Paid Subscription Questions
 

I am using paid subscriptions on my site, but have a few questions about them...

(1) My subscriptions add a user to a secondary usergroup. I am assuming that when the subscription expires, the secondary usergroup is then removed from the user's profile, correct?

(2) I offered a promotion, such as subscribe for one month, get one month free. So when they subscribed, it was the normal price, but I added one month to the subscription terms. Now, when this promotion ends, what is the correct way to handle this? Do I just change the subscription terms and remove that free month, or do I need to create a new subscription term for users paying after the promo ends? I am using PayPal. What happens to those who got the promo if I just update the subscription to remove the free month?

(3) If I refund a payment through PayPal, does it automatically remove the user's subscription from vBulletin?

I can answer the first two questions, but i'm not sure about the third.

So long as you use the subscription manager to edit how long it lasts for it will add/remove the subscription when necessary. If you are doing a promotion though why not just change the "Subscription Length" field in the options for each promotional subscription? It means that if you are doing buy one month and get one month free any purchases that take place during your promotion will be given two months instead of one. When the promotion ends you change the length back to normal any purchases and it will go back to only one month per purchase. Subscriptions bought when it was in the offer phase will still have their two months and will expire when needs be.

(this isn't 100% confirmed)...

but for your third question...i don't believe so...

vbulletin sends info to paypal...i'mm 99.9% positive paypal won't send info to vb if you refund someone via paypal...so vb won't know that you did it to cancel the subscription...

Thank you for the replies.

On changing a 2 month subsription to one, won't that screw things up b/c PayPal is going to be set to renew every two months, so if I change it back to one, the user's subscription will expire before PayPal re-charges, or will PayPal somehow adjust as well?

We tested this extensively before we began our subscription program, and I can reassure you on your last point:

Yes, this has been working flawlessly for me. If I refund their money via PayPal (the only payment processer we're using), they are almost instantly removed from the subscription in vB and their usergroup settings changed appropriately.

Thank you -- I thought that was the case as I refunded someone accidentally, and then saw they were no longer subscribed. :)