Monday, December 3, 2007

Error loop at PayPal

Error loops are great, aren't they? Especially when there is no reason to believe you have done anything wrong. I won't even go into the theory of why they are bad, lets just show one off that is actually happening to me, RIGHT NOW. I am trying to ship something that I just sold on eBay. Using the eBay to PayPal to USPS automatic payment thingy, this is usually easy. Well, its too long and complex, filled with esoterica. And don't get me started on international forms. Explains nothing, only allows you to put 15 characters in a field visibly like 128 long. Etc. Anyway, this one is domestic. Should be a snap. Submit and I get this: Right up top, on a recycled shipping details page. Anyone see a button of any sort? I keep looking for options to "cancel transaction" and "continue anyway." Nope. Not a one. So, I think maybe its a one-time error, and if I submit again they'll consider that dismissal of the condtion. Nope. Errors again. And again. Nothing gets rid of it. There continues to be no recourse given. Just an error. And, the more I look, the worse it becomes. See that. "Confirmed address." Paypal knows he lives there. I just cannot /use/ the address. Nice. So, I come up with another plan, and copy the purportedly good info into the "edit address" fields. Letter for letter. Nope. But now it highlights the zip in red. Why? Nope. No change in the error box. This is great stuff. And, what to do? I guess stand in line at the post office and NOT use paypal money to pay for shipping. Hopefully the shipping rates are the same and I don't get screwed on this, but I have low hopes. The integrated nature of so many services means there is minimal recourse. Too bad the blog isn't better read and eBay/PayPal can be guilted into fixing it.

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