Unsubscribe button — invalid — transactions

First, let me say, I’m NOT a developer. Someone else I found worked on the membership for me, but my client wasn’t happy with him, and now wants some things resolved, and I’m not sure how to do this.

First and most important:
Someone emailed us and said when he clicked on the Unsubscribe button, he received an invalid message.

That’s all I have, unfortunately… except that I’m pretty sure he signed up with a credit card, not via Paypal… is there a way for me to confirm that one way or the other inside s2?

We now have PayPal Pro working for sign ups… had some issues with it initially, so some beta members signed up via a more “manual” process via regular PayPal. This is likely going to be a separate issue for unsubscribe. We also got some IPN warnings when their monthly went thru… although it appears all the payments were successful.

Here is the current short codes that resides on the MY ACCOUNT page…
When I looked thru S2, am wondering if we have the wrong one… but I have no idea how to test it.
I put the code below inside those code sample tags… hope that is what you wanted.

[s2Member-Profile /]
Please use the unsubscribe button only if you are certain that you wish to cancel your Training Team Membership.
[s2Member-PayPal-Button cancel="1" image="default" output="anchor" /]

I would be looking for some help with the transaction part of membership… and if you would prefer to refer to me to someone, that would be great. You have or had a link on your home page or somewhere, but when I clicked it, it was not a valid link.

I am happy to allow you to log in also… if that would help.
Thanks… Christine

P.S. In addition… a lady lost her credit card and needed to update her payment info… according to a notification from PayPal, it appears that was successful, but client said he never saw the payment go thru that failed earlier. Is it best for him to just ask for funds replacement manually and assume it will go thru ok next month?

Hi Christine.

That’s all I have, unfortunately… except that I’m pretty sure he signed up with a credit card, not via Paypal… is there a way for me to confirm that one way or the other inside s2?

If he subscribed with a PayPal button, then it’d be PayPal Standard and, unless you hired the Enhanced Recurring Payments (ERP) upgrade, he’d have been required to login to his PayPal account. He should be able to see the subscription in his account and cancel it from there, but if you did have ERP and he paid without logging into a PayPal, you’d need to cancel the subscription from your side.

We now have PayPal Pro working for sign ups… had some issues with it initially, so some beta members signed up via a more “manual” process via regular PayPal. This is likely going to be a separate issue for unsubscribe. We also got some IPN warnings when their monthly went thru… although it appears all the payments were successful.

This would cause trouble, because you’d have subscriptions from the previous PayPal Standard account, but your current integration be with the new PayPal Pro account. New subscriptions via PayPal Pro won’t be a problem, but older subscriptions would have the problem you described. Basically, the PayPal account you have integrated s2Member with needs to match the account the user’s subscription belongs to.

You’ll need to handle demotions manually for the old subscriptions, and remove the subscr. ID from their profiles so you don’t have the conflict happen. Or have them cancel that and resubscribe via PayPal Pro.

Here is the current short codes that resides on the MY ACCOUNT page…
When I looked thru S2, am wondering if we have the wrong one… but I have no idea how to test it.

The cancellation button would work for PayPal Standard subscriptions where the user logged in to his PayPal account to subscribe. Subscriptions created via ERP will need you to cancel it for them. Subscriptions created via PayPal Pro will need a cancellation pro-form. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Billing Cancellation Forms[/hilite]

P.S. In addition… a lady lost her credit card and needed to update her payment info… according to a notification from PayPal, it appears that was successful, but client said he never saw the payment go thru that failed earlier. Is it best for him to just ask for funds replacement manually and assume it will go thru ok next month?

I’m not sure I understand that question fully, but it seems you/he’d need to contact PayPal to ask them about it.

When you say ERP… do you mean via PayPal Pro? I know we do have the upgrade there… for recurring payments.
We had issues getting it to work at first… and apparently, you released a bug fix… and whether that fixed it or not, I’m not clear… but we now have 3 levels and they are all working… although the first month hasn’t gone by, so cross your fingers.

To clarify… this person that tried to unsubscribe (inside his MY ACCOUNT)… would have registered AFTER we launched with PayPal Pro in place…

I was told this person registered and paid with credit card… (I do not have confirmation of this, however)…
And wondered if there is a way to confirm one way or the other… inside S2, inside PP Pro or where.

(our early BETA registrants DID go thru Standard PayPal… and those, I believe would be the ones that should have to unsubscribe on their own inside PayPal, right?…if it was working correctly).

I’m not sure I quite understand “when” we will be needing to manually unsubscribe inside S2… in what instances… since I think you misunderstood me regarding what is in place now…

And finally… How do I test the other paypal pro form unsubscribe? Would I have to subscribe myself and then unsubscribe? (without doing the sandbox thing).

Plus, if that is then working… would I let the early beta subscribers know that they would have to unsubscribe on their own via PayPal… (and if so, then how would I know when to remove them from S2, or would S2 know that?)

thanks…
Christine

As far as the other lady… this was a standard paypal registration, prior to us implementing PayPal Pro…
so, it was a subscription… and I’m not clear why it wouldn’t have attempted a re-charge of the account once she replaced her bank/credit card info with her new info. So, you are saying, he and/or she needs to contact PayPal in this situation?

To clarify… this person that tried to unsubscribe (inside his MY ACCOUNT)… would have registered AFTER we launched with PayPal Pro in place…

I was told this person registered and paid with credit card… (I do not have confirmation of this, however)…
And wondered if there is a way to confirm one way or the other… inside S2, inside PP Pro or where.

Since he didn’t subscribe from his PayPal account, the subscription won’t be there for him to end it. If he subscribed from your site, paying with a card in your pro-form, then he’ll need the cancellation pro-form to end the subscription, or you can end it for him from your side of PayPal. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Billing Cancellation Forms[/hilite]

(our early BETA registrants DID go thru Standard PayPal… and those, I believe would be the ones that should have to unsubscribe on their own inside PayPal, right?…if it was working correctly).

Right, they need to create the PayPal Pro subscription and end the PayPal Standard one.

I’m not sure I quite understand “when” we will be needing to manually unsubscribe inside S2… in what instances… since I think you misunderstood me regarding what is in place now…

You mean the PayPal Standard subscriptions? What I meant was that if you wanted to keep those subscriptions, you’d need to manage them manually instead of leaving it to s2Member, because s2Member now has the PayPal Pro integration. So you’d need to remove the PayPal subscr. ID from those users so s2Member doesn’t check PayPal for them, but then you’d need to demote the users manually when the subscriptions end.

And finally… How do I test the other paypal pro form unsubscribe? Would I have to subscribe myself and then unsubscribe? (without doing the sandbox thing).

Yeah, you could test it like that.

As far as the other lady… this was a standard paypal registration, prior to us implementing PayPal Pro…
so, it was a subscription… and I’m not clear why it wouldn’t have attempted a re-charge of the account once she replaced her bank/credit card info with her new info. So, you are saying, he and/or she needs to contact PayPal in this situation?

Right, this is on PayPal’s side, since they are the ones managing the subscription.

Thanks for the additional info…

I DID add the short code for Pro Form unsubscribe… (there is no button though?)
All it has is the word Cancellation… and a curly arrow pointing to “submit form”…

What I did was register for the first month free… and then 79/month (using my PayPal) (the others are very expensive)… I then went into My Account and used that Pro Form unsubscribe … a message popped up for me to unsubscribe in PayPal… I clicked the link to take me there, and got the message that no subscription could be found… (is that because the first month is free… and if so, am I going to have to be charged and then unsubscribe?) (hope not)…

I’d like to test it via credit card… but would use the 1st month free again, so not sure how that would test, given my results above… Suggestions? (the other options are a $250 and $400 purchase first).

SO, I removed the Pro Form unsubscribe and left the other PayPal “unsubscribe button” in place for now… but that is the one not working for Pro Form subscribers…as you’ve indicated it probably wouldn’t.

Is it possible or viable to have two options for unsubscribe or would that be confusing? (“if you registered prior to THIS date, use this button and ALL after this date, use the unsubscribe form link below”)… (I ask because I don’t know if I can feel confident moving those 35 or so beta users which are on standard paypal…)

With all your advertising that you don’t need to be a coder to do this stuff… not really true!
Thanks again… Happy Monday.

(if you have someone you could refer me to, who would be available to go in a get this stuff in order, I would appreciate it.) Again, thanks for your help.

I then went into My Account and used that Pro Form unsubscribe … a message popped up for me to unsubscribe in PayPal… I clicked the link to take me there, and got the message that no subscription could be found… (is that because the first month is free… and if so, am I going to have to be charged and then unsubscribe?) (hope not)…

No, even if there’s a trial a subscription is created. You don’t need to wait to be charged before unsubscribing.

Weird that the subscription wasn’t found. So you paid with a card in the pro-form and then tried to unsubscribe with the cancellation pro-form but got sent to PayPal with the error that the subscription wasn’t found?

If that wasn’t the case, could you walk me through the process, showing me the shortcode for the pro-form you used, what payment option you used, and what happened step by step after that? Screenshots would help too.

I’d like to test it via credit card… but would use the 1st month free again, so not sure how that would test, given my results above… Suggestions? (the other options are a $250 and $400 purchase first).

You can modify the amounts in your shortcodes to test with 1 cent transactions.

SO, I removed the Pro Form unsubscribe and left the other PayPal “unsubscribe button” in place for now… but that is the one not working for Pro Form subscribers…as you’ve indicated it probably wouldn’t.

Right, the PayPal Standard button won’t work for PayPal Pro subscribers, most probably not for Express Checkout either.

Is it possible or viable to have two options for unsubscribe or would that be confusing? (“if you registered prior to THIS date, use this button and ALL after this date, use the unsubscribe form link below”)… (I ask because I don’t know if I can feel confident moving those 35 or so beta users which are on standard paypal…)

You could probably write a conditional that checks the user and shows one or the other based on that. Or you just leave the decision up to the user, but they’ll most likely pick the wrong one a lot of the times.

If you remove the PayPal Standard subsr. ID from their profiles, as I suggested to avoid errors now that the integration is with PayPal Pro, the conditional could check if the user has a level higher than 0, but doesn’t have a subscr ID, then show the button, else the pro-form. Or something like that.
Video » s2Member (Advanced Conditionals)
[hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› PHP/API Constants[/hilite]

With all your advertising that you don’t need to be a coder to do this stuff… not really true!

Well, one doesn’t need to be a mechanic to drive a car, but if you want to modify the machine (or close to it), then you either know/learn a bit about it, or get someone that does. :)

It’s not usual that a site owner starts getting subscribers with one PayPal account and then changes to another one. Since s2Member integrates with only one PayPal account at a time, having users from another account does cause inconveniences for now. We’re working on how to improve this and we may release a solution in the future.

(if you have someone you could refer me to, who would be available to go in a get this stuff in order, I would appreciate it.) Again, thanks for your help.

No one in particular, but we usually suggest posting a job in freelancer sites like jobs.wordpress.net, elance.com or odesk.com.

I hope that helps. :)

Thanks for the reply…
As soon as I am able, I will do screenshots and send to you, regarding what I encountered… how do I include them here? Is there option for attachments, or do I have to send urls?

As far as the shortcode I tested… I went to the ProForms section and copied it straight from there… didn’t change anything. So, let me know if there are any other settings, etc., I need to share with you in order to troubleshoot.

Something else popped up today… I had created alot of accounts when testing in beta and I paid for them myself… then thought I caught them all, via removing user, or unsubscribing where I could… (these were standard PayPal)… My mistake was likely removing the user from inside WP before I knew for sure all was unsubb’ed and refunded.
I just got charged today for another month in PayPal… so trying to figure out how to tell what “user” it was for and how to get it out of the system. When I looked for my subscriptions there before I could find refunds but no active ones…. If there is somewhere else I should look or inquire about this new issue, let me know….

Thanks…
Christine

As soon as I am able, I will do screenshots and send to you, regarding what I encountered… how do I include them here? Is there option for attachments, or do I have to send urls?

You can upload them to your server and link to them here.

As far as the shortcode I tested… I went to the ProForms section and copied it straight from there… didn’t change anything. So, let me know if there are any other settings, etc., I need to share with you in order to troubleshoot.

Still post the shortcode you used, please. Any other info that may help me understand what you did when you got that result, would be useful.

I just got charged today for another month in PayPal… so trying to figure out how to tell what “user” it was for and how to get it out of the system. When I looked for my subscriptions there before I could find refunds but no active ones….

As you could see, removing the user in WP doesn’t end the subscription in PayPal. You can end the subscriptions from PayPal, either as the business or the customer.

If all purchases were under your name, how to tell them apart… You could change the pro-form’s description for each test, maybe? [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Shortcode Attributes -> desc[/hilite]

I had created alot of accounts when testing in beta and I paid for them myself…

By the way, 1 cent transactions are much cheaper to test with, you may want to do that instead of full price.

Here is the code I placed… unfortunately, I didn’t have a way to test it… If you feel it is the correct one, I will use it… and next time someone tries to unsubscribe, we will certainly hear if it doesn’t work!

[s2Member-Pro-PayPal-Form cancel="1" desc="This will cancel your account. Are you sure?" captcha="0" /]

What I didn’t understand were these additional instructions above that short code in the s2 instructions… some of which is:

*Cancellation Process* Very simple. A Member clicks a link to a Post/Page that contains a Cancellation Form you’ve generated. The Member clicks the Submit button to confirm the cancellation…”

SO… What does it mean… clicks a post/page that contains a cancellation form “that you’ve created”…
what form… how? and do you have any examples?

Can’t I just put some “copy” on the MY ACCOUNT page that indicates…

…if you want to cancel your subscription, click the submit button below…

And if that is the case… for ease… I would prefer to offer TWO methods of unsubscribing, but with instructions: … for the beta Charter Team (prior to Dec. 1) use this button… and for the New Members after Dec. 1… use the submit form below…

Let me know what you think.
Thanks again…
Christine

Thanks for your inquiry.

~ We appreciate your patience :-)

I’m sorry but Cristrian is currently unavailable. I would like to help, so I’ll take a shot at your latest questions. Please forgive me if I’ve overlooked something you’ve discussed previously with Cristian :-)

SO… What does it mean… clicks a post/page that contains a cancellation form “that you’ve created”…
what form… how? and do you have any examples?

It means that you’re leading the customer (using a link) to a Post or Page where you’ve inserted the Cancellation Button Shortcode. Upon landing on this Post or Page, the s2Member Shortcode will produce a Cancellation Form for the customer to use. It will be displayed alongside any content you’ve published in that Post or Page. So, if you’d like to dress this Post or Page up further, please feel free to do so.

And if that is the case… for ease… I would prefer to offer TWO methods of unsubscribing, but with instructions: … for the beta Charter Team (prior to Dec. 1) use this button… and for the New Members after Dec. 1… use the submit form below…

You can certainly do that on your cancellation Post or Page. Using the WordPress Editor you should be able to customize this nicely. If you need to condition the Cancellation Form based on the type of membership that someone currently has, or when they first became a member, please take a look at the following documentation in your Dashboard, which covers various aspects of scripting with s2Member. Including Shortcode Conditionals, which might help you here.

See: Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› Simple/Shortcode Conditionals
See: Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› PHP/API Constants
See: Knowledge Base » s2Member® Conditionals