How to upgrade billing cycle for subscription Paypal customers

[Seiya]

Hey,

 

We frequently get requests from customers who have purchased a recurring billing product e.g. monthly and pay with a Paypal subscription and want to change their billing cycle e.g. to quarterly or annually. I cannot simply change the billing cycle on the products/services page as the customers Paypal subscription cannot be altered (has to be cancelled and recreated with the new billing cycle).

 

So far we have requested customers to submit a cancellation request for their product and cancel their Paypal subscription and then when the billing cycle is finished, they should order the product again with the new billing cycle and the new Paypal subscription is automatically configured. However, this is a major pain for customers and we have lost a few due to this process.

 

I am thinking that I should just adjust the billing cycle for the existing product, cancel the Paypal subscription from within our account and then when the billing cycle ends the customers will automatically receive an invoice to cover the new upgraded billing cycle and will create a new paypal subscription when they pay the invoice. Is this the way to do it? How do you handle a change in billing cycles? I'd really appreciate any help

 

Cheers!

[bear]

That's the way we've done it. On the customer's request, we cancel the recurring at Paypal, change the billing cycle in WHMCS and on the invoice generation date it sends an invoice for the new billing period. We explain to the client that they need to restart that subscription by logging in and paying before the due date (choosing subscription if you don't force subs), which generally works.

[disgruntled]

Paypal subscriptions have an option for a first payment amount and then a different recurring payment amount should it be needed, this is useful for the upgrades.

 

The first amount paid is the difference between packages at a prorata value, the recurring is the package price, whmcs should then set the date to take the second payment to coincide with the current anniversary date. This means that a new subscription is created within paypal and the client just has to terminate the old subscription at paypal.

 

Hopefully this tedious job will be cancelled eventually and allow the initiation of a subscription cancellation from the originator (you) system. but that matter is on the side of paypal and not a great deal we could do about it other than request it happen.

[Seiya]

Paypal subscriptions have an option for a first payment amount and then a different recurring payment amount should it be needed, this is useful for the upgrades.

 

The first amount paid is the difference between packages at a prorata value, the recurring is the package price, whmcs should then set the date to take the second payment to coincide with the current anniversary date. This means that a new subscription is created within paypal and the client just has to terminate the old subscription at paypal.

 

Hopefully this tedious job will be cancelled eventually and allow the initiation of a subscription cancellation from the originator (you) system. but that matter is on the side of paypal and not a great deal we could do about it other than request it happen.

 

Thanks I really appreciate the info. However, I don't understand how you actually do this. If a customer signs up for on a $50 monthly package and then wants to move to a $500 annual package are you saying that this is possible as long as it is within the first month (i.e. the initial subscription period)? If so, how do we update the Paypal subscription so that it becomes an annual subscription starting on the 1st day of the 2nd month? Do with do this within Paypal? Any advice to help clarify would be greatly appreciated.

 

Seiya