UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums UBB.threads 7 Bug Reports New Subscription = EOT Manual Activation Needed.

Hi guys. (move me if i'm not a bug).

ive had subscriptions active for some time with various Durations and all is well. They have always had Recurring Subscription:, Reattempt on Failed Transactions. Ticked and worked as expected. But now My New Group i have created is playing up? Its EOT (End Of Term) at the point of Paying. And the workaround is to edit the Subscription Invoice from EOT to Activate now.



My Goal
A New Group. (5yr Duration).
Offer it at Half Price for 2 Months.
Then Go to Full Price there after.

I have a 5yr group that i am offering at a lower price until December 29th 2012. So with this in mind i have it set like this.

Edit Subscription Group
Allow access by subscription Ticked
Subscription Rate: £5:00
Subscription billing cycle: 5 years
Recurring Subscription: NOT Ticked
Reattempt on Failed Transactions. NOT Ticked

Because i don't want to tick "Recurring Subscription" because in 5years it will ask for the reduced rate again.
And then the Normal Price after 2 Months would be £10, This i thought i would have to do Manually.

The Problem

The User Experience.
1. The User Subscribes Via Pay Pal.
2. Private message received By Subscriber (Payment Received - Thank You)
3. Private Message Received By Subscriber (Subscription End of Term)
** They Are Not Part of the Subscribed Group as intended.

Admin Pay Pal Trail
1. Recurring Payment From Mr X Status Created
2. Recurring Payment From Mr X Status Expired
3. Recurring Payment From Mr X Status Completed £5
** Bit Confusing but the Money is the last part.

UBB Trail
1. Admin Receives a Private Message "End of Term"
2. Subscriptions Page User Shows the End Date of 2017 & EOT
3. User is not part of the New Group even though i have the funds.
4. Subscriptions Screen "Edit" Change Status to "Activate Now"
5. Subscription Screen now shows "Manually Activated".
6. User Now Receives Manually Activated Private Message
7. User Is Now Part Of The Subscribed Group (At Last)

** Side Note : Pay Pal only Accepts a Max of 5yrs in the Year Option. I did try 10 with Errors.

So What am i' Not Doing ?
Should i be using the Allow a Trial Period Option ?
Putting the 5yrs as the Duration and Price?
Then when i no longer wish to offer this subscription at its Half Price just Un tick Allow a Trial Period?

Its a the lack of Documentation im afraid, or not knowing where to look to read up about it.

Help / Advice / As Always very much appreciated, Thank You.

If it is Allow a Trial Period is the Answer, what do i put in all the fields?
I'm hoping its my lack of understanding of the Trial Period and its a simple case of using that to reach my goal. Too much going on with what should be a straight forward process. I blame my self until you guys can advice and show me how


Cheers Mark

I wish I could help. But I have never used this feature at all.
I do know Basil does, so maybe he can give some insight if he visits soon.
I do recall that there is a issue on deleting existing subscription groups, Because what little I have played with it There was a problem.

I'm with Ruben, I've never used the subscription feature; I was actually looking for someone who had to make an entry for the wiki...

I may have to use the sandbox with pay pal at the weekend, just hoped that someone could help to. save all that arsing around.

Thanks for your replies guys.

Up to now its been great, its very straight forward. Just me throwing a promotion in the mix has caught me out.

I think the real bug is you can't delete the trial group once created.
Somewhere that came up and it would either be in version 7.6 or plus somewhere. But you may be able to just uncheck the allow trial period.
I know I do have one test group in 7.5.6 ad I can't delete it.

Well I looked at this some more
If you delete the members of that group it will allow you to delete the group But need to re-assign them to at least one group such as users

Also I noticed by deleting the group I get a "your subscription has expired notice" on a PM

Btw,
We currently have a monkey issue here in Florida.
http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2010/reports/mystery-monkey/

After some Digging i found this.

https://www.ubbcentral.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/223778/Re_Paypal_Subscription#Post223778



For now ive set up a temp group.

1. Trail Period 1 Day £1
2. Full Subscription 1 Day £2
3. Recurring payments Active.
4. Retry Attempts Active.

Following the process as a USER so far i Have Paid £1
I have a Private Message Welcoming me to this New Temp Group.

From what its reading on the Users Subscription Order Screen its saying.

Order Details (User Sees when Purchasing)
Order Details
1 Day Trial Period is £1
Regular Rate is £2.00 for 1 Days (Automatic Renewal Active)

- - - - - - -- - -- - -- - - --
So by the end of the weekend i should have my answers.

I think its a play on works so it may work by changing "Trial Period" to "Special Offer" Via the Language Files And Group Description i may just have the results i need. Fingers Crossed

** Just a Side Note
If a User Subscribes to a Group that say over 1 year pays £10 with a Recurring Payment Active.
If i Change the 1 year Subscription to £15 after 6 Months. I'm Pretty sure that the user is Still Charged the £10 on the original recurring subscription.

This weekend i'm going to try and cancel a recurring payment via Admin Pay Pal.
Without Triggering the wrong responses to the User and the Subscription list.

O Well maybe my adventure will help others too.

Fingers crossed

Notes To Forum

* There is Reference to Free Trial But in the Language File but i can not find it any where?
* Trial Offer : Does Not Send a Trial Offer Private Message it sends out "Payment Received Private Message"

Testing over the Weeked

Trial = £1 for1 Day
Full = £2 for 1 Day

User Experience
1. User Subscribes to New Group With Trial Period.
2. User Receives a Email from Pay Pal "You Set Up a Automatic Payment Profile." This shows the Trial Period Cost and Period. This Also Shows the "Regular Recurring Payment Profile" Cost and Duration and Recurring Indefinitely.
3. User Receives a Email From Pay Pal "You Sent an Automatic Payment" This again shows the Payment for the Trial Period £1 in this case.
4. User Receives a Private Messages "Payment Received" (Your Payment to the Group xxxx Has been Received.)

+1 Day (stan keep off my +1 lol)

3. User Receives a Email From Pay Pal "You Sent an Automatic Payment" This again shows the Payment for the Full Price £2 in this case. (This Again shows what you paid for the Trial Period too).
4. User Receives a Private Messages "Payment Received" (Your Payment to the Group xxxx Has been Received.)
5. Subscription Status Page Says "Payment Received" Showing End Date and Time.

Admin Experience
1. Receives a E-Mail From Pay Pal "You Received Payment" £1 Which also shows the Trial Perod and Cost and the Full Period And Costs.
1. Receives a E-mail From Pay Pal "You Have a New Automatic Payment Profile for XXX" This Shows the Trial Period and the Full Price and Period with in the content.
2. Subscriptions Status Page (I think shows Payment Received).

+1 Day

3. Receives E-Mail from Pay Pal "You Received a Payment." This shows the £2 Payment as Amount Received and Shows The Trial Period and Duration in that e-mail too.
4. No Privates Messages to Admin about Trial Ending.
5. And so on and so on.

** NOTE **
If you wish to change the Pricing or Duration of a Recurring Payment. You need to go into pay pal and find that users Profile (Name) click On Details and then Visit the Recurring payment Screen. You need to Cancel The Profile of that User. What it really means is you cancelling there Recurring Payments Only. Your Not Cancelling there Group Membership. A Member with a Cancelled Profile Via Pay Pal does NOT get a Private message about any changes.
They DO Get a E-mail from Pay Pal saying that the Recurring Profile has been Cancelled.

When a User signs up to a Group with Trials and Recurring payments they are entering an Agreement with you.
So if you have an Annual Membership, and you increase the price the following year your going to have to Cancel those users Profiles Manually via Pay Pal. (You may be able to do this via the Subscriptions Edit in the control panel but ive not found a way yet). So when that users subscription ends they have to manually subscribe again with the new pricing etc. . . . Or leave all well alone and they continue to re register to your group Automatically at the Original Price. I guess you could say its a loyalty thing.

It can be confusing with the wording pay pal uses and what the forums use. I hope the above helps others.
As i change Trial Period to Special Offer via the Language files and that should sit better with me and my users based in the UK.

Phew. . . . .
And all of the above is with Version 7.5.6 p2

Thats all for now, and that cost me £5 in Testing lol

I don't think PayPal sends a callback to alert a script of any change; that'd really be a problem on thier end; we'd need some sort of management script on the UBB side of things to be able to make changes to be able to sync them imo...

Why didn't you use the sandbox? lol... £5 to you is $8.05 to me; I remember when we where closer... lol

Were still close you just don't know it lol

Just to Add :

I Edited the Status of this account from Payment Recieved to "Expired" via the subscription screen as Admin.

The User recieves a EOT Private message and is no longer part of the Test Group.

But . . . .

Pay Pal Did Not Stop the £2 Subscription.
I was Charged again £2 as the ongoing subscription i assumed was Ended.

NOTICE : ONLY CANCEL SUBSCRIPTIONS VIA PAY PAL RECURRING SCREEN

Where you see "Active"

Lesson Learned and this area is good in some respects does need some more attention.

Hope that helps anyone.