I have read everything about the TOS for PayPal and where their buttons have to populate the site, which is in a way that is both confusing and frustrating for customers. (I have the customer emails if needed).

The current issue at hand:
The number of paypal buttons in the check out flow means customers are finalizing before they are able to enter coupon codes.

This means:
1. Customers are upset that the advertised/gifted discount didn't apply / or that they weren't given the choice to enter the coupon.
2. They need to take the time to write and tell us
3. We need to address a problem we did not create/ to apologize for the skipped coupon code entry.
(time taken to read and write email)
4. We must go into paypal and refund the discount
(time taken to fix final charge for customer)
5. Customers are not secure in their confidence of a store which can't capture their own coupon.
- not to mention all the folks who didn't take the time to write and ask for the coupon to apply.
- from a customer service standpoint, these are lost customers / they will most likely not return.

From how this is set up now, there is a lot wasted time and a fair amount of frustration for both the customer and the merchant.

I have placed notes letting PayPal customers know to not check out until they enter their coupon code / but this is really taky. Customers do not want to pay to jump through hoops.

If NetSol changes the buttons which migrate a customer through checkout so that they are different than mitigated in the TOS, can we please have the PayPal button only in the choice of payment area?
Can we please mearly have notices that we accept paypal everywhere else, and the only active button which goes to paypal be a payment option?

I know other storefronts do have this option, as well as allow for checkout customization.

We want to allow customers to pay us anyway they choose.
A sale will generate if a customer is confident in their payment method.
If the choice here is to not enable PayPal, it is a possible lost sale - which is ultimately a lost sale for PayPal. Surely PayPal would want to be offered on a merchants site, so shouldn't the merchant have control over where PayPal appears on their site?

Please let us know how a coupon code can be entered before a client is whisked away to PayPal, or better, how to have PayPal show up only in the payment options.

Thank you in advance for your review and help.

It is a requirement by PayPal to have their checkout button appear below the checkout button of your store. So we cannot remove that for you prior to checkout. I have however logged a new known issue in regards to this so that PayPal will allow gift certificates and discounts to work with PayPal. At this time, we do not have a release date scheduled for this.

If it is helpful for you with this discussion of issues, Yahoo! store has a paypal button in the payment area of their shopping cart only. One can create custom payment methods, as well as select paypal the same way one selects mastercard, visa, etc.

I have been working with PayPal to find a resolution to button placement, and here is the response I received from PayPal Merchant Services:

In regards to where the button is placed within Network Solutions/Monster Commerce, you will need to contact them. They did the integration and make the decision where the buttons are going to be placed. We have no control over the look and checkout process of a 3rd party cart. If you do not like the way they have the checkout process set up, you may want to consider using a different shopping cart. I would suggest you contact them to see if they have another option as to where you can place the paypal payment option.

How can I get NetSol/Monster & PayPal on the same page for this issue?

"We want to allow customers to pay us anyway they choose.
A sale will generate if a customer is confident in their payment method."

Karen:

I agree with you 100% with the checkout buttons only being placed on the "Chose your method of payment" page. Anywhere else is just abuse from the creditor (PayPal or Google) trying to muscle their way to the top. You would think that in today's market that they would be grateful that a business owner has them as a payment option.

(Unless, of course...Kickbacks or gratuities for placement? Na, wouldn't happen.)

Imagine standing in line at a checkout, in a hurry, CC Card in hand and the salesperson runs all your cart items through checkout and asks: "Would that be cash, check, credit card, Google or PayPal"? And you reply, My Credit Card thanks, and hand it to the salesperson who looks at the card and asks again.. Google or PayPal?

As you abandon your cart and put your card back in your wallet or purse and say to yourself "never again", you happily go next-door and spend some money.

Rich

After modifying my own buttons to have a "standard checkout" button available along with the PayPal and Google buttons, I finally just dumped PayPal and Google all together.

The over population of payment buttons was so confusing to the eye that it didn't make any sense to offer them.

I had a store online for 10 years without PayPal and Google and sales did not seem to suffer.
I just wanted to allow more freedom for my customers in their choice of payment.
I offered PayPal through my Yahoo store as small button above the payment menu, and folks
used it just fine.

I would hope that the hundreds of dollars in fees they collect from me each year would be worth
a menu option, or at least a small button on the checkout page, rather than a mandatory button
everywhere.

* sigh *

Hopefully enough store owners will throw their 2 cents in so that there is better representation of how many people have not opted to use PayPal and Google for this very reason.

On the v4 forums, MC posted this link for the requirements PayPal is imposing for PayPal Express:

PayPal requirements

If you look on the left hand side of the page, you will see that there are a few other PayPal options for integration with web sites. I don't think they impose the same ridiculous requirements for giant yellow buttons.

It seems to me that these are requirements imposed because NS is using PayPal Express, where v4 just used plain old PayPal. I think the Express part is the part that requires all the buttons. If NS could go back to plain old PayPal, I think we might have a much nicer interface. I think the number of our customers affected by not having their address automatically filled in is much less than the number aggravated by not being able to use a coupon or being confused by all the giant yellow buttons.

NS -- can we not just have PayPal without the Express and avoid all these problems???

Hilary

www.sundialwire.com