There are days when I wonder if people actually go through their companys online cart system or registration system themselves before unleashing it on an unsuspecting public.

It seems like a no brainer to me – you have a website, you make it as easy as possible for the people to find whatever it is they are looking for. Right?

Last weekend I decided sign up for a subscription service. On the front page it said "We accept Credit Cards and PayPal!"

Being that the house was chilly and I was tucked all nice up under a blanket on the couch, I didn’t want to get up and find my purse and get my credit card to fill that in, so I opted for PayPal. After several attempts and frustration, I clicked on the FAQ section and poured through pages of questions and answers and finally came to "Can I pay with PayPal?" The answer was, "No. We don’t offer that service yet."

Well.

Someone should have told their home page, then.

Disgusted, I went to another site offering the same service, I was signed in and signed up in 3 minutes.

Perhaps it’s because we put our own cart system through such a stringent testing process that I’m astounded when I come across hurdles like this. It’s sloppy and it’s bad business. And I’m finding more and more instances of them.

‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software