S2M handling of PayPal cancellations

[markelshark]

Hello,

How is S2M configured to handle subscription cancellations? It seems that for some users their role is immediately revoked when a user cancels their paypal subscription, while others hang around for days or weeks and S2M never revokes their access.

Mark

[Jason Caldwell]

Hi Mark. Thanks for the excellent question.

s2Member handles cancellations in a variety of ways, depending on the circumstance. For instance, there is a difference between a "cancellation" and an "EOT" ( End Of Term ).

Here are a couple of examples:

1. You sell a PayPal "Subscription".
s2Member listens to PayPal IPN responses that would include things like: cancellations, subscription terminations ( i.e. the subscription ended naturally ), max failed payments, refunds, and charge backs.

In this case, if a "cancellation" IPN is received, s2Member will react to that cancellation with a delayed EOT. Meaning, s2Member will calculate the date of expiration ( aka: the Auto-EOT Time ), based on the last payment date ( which s2Member tracks ), the length of the regular term, and whether or not a Subscriber was within a trial period when the cancellation occurred. All of these things are taken into account, and then an Auto-EOT is set for the account, which will be reflected on a per-User basis inside your Dashboard, by going to Users -> and clicking Edit next to a particular User. You can also modify the EOT Time manually if you prefer.

Incidentally, s2Member's Auto-EOT System runs, by default, through WP-Cron, and it has a set of options that you can configure further if you like. In your Dashboard, see:
s2Member -> PayPal Options -> EOT Behavior.

2. You sell Fixed-Term Access ( through a "Buy Now" transaction ).
In this case, the EOT Time is known ahead of time, because it's for a fixed-term. So in this case, s2Member will set the Auto-EOT Time immediately after checkout.

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With or without a "Subscription", and with or without an EOT Time, s2Member will have a special reaction to refunds/reversals ( i.e. charge backs ) with an immediate EOT ( as opposed to a delayed EOT ). However, this can be re-configured through your Dashboard, under:
s2Member -> PayPal Options -> EOT Behavior.

Also see this article on s2Member's handling of EOTs.
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=649&p=2793&hilit=cancellation#p2793

[Jason Caldwell]

*Understanding Cancellations* It's important to realize that a Cancellation is not an EOT ( End Of Term ). All that happens during a Cancellation event, is that billing is stopped, and it's understood that the Customer is going to lose access, at some point in the future. This does NOT mean, that access will be revoked immediately. A separate EOT event will automatically handle a (demotion|deletion) later, at the appropriate time; which could be several days, or even a year after the Cancellation took place.

*Some Hairy Details* There might be times whenever you notice that a Members's Subscription has been cancelled through PayPal®... but, s2Member continues allowing the User access to your site as a paid Member. Please don't be confused by this... in 99.9% of these cases, the reason for this is legitimate. s2Member will only remove the User's Membership privileges when PayPal® sends a subscr_eot notification via the IPN service, a refund occurs, a chargeback occurs, or when a cancellation occurs - which would later result in a delayed Auto-EOT by s2Member. s2Member will not process an EOT ( End Of Term ) until the User has completely used up the time they paid for.

In other words, if a User signs up for a monthly Subscription on Jan 1st, and then cancels their Subscription on Jan 15th; technically, they should still be allowed to access the site for another 15 days, and then on Feb 1st, the time they paid for has completely elapsed. At that time, s2Member will remove their Membership privileges; by either demoting them to a Free Subscriber, or deleting their account from the system ( based on your configuration ). s2Member also calculates one extra day ( 24 hours ) into its equation, just to make sure access is not removed sooner than a Customer might expect.

[markelshark]

Thanks for *clear* explanation and fast response. Any ETA on when new payment processors will be available or who those processors might be?

[Jason Caldwell]

We're BETA testing the following gateway providers now:

- Authorize.net ( although we recommend PayPal Pro when possible )
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=619&p=2750&hilit=authorize.net#p2750

- ClickBank ( coming soon, w/ limited features )
In the mean time, check this thread: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=59&p=2823&hilit=clickbank#p2823

- Google Checkout ( coming soon )
- Alipay ( coming soon to serve China )
- 2Checkout ( coming soon )
- ccBill ( for the adult industry )

Other gateway providers will follow after, but these are on the list now. I can't give a fixed release date, but I would expect to see BETA testing completed on:
Authorize.net, ClickBank, and Google Checkout ~ VERY soon.

On this same topic.
s2Member was integrated with PayPal Standard & PayPal Pro, because ( in our opinion ) particularly with PayPal Pro - these are the MOST powerful solutions available. So although s2Member will support additional gateways ( very soon ), we will continue to recommend PayPal® Pro as the BEST available option; until something better materializes.
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=304

That is NOT to say these additional gateways won't be wonderful. Many companies need to integrate with additional gateways ( for a variety of reasons ), so we DO understand their importance.

@COMPLETED TODO/COPY - gateway providers.

s2Member Pro now supports PayPal® Standard, PayPal® Pro, Authorize.Net®, ClickBank®, ccBill®, AliPay®, Google® Checkout. Best testing is now completed on these gateways.

[Grimpops]

Hi,

Any chance you can integrate worldpay? Its quite a big payment processor here in the UK.

Dan

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks Dan. I'll move it up on our list.
~ Everyone please feel free to vote these providers up or down.

@TODO/COPY :: Worldpay.

[peteratomic]

My vote is for Alipay! I'm an expat living in China and once word gets out how easy it is to use wordpress with a payment function like alipay, it should explode. After all, its a HUGE market!

[shengcaibao]

Every body using alipay in china. I am a webmaster in china , and created a web by wordpress.
I feel it's very lucky & excited when i found s2members! But i realy need alipay, so i vote alipay!

[xigaogen]

I vote alipay too.
I want to make a new web with wordpress and s2member and want to purchase primo themes that name called Gallery Pro Theme.
But the alipay is very important in china. Hope alipay will be integrated soon.

[Jason Caldwell]

@COMPLETED TODO/COPY :: Alipay

AliPay® integration was completed in
the release of s2Member Pro v1.3.2.

[buzzcube]

Hi
is there any eta when we can expect 2checkout integration?

Many thanks

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for the follow-up on this thread.

Hi
is there any eta when we can expect 2checkout integration?

Many thanks

We're still working through some issues with 2Checkout. Possibly in late April 2011.

[vision20]

Great news Jason! I'm looking forward to the 2Checkout payment module. Being in Australia, so many of them aren't available here, like Paypal Pro, Google Checkout and Authorize.net. AlertPay also seems very interesting. It seems to be a lot like Paypal, and where all the disgruntled Paypal users are going.