Renewing memberships

For expiring memberships, how does it work. Is there a renew feature within the member area that pushes out the expiry date another term?

if an expired member tries to login will s2m redirect him to a RENEW page? (so he can he keep his same account details and just re-open the account)

If a membership expires and he doesn’t renew is the user deleted from the system? What if he expires, then joins again a month later? Will the system allow him to register with the same email address?

Does member management allow admin to sort by expired vs. active?

Thanks.

Hi Mark,

What happens when a members subscription expires, or when their payment fails or they cancel their subscription, is determined by your configuration in Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Options -› Automatic EOT Behavior. Please read through the inline documentation included in that section.

s2Member does not currently send notifications or redirect members to any special page after their account expires, however you can add both of those functions if you require them (you can use the Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Notifications -› EOT/Deletion Notifications to create a script that sends emails upon EOT, and you can use some Advanced PHP Conditionals, Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› Advanced PHP Conditionals, in your Login Welcome Page to determine the user’s level and then redirect them where necessary).

For upgrades, you’ll need to generate a Billing Modification form (Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Billing Modification Forms) and present that to your user after they login so that they can upgrade. When they use the Billing Modification form while logged into an existing account, their account will automatically be upgraded after they complete their payment.

I went through the Dashboard options with my developer and it isn’t really clear to either of us. Besides, we are not using Paypal. We are using Authorize.net. And we do not want to re-build s2m or add the coding functionality you suggest.

my concern is this: I want to utilize a 1 yr. term but feel that is too long a period to utilize recurring billing. So, if not using recurring billing, it would only make sense that a membership software would recognize if a member is expired and then direct them to renew. In PayPal® Options -› Automatic EOT Behavior it says the options we have are to demote or delete. Since we only have one membership level with no free membership the demote option would not apply. So if we set it to delete does this mean that one day the member will come to the site and simply not be able to login? Will s2m even tell them their membership has expired and to “join again here” (link)? Will it send a “you have expired” email? Can this email have a link “to renew or rejoin click here”?

Or *can* we use the demote functionality — to say, allow the member to login but not be able to access downloads until he has “upgraded” or “renewed”. And if we can do this, and the user has to go through the whole join process again, will he be able to use his same email address (since s2m will already have this address on file)?

I think you know what i want here. What is the best way for us to achieve this without building it all out ourselves? Please answer ALL questions and describe the process specifically rather than direct me to documentation.

Thanks.

Also, if we did add a (single term) second package how would existing members upgrade?

What if they are on recurring billing — how would these users upgrade?

So if we set it to delete does this mean that one day the member will come to the site and simply not be able to login? Will s2m even tell them their membership has expired and to “join again here” (link)? Will it send a “you have expired” email? Can this email have a link “to renew or rejoin click here”?

Yes, that’s correct. If the Automatic EOT Behavior is set to delete, the users account will simply be deleted with no email notification or any other way for the user to be notified. (We recognize this has severe limitations and we’re working to build in an EOT renewal notifications feature in the next major release of the software.)

Or *can* we use the demote functionality — to say, allow the member to login but not be able to access downloads until he has “upgraded” or “renewed”. And if we can do this, and the user has to go through the whole join process again, will he be able to use his same email address (since s2m will already have this address on file)?

Yes, the demote functionality would be the best thing for you to use in this scenario. However, I recommend using s2Member Level 1 for all your paid membership and then choosing “demote” in Automatic EOT Behavior. If you don’t offer free membership, then free members would simply be members whose paid membership has expired.

You can then configure s2Member so that when a free member signs in, they are automatically redirected to a page that explains their membership has expired and that they need to renew. On that page you would present them with a Billing Modification form (Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Billing Modification Forms), which would automatically be filled in with their existing details so they’d just need to complete their payment, allowing them to “upgrade” back to the paid s2Member Level 1 membership.

Also, if we did add a (single term) second package how would existing members upgrade?

They would upgrade the same way anyone else would upgrade: using a Billing Modification form (Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Billing Modification Forms). You can create an “Upgrade” page for them where you display the Billing Modification form. If you have different types of upgrades (e.g., upgrades from different levels: free -> Level 1, Level 1 -> Level 2, etc.), then you can use the s2Member Conditionals (Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› Simple/Shortcode Conditionals) to check which level the user is and then display the correct Billing Modification form to them.

What if they are on recurring billing — how would these users upgrade?

The Billing Modification form works by canceling the existing recurring subscription and creating a new one. If you need to modify a recurring subscription, you simply present the user with a Billing Modification form configured with the new recurring amount and when the user completes the upgrade with that form their old subscription is canceled and the new one created.

Thanks for your prompt and helpful reply. So just to be clear, if we use the demote option the member would just login one day (after expiry) and be directed to the billing mod form, pay, and then carry on for another year. Is there an expiry email sent upon expiration?

two other things:

1. You keep referring top Paypal forms. Will these (forms/process you describe) work for Authorize.net? Or how would this work with Authorize?

2. With regard to upgrade on a membership, the problem with your scenario in our case is that we offer annual memberships. I was envisioning a member joining at bronze level which would give him access to say, 5 (PDF) downloads per month — that likes the service and wants to upgrade to 20 per month — but is only two months into an annual membership. Under your scenario he would have to pay the full GOLD membership rate and just lose the balance of his current plan.

-How could he upgrade so that he gets at least a partial credit, say 50% of what he already paid applied to the new plan?

-Or, can he pay the difference and move up to the new plan for the duratrion of his existing term?

Any way to do any of this?

Hi Mark,

Please see my replies below:

Is there an expiry email sent upon expiration?

No expiry email is sent at this time.

1. You keep referring top Paypal forms. Will these (forms/process you describe) work for Authorize.net? Or how would this work with Authorize?

Yes, the Pro-Forms are available for PayPal and Authorize.net. The Billing Modification forms are also available for both payment gateways. Upgrades/modifications for Authorize.net would work as I described for PayPal.

2. With regard to upgrade on a membership, the problem with your scenario in our case is that we offer annual memberships. I was envisioning a member joining at bronze level which would give him access to say, 5 (PDF) downloads per month — that likes the service and wants to upgrade to 20 per month — but is only two months into an annual membership. Under your scenario he would have to pay the full GOLD membership rate and just lose the balance of his current plan.

-How could he upgrade so that he gets at least a partial credit, say 50% of what he already paid applied to the new plan?

-Or, can he pay the difference and move up to the new plan for the duratrion of his existing term?

You can use dynamic shortcode attributes with some PHP code to calculate how long the member has been paying and then dynamically configure the upgrade form so that it charges the correct difference.

For example, a member pays $120 for the first year BRONZE, then two months later he wants to upgrade to the GOLD. Your PHP code would look at how many months has passed since he signed up and then calculate that he should only be charged $220 for the first year (2 months @ $10/month = $20, then $240/year GOLD membership – $20 = $220 owed for the first year).

The Initial/Trial period attribute that can be set dynamically in the shortcode, allowing flexibility for scenarios like these. Please see Dashboard -› s2Member® -› Authorize.Net® Pro Forms -› Shortcode Attributes (Explained) for more info on what attributes are available.

Thanks for your help Raam. I have decided to go with a one year term instead of recurring billing and will have my developer implement the EOT redirect/Billing mod form as you described.

What is the best way to test the member expiry process without actually waiting for the term of a test account to expire? Even if we create a test account with a one day membership I can only test it once a day. There must be a better way…?

Thanks again..

Mark, you could set the EOT time in the past so the auto EOT behavior is triggered.