Expired subscriptions must be treated like no subscription

[opentype]

The issue: when someone let’s a subscription (product subscription or regular subscription) expire, they will later not be able to buy it again, because the invoice on file prevents a new subscription. But the existing subscription also cannot be renewed because the invoice has expired. This can only be solved by intervention from an admin (manually finding and deleting these invoices), but there might be hundreds of those and it would require a constant monitoring of expired invoices. 

The solution: The check that prevents a new subscription with an invoice on file should be removed or adjusted. Someone who doesn’t have a subscription anymore, because subscription and invoice have expired, must be treated like anyone who never had a subscription. Both groups should see exactly the same offers because their status in relation to these subscriptions is the same. 

Why it matters: People run into this problem all the time and it’s not just an inconvenience, it it costing them money, because people who would want to pay cannot pay and probably just give up. Here are just a few examples from the recent days (and I have observed this and commented on it for years): 

• Subscription buttons don't show up. (yesterday)

• Subscriptions Bug (yesterday)

• invoice has expired but member cannot renew (7 days ago)

The development time to fix this is probably much cheaper than having IPS support deal with this issue for years, constantly identifying the issue and guiding people through the process of the possible work-arounds. So it would be a win-win situation to finally fix this. 😉 

[Sonya*]

@opentype I admire you for your persistence in reporting this issue feature again and again.  🙏

[Joachim Sandstrom]

IPS, please fix it. 
It affects your brand and your customers' community brands negatively. Let alone the loss of community revenues plus admin and support resources better spent elsewhere already mentioned above.  

[Makoto]

I definitely consider this not working as intended too and it's something I frequently deal with.

It frustrates my customers and me personally. I can't see why anyone would want it to work this way.

You have subscription options available monthly and annually, and once someone has opted for a monthly subscription, they can never let that subscription expire and opt for an annual one instead?

That makes absolutely zero sense whatsoever. I can't think of a single platform anywhere on the internet that operates this way.

IPS, I've said this many times before, I like you guys and all, but sometimes you are way too hardheaded when it comes to addressing things none of your customers actually want.

Edited April 8, 2022 by Makoto

[Xaviours]

Im still shocked this still hasnt been addressed.

[elonegenio]

We too are having problems with our subscription feature. On 1-1-22 we changed our annual subscription fee from $19.95 to $24.95. Most of the time the renew invoice comes up as it should. However, sometimes it comes up and when the members clicks on the renew button it shows the renew period in terms of months. We have never offered any subscription in terms of months yet the month period magically appears. The member puts a 12 in the open box next to months and comes up with a order review of $299.40 instead of the one yr at $24.95. I have had to manually fix several of these cases. 

In addition, some members renew and get an invoice that was created prior to 1-1-22 with the old subscription fee of $19.95. Those invoices expired but it is appearing as though they have never expired and these members are renewing for 1 year under the old rate instead of renewing for the price increase rate that took effect in 2022.

Several times a day I look at the new invoices created. I have had to delete many of these bad invoices and create new invoices for member accounts that accurately reflect how the renewal invoice should read. I hate that I have had to be so manually involved in this process. As I mentioned above, sometimes the new invoice is generated correctly and sometimes it is not.

Thanks @opentypefor starting this topic as we thought that this invoice issue was something unique only to our situation.

 

[bradybarrows]

WOW!!!  Glad I read this thread. We just switched to a subscription based website after years of giving all our data away for free. I was simply browsing the IC community and found this thread that peaked my interest due to the title of the thread and had no idea this would happen to subscribers. At least I haven't offered any subscription plans using 'years' and only use 'months' so I think elonegenio's issue shouldn't happen. 

Since you guys are so knowledgable about subscriptions I just have a simple question. Guests go click on subscriptions and it creates an invoice that is pending with absolutely no contact information. I click 'cancel' since if I click on 'delete' I get a warning message to cancel before I delete, so I do that, cancel then delete. What is the issue if I just delete and not cancel?  And is there anyway to reduce the number of these bogus guest subscriptions that do nothing but take up time to delete?

 

[David..]

This is a thing? 
 

This definitely needs fixing ASAP.

[Myr]

Agreed.  This has been an ongoing hassle for years.  No idea how much business I lost because of the people that didn't reach out to let us know there was an issue.

[elonegenio]

On 4/9/2022 at 2:16 PM, bradybarrows said:

Guests go click on subscriptions and it creates an invoice that is pending with absolutely no contact information.

I would recommend that you offer the free part of your site to registered guests. That way you will get the necessary info. Alternatively, you could change the name guest to member and require registration to be a member in order to access the free content. Thereafter, if the member chooses to upgrade they will be promoted to a group that you should create with a more prestigious membership name/identification instead of what you use now (member). 

On 4/9/2022 at 2:16 PM, bradybarrows said:

What is the issue if I just delete and not cancel?

There is no issue. Just hit delete.

 

On 4/9/2022 at 2:16 PM, bradybarrows said:

And is there anyway to reduce the number of these bogus guest subscriptions that do nothing but take up time to delete?

See my first response.  

[UncrownedGuard]

Invoiced for payment subscriptions seem incredibly outdated in 2022.  So throwing my support in to get this fixed as it is absolutely not how the average user would expect the feature to work.

[OptimusBain]

It's incredible that this huge problem is still there. I suffer it every month.

It's even worst to see dozens of posts from other members having the same issue and IPS not saying a thing about it. They said already that it's perfect the way it is, it's intended to work like that 😞

Now I can see new voices from well known contributors and programmers in the marketplace saying that it's not working logically, that it should be fixed and make it work the way logic says it should work. 

Bit where is IPS doing? Ah yes, they are adding an annoying fixed link in green colour to promote their cloud service without an option to hide it.

I am suffering the same renewal problem with a few more clients again. They cannot renew and they cannot buy the same product 😞 that's crazy. 

I am glad to see others are complaining. But IPS is doing nothing about it. Maybe I am wrong. I assume they are doing nothing because they did not say they are going to do something about it. New features are 'requested' in Hump Day's posts instead of reading the feature suggestions and our complaints. 

Self hosted clients are also IPS clients and we are being listened. If we were, huge problems like the renewals reported several times would have already been fixed, because it's a critical feature that is not working as it should. 

Many users are complaining about it because the average user/client expects this feature to work the way it's been reported, not the way it's been developed.

10 comments in this thread. None belongs to IPS. 

I am an IPS client, very happy with the software. But these things turn me on fire. I am diligently paying my fees, I have the right to put forward want I think. Moreover, if I am helping IPS to improve its software solution, because it affects my business directly. 

This issue is affecting my business and many other businesses and we are not being listened. 

Thanks a lot.

[DawPi]

I have a mod to allow members to purchase more than one Subscriptions. More info on PM guys.:)

[ZLTRGO]

2 hours ago, DawPi said:

I have a mod to allow members to purchase more than one Subscriptions. More info on PM guys.:)

If its needed/wanted so much, why not sell in on the Marketplace? 😮

[DawPi]

I'll think about it. How it looks like:

[Stuart Silvester]

4 hours ago, DawPi said:

I have a mod to allow members to purchase more than one Subscriptions. More info on PM guys.:)

Please no. Having more than one subscription causes issues because the system is designed for only one. Installing a 'mod' like this would cause more trouble than it solves.

We are aware of the limitations of the subscriptions system and it is something that we're currently working on.

[DawPi]

24 minutes ago, Stuart Silvester said:

Please no.

That's why I do not releasing it for everyone. I'm speaking with everyone and telling them about pros and cons of that mod.

[Dazz]

On 4/7/2022 at 3:06 AM, opentype said:

The solution: The check that prevents a new subscription with an invoice on file should be removed or adjusted. Someone who doesn’t have a subscription anymore, because subscription and invoice have expired, must be treated like anyone who never had a subscription. Both groups should see exactly the same offers because their status in relation to these subscriptions is the same. 

Where is this check at?

[bradybarrows]

On 4/15/2022 at 12:55 AM, DawPi said:

I have a mod to allow members to purchase more than one Subscriptions. More info on PM guys.:)

Please excuse my ignorance, what is a 'mod'?  Is it short for module?  Where is  'mod' in the IC control panel?

[bradybarrows]

On 4/15/2022 at 12:39 PM, Dazz said:

Where is this check at?

Which one is it? 

or this one?

[Nakamura RTS]

Looking forward to improvements in this area.

[abobader]

21 hours ago, bradybarrows said:

what is a 'mod'?

Modifications, normally you know it as plugins.

[BouncingXkala]

Really needs to be addressed. I can't keep manually sorting peoples payments out every time they wish to come back to purchase from us. Ridiculous.

[bradybarrows]

Sorry Opentype. My bad. 

 

 

Edited May 3, 2022 by bradybarrows

[opentype]

1 minute ago, bradybarrows said:

You probably are very much aware of this, but wanted to ask you a question about it. 

Please open a new topic. I started this topic to highlight a crucial problem with Commerce which is still unsolved. At least until it is solved, the discussion should be limited to this topic. Other issues would distract from the original point.