member cannot renew expired product (issue persists)

[OptimusBain]

Hello,

I know this issue has been reported many times, but why isn't this fixed? 😞 😞 I see in the beta releases for 4.7 that many non-important issues are being fixed. What about this critical issue? The impossibility of a client to renew an expired subscription? Isn't this more important and critical than fixing these issues below???

• Fixed downloading older file versions failing under specific circumstances
• Fixed a missing `</ul>` in the poll template
• Fixed an issue where clicking on the reorder-menu link in clubs can add multiple reorder icons.
• Fixed missing padding on the AdminCP file locations modal.
• Fixed a syntax error in the core `unsubscribeStream.txt` email template.
• And so many more...

This is what I read... Fixing a missing /UL and a syntax error is WAY more important than preventing members from paying??? 😞 😞 This is CRITICAL.

I do not understand. It goes beyond my comprehension that such a critical issue reported numerous times for months hasn't been fixed. How can a critical issue like members being unable to renew an expired product? I just can't understand. 

Not only that, IPS staff is not saying anything about how and when this issue will be fixed. I am having this problem almost every week. There is a serious problem in the way renewals has been created and it's being ignored.

A user asked me now that he wants to renew and pay, but the only thing he can see is VIEW PURCHASE. There is no way to have the ADD TO CART button there. I tried in ACP. Nothing! I even deleted the last cancelled invoice, nothing. The username is wolis997 

Two things

1. Could any IPS staff member fix this issue for this user?
2. When will this issue be fixed? 😞 😞 😞

Thanks

Edited July 1, 2022 by OptimusBain

[Marc]

This actually has been improved in the latest 4.7 release, and is shown under "Improved subscriptions..." in the release notes. If the user however has a purchase already, they should click on view purchase and then should have a renew option. If there isnt you can generate a renewal by creating a new renewal invoice for that user

[OptimusBain]

8 minutes ago, Marc Stridgen said:

This actually has been improved in the latest 4.7 release, and is shown under "Improved subscriptions..." in the release notes. If the user however has a purchase already, they should click on view purchase and then should have a renew option. If there isnt you can generate a renewal by creating a new renewal invoice for that user

There is no renewal option for the user, sorry 😞 I can't see that option. I signed in as the user and I can't see anything like that. Why isn't there? Shouldn't that be the "improvement". The user VIEWS PURCHASE and then he will see the option to RENEW. I can't see that. It's the user that should have that option. If the option is not there, then it will generate a problem and a ticket (wasted time).

When will this be improved? The community is about facilitating thins to the users, not making it complicated and illogical like the inability of renewing an invoice on the user side.

• Why does the admin have to do that?
• Why does the admin has to receive an email or a ticket every time? 😞 

I've read the discussing between cloud and self-hosted, and one of the main IPS arguments is that most time is spent fixing issues on self-hosted systems. Well, now IPS is doing the same thing on its clients, because it's generating unnecessary support tickets on an issue that is not logically created. It matters a lot because I (and others) are losing clients and money, so is supposedly IPS when using so much time fixing other's problems, but I am paying for that with my renewals. But what if I could not renew my license with you and that generated support tickets again and again... That's what is going on right now. It needs to be fixed.

I've generated a renewal in ACP and sent the link to the user. The thing is, why do I have to do this again and again? The user should be able to do that on his side, not the admin 😞 😞

Thanks

[Marc]

Sorry, Im a little confused as to your response there. You are assuming that the improvement isnt in this area for some reason, which is not the case. There has indeed been improvement in that area

[OptimusBain]

1 hour ago, Marc Stridgen said:

Sorry, Im a little confused as to your response there. You are assuming that the improvement isnt in this area for some reason, which is not the case. There has indeed been improvement in that area

I am being very specific in my description. A user won't be able to renew it's subscription. It's been mentioned by quite a few members in the community.

Maybe there has been an improvement, but I have no idea what it is because my complain and that of many other users who have reported this serious issue hasn't been attended or fixed. Users can't renew their subscription once it's expired and they don't have the possibility to do it themselves, not only that, they cannot choose the expired product once it has expired.

I don't know what type of improvement you are referring to, because these very serious issues are still there. But instead of fixing them (not 'improving' them), I see non-critical issues being fixed. It's incomprensible that this SO serious issue hasn't been fixed since it's been reported for many months and many users. IPS prefers to fix /UL errors, a translation string. 

That makes my blood boil. Why? Because we are talking about a VERY serious logical problem in this functionality.

Users can neither pay an expired invoice, nor renew an expired one, nor add the expired product to the cart again.

That's insane 😞 reported so many times by many users and the only thing I hear is that improvements have been made 😞 😞 I am losing clients and money because this serious issue is being ignored.

[Marc]

I understand you are being specific, and I'm not sure how much more specific I can be here. This has been resolve on the next release, and actually as a result of your own ticket reporting that very issue. While I understand your frustration here, there is little I can do other than let you know this. 

Just to note, on this one you have actually deleted a pending invoice, which has caused you to be in this situation on this one unfortunately. The paypal subscription is suspected, so the manual invoice was generated as per your last ticket

[OptimusBain]

3 hours ago, Marc Stridgen said:

Just to note, on this one you have actually deleted a pending invoice, which has caused you to be in this situation on this one unfortunately. The paypal subscription is suspected, so the manual invoice was generated as per your last ticket

Yes, I deleted it to see if by deleting it, I or the member would be able to renew it. That's why you will see the deleted invoice. It didn't work with the pending or non-pending invoice deleted 😞

3 hours ago, Marc Stridgen said:

I understand you are being specific, and I'm not sure how much more specific I can be here. This has been resolve on the next release, and actually as a result of your own ticket reporting that very issue. While I understand your frustration here, there is little I can do other than let you know this. 

Are you saying that this issue I detailed in this post will be resolved in 4.7 final release? I am running 4.7 beta 9 (last one I think) and the issue is still happening in this version.

Edited July 1, 2022 by OptimusBain

[Marc]

We would need to see the issue in action on an item which has not been amended. If there was an invoice there ready for paying however, then indeed they would not see the renew option, as there is an invoice there for that renewal. That is expected and how the system is designed to work

[OptimusBain]

13 minutes ago, Marc Stridgen said:

We would need to see the issue in action on an item which has not been amended. If there was an invoice there ready for paying however, then indeed they would not see the renew option, as there is an invoice there for that renewal. That is expected and how the system is designed to work

This thing has happened in the past a few times. I had a member of the team sign in my ACP a few weeks ago and generate quite a few invoices that could not be paid because of this, I think it was Jim. So, this issue has been seen in action by the team. On this particular one, I needed to see if deleting the invoice would make any difference. It didn't and that's why I contacted support again.

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I didn't have this question answered....

Are you saying that this issue I detailed in this post will be resolved in 4.7 final release? I am running 4.7 beta 9 (last one I think) and the issue is still happening in this version.

[Marc]

Quote

This thing has happened in the past a few times. I had a member of the team sign in my ACP a few weeks ago and generate quite a few invoices that could not be paid because of this, I think it was Jim.

Im not sure what you mean here by they cannot be paid. This is quite different to someone being unable to renew as you reported. So I would need more information on this. I understand there was indeed a ticket, and that ticket was escalated, and you were informed at that point there was a bug that has been corrected.

Quote

So, this issue has been seen in action by the team. On this particular one, I needed to see if deleting the invoice would make any difference. It didn't and that's why I contacted support again.

The issue here is the user cannot click on renew, nor will see renew, because there is that invoice present. The user should have paid the invoice. The issue was originally caused because the paypal subscription was cancelled, and therefore there was an invoice generated that needed to be paid. They would not see a renew button in that circumstance

Quote

 

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I didn't have this question answered....

Are you saying that this issue I detailed in this post will be resolved in 4.7 final release? I am running 4.7 beta 9 (last one I think) and the issue is still happening in this version.

 

It is resolved in the release you are actually using at present. The issue was related to cancelled subscriptions. 

 

If you have any further issues, do not do anything with them and instead allow us to look at these. There is confusion here because you are trying to resolve an issue, which is not actually an issue but as per design. If there is something outside of that we can no longer see it because you have removed the invoice in question and the subscription on paypal has been cancelled.

[OptimusBain]

4 hours ago, Marc Stridgen said:

There is confusion here because you are trying to resolve an issue, which is not actually an issue but as per design

By design? It means that this behaviour will continue? Many users have complained how renewals work and the impossibility of members to renew when the invoice has expired.

Not only that. If the invoice expires and he cannot pay, why can't the use cancel it and add the same product to the cart? It's a very common scenario. But with the way it's been 'designed', it's just impossible. The invoice expires, user cannot pay and he won't be able to add the product to buy it again because it's still 'linked' to the original purchase. How can the user disconnect or unlink the purchase so he can add the product to the cart and add it again? 

Why can't the user just delete the invoice and the renewal himself? Why can't he overcome this issue and just add the same product to the cart and cancel the previous invoice to start afresh? He just can't do any of that. He can't cancel it and start anew. He gets frustrated and either leaves or send a support ticket, abd the same story starts again. 

Edited July 1, 2022 by OptimusBain

[Marc]

Quote

By design? It means that this behaviour will continue? Many users have complained how renewals work and the impossibility of members to renew when the invoice has expired.

I did not know here that the invoice had expired. As mentioned, we need to see the issue in action at the time, and not after this has been attempted to be corrected. A user should indeed be able to renew if the invoice has expired. 

Quote

Not only that. If the invoice expires and he cannot pay, why can't the use cancel it and add the same product to the cart? It's a very common scenario. But with the way it's been 'designed', it's just impossible. The invoice expires, user cannot pay and he won't be able to add the product to buy it again because it's still 'linked' to the original purchase. How can the user disconnect or unlink the purchase so he can add the product to the cart and add it again? 

This is indeed by design when you allow the purchase of only one of those items. You would renew the item you already have, not purchase a new one.

Why can't the user just delete the invoice and the renewal himself? Why can't he overcome this issue and just add the same product to the cart and cancel the previous invoice to start afresh? He just can't do any of that. He can't cancel it and start anew. He gets frustrated and either leaves or send a support ticket, abd the same story starts again. 

Quote

There would be no reason to do so. You would simply click on renew. As mentioned, if that was not present we would need to see that issue in action at the time. If you have been cancelling invoices and trying to correct an issue yourself, this will lead to confusion as you have seen here. 

The situation at present is that we cannot assist unless you have an item that is currently in that state that you havent been trying to correct. There have been bugs that have been corrected, but whether you are seeing one of those that has carried over, or you simply havent had the bug fix before the event, we dont currently know due to the above.