Updating TLD pricing for existing customers.

[gminnov]

I've found various threads here from people with this issue, and one thread where someone released a module to fix it, but that subsequently went dead apparently. But its been a long time since that so am hoping there is a better (official) fix now.

 

The issue: After a change to a TLD registration price, the renewal prices in the accounts of existing domain owner-customers are not also adjusted. This means when their renewals roll around they are charged incorrectly.

 

There was one post reply from a WHMCS staff member (WHMCS John) pointing to a blog post explaining it, but that link was to a broken version of this URL:

https://blog.whmcs.com/insights.php/?t=44602 - which also goes nowhere now.

 

That thread is here:

https://forums.whmcs.com/showthread.php?74466-updating-all-TLD-prices-for-existing-customers

 

Is there a solution to this? It seems like a major issue.

 

Thanks,

Kevin

GM-Innovations

[brian!]

Hi Kevin,

 

There was one post reply from a WHMCS staff member (WHMCS John) pointing to a blog post explaining it, but that link was to a broken version of this URL:

https://blog.whmcs.com/insights.php/?t=44602 - which also goes nowhere now.

they've recently updated their blog method - certainly their RSS feeds no longer work.

 

Is there a solution to this? It seems like a major issue.

the built-in manual solution is the one mentioned in the above article - Bulk Pricing Updater.

 

the automated method was the 3rd-party addon, but I don't think it's currently being maintained.

[gminnov]

Thanks for the quick reply. It looks pretty hideous but I'll dig into it - hopefully not as bad as all that.

 

Kevin

[WHMCS ChrisD]

There was one post reply from a WHMCS staff member (WHMCS John) pointing to a blog post explaining it, but that link was to a broken version of this URL:

https://blog.whmcs.com/insights.php/?t=44602 - which also goes nowhere now.

 

Bulk Pricing Updater is the best way to acheive this, in relation to the blog it is from 2012 and can be found here https://blog.whmcs.com/?t=44602 (just remove /insights.php from the URL)

[gminnov]

Hi again,

 

I have a follow up question. On the Bulk Pricing Updater page it says:

 

This utility can be used to apply system wide price changes to existing clients' product, addon and domain services.

 

This is necessary because by default, changing the pricing of products, addons and domain TLDs in WHMCS does not cascade to existing clients. That is, existing customers always remain at the prices they were shown and agreed to at the time of placing an order. The only exception to this is if you enable Product Prices Currency update setting under the Automation Settings.

 

I checked and I do indeed have the Product Prices Currency update setting activated. So what does that mean? Should I not be having this problem of customers still being charged out-of-date pricing on domains?

 

Thanks,

Kevin

[brian!]

Hi Kevin,

 

PPC wouldn't update your prices in your default currency (I assume USD), only in the other currencies based on the price in the default currency...

 

e.g today, if a product/domain was $10USD, you might be charging £8.16 in GBP; last month a $10 product might have been priced at around £8.02 GBP - either way, you're still getting $10, but is that the price you want to charge?

 

long story short, if your base currency pricing is out of date, your other currencies will be out of date too.

[gminnov]

Yes I'm happy for product prices in other currencies to update automatically based on the base price. My issue here is changes in the base price not reflecting in pre-existing clients' domain renewals. Given I thought we'd established this is the way it is, I didn't really see the relevance of the quote I mentioned in my previous quote. The PPC doesn't seem to have anything to do with this problem. I really don't see the rationale behind keeping existing clients on out-of-date domain pricing. I know some hosts keep clients on grandfathered hosting pricing, but have never heard of anyone doing the same on domain pricing.

 

It looks like there's no alternative but to manually do a PPC update for every price of every TLD (and every time period too I think) - going to be a looooong job. I wonder if there's a way to approach it with MySQL queries.

 

Kevin

[ryanm]

Hi Everyone,

The problem I'm seeing with this is that the other currencies don't actually update for clients' renewals, unless I manage to go in and manually use the "recalculate on save" checkbox before that client's renewal invoice goes out. I don't really have an issue with the base price updates in the current system, as I'm not changing prices all that often, but when the exchange changes, there are times where I'm losing out on a few dollars because the system isn't doing its job. Any ideas on how to get around it? I've seen the dead 3rd party module, but nothing else seems to show a fix to this.

 

Thanks!

Ryan

[brian!]

there are times where I'm losing out on a few dollars because the system isn't doing its job.

it's doing it's job - but it's job is not to auto-update existing prices.

 

Any ideas on how to get around it? I've seen the dead 3rd party module, but nothing else seems to show a fix to this.

the link in Marketplace is working again for Prices Autocalc - so you should be able to buy it now from the developer.

[DavidW]

With respect the Bulk Pricing Updater is hideous. Consider a large range of domains 30+ each with a different pricing structure and a spread of 9 year renewals it becomes an onerous task as each domain/year/price has to be updated individually. A far better solution would be use the existing pricing matrix and have a button 'Update all domain pricing based on existing matrix'.

[brian!]

With respect the Bulk Pricing Updater is hideous.

no offence taken, I agree with you.

 

I suspect I could count on one hand the times i've used it (other than dev testing).

 

A far better solution would be use the existing pricing matrix and have a button 'Update all domain pricing based on existing matrix'.

I can give you links to threads that have been saying similar things for the last 7 years (perhaps longer)...

 

i'm sure eventually the feature will be added, WHMCS will make a big song and dance about it in their release notes, and then we're all supposed to be grateful that they've added the feature.

 

until that glorious day arrives, I think the only commercial option is the Prices AutoCalc addon.

[DavidW]

I purchased Price AutoCalc but found it only supports PHP 5.3 not PHP 7.0.

[brian!]

I purchased Price AutoCalc but found it only supports PHP 5.3 not PHP 7.0.

perhaps you should add a review to it's Marketplace page and mention that it currently doesn't support PHP7.

 

i've seen enough fake positive reviews @ Marketplace, it might be useful to see a few genuine ones there too.