Recurring billing best way to go?

SCforester.DeleteThis@gmail.com wrote:
> I am making a subscription website and need recurring billing..

The best way to go, in my opinion, is don't.

I used to use PayPal to do recurring billing as an option on my site,
but I don't anymore.

Don't get me wrong, PayPal's system is good, if you want to go that
route. I gave it up for two reasons.

1) People would forget that they were on recurring billing, then ask me
to cancel and refund the last payment. It works OK as long as the
customer is using your site consistently and expects the charges. But
too often, someone would stop using my service, but forget to cancel the
subscription. I would get emails asking for a cancellation and refund.

2) I had no control over the subscription. PayPal manages the
subscription for you, which might be a good thing, but I was unable to
make tweaks on my own. Let's say there is a mis-understanding with the
customer, and as an act of good customer service you want to extend the
subscription to make up for what is perceived as poor customer service.
(It can happen no matter how well you treat your customers.) Oops, can't
do that. PayPal has total control over expiration dates.

Now I send a notification to the customer 1 week before the subscription
expires (longer for purchase order payments) and I let the customer
decide whether to extend the subscription. This system isn't perfect
either, but if there is a hiccup, I can fix it. With PayPal's
subscriptions, I couldn't.

I also have a credit card processor that used Authorize.net as a
gateway. They also have the ability to do recurring billing. It costs
extra. I decided that I didn't want to pay the extra fees to have the
same problems I was having with PayPal's recurring billing.
 >> Stay informed about: Recurring billing best way to go? 

let it be known on Sun, 21 Oct 2007 02:15:59 -0000
SCforester DeleteThis @gmail.com scribed:

|I am making a subscription website and need recurring billing.. Paypal
|makes users sign up for a Paypal account which is not good. Anyone
|know a good low priced gateway or solution to use for recurring
|billing that can be implemented into my site? Suggestions?
|Thanks
|

You may want to look into 2Checkout or similar that resell your services/product.
<http://www.2co.com/>

hth
--
cf <cfnews DeleteThis @NOcharterSPAM.net>
I may be dumb, but I'm not stupid.
Terry Bradshaw
 >> Stay informed about: Recurring billing best way to go? 

Verotel.com
<SCforester.RemoveThis@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1192932959.634953.272670@i13g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>I am making a subscription website and need recurring billing.. Paypal
> makes users sign up for a Paypal account which is not good. Anyone
> know a good low priced gateway or solution to use for recurring
> billing that can be implemented into my site? Suggestions?
> Thanks
>
 >> Stay informed about: Recurring billing best way to go? 

On Oct 21, 12:19 am, Scott Bryce <sbr... RemoveThis @scottbryce.com> wrote:
> SCfores... RemoveThis @gmail.com wrote:
> > I am making a subscription website and need recurring billing..
>
> The best way to go, in my opinion, is don't.
>
> I used to use PayPal to do recurring billing as an option on my site,
> but I don't anymore.
>
> Don't get me wrong, PayPal's system is good, if you want to go that
> route. I gave it up for two reasons.
>
> 1) People would forget that they were on recurring billing, then ask me
> to cancel and refund the last payment. It works OK as long as the
> customer is using your site consistently and expects the charges. But
> too often, someone would stop using my service, but forget to cancel the
> subscription. I would get emails asking for a cancellation and refund.
>
> 2) I had no control over the subscription. PayPal manages the
> subscription for you, which might be a good thing, but I was unable to
> make tweaks on my own. Let's say there is a mis-understanding with the
> customer, and as an act of good customer service you want to extend the
> subscription to make up for what is perceived as poor customer service.
> (It can happen no matter how well you treat your customers.) Oops, can't
> do that. PayPal has total control over expiration dates.
>
> Now I send a notification to the customer 1 week before the subscription
> expires (longer for purchase order payments) and I let the customer
> decide whether to extend the subscription. This system isn't perfect
> either, but if there is a hiccup, I can fix it. With PayPal's
> subscriptions, I couldn't.
>
> I also have a credit card processor that used Authorize.net as a
> gateway. They also have the ability to do recurring billing. It costs
> extra. I decided that I didn't want to pay the extra fees to have the
> same problems I was having with PayPal's recurring billing.

So you no longer use authorize.net? I am looking at them and others.
The porblme with paypla is also the requiring customers to be a
member. My site may have corpoate people join and thye will not care
to join paypal. I guess I will just look at some like Charge.com and
authorize,net and have my developer work it in. Another route I guess
is to just send them a bill every month mysolf an dhope they renew but
I hear many will not. That way they cannot complain ther did not man
to renew as easily.
 >> Stay informed about: Recurring billing best way to go? 

SCforester.TakeThisOut@gmail.com wrote:

> So you no longer use authorize.net?

I use Authorize.net. I don't use their recurring billing.

> I am looking at them and others.
> The porblme with paypla is also the requiring customers to be a
> member.

I also use PayPal for those who want to use that option. I don't use
their recurring billing.

> My site may have corpoate people join and thye will not care
> to join paypal.

I get purchase orders from school districts. I also get PayPal payments
from individuals. I offer a variety of payment methods so the customer
can choose whatever works best for him.

> I guess I will just look at some like Charge.com and
> authorize,net and have my developer work it in. Another route I guess
> is to just send them a bill every month mysolf an dhope they renew but
> I hear many will not.

I send notification near the end of the term. (I offer one-month,
three-month, six-month and one-year terms.) Many people don't renew.
Many do. Some don't renew, but return as customers later.

Not everyone finds my service as useful as they originally thought it
would be. Others no longer need it. Others can barely manage without it.

I wouldn't send a bill. It is costly and time consuming.

> That way they cannot complain they did not mean
> to renew as easily.

And THAT is the reason I stopped doing recurring billing.
 >> Stay informed about: Recurring billing best way to go? 

On Oct 21, 12:17 pm, Scott Bryce <sbr....TakeThisOut@scottbryce.com> wrote:
> SCfores....TakeThisOut@gmail.com wrote:
> > So you no longer use authorize.net?
>
> I use Authorize.net. I don't use their recurring billing.
>
> > I am looking at them and others.
> > The porblme with paypla is also the requiring customers to be a
> > member.
>
> I also use PayPal for those who want to use that option. I don't use
> their recurring billing.
>
> > My site may have corpoate people join and thye will not care
> > to join paypal.
>
> I get purchase orders from school districts. I also get PayPal payments
> from individuals. I offer a variety of payment methods so the customer
> can choose whatever works best for him.
>
> > I guess I will just look at some like Charge.com and
> > authorize,net and have my developer work it in. Another route I guess
> > is to just send them a bill every month mysolf an dhope they renew but
> > I hear many will not.
>
> I send notification near the end of the term. (I offer one-month,
> three-month, six-month and one-year terms.) Many people don't renew.
> Many do. Some don't renew, but return as customers later.
>
> Not everyone finds my service as useful as they originally thought it
> would be. Others no longer need it. Others can barely manage without it.
>
> I wouldn't send a bill. It is costly and time consuming.
>
> > That way they cannot complain they did not mean
> > to renew as easily.
>
> And THAT is the reason I stopped doing recurring billing.

OK thanks, so it sould like you are doing the way I am leaning, do not
fo recurring billing. Do you not meial tme to rmeind thme that next
payment is due? Seems like thye would forget. I am hoping I can can
autoemail few days before the accounts expires with a link to renew.
That sound feasible? I also need a way for the program to knwo if
someone renews or not and either keep them active or make them nactive.
 >> Stay informed about: Recurring billing best way to go? 

SCforester.DeleteThis@gmail.com wrote:

> OK thanks, so it sould like you are doing the way I am leaning, do not
> fo recurring billing. Do you not meial tme to rmeind thme that next
> payment is due? Seems like thye would forget. I am hoping I can can
> autoemail few days before the accounts expires with a link to renew.

That is exactly what I do.

I have a script that runs every night on a cron job. It searches the
database for subscriptions that are within 7 days of expiring (30 days
if the subscription was paid via purchase order) and emails a
notification and instructions how to extend the subscription. Each
record in the database has a Notified flag that determines whether the
notification has already been sent out for that customer. When they
extend their subscription the flag is set to not notified.

> I also need a way for the program to knwo if
> someone renews or not and either keep them active or make them nactive.

I keep an expiration date and a status (active, canceled, suspended) in
the database. One of the functions in a few of the scripts is to change
the status of any record that with an expiration date in the past to
canceled.

I also keep an original subscribe date and a most recent renew date.

The weakness of the system has to do with subscription extensions vs new
subscriptions. I send instructions to extend a subscription along with
the expiration notification. If you log in and pay, the additional days
are added to your current subscription. Otherwise a new subscription is
created. There are a number of people who will create a new subscription
when they should have extended an existing subscription. When the
original subscription expires, they email telling me that they paid, but
expired anyway. I need to be able to deal with those situations.

I have a rather robust back end which I can use to tweak the database.
 >> Stay informed about: Recurring billing best way to go? 

<SCforester.DeleteThis@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1192964990.851671.136890@i38g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>
> Another route I guess
> is to just send them a bill every month mysolf an dhope they renew but
> I hear many will not. That way they cannot complain ther did not man
> to renew as easily.

If you go this route another option you can do is set the subscription for
more than one month at a time. IE: make it 3 or 6 months they have to pay
up front and then at the end of the term send them a notice and a link they
can click on to renew.

Or you can offer discounts and let them choose how long they want to
subscibe for.

IE:
1 month = $10.00
3 months = $27.00
6 months = $50.00
12 months = $90.00
 >> Stay informed about: Recurring billing best way to go? 

Auggie wrote:

> Or you can offer discounts and let them choose how long they want to
> subscribe for.

I do 1-month, 3-month, 6-month and 1-year for the price of 10 months.
With the amount of money that PayPal and Authorize.net take per
transaction, I can make as much money selling 1-year for the price of 10
months as I can selling 1-month 12 times.

Since my service is educational, many of my subscribers only use it 10
months out of the year. Providing the discount works for me and for my
customers.
 >> Stay informed about: Recurring billing best way to go? 

>
> <SCforester.DeleteThis@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1192964990.851671.136890@i38g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
>>
>> Another route I guess
>> is to just send them a bill every month mysolf an dhope they renew but
>> I hear many will not. That way they cannot complain ther did not man
>> to renew as easily.

Why not just use a billing system that you can auto-charge them from? You
can then send out invoices and reminders early enough so that they can
either contact you and cancel, or just let you charge them again.

Check out www.whmcs.com - its tailored to hosting, but can probably be used
for just about any service.

--Tina
 >> Stay informed about: Recurring billing best way to go?