does paypal automatically cancel subscriptions?

[AverageGuy]

I got an email from paypal which says a buyer cancelled the subscription. I felt weird, so sent the buyer an email. well, the buyer told me that he got an email from paypal, but never cancelled the subscription.

do you have this happened before?


thanks

david

[monovax]

Paypal does not cancel subscriptions unless you ask to. Maybe he canceled it unadvertisedly, I can't thing of other way that happened....

[Tracy Yates]

Actually, sometimes, when a person removes a bank account or credit card, or when a credit card expires, associated with their PayPal account, that will inadvertently cancel any subscriptions they've signed up for using those accounts or cards as a back up funding source.

Happens to my subscribers all the time.

This is automatically done through PayPal whenever a bank account or credit card changes that is associated, like I said, with a certain subscription. Or subscriptions.

It's a huge annoyance, but it happens regularly.


Tracy

[Angela V. Edwards]

Originally Posted by Tracy Yates

Actually, sometimes, when a person removes a bank account or credit card, or when a credit card expires, associated with their PayPal account, that will inadvertently cancel any subscriptions they've signed up for using those accounts or cards as a back up funding source.

Happens to my subscribers all the time.

This is automatically done through PayPal whenever a bank account or credit card changes that is associated, like I said, with a certain subscription. Or subscriptions.

It's a huge annoyance, but it happens regularly.


Tracy

Yep, that's what I was going to say. It happens to my subscribers all the time, too.

[capone2009]

Actually, sometimes, when a person removes a bank account or credit card, or when a credit card expires, associated with their PayPal account, that will inadvertently cancel any subscriptions they've signed up for using those accounts or cards as a back up funding source.

unfortunatelly that's right.
had that same probleme twice..

[Sheryl Polomka]

I've had it happen to me before too, don't know the actual reason behind it but I have had it happen

[JaredKels]

In my experience they do not. The customer always tells me to cancel.

[zoobie]

that happens to me too but it's the reality... buy the way anyone uses any payment processors? Paypal fees seem huge as I have to bear currency exchange rate too

[RickDavies]

I have thousands of members at ProfitMart and the cancellations are a daily occurance. Very few are people opting out or cancelling. Most are the result of the reasons stated above, usually a change in the member's banking details or perhaps their credit card has expired or been renewed.

Nonetheless, it is in your best interest to create a template email to send to each cancellation that provides them with the info on the cancellation and a link for them to renew their subscription if they choose to.

This simple step has resulted in a renewal rate of about 60% of all cancelled memberships even those that were initiated by the member.

All my best!

Rick Davies
ProfitMart.com

[paforhire]

I have heard horror stories about this happening and some membership site owners losing thousands of dollars in income cause of this.

Originally Posted by AverageGuy

I got an email from paypal which says a buyer cancelled the subscription. I felt weird, so sent the buyer an email. well, the buyer told me that he got an email from paypal, but never cancelled the subscription.

do you have this happened before?


thanks

david

[winebuddy]

Originally Posted by Tracy Yates

Actually, sometimes, when a person removes a bank account or credit card, or when a credit card expires, associated with their PayPal account, that will inadvertently cancel any subscriptions they've signed up for using those accounts or cards as a back up funding source.

Happens to my subscribers all the time.

This is automatically done through PayPal whenever a bank account or credit card changes that is associated, like I said, with a certain subscription. Or subscriptions.

It's a huge annoyance, but it happens regularly.


Tracy

What Tracy said - I have it happen a lot too. Usually, just an email to the subscriber and BOOM - they re-up.
Mike

[rhondaklewis]

Wow! That just happened to me with Angela backlinks. I thought it was paypals fault and was going to send a support ticket. Turns out when I cancelled a credit card it was linked to the subscription. Wish I had known this sooner.

[Joseph Then]

This happens to me 4 times already. Everytime my credit card expires they cancel ALL my subscriptions!

[Project-Octagon]

Originally Posted by Tracy Yates

Actually, sometimes, when a person removes a bank account or credit card, or when a credit card expires, associated with their PayPal account, that will inadvertently cancel any subscriptions they've signed up for using those accounts or cards as a back up funding source.

Happens to my subscribers all the time.

This is automatically done through PayPal whenever a bank account or credit card changes that is associated, like I said, with a certain subscription. Or subscriptions.

It's a huge annoyance, but it happens regularly.


Tracy

Yes, Tracy has it right. If they did not cancel then PayPal will for the above reasons and there is a limit on how many times they try to bill an acct that is not going through. Kinda funny though, PayPal does try an aweful lot to get the money for you. There are pros and cons to this but all in all you won't have many saying they did not cancel if they did.

[JOHN_RODRIGUEZ]

I have had a subscription or two cancelled by Paypal for no apparent reason. There have been several posts about this..... don't really know why it happens.

John

[Dr Dan]

What is a better option then paypal for subscriptions then? if there are any?

[John Sullivan]

Almost certainly an issue with expiry date of your credit card. This is a real pain sometimes because most of us don't check the expiry dates often.

John

[Kay King]

If the buyer changes his credit card info, that will cancel his subscription. He may not realize it - but that's what happens.

The reason is simple finance - if that card was used as primary or secondary payment method when he started the subscription, removing the card removes the payment method. Adding a new card means he'll need to re-subscribe because the charge needs to be "attached" to the specific credit card account.

It happens a lot - and Paypal could do a better job of explaining it to users.

kay

[Josh Anderson]

Originally Posted by rockstarinlife

What is a better option then paypal for subscriptions then? if there are any?

Using your own merchant account... Authorize.net is one of the most popular gateways. Then all you need is an ecommerce system that automates it.

We developed our own.

My rule of thumb is to never offer paypal for recurring. I only offer it as an option on one time purchases.

My own ecommerce system follows up with the subscriber trying to bill 4 times letting them know they need to update their billing info. On the 4th time it suspends their access...

However, they can still click on the link in the fourth email the system sends when access is suspended and update their billing info to regain access.

This way publishers using our system are able to boost retention.

I have found that about 50% of attrition is just due to expiring credit cards so having a system that deals with this effectively without completely canceling the subscription (only suspending until they update) is essential to not loosing clients that otherwise would remain paid members.