Paying for your Taobao Order
When you order something, you will automatically be taken to this screen. In most cases, you can enter your password and you’re done. If there are any further questions, then the below guide is for you.
The Payment Password Screen
1. Order Price and Account Balance
2. Enter Your Password
The text entry box asks for your Zhifubao password (which is probably the same as your Taobao password).
3. Pay for Your Order Button
Clicking this button will release funds from your account into Taobao’s escrow. The money will wait in escrow until you receive the goods and confirm that you are satisfied. If you don’t confirm within a certain time period, the Seller will receive the funds by default. That time period is 10 days if shipped by kuaidi, and 30 days if shipped by postal mail.
Out of money?
If you reach this screen and find that your account doesn’t have enough funds, you will need to first recharge your account, and then return to this screen through Alipay. The order will be listed in Alipay, with an order status of 等买家付款 waiting for the buyer to pay.
First time? You probably need a security plug in
Alipay keeps your money locked up tight! If it is your first time, your browser will probably need a small security plug-in. The currently supported browsers are IE and Firefox, and they will soon support Google Chrome.
Password Field Error?
You may also see a password field that looks like this. If so, you are not using a supported browser, or don’t have the plugin installed. If you see this, you can copy / paste the web address into another browser such as IE and it will take you directly to this screen (after signing in), and it won’t create multiple transactions.
Any questions on this step?
Let me know in the comments.
Related Guides:
When You Receive Your Package
Alipay – Paying and Other Transactions
Getting a Refund After Receiving the Product
Both firefox and explorer asked me to install the plugin when I am in the password field to confirm the payment. Do you know why this is happening to my computer?
That password is protected by an extra layer of security. That is the security plugin that you have to install. It is normal.
What if I’d like to order more products from the same vendor ? Do I need to make each purchase separately or can I combine them (and eventually save the hassle to wait for items that might arrive a different times and combined kuaidi fees) ?
That’s a great question, aloha.
If you want to buy multiple products from the same vendor, Taobao will not automatically consolidate shipping. You will need to contact the vendor by WangWang chat, and ask them to adjust the total costs. The process will go like this:
1. Contact the vendor and ask them first.
2. They will tell you to place the order. (But don’t confirm payment yet)
3. Then they will change the price. Usually they will just remove shipping charges on products after the first one.
4. Then you can go in and confirm payment on the adjusted price.
Thanks for bringing this issue up, I think it deserves its own Field Guide.
Hmmm…it seems that firefox can not find the appropriate plugin for alipay. Tried finding it manually and turns up here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addons/versions/6707
experimental version (bit shady). I tried installing it anyway, and then it says to agree with Alipay license agreement (which is in Chinese). So I clicked continue, but then firefox reports that it can not install the plugin because of “invalid hash, possible download corruption”
I have bad Taobao karma!
PS
I tried explorer as well. There it says it is installing the plugin, then it seems to be ready, but I can not enter a password. Restart explorer, and it tells me again I should install the plugin.
Succeeded! First went to the alipay homepage. There firefox asks again to search for the plugin, which it doesn’t find. Then, in the password field a red text appears. Alipay asks you to save a file aliedit.exe. Save it, install it, and that’s it!
Awesome guide! Thanks!
Great job, Wuxia. Now you’re playing with power.
i get all the way to the place where it says i have to type in the password… but then according to my google translation, it does not accept my password as “my account email is not verified”????? please help i have 600 kuai…
Hah…thanks, but I ran into the next problem.
I tried to get a refund from a buyer because a item was out of stock (he sent me the rest of the items). Could not find it at first, so the buyer said they would send directly to my alipay account.
Next time I log into Alipay I get a popup saying that I need to ID myself for them to put the money back.
您的账户部分功能将不能正常使用。
您的以下的功能将不能进行操作：
* 您的账户内有一笔金额为 68.00 元的资金，需要通过支付宝实名认证才能使用。
点此立刻进行支付宝实名认证
o 我有一个账户A通过认证了，另一个账户B还能通过认证么？
o 我从来没有在支付宝认证过，应该如何认证？
Please note that I don’t see how much is in my account like you do in the alipay control panel. I think they updated the site. To see the amount in the account I basically get sent to the same page as by the text above. Going through the motions get’s me to a screen where I can select the bank where I have an account. I select Merchants Bank. Then it always takes me to a screen where I have to fill in an ID number. I tried filling in passport number, MB account number etc. Nothing seems to work.
Now I can not do any transaction anymore as it seems that I have to solve this first before Alipay accepts my password (it made me change my password to a more secure one in the process).
Anybody got a solution?
Hi there beast,
You may have skipped the registration step that asks you to confirm your email. Did you follow all procedures under where it says “Time to Confirm Your Email” in the guide above? Check your spam folder, etc?
Hi Wuxia. So if I am understanding correctly, you did not do a simple refund, but instead you received a seperate Alipay payment from the Seller?
If this is the case, you will need to confirm your identity with Alipay. It is a relatively simple process. You just need to send them a scan of your passport or other ID. You can find a tutorial to do that on Alipay. Please let me know if that solves the issue, or if you have more problems.
Note: if you want to see how much is in your account, be sure that you are in 我的支付宝. Check the orange banner at the top of the Alipay screen.
Thanks, Gonna check out that tutorial. You’ve got one for everything!
Still can not find what is in my account though. Can only see it when I’m about to pay for something. I’m definitely in “wo de a li bei” but nothing in the orange banner.
Hmmm…tutorial does not seem to work because I don’t have a chinese passport. It only accepts Chinese ID numbers.
Nobody else dealing with this problem?
Wuxia – at which point is it asking for your passport number? It shouldn’t be any of the steps in the above tutorial. Are you trying to register for an alipay account? If so, you should select 护照 (passport) and it should accept your digits.
It is asking for an ID number. I kinda assumed that was my passport. When I fill it in it says it can only be registered using mainland ID numbers.
It’s on this page of the tutorial:
http://help.alipay.com/support/466-476/help-1496.htm
In the meantime when I log in to alipay, it gives me a popup window to this process and informs me that 68 kuai is still patiently waiting for me
.
when i try to pay i get the following screen… what does it mean and how do i fix it. I have installed the plugin…
http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/1318/payhow.jpg
Interesting Field Report, Mikael. We contacted Alipay to see what this was all about.
Somehow your account has been triggered as needing a digital security certificate, a small file on your computer. For most people this is a discrete and automatic update at sign-up, but for some reason it seems to be missing from your computer.
You are going to need to go through a short procedure to 1. pair your mobile phone to your account, and 2. get that small file.
Visit this link for the official guide and another overview of the procedure. Give it a go and see if it fixes your problem. If you hit any bumps in the road, I will have another chat with laobanniang to try and figure this out. Stay tough!
hrm unfortunately it’s not a quite simple process – I need a Chinese person to write a note, scan it and upload it along with their details plus I need a local bank account in my name – I think I will just give up
Thanks for your help anyway
What a disaster! This is rough luck, Mikael. But you should consider sticking with it. I mean, Taobao is so rad!
The required plugin does not work on Macs!!!! Is there ANY way mac users can enjoy the same shopping experience as PC users?
Yay! Mac users CAN enjoy the same shopping experience as PC users! I called the ‘zhifubao’ hotline and they emailed me a link on Alipay to download that special plugin. https://www.alipay.com/# Install that onto your mac and it all works!
Excellent Field Report, Mad!
Yes, Mac users can use Taobao, and the coverage of their plugins has expanded from only IE, to now FF and Chrome.
I’m having the same problem as Wuxia with the plugin. I’ve already done what Wuxia said, but still doesn’t work. Do you have any suggestion for me? I really want to be able to buy by myself on Taobao.
I succeeded! Now I tried to install the plugins with IE. With firefox was not even possible to install. Now, I have just to wait for my goods. This website is excellent. Thanks a lot.
Just tried that link (https://www.alipay.com/) to download the plugin for Mac users, but the page is under construction. Is the plugin for Firefox? I downloaded the plugin for Safari last week but am still experiencing a few frustrations, e.g. I can not submit the refund request form and the recharge account page doesn’t work (though i can do this on Firefox without having downloaded the plugin). Also, my browser chat windows never stay open for longer than a minute. My friend suggested I exit out of all other taobao windows when chatting but this had made no difference at all.
Can anybody point me to another link to download the Firefox plugin?
Gracias.
Hi Annie, Is this the plugin you tried?
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addons/versions/6707
Safari should be supported. But as is the situation with nearly all browsers on Alipay, there is some inconsistency in what works for who. Here is the official Alipay blog thread, with three months of WTF, it doesn’t work right! comments.
I’ll try to keep everyone posted on when / how it gets fixed. My advice until then is to try different browsers and stay scrappy!
Edit: one more thing to consider – the chat links will behave differently depending on which page you click them.
For example, if you click the little chat link from the Shopping Cart page, it might not work. But it does work from the product page. I have experienced it, and others have confirmed (thanks Fredo). So check if that might fix your chatting problems.
wuxia, did you manage to solve the 实名认证才能使用?
And The Field Guide (author), does alipay need to be like paypal where it must be link to either bank card or credit card to be a verified account? My china friend said that in order to use Alipay is tied to china bank card. So one needs to have a china bank card.
Hi En,
Alipay will not prevent you from signing up as a buyer. But you will need to add money before you can buy anything. We advocate recharging via the China Post Office, but you can also link it to your China bank.
The Field Guide (author), thanks so much for replying. But what about the “实名认证才能使用” that wuxia mentioned. I wonder why he has problem verifying his account despite entering passport number (as mentioned in his post #12).
My friend did mentioned about the “实名认证才能使用” required mainland chinese ID card number. Though we can register using passport but what happened when we were required to verify by entering the ID number like wuxia had said that it’s not possible to enter passport number. Wuxia hasn’t replied since so I don’t know what is the current status.
Hi En and Wuxia,
We just did a thorough research on this. Alipay confirmed that as long as you’re just paying out money through your account, you don’t need an identity-certification (实名认证). But if you need to receive money from anyone, (in Wuxia’s case, it’s a refund from the seller,) you’ll have to get your identity certified with Alipay before it allows you to move that money you received.
It’s okay that you don’t have a Chinese ID number, Alipay also accepts 实名认证 for oversea passport users. It does has some other additional requirements though, we just made a new guide on the whole process. It’s a little different from what Wuxia tried earlier. Check it out. Hope it solves some of the confusion. =)
Hi laobanniang,
There were people whose accounts get locked up like Wuxia because the system kept request them to be verified (实名认证). Your guide comes in handy.
Thanks for taking the tedious effort to post the guide.
But there was one problem. What happened if we don’t have our “China bank account”. Was considering using topup method to alipay since don’t have china bank account.
Hi En,
Currently Taobao doesn’t have a flexible solution for this ID-Verify issue, I’m afraid you’ve got to either open a Chinese bank account, or try to avoid any refund to your account by confirming that the seller has the good in stock before you pay, or shop through Taobao Agents….
If you live in China, it’s should not be very difficult to open a Chinese bank account, we’d recommend those non-state-owned banks such as China Merchant bank(招商银行) or Shanghai Pudong Development bank(浦发银行). They provide better hotline service and online banking service.
If you live outside China, Taobao agents is definitely a better choice as it saves most of the hassles and is cheaper on shipping.
Thanks for the Field Reports helping us get this issue diagnosed. Field Guides updated!
Hi laobanniang or The Field Guide (author)
I need help urgently. I wonder if you create a guide how to transfer from one alipay directly to another alipay account. As I am trying to get a mainland chinese friend to transfer money to another alipay account (seller) but she doesn’t know the process of direct fund transfer via alipay. She only knows how to buy things and doesn’t know how she can transfer fund with her alipay to another alipay account holder.
Would really appreciate your help. Thanks very much.
Hello! I am a mac user as well. I read through all the comments/suggestions. I tried the plug-ins that were suggested but I still can’t seem to be able to pay with alipay. I can do everything up to entering my password on the taobao/alipay website. Is there any further news or anything else I can try? (i’m ok with computers but not a computer engineer by any means! – so if i missed something sorry!)
oh…just in case it matters i have tried both safari and firefox.
Hi En, Laobanninag is back! I’m very very sorry, I was participating in a chocolate cake eating contest recently, and have just awoken from my food coma…
I wonder if your Chinese friend has figured out the process. Anyway, I’ll try to write the new guide tonight, if possible. =D
Hi En, Here’s the new guide for transfer money to another alipay user. but as I noticed in your comments, you’re trying to send money to a seller, not a friend, so direct money transfer is not the safest way. you can just ask the seller to send your friend a payment request, he’ll know how to do it.
Hi laobanniang, thank you so so much for the guide. As it wasn’t in time before my friend left for her business trip oversea, she will be back next week and can only do the fund transfer when she returned. Thanks for putting up the “transfer money to another alipay user” guide so that my friend knows the process. I communciated with the seller and she is okay to wait till my friend is back next week.
My friend her alipay is tied to her china credit card. So she can transfer using alipay to that another alipay user.
However you mentioned “ask the seller to send your friend a payment request”, how to translate that into chinese so that I can inquire?
Once again thanks you so much for the guide. Really appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.
You’re welcome En, the “send payment request” function is “担保交易收款” in Chinese, the seller can send it through this link, with the amount of money specified. your friend would see the request in her my taobao page. the request would apprea in the same area where any other normal purchase on taobao would be, and the process of payment is also almost the same.
Hi Xi’an, since either laoban & laobanniang can afford a mac, we can’t test things out for you…=P we checked the the Chinese posts on the internet these days, looks like there’s not much updates on this issue…. Any other mac users here who can help xi’an lao wai?
When i click on the yellow button, it takes me to another page where i select Bank of China. But, as i input my username and password for e-banking, as provided by the bank itself, it shows an error and i can’t log-in. I get the error only when i try to pay for the transaction, and the username/password combo works perfectly when i open bank of china website. What is wrong?
哇塞！！ I did it.
Thanks this is a GREAT site!
Xi’an Laowai, I’m having the same problem. I’m using a Macbook Pro, Safari browser. It’s so annoying – everytime I get to the enter password page for the Bank of China website, it complains about it not being an Internet Explorer browser. I downloaded the Alieditor plugin, it made no difference (not sure if I’m using it correctly or what…)
Zenmeban!? I just really need to order these things already!
I checked out my transaction list in my bank account and i think i accidentally paid the seller twice coz my computer hanged up at the first time and i re-do the transaction but i did’nt notice that it actually done…so what i have to do?
Hi Brat, if you paid twice for the same transaction, People on the internet say the additional one would be sent back to your bank account in 24 hours. Let us know how it goes. =)
I have a Mac as well.
My solution… find a Windows based computer. =/.
When using a Chinese Bank Card, I can get all the way up to where you pay for it, but because Safari doesn’t have the proper plugin I can’t enter my bank card number, and therefore I can’t pay for anything.
This is really freaking lame. Seriously, I love my Mac, but it makes everything so much more difficult.
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