Let me preface this article by saying that in general, I am very satisfied with PayPal as a payment processor. Many of our clients have processed millions of dollars through their system. They provide powerful ecommerce tools and their customer service is often excellent. They don’t always win, but they do go to bat for merchants when unwarranted chargebacks occur. Suffice it to say, I am a happy customer. But there is one small annoyance that I as a Payflow Pro Payment Gateway customer have now dealt with for a year: I am being forced to log in twice almost every time I log into Paypal, and sometimes I get hit with a redirect loop and can’t log in at all without switching browsers. I’ve posted to their support forum, tweeted at them, called their support line, emailed and submitted trouble tickets, but to no avail. So, I’m making this last attempt to plead with PayPal to fix this small annoyance so that I can stop grimacing every time I log into our company and client PayPal accounts, and so that I can promote them with confidence when recommending a payment processing company to clients.

The Problem With Logging Into PayPal

The problem is very simple. At least 9 out of 10 times when I log into PayPal with the correct login information, regardless of the browser (Chrome, Firefox or Explorer), I get redirected to the homepage and must log in again. I thought maybe I had some weird issue with my cookie settings, but after wasting a bunch of time troubleshooting, I did a little Googling and came across this nearly year-old thread in the PayPal support forum. The thread is still active, and a post that went up today inspired me to try this blog post.

Pleas For Tech Support From PayPal

After calling tech support at PayPal, emailing tech support, and submitting a trouble ticket about the problem, I came to the realization that the person on the other end did not have the ability (authority?) to resolve this problem for me, so I posted my own response on the PayPal support thread on the login issue. Results: none.

A week later, with the advice of another participant on the support thread, I tweeted at PayPal for help from one of the ecommerce websites we manage.

Tweet at PayPal

Result: A reply on June 9th that tech support was looking into the issue. This appeared to be good news. Fast forward 3 months to today, and the problem still hasn’t been resolved, and the PayPal support thread has grown to 6 pages.

Logging In Twice: Not That Big a Deal?

To be fair, the necessity to log in twice every time I go to PayPal is a slight annoyance, but it’s not the biggest problem one might face with a payment processor. Excessive processing fees, lack of customer service, chargebacks and processing bugs are all much more critical. And the reality is that most people aren’t going to switch payment processors over this issue. But, it is annoying, it should be fixed and PayPal’s lack of finding a viable solution makes one wonder what really goes on at such a large, publicly traded organization, and how responsibilities are delegated. It’s the sort of thing that may reduce their chances of acquiring a new customer or retaining an old one by a fraction of a percent, but that fraction can be a huge number considering the number of dollars that flow through them.

Can We Get PayPal to Fix This Login Problem?

I’m still optimistic that PayPal will fix this annoyance. It’s a slight embarrassment to them that they can’t solve this problem. And, it’s a slight embarrassment for me when I recommend PayPal to online marketing and web design clients. I now have to preface this recommendation with, “expect that you’ll need to log in twice every time.” I’d love to follow this statement with a, “but their support is great.” Only, that’s been the case when I’ve had payment issues, and integration issues, but it’s not the case in this isolated, slightly annoying incident.

What Can You Do to Help?

If you’re experiencing login problems with PayPal too, then please, help with the outreach. Click the links below to vocalize your concerns:

Post to Twitter

Post to Facebook

When you’re done, set up a support profile and then post your own story to the PayPal forum. Then if you’re feeling ambitious, log in (twice) to your account and submit a support ticket. Perhaps they’ll listen and there will be 169,000,000 fewer failed login attempts each day.