I agree with the OP about the feeling of pressure it applies, but as a longtime studio owner, if you don't make the sale when the sale is hot, the odds of closing it are like 65% less likely. You might do what we do and add a line to your PayPal email like "For your convenience we've added the PayPal button below, which, when completed, immediately guarantees your reservation for xx/xx/xx date and time. If you'd prefer to pay by check, we are happy to hold your reservation for x days. Please let us know if you have any questions, and thank you."
I'm not sure how things are shaping up with PayPal either. I switched to it 18 mos. or so ago, and it worked nicely until recently when people began telling me things like what the OP says here. Since I'm a merchant account as well as a personal Paypal account holder, my attempts to recreate problems similar to my clients new to PayPal were not really accurate. In fact they were easy. But you'd think I'd also be able to navigate the process, having set up my own accounts and all.
Last month I sat in with an acquaintance while he paid for his daughter's wedding as a first time PayPal user. Frankly, if his daughter hadn't been there, I'm not sure how far we'd have gotten. Of course I was reluctant to get too close to passwords, etc. which is where I stepped out and his daughter came in. But it was very messy for a process that used to be quite simple.
When people wanted to pay in studio with a CC, I had been in the habit of just getting them online on my laptop in the consultation room, then going to the office and sending them a Paypal invoice via email. They'd pay with their card via the email and be done. I never saw their security conscious data, since we were in separate rooms, which is even better than the typical CC station in store.
Paypal doesn't seem to be that simple anymore, does it? Now I'm thinking over the Paypal option and will have to look at the Google site mentioned.
--
jrbehm
http://www.jeffbehm.com 
