The current add-on purchasing system in self-serve is too confusing for folks that are trying to use it for the first time (or the first time in a long time). This is being compounded by the a lot more folks wanting to purchase add-ons recently due to the new US Roaming add-ons roll-out.
The current system stems from the fact that in the entirely pre-paid PM system, everything needs to be paid for by funds from your PM account. Because of this, if you don't already have enough available funds* in your account to pay for the add-on purchase, you first have to make a one-time payment for the amount, and then purchase the add-on from those newly-available funds.
(*most people usually have an available amount of zero, especially if they are using auto-pay for renewals.)
This system is really confusing because it looks like you are purchasing the add-on during the first step, and some people stop there and then wonder why their add-on isn't working and they are showing an available balance.
It should be possible for PM to merge the two steps into one. You should be able to add the funds as part of the purchase, in one step. This is effectively how auto-pay works--the system first pulls money from your stored credit card and adds it as available balance on your PM account, and then makes the purchase of your renewal from that stored available balance. Purchasing add-ons should work in exactly the same way, transparently.
Thank you for your consideration!
EDIT I really like @david_l's suggestion to at least update the first step to make it clear to the customer that they are not finished at that point. Maybe this could be done quickly now, while we wait for the full feature to be prioritized and implemented?
