Subscriptions - Updating Credit Card

[Theresap]

Hello,
A customer updated her credit card information per the authorize update credit card form. She has two subscriptions, we are using Authorize. (We also have these set up under custom capabilities.) In her profile billing area, it only showed one subscription, so when she updated, it only updated the one. I added her other subscription number to her profile that was in authorize and I'm assuming she'll need to submit the form again.

Shouldn't all subscriptions show under their profile? Or do we have to manually add all subscriptions to their profile?
Also, is there a way to recharge her card now that it's updated? Authorize said I'll have to wait until the next interval or manually ask for her card; which is possible but not what I wanted to do. Our other membership software actually had a force rebill, I can't find anything like that in the admin.

Thanks for your help, Theresa

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for your inquiry Theresa.

Each account within WordPress can be associated with only one ARB ( Automated Recurring Billing ) Profile at a time. Once the Profile is created by s2Member Pro during checkout, the only way for YOU to modify it, is through your Payment Gateway account at Authorize.Net.

That being said, s2Member Pro does make it possible for your Customer to update their credit card information through a Billing Update Form, which can be generated through your Dashboard, under: s2Member -> Authorize.Net Pro Forms -> Billing Update Forms.

It is also possible to generate Billing Modification Forms, which would allow the Customer to upgrade/downgrade, based on a new Pro Form configuration that you generate with s2Member. Upon checkout, the old ARB Profile would be cancelled, and a new one would be created to take it's place, with the new updated billing terms.

If you need to rebill a Customer, you will need their credit card information. s2Member does not store any credit card details in your database. Either that, or you can modify the ARB Profile in your Payment Gateway account at Authorize.Net, and then wait for the next billing cycle to occur at a different rate.

[Theresap]

Ok, but one user can have more than one recurring subscription without problems? That is correct?
But if a change to the subscription(s) billing needs to happen, I have to do that manually for the ones not associated. So the credit card update form doesn't work for multiple subscriptions for one user; I'll take down the update your credit card option, it's too hard to explain this to the users. I'll just have them contact us for changes.

Please let me know if I still don't understand this... thanks Theresa

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for the follow-up.
I'll need to be careful how I answer this.

Ok, but one user can have more than one recurring subscription without problems? That is correct?

With s2Member, each account can be connected to one ARB Profile at a time. While it's possible for one individual to have multiple Usernames on your site ( each with a different ARB Profile ), it's not possible for s2Member to associate multiple ARB Profiles with any one Username.

All of that being said, if you are creating multiple ARB Profiles inside your Payment Gateway terminal, and associating those with the same Username in some manual way, that's fine to do that. But please keep in mind, that s2Member is only going to monitor changes on the ARB Profile ID that is associated with the Username in your WordPress Dashboard.

When you log into your Dashboard, you'll find a Paid Subscr. ID field in the User's account record. That's the ARB Profile ID that s2Member is associating with their account on your website. If that ARB Profile ID is cancelled, refunded, charged back, or expires naturally, so will their account access on your website; regardless of any other ARB Profiles that you might be associating with the account manually in some way.

If you want to prevent that from happening, you could simply empty the Paid Subscr. ID field inside your Dashboard ( for that specific User ), thereby breaking this connection between s2Member and your Authorize.Net account. But if you do this, everything is in your hands. If/when billing is terminated, it's now up to you to terminate their account access; because s2Member is no longer connected to the ARB Profile ID. Thus, it can't monitor changes anymore.

[Theresap]

>>>All of that being said, if you are creating multiple ARB Profiles inside your Payment Gateway terminal, and associating those with the same Username in some manual way>>>>

Thanks for being patient with me Jason... I understand all the other info you gave, I'm using the custom capabilities so they can join more than one membership. So using the upgrade/downgrade would probably be a better choice for what I'm doing? So only one subscription ID is created. I'll go back and look this over again.
The only thing I can think of for monitoring would be the billing situation. I've already set up another way for them to fix that.
Thanks for the clarifying and help, Theresa

[Jason Caldwell]

You're very welcome.

So using the upgrade/downgrade would probably be a better choice for what I'm doing?

Yes, that would be my approach. I would use Modification Buttons or Modification Forms provided by s2Member Pro. That way a Member can upgrade/downgrade and s2Member will remain in sync with those changes; making it possible to automate everything and reduce the amount of manual review required.

This is where Custom Capabilities can help you. You can have a Member upgrade their plan, and you can configure the Modification Button and/or Pro Form to include some new Capabilities; granting them access to other parts of your site. Video here: http://www.s2member.com/custom-capabilities-video/

Something I didn't mention in that video ( feature added since then ), is the ability to precede your list of Custom Capabilities with a (+) sign. So instead of setting a Member's full set of Custom Capabilities to:
music,videos,archives,gifts

You could (ADD) new ones to any that already exist:
+calendar,forums,tools

Or to prevent any changes, (ADD) nothing:
+