misc new member issues

[doctorproctor]

Greetings -- Apologies for bundling these issues together, but just discovered that I understand s2Member and PayPal a bit less well than I thought I did! (Though I just upgraded to s2Pro for export functionality, we're using s2Member standard PayPal buttons on the site, and are on the free business PayPal.) All my previous work focused on coding the website vs. actually using the PayPal buttons, and when I tried one as a prospective new member I discovered the following issues:

1. The payment confirmation email from PayPal works fine, but it notes that I (the new member) created an automatic PayPal payment profile on a yearly billing cycle; does this mean that recurrent payments will be automatically charged for the member, there will be reminders from PayPal, etc.? I thought recurrent payments require a monthly charge from PayPal to the business (remember, we're on the free PayPal option).

2. s2Member then sent me to the registration page, as it should, and also sent me a registration email, and upon completing the registration I was told I'd be sent a password but it never arrived; recommendations to diagnose the problem? (No troubles receiving other emails from our WP site.)

3. Finally, I realized that, by completing a membership in this manner, s2Member's "Automatic EOT Time" field is unpopulated, which is trouble for the routine I earlier got your help on in reminding members of their membership expiration via this field. Is EOT typically retained via PayPal's payment profile and not on an s2 user field? With members who join on their own, is there any other way I can remind them of their EOT other than get_user_option('wp_s2member_auto_eot_time')??

Thanks again for all your great support, s2Member!

Jim

[Cristián Lávaque]

Hi Jim. Jason will have to get a few of these, but I'll answer what I can.

1. It'll be in a yearly period if that's what you set it to when creating the button. PayPal will charge you each time you get money, not on a schedule. PayPal doesn't send reminders, that I know of.

2. Do you have passwords generated by WordPress instead of letting the user enter his own? WP Admin -> s2Member -> General Options -> Custom Registration Fields -> Allow Custom Passwords during Registration

3. The EOT gets set when s2Member knows when the term is going to end, but a subscription is ongoing, not time is known for it to end, so s2Member waits until PayPal says via IPN that it's been cancelled, or whatever, before setting the time.

I guess an EOT could be set for the end of each paid term and just pushed back after each new payment, but it have have limitations with the PayPal IPN, so I'll wait for Jason's input.

[Jason Caldwell]

1. The payment confirmation email from PayPal works fine, but it notes that I (the new member) created an automatic PayPal payment profile on a yearly billing cycle; does this mean that recurrent payments will be automatically charged for the member, there will be reminders from PayPal, etc.? I thought recurrent payments require a monthly charge from PayPal to the business (remember, we're on the free PayPal option).

Yes, you are correct. With PayPal Standard Buttons, there is no extra fee associated with recurring "Subscriptions". The extra fee for "Recurring Billing Service" ( i.e. DPRP ), is associated ONLY with PayPal Pro accounts. So that does not apply to you if you're only using PayPal Standard Button integration.

2. s2Member then sent me to the registration page, as it should, and also sent me a registration email, and upon completing the registration I was told I'd be sent a password but it never arrived; recommendations to diagnose the problem? (No troubles receiving other emails from our WP site.)

What version did you test against please? In s2Member v110708, we introduced a new feature to allow customization of this email. Two days later we corrected a bug that existed in this integration, and s2Member v110710 corrected the problem. Please try your test again, against s2Member v110710 and let us know if you continue to have trouble. You may also want to have a look in your Dashboard, under: s2Member -> General Options -> Email Configuration.

3. Finally, I realized that, by completing a membership in this manner, s2Member's "Automatic EOT Time" field is unpopulated, which is trouble for the routine I earlier got your help on in reminding members of their membership expiration via this field. Is EOT typically retained via PayPal's payment profile and not on an s2 user field? With members who join on their own, is there any other way I can remind them of their EOT other than get_user_option('wp_s2member_auto_eot_time')??

Sorry, not with PayPal Standard Buttons. With PayPal Standard "Subscriptions", the recurring cycle is "ongoing", so there is no way for s2Member to record a particular EOT Time until PayPal's IPN system notifies s2Member in one of several ways. That being said, with PayPal Standard Subscriptions, PayPal will notify your Customers for you automatically, each time they are charged.

[doctorproctor]

Okay, I've now gotten to your excellent replies above, and all has been successfully addressed: I resolved problem #2 by allowing users to set their own passwords (and, indeed, the culprit may be the WP sendmail routine, as one of my two test emails worked fine and the other apparently triggered a spam filter; btw, I'm on s2 latest), and solved problem #3 by inserting a conditional to test to see if the EOT variable has a value.

Thanks again!

Jim

[Jason Caldwell]

Awesome. Thank you for reporting back.
~ MUCH appreciated.