Entries Tagged 'e-commerce' ↓

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Possible Solution: A user claims to have found a solution, check the last comment and let us know if it works. (Change your primary paypal email address from gmail to a non-public email service.)

Update: From the comments on this page and all the hits I’m getting, it is obvious that this is a widespread PayPal bug affecting only international users and merchants other than eBay. My queries indicate a serious and permanent error in their back-end services, emerging after a recent website upgrade, that they may not be aware of yet. The contact support staff can not solve this problem if they believe it is an exceptional case. The only way to fix this is to contact PayPal and report this bug. Please contact PayPal support, they will only realize the extent of the problem if enough people report it.

PayPal confirmed it was their internal security systems that refuse the transaction. This means it is their internal, back-end services that are malfunctioning and not the front-end as I suspected. However, it still seems that their system is favoring eBay transactions (suspicious, since eBay owns PayPal).

Original post:
“This payment cannot be funded with a credit card at this time.”

I’ve decided to make this post to see how many people visit it, and get a rough estimate of how many people are experiencing the same problem: Every time you try to pay an online merchant with PayPal, you receive the following error: “This payment cannot be funded with a credit card at this time.”

I have noticed a lot of hate-speech online about people experiencing the same thing, but there are no solutions. The support staff suggests that “PayPal employs complex statistical models to identify patterns of behavior.” However, I have noticed the following irregularities which points away from that explanation:

1. I am a premier PayPal user and have never before had issues with a PayPal payment. Only recently have I started getting this error message.
2. My card is verified by PayPal.
3. I successfully payed for an item on eBay using my credit card through PayPal this weekend. Sort of… At first I received the familiar “This payment cannot be funded with a credit card at this time.”, but after trying again, the payment went through and cleared just fine. In other words, the problem probably lies closer to their front-end. [edit: This assumption was incorrect, PayPal confirmed the problem was with their back-end services.]
4. I can not donate even $1 to Wikipedia . This is contradictory to their explanation because, not only did I complete a successful payment 3 days ago (so my card is valid), but there is no way that a Wikipedia donation could be flagged as suspect.

So, they will either have to admit that their “complex statistical models” are flawed, or (more likely) that there is another problem causing this error.

Sucks to be us…

(I found this funny cartoon, which exactly explains our situation, on paypalsucks.com:)

PayPal sucks cartoon

Until recently, FNB was still using the ancient OS/2 on their branch network system. Although there is nothing wrong with using an outdated system if it is proven, time-tested and Does The Job (Voyager 1‘s controlling computers is over 30 years old and still going strong), at some stage it becomes pretty expensive finding developers and maintainers for legacy operating systems. Additionally, they replaced approximately 4000 windows2k computers with the Novell Linux Suse operating system for better security and stability.

As an FNB account holder, I feel pretty good about my bank switching to a Unix based operating system. Especially after being reminded of how utterly unusable and unstable windows often becomes, several times this month. The most recent incident involved a parking ticket payment station in the Neelsie which had to be power cycled after its windows (XP) operating system failed, displaying the notorious windows crash screen.

Riaan van Wamelen, CIO of FNB Branch Banking, says the rollout is already under way.
“We piloted our first branch in July of this year with great success and we are now proceeding with national rollout. The solution has proven to be stable and provides us with excellent centralised administration and deployment capabilities.”

FNB could have switched to Macs, which is just computers for dumb people, or they could have gone with Vista for the Hey-what-does-this-buttonOOH-LOOK-SHINY-THING! type, but they chose Linux. Configuration might require a bit more technical expertise, but it is unrivaled once set up properly. Linux is stable, secure and incredibly flexible by definition. FNB made the right choice, and made me more confident in their business as a customer.

On the 28th of September, the University of Stellenbosch will celebrate Software Freedom Day, handing out CD’s, demoing interesting stuff and installing Linux for interested people.

To buy goods online or sign up with services like paypal, you need a proper Visa or Master card. Have a look at your bank card now, if it has a “Visa Electron” or “Maestro” logo then you basicly have the little kid or debit card version of these cards, which is pretty much useless for international purchases. Paypal does not accept Visa Electron cards from South Africa.

So what are your options?

Apply for a Credit Card (Not worth it)
You could apply for a credit card, but that usually requires some minimum monthly income of between R2000 and R4000 per month. And the CC companies require proof of this, so be prepared to send them at least 3 months worth of bank statements or payslips. Also, credit cards usually have some annual fee and all kinds of arbitrary costs involved. The only credit card I am aware of without annual fees is Virgin’s credit cards.

OR

Apply for a Standard Bank Student Achiever Account (Magical Goodies Creator)
Link to Standard Bank’s Student Achiever Account page .
This really is the best banking option for any South African student at the moment. Not only is internet and cellphone banking 100% FREE, but you have NO monthly bank charges. Just about any transaction is done without any additional costs. And the best part is, you get a Maestro debit card and a proper Master Card that you can use to buy stuff online. \o/

There is one little snag though: to change the monthly transaction limit on your account, you have to physically go to a branch and have them change it. It cannot be set online like with FNB’s Student Lifestart account. But this is not really a problem, just tell them that you will be depositing at least X amount into your account every month, and they will set the limit to that.

So far, I have made 3 online purchases with my new Standard Bank magical goodies creator, and it worked perfectly. No bank charges, free internet banking, your very own Master Card… What more can I say?

I know many South Africans are weary of buying goods online, because it is such a hassle if something goes wrong. But sometimes you want something that you just can’t get from a local retailer, and then you have to turn to the internet.

Musica has a selection of cloth posters but no Rammstein. I tried amazon.com, but they were out of stock. So I visited the supplier’s website (www.d14posters.com) and was presented with an excellent deal. The exact poster I wanted + free shipping to anywhere in the world for $18.95.

The Review:
Payment: I immediately ordered my poster, and a badge (shown below). Payment is done through PayPal, so there is no risk in using your credit card.
Delivery: I placed the order on the 30th of November, waited the estimated delivery time of 2 weeks, but no poster. Finally, on the 27th of December, I received my poster. According to the stamps on the envelope, it would appear that the slow delivery time was not d14poster’s fault.
Quality: The badge is of excellent quality. The poster itself could have been a little brighter, but it certainly looks like the one in the picture. In all, it is pretty decent quality, and I am very happy with my purchase.
Conclusion: d14posters delivers on their promises, they are value for money and they ship to any place in the world!

Remember to specify the two lanyards you want that is included free with every poster purchase.
Here is the two items I purchased: