Every now and then, I encounter such bizarre interaction behavior that I feel compelled to write about it. So begins a tirade against Paypal. I’ve used Paypal as my payment broker once in the past without any issues. In fact, before was pretty smooth and I came away feeling shiny, happy even.
This second round should have gone easier right? After all, they had my payment information. I expected to probably spot check the account info I entered before, maybe entering the 3 digit number on the back of the card. That wasn’t the case, however.
After I picked Paypal as my service broker, I logged in expecting to review my order and select a credit card to pay with. Expectations are deceiving and I was immediately directed to “Add Another Funding Source.” Umm, ok, well maybe if I enter in my card info again, then Paypal will let me through.
Nope.
Paypal noticed that I tried to add an existing card and asked me again to enter a new card. What’s the problem? They didn’t provide me the ability to pay with that one. That “friendly” error message was hardly so. If they know I’m typing in an existing account, couldn’t they at least infer that I might want to use that one? Or at least give me the option? Hell, it’s in their best interest to, oh I don’t know, get me to route money through them. It’s how they make money. I bet Paypal’s sales and marketing wonks even have customer conversion as a performance metric.
So what happened? After thoroughly considering sidestepping Paypal, I gave up and added another card to Paypal and completed the transaction[1]. Oh did I mention that backtracking through the screens got me worried that I might be paying for this machine twice, three, four times even?
Why Paypal presumed that an existing account holder, hooked up to a valid card, would want to add another card as the default action is beyond me. Further, it’s beyond me that they couldn’t even offer up a “Pay with MasterCard ****-****-****-1234” option.
The cynical beast in me believes that this is some ploy to coax more credit card information from its users. Given that Paypal is predisposed to hijacking user expectations by placing whole page ads in many process flows[2], I wouldn’t be surprised.
[1] I wanted the espresso machine yesterday, which didn’t seem likely to happen by contacting the seller. Advantage Paypal.
[2] When trying to view my account information to see whether I had overpaid, I had to navigate through “speedbump” pages that advertised loans and the ilk.
Todd,
I had the same experience with them. They wanted me to filke another card # even though I had a account already. Seems like it’s a common ploy.
Charlie
Oomblog is a stream of thoughts, ostensibly focused on user experience.
