Subscriptions question

[millios]

I have a product that is a subscription product.

I want a scenario where all subscriptions will process on the 5th day of the month. If a customer signs up on the 5th, they are included in the processing for "that month".

However, if they sign up on the sixth (or any time up until and including the 5th of the following month), they do not get charged until the 5th of the following month.

I see by the grace period setting that I can set a number of days ... but how do I set it for "a whole month"?

If I really have to, I could set the grace period for 28 days ... then most folks would get charged on the 5th, but if somebody registered on the 6th or 7th, and it was a long month, they'd still "go through", and I could just actually count and ship everything on the 8th...?

Thoughts, ideas, suggestions welcome.

Bill

[millios]

With this subscription product, I also am thinking about starting signups now, but not have it start until January 5th.

Can I set the grace period to be some really long period (60 days), so that people can sign up from now until Jan 5th, it processes on the 5th, then I change the option to 28 days, as described in the previous post?

Bill

[Rutabaga]

If a customer "signs up" by placing an order in your store, then the customer will have an initial order (ie: paid transaction) that will be processed on that date. For example, if the customer signs up by placing an order on the 4th, then they will place a paid order on the 4th, and then their next order will be processed on the 5th.

If you do not want their initial purchase to have a charge, then create a free product and daisy-chain it into the paid version due on the 5th of each month.

The grace period won't be necessary in this scenario. As an example, the grace period would be used if a customer placed an order on the 3rd of this month, but you don't want to start billing them until the 5th of next month. In this scenario, a 3-day grace period would push their first scheduled order over to next month.
_________________
Rutabaga
Keeper of the Development Schedule
Modular Merchant Shopping Cart Software.

[millios]

Won't that show up as "zero cost" in the invoice?

How do I create the actual subscription without it showing up in the store?

Bill

[Rutabaga]

[millios]

Maybe my second question "how do I prevent it from showing up in the store" wasn't clear...

What you are telling me (as I understand it) is that in order to have a customer
- subscribe to a product or service,
- NOT be charged immediately
- free product shows up on invoice
- free product daisychains into actual priced product on 5th of month
- charged upon the actual date of the "followup" product (5th)
- followup product daisy chains into itself (every month on the 5th)

I only want people "purchasing" the first item ... how do I prevent the second item from showing up in the store? I do not want people to accidently subscribe to the second item - because that will immediately charge them, then they will daisychain into the subscription.

Is my question more clear this time?

Bill

[Rutabaga]

[millios]

Ok, I did all that ...

- Product is Active
- Category is inactive
- product does not show up! Hallelujah!

I daisy-chained the free "signup" into the paid subscription.

However, the free product goes through, but the next product in line doesn't show up in the "Scheduled Orders" ...?

[Rutabaga]

Bill,
It sounds like there may be a product setting that still needs to be changed in order to get the behavior you're looking for. No problem. At this point, I would recommend calling our toll-free Tech Support number 1-800-660-1352. A Support Tech will log into your account with you, review your settings, and help you make any necessary changes to your product settings. I estimate this fix will only take a couple minutes. Thank you, and we look forward to assisting you with this!
_________________
Rutabaga
Keeper of the Development Schedule
Modular Merchant Shopping Cart Software.