New Members being sent to Level #0

Hello,

the past few days I’ve seen a few of my members who have signed up for a level #1 or #2, being placed in the level #0 category. This has happened even after their credit cards have been charged correctly by paypal, and i received a new subscriber notification from the site saying they had signed up. It has not happened everytime, this morning I had a level #1 sign up and they went into the correct level #1 category.

I’m not really sure what is going on. Could you give any insight as to why this is happening?

Just to be clear, we don’t have a sign-up form for a “free” account on our site, so there is no form that exists on our site for a level #0. We use that category as an “inactive members” category for when people cancel, they are placed in this category for 30 days before it is deleted. I think I have it set up for when one has an EOT, they are transferred to a level #0.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Hi Cheryl,

That’s interesting. Could you copy the shortcode you’re using to display your form so that I could take a look at it?

About how many times out of ten does this happen?

Hi Bruce,

actually since my initial post, this has not happened again, all of our recents subscribers have all be added correctly.

Must have just been a fluke.

If it does happen again, I will be sure to let you know. Any clue why this might have happened (by fluke, bad internet connection, etc)?

Cheryl, just in case it happens again, do keep logging enabled so that, if needed, we’ll have the log entries for the transaction with the problem. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Options -› Account Details -› Logging[/hilite]

Hey guys,

OK. i’m having a similar problem but not exactly the same. But similar enough to where I thought it could go into this same Forum.

OK,
SO we have 1 upgrade option on our site to upgrade from a Level 1 to a Level 2.

In the past week or so we’ve noticed that every user that has upgraded, the system has put them as “inactive” which is a level 0, instead of upgrading them to a level 2.

Any ideas why this might be happening? I got the most recent update for the plugin. And as a precaution, I re-generated the form and replaced the code on my page with the regenerated code to see if that would fix it.

Any Ideas?

If it’s an upgrade, you need to make sure that the user is logged in to his account when he loads the page where the pro-form is. Protect that page at level 0 so only logged in users can access it.

If he’s not logged in, then the payment will go towards a new account and his existing account won’t be upgrade, will remain at Level 0.

What do the log entries for the transaction say? Could you post them here x’ing any private info? /wp-content/plugins/s2member-logs/

Cristian,

First of all, I do have a restriction on the page so only Level 1 subscribers can view the page (since it’s made for users who want to upgrade from 1 to 2). So that is not the issue.

Secondly, I found the log for the customer and it looks to me as though the her account was “canceled” as soon as the upgrade was processed. The time difference between the 2 transactions is only 1 second, so I’m wondering if it’s a system glitch. Seems a little fast for that to be done by her.

Also, the upgrade is set up as 30 days free, then the real subscription begins. So she was good for a month, then after the 30 days is when her account was switched to “Inactive”.

Here is the code,

PHP v5.3.15 :: WordPress® v3.4.2 :: s2Member® v120703 :: s2Member® Pro v120703
Memory 42.41 MB :: Real Memory 42.75 MB :: Peak Memory 42.51 MB :: Real Peak Memory 42.75 MB
insidemusicmedia.com/upgrade/
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_8) AppleWebKit/534.57.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.7 Safari/534.57.2
-------- Input vars: ( Tue Oct 23, 2012 2:13:22 am UTC ) --------
array (
  'METHOD' => 'CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile',
  'EMAIL' => 'kathrynhelvi@me.com',
  'FIRSTNAME' => 'Kathryn',
  'LASTNAME' => 'Wilcox',
  'SUBSCRIBERNAME' => 'Kathryn Wilcox',
  'DESC' => '30 Days free - then $99 / Year',
  'PROFILEREFERENCE' => '1353593602:30 D:1 Y~insidemusicmedia.com~2',
  'CURRENCYCODE' => 'USD',
  'AMT' => '99.00',
  'TAXAMT' => '0.00',
  'MAXFAILEDPAYMENTS' => '2',
  'AUTOBILLOUTAMT' => 'AddToNextBilling',
  'PROFILESTARTDATE' => '2012-11-22T00:00:00Z',
  'BILLINGPERIOD' => 'Year',
  'TOTALBILLINGCYCLES' => '0',
  'BILLINGFREQUENCY' => '1',
  'CREDITCARDTYPE' => 'Visa',
  'ACCT' => '****************',
  'EXPDATE' => '122014',
  'CVV2' => '838',
  'STREET' => 'XXXXXX',
  'CITY' => 'XXXXXX',
  'STATE' => 'XX',
  'COUNTRYCODE' => 'US',
  'ZIP' => 'XXXXX',
  'VERSION' => '71.0',
  'USER' => 'XXXXXXXXXX',
  'PWD' => 'XXXXXXXXXXX',
  'SIGNATURE' => 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX',
)
-------- Output string/vars: ( Tue Oct 23, 2012 2:13:27 am UTC ) --------
PROFILEID=I%2dX7GKCMDNLH9D&PROFILESTATUS=ActiveProfile&TIMESTAMP=2012%2d10%2d23T02%3a13%3a27Z&CORRELATIONID=298333e2a7d97&ACK=Success&VERSION=71%2e0&BUILD=3926908
array (
  'PROFILEID' => 'I-X7GKCMDNLH9D',
  'PROFILESTATUS' => 'ActiveProfile',
  'TIMESTAMP' => '2012-10-23T02:13:27Z',
  'CORRELATIONID' => '298333e2a7d97',
  'ACK' => 'Success',
  'VERSION' => '71.0',
  'BUILD' => '3926908',
)

PHP v5.3.15 :: WordPress® v3.4.2 :: s2Member® v120703 :: s2Member® Pro v120703
Memory 42.54 MB :: Real Memory 42.75 MB :: Peak Memory 42.61 MB :: Real Peak Memory 42.75 MB
insidemusicmedia.com/upgrade/
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_8) AppleWebKit/534.57.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1.7 Safari/534.57.2
-------- Input vars: ( Tue Oct 23, 2012 2:13:28 am UTC ) --------
array (
  'PROFILEID' => 'I-045U0DGMD40U',
  'METHOD' => 'ManageRecurringPaymentsProfileStatus',
  'ACTION' => 'Cancel',
  'VERSION' => '71.0',
  'USER' => 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX',
  'PWD' => 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX',
  'SIGNATURE' => 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX',
)
-------- Output string/vars: ( Tue Oct 23, 2012 2:13:29 am UTC ) --------
PROFILEID=I%2d045U0DGMD40U&TIMESTAMP=2012%2d10%2d23T02%3a13%3a28Z&CORRELATIONID=dbb949a692d06&ACK=Success&VERSION=71%2e0&BUILD=3926908
array (
  'PROFILEID' => 'I-045U0DGMD40U',
  'TIMESTAMP' => '2012-10-23T02:13:28Z',
  'CORRELATIONID' => 'dbb949a692d06',
  'ACK' => 'Success',
  'VERSION' => '71.0',
  'BUILD' => '3926908',
)

I’ve marked out all private info with “XX”s

See anything fishy?

Thanks for the info.

About the immediate cancellation, it’s possible that PayPal had a problem authorizing the person’s payment. I’d like to see the rest of the entries for the same transaction, from the other log files.

Sometimes PayPal first tells s2Member one thing and a few seconds later another thing. That’s why there’s this setting here: [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Options -› Account Details -> PayPal® Pro Forms / Recurring Profile Behavior[/hilite] You can click the link for full details to see the documentation for it, here’s a quote:

— Consolidate w/ Recurring Profile —
s2Member creates a Recurring Profile with an Initial Payment amount, to be charged immediately. PayPal® generates the Recurring Profile, returns a successful response to s2Member and the Customer gains access. Moments later ( usually within 30 seconds ), PayPal® will authorize/capture the first payment. If the first payment is declined, s2Member will revoke the Customer’s access immediately.

— Real-Time / Direct Pay ( mission critical ) —
s2Member charges the first payment separately ( in real-time during checkout ), leaving no possibility for the Customer to gain access until the first charge is fully captured. A Recurring Profile is also generated, which handles any future billing. You will have two billing records in your PayPal® account. One for the Initial Payment, and another for the Recurring Profile.

That setting doesn’t work with trials, though, so I don’t know what to suggest in this case… I’ll wait for the rest of the log entries.

I also noticed that you have an older version of s2Member, it’d be good to update to the lastest.

Cristian,

I do actually have the most recent version of S2Member “s2Member Pro v121204” , these issues happened before the upgrade.

We currently do not have trials, although I have the upgrade form is set to “30 days free – then $99 a year” so the $99 a year charge would come after 30 days.
Would that be categorized as a trial and causing paypal to cancel the subscription? Because it does not receive immediate payment? Right now the setting in

Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Options -› Account Details -> PayPal® Pro Forms / Recurring Profile Behavior

is set to “Consilidate w/ Recurring Profile”. Which of the 2 settings above would you suggest for our setup?

I can also tell you that the others that have this issue with upgrading their account have the exact same sequence in the log files. I can post them here if you would like, but I can tell you that they are exactly the same in sequence. Less than a minute after form is process and confirmed, ACK = success, the next sequence is a cancel.

Let me know if you would still like to see them for yourself.

Ah ok, I mentioned the version because the log entries you posted above mentioned an older one (v120703)

Yeah, if you’re giving a free term first before starting the regular payments, that’s a trial. Trials don’t cause a cancellation though, it’s the failed payment what may cause PayPal to immediately contact s2Member again.

The problem here is that PayPal tells s2Member right away to give the user access, but before securing the payment, and then after failure, telling s2Member right away that the subscription actually didn’t happen. I’m not sure how it works with a trial, though, it’s possible that PayPal still tries to get the card authorized for the payments, without actually charging it.

Are you having this problem with every single test? Are you trying different cards to pay with?

Cristian,
The site is actually live, so these are real people trying to upgrade. So all the credit cards are different. All I know is that there seems to be a trend of folks that are trying to upgrade, that it seems as though after the trial their account is labeled as inactive “Level 0”, which is the auto EOT action call.

By the way,

I also am curious, since all their credit card info is in the logs, is there a way to capture information like their card’s expiration date from the log? Or perhaps before the info is sent from the form to Paypal.

Would love a way to notify folks of their expiring credit cards before they expire and trying to find a way to do that.

The site is actually live, so these are real people trying to upgrade. So all the credit cards are different.

Got it.

All I know is that there seems to be a trend of folks that are trying to upgrade, that it seems as though after the trial their account is labeled as inactive “Level 0″, which is the auto EOT action call.

Are you giving a trial to users that already had access and got demoted? You could use a conditional to not give the trial to Levle 0 users and adjust the Recurring Profile Behavior setting to “real-time”.

[hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› Simple/Shortcode Conditionals[/hilite]
[hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Options -› Account Details -> PayPal® Pro Forms / Recurring Profile Behavior[/hilite]

I also am curious, since all their credit card info is in the logs, is there a way to capture information like their card’s expiration date from the log? Or perhaps before the info is sent from the form to Paypal.

Would love a way to notify folks of their expiring credit cards before they expire and trying to find a way to do that.

(Card number is not logged.)

You could probably create (yourself or someone you hire) a customization that does the card expiration notification. You could try getting a freelance developer from a site like jobs.wordpress.net, odesk.com or elance.com.

In my opinion, since PayPal is managing the subscription payments, they should be notifying the customer when the card is about to expire or has expired. Maybe there’s a way to make them do it? You can ask PayPal support about that.

Cristian,

Thanks for all your responses. We’ve been back and forth with paypal and they will not support any kind of credit card expiration notifications to be sent out. It’s frustrating. I can build something in the site that does it. I was just seeing if I could pull the expiration date from the credit card forms before they are sent off to Paypal.

I will continue to work on that.

As for the upgrade form, let me see if I can explain to you what we are looking for.
– We 2 membership levels , monthly (level 1) and yearly (level 2)
– We have an upgrade page that can only be accessed by level 1’s, that has an “Upgrade to level 2” from on it. If someone is not a level 1, they cannot even view the page to fill out the form.
– We have it set up to give them “30 days free and $99 a year”. $99 is the level 2 price. We had hoped to give them 30 days free because everyone filling out this form (level 1s) would be in the middle of a monthly subscription. The 30 days free for us is a way to make it fair for those who have already paid for the month and would still like to upgrade. It is also a bit of an incentive. We would rather folks be in a yearly (level 2) subscription.

It worked for a while, but now it seems as though the trial is messing with Paypal, maybe because it’s free for 30 days?

Is there a different way we could do this?

It worked for a while, but now it seems as though the trial is messing with Paypal, maybe because it’s free for 30 days?

Is there a different way we could do this?

How is it affecting PayPal exactly? There are ways of doing this without a trial, but they require some custom code. It would be more effective and simpler to diagnose the problem you’re having with the trial.