Simple Machines Community Forum

SMF Support => SMF 2.1.x Support => Topic started by: keyboard on January 08, 2023, 12:17:25 PM

Title: PayPal Subscription Question
Post by: keyboard on January 08, 2023, 12:17:25 PM
Requesting advice

My site has three Subscription Plans that are working flawlessly.

I wish to increase the amount on all three plans .

When I increase the amount, I get the message that I have to delete the original Plan first. I have a lot of recurring subscriptions and I am concerned that if I delete the original, I would lose all those recurring subscriptions !

So my question are:

Will all past existing recurring Plans still be active even if I delete the plan?

Can I safely delete all existing plans and create new plans without losing recurring payments ?

Ron from Canada
Title: Re: PayPal Subscription Question
Post by: Sir Osis of Liver on January 08, 2023, 12:38:31 PM
Not sure, but you may be able to retain the original subscription by making it inactive.  Set up a one day test subscription with auto-renew enabled, subscribe to it, then inactive it and see what happens.

Title: Re: PayPal Subscription Question
Post by: shawnb61 on January 08, 2023, 02:14:31 PM
What is the exact message you are receiving?
Title: Re: PayPal Subscription Question
Post by: Kindred on January 08, 2023, 03:37:39 PM
In short, everyone is going to have to resubscribe.

PayPal doesn't allow recurring payments (which is what subscriptions are) to be altered.

It's not an SMF limitation,  it's a PayPal purposeful and legal limitation
Title: Re: PayPal Subscription Question
Post by: keyboard on January 08, 2023, 04:38:45 PM
Looking for a Work Around to avoid having Users re-subscribe

What I have :
One month $5.00
Six Month $10.00
One Year  $15.00

What I want :
One month $10.00
Six Month $15.00
One Year  $20.00

Please advise
Title: Re: PayPal Subscription Question
Post by: Kindred on January 08, 2023, 04:59:03 PM
No workaround.  I told you, it's a PayPal thing.  You can not change an existing recurring payment
Title: Re: PayPal Subscription Question
Post by: keyboard on January 08, 2023, 06:53:12 PM
I am struggling with the terminology in PayPals answer.

Perhaps some can understand it better and tell me if I delete all the Subscription Plans in SMF, does it also stop all recurring payments....

Hi Ron,

Are you able to view the plans in your PayPal Subscription dashboard? If these plans were created via Subscription API and you can see the plans in your PayPal Account, the subscriptions will remain active if you deactivate the plans.

The recurring payments are separate from plans. If the plans are in PayPal and then disabling them will not stop the recurring payments. If the plans are in your software provider, you will need to confirm with your software provider that they will not send out a cancellation on all of the recurring subscriptions.

PayPal will not cancel the subscriptions, but your software provider can send a subscription cancellation request for the recurring payments.
Title: Re: PayPal Subscription Question
Post by: Sir Osis of Liver on January 09, 2023, 11:48:35 AM
If the subscription is set to allow recurring payments, a PayPal "subscription" is created in the member's PP account.  The forum subscription and PP subscription are two different things.  The PP subscription can only be cancelled by the PP account holder, the API doesn't allow the forum to do it (or it wasn't included in SMF subs feature).  Recurring payments will continue at the original cost, regardless of what you do in the forum, even if the forum goes offline permanently.  You can create a new sub at higher cost for new subscribers, but can't change the recurring cost for existing subscribers unless you terminate their sub and force them to resubscribe at the higher cost.  That, I think, will go badly.
Title: Re: PayPal Subscription Question
Post by: keyboard on January 09, 2023, 08:32:13 PM
Quote from: Sir Osis of Liver on January 09, 2023, 11:48:35 AMIf the subscription is set to allow recurring payments, a PayPal "subscription" is created in the member's PP account.  The forum subscription and PP subscription are two different things.  The PP subscription can only be cancelled by the PP account holder, the API doesn't allow the forum to do it (or it wasn't included in SMF subs feature).  Recurring payments will continue at the original cost, regardless of what you do in the forum, even if the forum goes offline permanently.  You can create a new sub at higher cost for new subscribers, but can't change the recurring cost for existing subscribers unless you terminate their sub and force them to resubscribe at the higher cost.  That, I think, will go badly.


Thank you very much for the explanation...... So I can delete the Subscriptions Plans without losing the recurring payment..That is good !

Please correct me if I am wrong with the following statement.
When I delete all the subscription plans, all existing plans will exist until the plan is finished

Ron

Title: Re: PayPal Subscription Question
Post by: Sir Osis of Liver on January 09, 2023, 08:44:16 PM
No, iirc if you delete an active subscription all subscribers are returned to their original membergroup -

If you delete this subscription all users currently subscribed will lose any access rights granted by the subscription. Unless you are sure you want to do this it is recommended that you simply deactivate a subscription rather than delete it.

If you deactivate the subscription, all current subscribers should remain in subscriber's group until term expires, but the sub will not be displayed in Profile.  But neither of these has any effect on recurring payments, these will continue until member removes the subscription from their PP account, there's no way to do that from the forum. 
Title: Re: PayPal Subscription Question
Post by: keyboard on January 09, 2023, 08:57:54 PM
Is this where I Can deactivate ?

Screenshot 2023-01-09 at 8.54.48 PM.jpg
Title: Re: PayPal Subscription Question
Post by: Sir Osis of Liver on January 09, 2023, 09:02:58 PM
Yes, the sub will remain but won't be visible to members, and existing subscriptions will continue (I think).  Backup your database before you try it, would be a huge pia to restore current subscribers if things go sideways.
Title: Re: PayPal Subscription Question
Post by: keyboard on January 09, 2023, 09:06:03 PM
Thank you... You have been a great help. You are truly an asset here !