How To Disable The Paypal Help Center

by Andreas Bossard on February 23, 2010 · 9 comments

in Design, Usability, Web

(Note: Here’s another guest post from Andreas Bossard, proprietor of the blog News of the Future and author of several excellent UsabilityBlog posts. Today he talks about his travails with the Paypal help system. Enjoy. -Paul)

I wanted to get help in Paypal, that’s why I clicked on “Help” and expected to see the help section of Paypal.
Instead I saw the following:

Cannot access the Paypal help section

All that I read when scanning through the page is:

Help information isn’t available in English yet. […] select U.S. English.

So I need to change the language to U.S. English. Okay, I try to remember all the steps that they tell me, go through them and reach this page:

Paypal: How to select U.S. English?

Hmm. I cannot see U.S. English. How to select U.S. English now? I think I will contact the Help Center. …But wait a minute… I could not access the help pages, that’s why I came to this page in the first place. I’m trapped in a can-not-get-help-loop. *argh*

Note: If I select German, then the help center is shown! But if I was an English speaker I would not be able to get help. I think this bug exists only for Swiss users, otherwise it would be fixed since a long time.

What to learn from this mistake by Paypal:

  • Let me select the language for the help pages directly
  • Or give me a direct link
  • But no lengthy instructions please

When I clicked the help link, I need help immediately!

Tagged as: ecommerce, Help

  • Tsjoepie

    Hello,

    I'd like to note that it says “To change your language preference back to English [...] select U.S. English.”
    It pays to actually read the message, as to view the help, it requests that you change your language to one of the options that are shown.

    This problem seems to exist on different regional Paypal sites (note the country code in the URL of the Help page); only the native languages (when available) of the selected country are provided.

    I can certainly relate to the solutions you propose, but keep in mind that “lengthy instructions” are the only way to make sure everybody can find his way to fix the problem. If they care enough to actually read them, ofcourse.

    Kind regards

    • http://www.iceni-it.co.uk Swipefiledjc

      It has been like this for about a year and now I have to urgently contact Paypal I cannot. I am in France and I get the option of France France or France. None of them get me back to US English and I am fuming. It is time they got this bit of their act together.

      Di

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  • Ana Mosterin

    This problem exists for Spanish users as well. I’m in an even worse loop – I want to know how I can enter a UK address from my profile as I’m moving from Spain to the UK, but help isn’t available in English yet… unbelievable!

  • Asdf

    Fucking Paypal, fucking Meg “Feebay” Whitman. DESTROY!

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  • Zahavlavan

    It exists in Israel too. I cannot find any way of getting help, and as of yet I cannot for the life of me think how to solve this. Paypal site says, “If you need to…contact our customer service center” How??How??

  • Guest

    Same problem for italian users. And I just can’t believe reading “2010″ on your article! PayPal loves to keep bugs?

  • kastanedowski ebay

    same problem in Spain and Poland….

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