you!

Olivia

[corneliug]

Hi Olivia, 

Thank you for your response. 

My concern started after I receive an email from PayPal to manage my subscriptions. 

I clicked the link in the email and I see a list of merchants that I don't have a subscription to.

I understand now why some merchants may appear under my Automatic Payment section. 

But I think it would be useful to clearly see the difference between the two.

Probably the list should be split into two: one for the recuring payments ( subscriptions)

and one for the simplified checkout process. 

Please send my feedback to the appropriate department. 

Regards, 

Corneliu

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi @corneliug,

That's great feedback. Thank you for your time and patience in supplying it!

Olivia

[icks13]

@PayPal_Olivia yes but the problem is in the UX itself.

Comments like the one of @corneliug are everywhere and basically never ending, because the system is not designed in the correct way. 

If in the UI you were keeping Automatic Payments separated from Subscriptions/Recurring Payments, the problem would be easily solved and the whole experience better as it would result in less confusion and frustration on the user side.
In your explanation, basically paypal is relying on recall instead of recognition, which is a technical mistake. You are forcing users to try to remember what the notes were saying when they saw the first pop up long time ago, while at the same time you are misleading them in their PayPal account mixing automatic payments with subscriptions.

Moreover, it's inappropriate call one time payments "Automatic Payments"  which may recall a subscription in the user mind, and this is another UX mistake.
The first data payments eCommerces asked the user to save, were the ones of a Credit Card, and still today many people are familiar with this and a simple sentences like "Save your Credit Card data for the next time" that's all, without take in consideration all those users that in such mental models, do not have PayPal at all. 
Hence the sections should be divided accordingly to these differences as well the first message appearing when you initiate the current automatic payment for the first time with a merchant, should be tailored accordingly.