Lapsed subscriber tries returning and fails

A subscriber (monthly/s2-level2) allowed his subscription to lapse. He was eventually demoted through the EOT process to the WordPress “Subscriber” level. We don’t remove those IDs.

A few weeks later, he rejoined using the regular PayPal button for the monthly subscription. s2Member shows an IPN transaction as “subscr_signup” with everything looking normal. The subscriber received an email notification and completed registration steps. (FWIW, we admins did NOT see a copy of the “Congratulations” email notification. hmmmm?) He notified us after being left in the state where he could log in but had no access to protected material.

In effect, it looks as nothing changed with his “Subscriber” level User ID. While the IPN transaction shows that s2Member created a new ‘subscr_id’ value, that value was not placed in to the WordPress User ID, nor was the s2Member level set to the correct value.

I have manually updated these values for him, but really want to avoid future problems like this.

How do I diagnose what failed?

Hi Mary,

Have you enabled logging (Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Options -› Account Details -› Logging)? The log files would be the first place to start diagnosing such problems. Without the logs, there really isn’t any way to tell what happened.

Also worth noting (it sounds like you’re already aware of this, but I want to mention it just in case) is that members who sign up without being logged in will always be treated as *new* users. In the case you explained above, you would actually end up with two s2Member accounts for the same person. Of course for this to happen, the member would have to sign up the second time with a different email address, otherwise they would get an error saying that the email is already in use (WordPress requires all users have unique email addresses).

The preferred course of action for such scenarios is to have the member log into his old account (which would be at the Free Subscriber level) and provide them access to an “upgrade” page. On that page you would put a Billing Modification form or button (Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Billing Modification Forms, or Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Buttons -› Subscr. Modification Buttons).

When an existing member uses the upgrade form/button and pays for a subscription, their Free Subscriber account is automatically upgraded to the level they paid for.

PERFECT Explanation Raam! Thank you.

The member didn’t mention seeing the message about email address already in use. I’m almost certain (alright, guessing) that he did not rejoin from a logged in user ID, tried to use the existing email address, ignored the failure and then logged in and found the account lacking privilege.

I’ll go check the account detail logging … and look for an errant unused new user ID. Then, implement the upgrade process you suggested.

THANKS!

You’re most welcome. Glad I could help! :)