I recently tried to update a client’s PayPal account from an individual account to a business account. After submitting the update form, I got a page entitled “Page Not Found” with a link to retry or go to the PayPal home page.

I assumed that this was a temporary issue and that they were experiencing an outage or upgrading their system. After a week of trying at different intervals I sent an email to their support department. You can see the support message below.

After receiving the reply from the support team, I re-attempted the upgrade process several more times over a few days using different browsers at with a variety of security settings.

Still unable to upgrade my PayPal account, I finally phoned in and was informed that this was a known issue and that they were unable to provide an estimated completion date. In addition, there was no way to upgrade my account manually and that I should continue to try the online form.

So, if you’re having trouble upgrading your PayPal account, this might be why.

Here’s the message I sent to support:

Original Message Follows:
————————
Form Message
customer subject: Business upgrade problem – page not found.
customer message: What would you like to do with your account type?:
‘upgrd_acct’
Additional Information: ‘When I fill out the form to upgrade my account to a business account, I get a page titled “page not found” with a link to retry the form. When will this be working again and is there another way to upgrade my account?

Thank you,

Keeton

Here’s the response:

From: webform@paypal.com [mailto:webform@paypal.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2008 7:57 PM
To: XXX
Subject: Re: MyAccount (Routing Code: XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXX) (XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX) :ppk1

Dear XXX,

Thank you for contacting PayPal.

I apologize for the delay of our response.

My name is Solad and I am happy to assist you today. I understand that you are having difficulty upgrading your account to a business account. I apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you. I’ll be happy to check that for you.

If you are receiving the error message ‘page cannot be displayed’ or ‘page cannot be found’ while attempting to access your account or open a new one, it may be because your browser’s security level is set too low.

For maximum security, you should consider upgrading to a Netscape or Microsoft browser supporting 128-bit encryption. Below are the instructions for viewing your browser security level.

For Microsoft Internet Explorer:

1. Open your Internet Explorer browser and select ‘Help” from the toolbar

2. Select ‘About Internet Explorer’

3. On the About Internet Explorer window, you will be given a version number and a cipher strength (encryption rate)

4. If your cipher strength is less than 128-bit, you may update by going to your ‘Tools’ tab and select ‘Windows Update’. (You may also click Help, click About Internet Explorer, and then click Update
Information.)

5. This will direct you to the Microsoft web site to upgrade your browser

You will also need to check the browser settings:

1. Click Start–>Settings–>Control Panel and open ‘Internet Options’

2. Click the ‘Advanced’ tab, scroll to the bottom of the scroll window

3. Ensure that ‘Use SSL 2.0’, ‘Use SSL 3.0’ and ‘Use TLS 1.0’ place a ‘check’ in the checkbox next to each of these options

For Netscape Communicator or Navigator:

1. Click ‘Help’ and then ‘About Communicator or Navigator’

2. In the window that opens, look for a section on RSA security

3. If this section reads, ‘This version supports U.S. security’, then your browser supports 128-bit encryption.

4. Otherwise, it will indicate you have an export version, which only supports 40-bit. (Further details are also available by clicking on Security in the Navigator toolbar)

5. If you need to upgrade your Netscape browser, go to http://home.netscape.com and click the ‘Download’ graphic at the top of the page

For other browsers, please view your help files for more information about upgrading to a more recent version.

If the cipher strength is already set to 128 bit, you will need to clear your cookies.

Double-checking your time and date on your computer may also help with your issue:

1. Click the Start button in the lower left hand corner

2. Scroll up to Settings and click on Control Panel

3. Double click Date/Time

4. Make sure the year is set to the correct year

Once your changes have been made, you may need to reboot your computer.

Please Note: If you are getting ‘Page Cannot be Displayed’ when trying to open a new account, it could be your cookies are not enabled. Once your cookies are enabled, you should be able to view the PayPal pages.

If this still doesn’t work, try clearing your cookies and cache on your computer.

If you are experiencing problems with our website that have not been encountered before, it is likely that you have a corrupted cookie. The easiest way to clear cookies is to remove them from your computer rather than the web browser.

Cookies are small text files (usually less than 1K in size) that websites send to your computer’s hard drive to identify you when you return. Think of them as your ID (identification) badge. Cookies are harmless and cannot affect the performance of your computer.

Without the cookie file, websites you frequent, like PayPal.com, will treat you as a new user each time you return.

Follow these simple steps to clear your cookies:

1. Open your Internet Explorer browser by clicking on the blue “e.”

2. Click “Tools” located at the top of the browser and select “Internet Options.”

3. Click “Delete Cookies”.

4. Click “OK” and “OK” again.

5. Restart your browser.

These steps should work for most Browsers types.

For IE 7, XP, and Vista users:

1. Open your Internet Explorer browser.

2. Click “Tools” located at the top of the browser and select “Internet Options.”

3. Under Browsing history, click the “Settings” button.

4. Click the “View files” button.

5. Click “Edit” at the top of the browser and then “Select All.”

6. Press the “Delete” key on your keyboard.

7. Click “Yes” if you are prompted with “Are you sure you want to delete the selected Cookies?”

8. Restart your browser.

To clear cookies for Macintosh using Internet Explorer, follow the steps
below:

1. Click “Explorer” or “Edit” at the top of the screen.

2. Click “Preferences.”

3. Under Web Browser preferences, click “ADVANCED.”

4. Click “Empty Now” on the right.

5. Click “OK”.

6. Restart your browser.

If it still doesn’t work, kindly contact your internet provider to change some settings on your account with them.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.

Sincerely,
Solad
PayPal Consumer Support
PayPal, an eBay Company

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 10th, 2008 at 3:38 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.