GoCardless WHMCS Module Discontinued

[[JSH]John]

I've just had an email that GoCardless will no longer be developing their WHMCS module. Hopefully someone else will take over since it's open source, but in the meantime I've asked them if the module will continue to work in the future.

 

I am writing to tell you that we have made the difficult decision to stop providing support for our WHMCS plug-in commencing Thursday 15th August.

 

At GoCardless, we pride ourselves on the quality of our products and the high level of support we provide. The plug-in for the WHMCS platform did not meet the high standards of service and quality that we expect from ourselves.

 

If you would like to continue benefiting from GoCardless, we would recommend using our dashboards, which make it super simple to collect variable payments through a fully-featured interface. Alternatively, you can continue using the plugin as you have before.

 

We will be more than happy to assist you with any migration you want to make, and of course we're always available to answer any other queries you have.

[scouthostinguk]

I just got the same e-mail, its sad to hear this.

[lance]

Yes had same mail also, we were rolling this out alot more too.... shame, worked well too

[easyhosting]

yes got the same email but it does say

 

 

If you would like to continue benefiting from GoCardless, we would recommend using our dashboards, which make it super simple to collect variable payments through a fully-featured interface. Alternatively, you can continue using the plugin as you have before.

 

so i assume this will still work, i just started using this and clients are starting to adopt this option.

[scouthostinguk]

yes got the same email but it does say

 

 

 

 

so i assume this will still work, i just started using this and clients are starting to adopt this option.

 

I think the question is for how long will they let us use the plugin before they turn it off.

[easyhosting]

I think the question is for how long will they let us use the plugin before they turn it off.

 

Maybe as long as we need on the current version, but they wont update the module, i have submitted a request asking just that

[lance]

I think the question is for how long will they let us use the plugin before they turn it off.

 

I was thinking exactly the same..........

[aquiss]

We have been informed this evening that GoCardless plan to discontinue support for their WHMCS module, with just 30 days notice.

 

We love both WHMCS and GoCardless, but with no direct support between the two systems impending, does anyone know of an alternative way to integrate (via a 3rd party accounting solution for instance?) or are there any UK alternatives to GoCardless?

[easyhosting]

Maybe a mod could merge this into the already open thread on this issue http://forum.whmcs.com/showthread.php?75926-GoCardless-WHMCS-Module-Discontinued&p=326107#post326107

[Si]

That would be a good idea. Its sad that this has come to this. GC is a good company but WHMCS and GC was just never going to work together properly.

[lance]

do you think its the low rates they were charging that they are actually making a loss?

[Si]

No, not at all. GC are a fine company. It was just impossible with all of the communication issues between WHMCS and the GC api to continue going on a long term basis. the guys at GC tried very hard to make it workable, but the reality is that never the twain would meet. We used GC for a number of months, and lost some customers as well as the trust of others. We stopped using it earlier this year because, well, we had to.

[Infopro]

Multiple threads merged.

[easyhosting]

It was just impossible with all of the communication issues between WHMCS and the GC api to continue going on a long term basis.

I agree with this as in the few month we have been using GC, we have some clients invoices that are automatically marked as paid and some that dont get marked as paid, yet they used the same process to start using GC. when i contact GC about this each month i just get

 

Thanks for getting back to me. It looks like you're running an old version of our WHMCS module, which will explain the issues you're experiencing. Since the original release, we've made a number of updates which should help to fix the issues you're having.

 

You can download the latest version at https://github.com/gocardless/gocardless-whmcs. To upgrade, you simply move the contents of the GoCardless_WHMCS directory into modules/gateways in your WHMCS installation, and that should help.

 

even though i am using their latest version

[lance]

Thanks Infopro

 

Si, we kept our other payment gateways active when we brought gocardless in, now more of our users are asking for the direct debit facility..... I do hope that the GC guys and WHMCS can sort something out, GC support has always been great if honest... It will be a pity to see if cease.

[[JSH]John]

The guys at GoCardless are always really helpful and whenever I reported a bug, I was given a quick fix before it was pushed into the next release.

 

There are features many of us requested and they were being worked on, but I'm guessing it was taking up too much of their time. One of those features was setting up a single Direct Debit and being able to take payment for all services under the clients account when the payment is due. At the moment we'd need to have the customer setup multiple Direct Debits.

[TimFromGoCardless]

I'm Tim, and I work at GoCardless, with a particular responsibility for the WHMCS module and its developer. It's a project that is actually very dear to me and which I've spent a lot of time on, and like you guys, I am very disappointed to have to bring our support for the module to an end.

 

I'll give a bit more detail, but to be super clear, this means:

 

- You can keep using the module indefinitely - GoCardless continues to exist, and we will always have an open API, which is what WHMCS uses to work with us

- We will most likely release updates if WHMCS make breaking changes on their end which stop the module working, as they did in 5.2

- We won't be working on new features or providing support for setup and maintenance of the module. We will of course be able to help with any queries regarding payments that have already been registered on the GoCardless end (i.e. where the add-on has functioned as expected)

 

Many people had difficulties with the module, whilst some had great success with it and I know from personal stories that I've heard from Aquiss and others like them that our module has had a great effect for their businesses. And I absolutely love to hear that. That is what GoCardless is all about.

 

However, we've really found that WHMCS doesn't provide the perfect framework for our payment solution, particularly because it tends to assume instant credit/debit card style payments, and we simply don't have the resources right now to focus on the platform and to get it to where it should be. We are passionate about having amazing products with matching support, but we don't feel like we can do this here.

 

Existing users can continue using the module, and since it's open source, you can make updates and bring in bug fixes and new features and even sell the module if you like. It's completely open, and you can grab the code at https://github.com/gocardless/gocardless-whmcs.

 

If you're not tied into WHMCS for your billing (and I know some aren't), we can help you migrate to using our online dashboards or to another partner solution. Just get in touch if you'd like to hear about that.

 

I hope that helps to explain - if you have any questions, just drop me an email at help@gocardless.com or give us a call on 020 7183 8674.

 

Best,

 

Tim

[cyberstrider]

yes got the same email but it does say

so i assume this will still work, i just started using this and clients are starting to adopt this option.

 

The plugin has never worked perfectly for me - sometimes payments were taken properly, other times part payments were set up. The other thing was the inability to do variable payments per customer.. a customer had to have multiple DDs set up.

 

The nicest thing about the plugin was the automatic marking of payments in whmcs.. if one was to move to their own dashboard system for variable payments, then this would also mean that payments would not be marked as paid automatically in whmcs.. it would introduce a manual step - the whole thing with whmcs is to move away from manual stuff and make most things automated.

 

Am I correct in my thinking about the dashboard variable payments system that GC have with respect to whmcs?

[And then there was one les]

Well i see no real issue here, yes the official support for the module is being pulled, but we have a thriving community here to take over that support and as its already been provided in git it would be easy enough to fork it and continue its development.

 

I see no reason to sell it when the community can develop it, infact i think it would be a good idea if more of the modules for whmcs were run in this way, open source and community supported. At least this way we would be more likely to get what we needed.

[Si]

Well i see no real issue here, yes the official support for the module is being pulled, but we have a thriving community here to take over that support and as its already been provided in git it would be easy enough to fork it and continue its development.

 

I see no reason to sell it when the community can develop it, infact i think it would be a good idea if more of the modules for whmcs were run in this way, open source and community supported. At least this way we would be more likely to get what we needed.

 

Good luck with that. The guys at GC I found to be excellent, professional and in the end, THEY couldn't get the two platforms to work in a satisfactory way and decided to 'give up on it'. If they, with their resources and the 'motive' to make it work (profits), I would be highly skeptical of anything else coming out of an open source approach, but hey, on this occasion I'd be happy to be proved wrong.

[And then there was one les]

I see no reason the two systems can't work together, i have not been using GC for very long but so far i have had no issue, other than with the whmcs provided module which was fixed with the GC supplied module.

 

As has been mentioned earlier in this thread, some invoices being marked paid when they are not, and others not marked when they are, and apparently randomly at that, well i can only say that has to be another issue, maybe a firewall issue or some other problem where whmcs is installed. If something is working on some invoices yet not on others, that has to be the case.

 

If i come across these issues myself i can investigate that but at the moment i have no issue at all so only time will tell.

[easyhosting]

I find the issue is that on some GC orders the system will generate a subscription ID and place this in WHMCS, but some orders dont produce the ID, so this is the issue of why some dont mark as paid and some do

[And then there was one les]

Okay well that is a strange occurance, but it should be fixable as its just a matter of tracking down exactly where the failure is occurring. I see no reason for two clients performing exactly the same process to have two different outcomes unless there is something about their accounts themselves that are different.

 

It is possible that one client was refused subscription by the card company and thus GC cant create a subscription but this should be noted in the gateway logs as it would be reported back to your installation. In this case another payment provider might be better for those clients one that only deals with single payments.

[easyhosting]

 

It is possible that one client was refused subscription by the card company and thus GC cant create a subscription but this should be noted in the gateway logs as it would be reported back to your installation.

 

Yes but even the clients that dont has have a sub ID added to WHMCS has a fully set up DD, which is paid monthly just have to manually mark the invoices as paid, which defeats the object of the module.

[And then there was one les]

In that case there must be something in the installation thats causing it, i have not as yet come across it myself but i am certainly going to be watching out for it.