Jump to content

Product Configurable Options on *FREE* product?


christofire

Recommended Posts

I have a free non-hosting service upon which I'd like to up-sell monthly recurring add-ons. Ideally, my customers would create their accounts, and upgrade/downgrade their accounts at their pleasure and the appropriate billing adjustments would occur and be invoiced automatically. It seems I can nearly accomplish this goal using Product Configurable Options.

 

Everything works as I'd like *IF* I use a non-zero value (even $0.01) for the base product. However, if I use $0.00 as the recurring fee of the base product, the recurring fees of the configurable options do not appear in the cart in the same useful way. In fact, there is nothing to indicate that there will be any recurring fees charged at all.

 

A technical workaround is to charge a recurring fee for the base service and have the customer enter a coupon code to redeem an identical value, but that is confusing and sure to lead to abandoned carts.

 

Any suggestions?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is creating challenges at every turn. Every work-around I've tried has had some unfortunate consequence:

 

If I try to charge a value for the primary product and use an equivalent coupon to net zero for the base product, the calculations are incorrect no matter how I set them up. If I attempt a 100% discount "applied to" only the base product, the promotion is applied to the entire order including all configured options. If I use a fixed amount, the pro-rata rate is not considered in the discount, thus the discount is always (except for one day) misapplied.

 

This leaves me with seemly 2 unpleasant options...

 

1) Lower the base product value to something inconsequential ($1) and live with the lower perceived value of my product, whereas before they were getting a $15 product for free, or

 

2) Eat the misapplied discount the first month as a cost of using this billing system/process.

 

-- Wait, am I going to have this problem any time a customer upgrades or downgrades their service? :shock:

 

Seriously, no-one has *ANY* suggestions for me?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quick note: it seems that what is happening is that if the base product has a recurring cost of zero, it is set to a FREE product in the back end, (back end shows free, front shows blank billing cycle) and all the attributes of a free product are applied to the configured options, e.g., no prorata, unexpected discounting process, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use & Guidelines and understand your posts will initially be pre-moderated