Issue with Renewal of Membership

I implemented a membership renewal using s2member plugin by creating a paypal button for 1 year and I expected all members to be automatically demoted on EOT day and a notification email sent automatically to the member’s email. But some users already do the renewal for another 1 year before the EOT day, and some of them still getting the notification email and being demoted when reaching the old EOT day. I’m wondering if there’s any bugs related to the membership, as this issue doesn’t always happen. Any kind of help will be appreciated as I have tried to fix it without success. Sorry if this topic has been posted before…

Many thanks!

Hello there,

I’m not sure I understand what the problem you’re experiencing is…

If I understood correctly you are experiencing trouble with EOT and users that re-buy the subscription before the EOT… Correct?

Like their EOT doesn’t get added correctly. Is that correct?

– Eduan

Yes it’s correct.. For example, a registered user has his EOT on 22/04/2013.. On that day, an email will be sent to the user giving notification to re-buy the subscription for another year. But, this user has purchased the subscription before EOT (let say on 12/04/2013) and the payment notification email for the renewal subscription was received via email, and also in PayPal.. Then on 22/04/2013, he still received the email notification, also still being demoted..

I see… Yeah that’s messed up. It seems his EOT is not being added up…

Are these subscriptions or buy-now buttons?

– Eduan

Hi Eduan, thanks for your replies :)

I used Buy Now button, the code is as below:

The button for starting the membership:

[s2Member-PayPal-Button level="1" ccaps="" desc="Membership " ps="paypal" lc="" cc="AUD" dg="0" ns="1" custom="www.domainname.com.au" ta="0" tp="0" tt="D" ra="77.00" rp="1" rt="Y" rr="BN" rrt="" rra="1" image="purchase.gif" output="button" /]

And this is the button for doing the renewal:

[s2Member-PayPal-Button level="1" ccaps="" desc="Membership Renewal" ps="paypal" lc="" cc="AUD" dg="0" ns="1" custom="www.domainname.com.au" ta="0" tp="0" tt="D" ra="77.00" rp="1" rt="Y" rr="BN" rrt="" rra="1" image="renew-Fullmembership.gif" output="button" /]

Is it not a good idea to use Buy Now button instead of Subscription button? What is the different between these two? As the two of them are both One Time 1 year access (non-recurring), and I don’t need the trial option..

Thanks for your help! :)

If you are using buy-now buttons then this is a real problem, otherwise this is not a problem. The EOT not being added up thing.

The difference between buy-now and subscriptions is how they work. A buy-now the user pays once and they get the access and his account etc. It’s as if you bought a software’s license, you pay for it once and you get it immediately and all that. The duration of their access depends on what you set in the button.

The subscription is, as it’s named, a subscription. The users subscribe to a payment, meaning they agree to continue to pay whatever the fee was several times, at the intervals you specify in the button. So they continue to pay you $5 every week for example. When the subscription ends, so does the access.

Personally I prefer buy-now buttons, but for things like blogs, articles etc. subscriptions are better.

So let me ask once again. You are 100% sure that the button your users are using is a buy-now button, correct?

– Eduan

Hey Eduan,

Just looking at those shortcodes – rr=”BN” for both – meaning that these are buy now buttons yes?

While I don’t want to poach Contact Point’s thread – I am concerned that if a member renews early that this might happen….

Hello Ben,

Yes that signifies they are buy now buttons.

If a user renews early when they’re using buy now buttons the correct thing that should happen is that the access they just bought will be added to their current already bought membership. So it stacks up in other words.

– Eduan

Following on from this issue – to simplify renewals – is it better to reuse the membership signup buttons (checking that the user is logged in first)??

It may be easier yes. You can make sure he’s logged in just by offering a renewal button only if he’s logged in.

One thing you can do is use content dripping in order to only show this button when the user’s access is about to run out, for example.
Knowledge Base » Introduction to Content Dripping in s2Member®

– Eduan