PayPal automated subscriptions

A few moments ago I went into my PayPal account and cancelled ALL automated subscriptions that were set up there by various members through this site. That includes all paid membership levels and forum sponsorships. I know some people liked that this process was automated, and yeah it's good on my part to just have people sending me money every year, but honestly, it's proven to be more of a headache that I had expected when I first set this up. I have had LOTS of people forget that they had the automated subscription set up, and wind up making duplicate payments, that I have to go in and then manually process to issue a refund. Some people have even gone so far as to file complaints with PayPal claiming that I have defrauded them and stolen money from their accounts.

In some cases, before I removed the option at all when signing up for sponsorships and paid memberships, some people would set up MULTIPLE automated payments through PayPal, which was a real mess trying to straighten out when discovered. This was just getting to be a lot of work for something that was supposed to be easy. Yes, people did ASK for that option, and yes, it sounded like a good idea at the time. But the bloom is really off of that rose now.

So I find myself having to try to check each and every payment notice that comes in from PayPal to try to determine whether or not it is an automated renewal and the person has even been active on this site recently to indicate that they even WANT that payment made any longer.

I have enough headaches. This was getting to be a BIG one. Yeah, I know some people are going to be confused about getting that notice of cancellation, and yes, I got a phone call about it not 30 seconds after I cancelled them all. But I had to just bite that bullet and grit my teeth waiting for emails from irate people wanting to know why I cancelled their ACCOUNT on FaunaClassifieds.

Hopefully at least some people will read THIS thread first, though.

Just to clarify, the sponsorship or paid memberships have not been cancelled, only the process through PayPal that will automatically subtract a payment from YOUR PayPal account every year.

So will advanced notices of an upcoming expiration be sent out or is it up to us to stay on top of it?

Originally Posted by CarolinaClassicDragons

So will advanced notices of an upcoming expiration be sent out or is it up to us to stay on top of it?

I will say that you SHOULD get a notice, but honestly I'm not sure whether it is via PM or email or both. It's not really something I have personally tested myself. Even so, some people have long abandoned the email addresses they used to set up their accounts here, so that is a problem unto itself. Not only will they not get an email notice but they won't get an email notice of a private message here, neither. Not much I can do about that, unfortunately. And then there is the problem of some ISPs such as Yahoo and Gmail sometimes blocking emails from this site.

Heck, I have sometimes gotten payments for sponsorships, and when I email them the info request I need to set them up, never hear from them again. And it's not like I'm going to actually remember to follow up later on.

You would think I would just be happy having people send me money every year, even if they have long gotten out of the business and no longer even frequent this site any more, wouldn't you? I have checked some automated subscriptions that were set up in 2009 and the people haven't even been here for the past 3 years. Maybe they just never check their PayPal account, or maybe they were OK with just contributing anyway, but I just don't feel right about taking their money over and over again this way.

All in all, I think I NEEDED to do this now.

Just for the record, I have never received a notification when my contributor subscription is about to expire. I learn of it only because I get a full inbox warning with my private messages, or because my edit button disappears on posts.

Originally Posted by snowgyre

Just for the record, I have never received a notification when my contributor subscription is about to expire. I learn of it only because I get a full inbox warning with my private messages, or because my edit button disappears on posts.

So that would pretty much indicate that the notice is sent out via email. Otherwise you would have a notice in your inbox here for your private messages. Figures. Email just isn't the reliable service that it used to be. The spammers have won by forcing spam blocking to do what they intended to do in the first place.

Thanks for the feedback.

Hey Rich,

I got this notice via email.

Where do I have to look to see my forum sponsor renewal date? Or can I just pay ahead to avoid missing my renewal? :-)

Vickie

Originally Posted by Dachiu

Hey Rich,

I got this notice via email.

Where do I have to look to see my forum sponsor renewal date? Or can I just pay ahead to avoid missing my renewal? :-)

Vickie

I presume you are referring to a sponsorship. I do audit them every now and again. If I see one that is expired, I first check the account record to see when it was that the member last checked into this site. If it is fairly recent, I will send them a private message asking about their renewal intentions. If no reply is soon forthcoming, I presume they aren't interested. If it has not been recent, I assume they are no longer interested in participating here, and delete the sponsorship. In cases where the sponsorships are filled to capacity, an available slot is made noted of as a notice of availability in the forum itself, available on a first come, first served basis.

For paid memberships, no, I do not audit those at all nor send notices to anyone.

As for checking to see when you sponsorship or membership is due, well heck, I don't know. Never used it myself. Sorry...

Originally Posted by Dachiu

Hey Rich,

I got this notice via email.

Where do I have to look to see my forum sponsor renewal date? Or can I just pay ahead to avoid missing my renewal? :-)

Vickie

I'm not sure if a forum sponsorship is the same, but I think it should be. If so, you should find it by clicking on the User CP button and on the User CP dashboard page, scroll down to the bottom and on the left hand side is the option to paid subscriptions. Clicking on that will take you to a page that should show everything that you pay for and the start and end dates of it.

I never signed up for auto pay, and I get a notice every year through email, maybe a week before it expires, when my membership needs to be renewed.