Android Community is hearing from developers who are experiencing problems linking Merchant accounts to their Android Developer accounts, and as such are unable to list paid apps on the Android Market.  Multiple developers are reporting seeing the error message “Sorry, we could not setup your merchant account.  Please try again later” multiple times over the past 24-48 hours, with Google’s customer support remaining silent.

Google began listing paid applications a month ago, the Android Market previously having only accepted freeware for the platform.  Developers wishing to sell their software are required to register for a Google Checkout merchant account before submitting their applications with a price tag attached.

We’ve got a request for a comment or at least some feedback from Google at the moment, and will update as soon as we hear back from them.  This is a bad situation not only for developers but for users, who are missing out on access to new software.