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How does Membership know which gateway to use?

I'm trying to get the final kinks worked out, and it's just not working out.

How does membership know which gateway to use?
How does membership know if it's a recurring billing or single payment?

Where can I tell it to use one or the other, depending on user preference?

Or, does it know the gateway simply by selecting finite or serial?

Which setting tells membership that a user wants recurring billing?

Is it dictated by Paypal, and if so, where?

I need to know specifically how membership uses the two different paypal options, how it knows which one to use.

1. I need a single payment plan (1 year term).
2. I need a recurring payment plan (1 year term).
3. I need a recurring payment plan that only lasts for 12 months and then stops.

I need to know how these gateways pick and choose.

  • PC

    Hello Shelly,

    Greetings and thanks for your post.

    First of all, you should start reading here : https://premium.wpmudev.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Membership3440-Docs.pdf it will clear most of your doubts.

    How does membership know which gateway to use?

    You will tell it which gateway to use. You should only activate the gateway you want the plugin to use.

    How does membership know if it's a recurring billing or single payment?

    You will tell it if its a recurring plan or a single payment. You can read about the modes on Page 60 Of 70 of the manual.

    1. I need a single payment plan (1 year term).
    2. I need a recurring payment plan (1 year term).
    3. I need a recurring payment plan that only lasts for 12 months and then stops.

    1: You create a finite subscription with one year duration
    2,3 : You need to decide how often you want to take payment. Lets say monthly, then you need to add levels below each other and set them to finite 30 days

    I dont see much difference in 2 and 3 so if you can elaborate what you are trying to achieve, that would be helpful.

    Cheers, PC

  • Shelly Haffly

    Thanks for responding. I've read the manual. Several times. It's pretty vague.

    The manual and videos also show several gateways active.

    Your answer still does not tell me how Membership knows whether to use one paypal gateway over the other. I have both PayPal gateways Active. So, how does Membership know which one to use?

    If I choose finite, membership will choose PayPal single payments automatically?

    If I choose serial, membership will choose PayPal with subscriptions automatically?

    Your answer for 2, 3 does not make sense. If I want a 12 month (one payment every month for 12 months followed by a lifetime of free) I would set up 12 individual 1 month finite accesses in the membership level form, followed by a single infinite? Would not 12 finite monthly payments be MANUAL renewals based upon your explanation above?

  • Shelly Haffly

    The PayPal IPN settings only allow one notification URL. That means if you have both PayPal single and PayPal Express with Subscriptions turned on, only one will register at PayPal and return the information to Membership?

    You can't have multiple IPN Settings it's either:

    http://www.yoursite.com/paymentreturn/paypalsolo

    or

    http://www.yoursite.com/paymentreturn/paypalexpress

    So, in the manual and the video you show several turned on. Why? Do I need both PayPal gateways? And if so, why? Will PayPal Solo allow my members to have recurring billing AND others to single one off payments? Or do I need both PayPal gateways?

    Please.

  • PC

    Hello Shelly,

    The manual and videos also show several gateways active.

    Your answer still does not tell me how Membership knows whether to use one paypal gateway over the other. I have both PayPal gateways Active. So, how does Membership know which one to use?

    Well, there is no need to activate 2 paypal gateways. Only one is required. The manuals show multiple gateways active for display purpose. You can have one gateway as PayPal and one as Authorize.net

    If I choose finite, membership will choose PayPal single payments automatically?

    If I choose serial, membership will choose PayPal with subscriptions automatically?

    PayPal single can not support subscriptions but Paypal Express Supports Subscriptions as well as single payments. So you should ideally be using PayPal express only.

    Your answer for 2, 3 does not make sense. If I want a 12 month (one payment every month for 12 months followed by a lifetime of free) I would set up 12 individual 1 month finite accesses in the membership level form, followed by a single infinite? Would not 12 finite monthly payments be MANUAL renewals based upon your explanation above?

    Sorry for the confusion here.

    If you need them to pay monthly for 12 months and then free.

    So you need to set 12 finite followed by one indefinite. I just tested that and it works fine for me.

    So, in the manual and the video you show several turned on. Why? Do I need both PayPal gateways? And if so, why? Will PayPal Solo allow my members to have recurring billing AND others to single one off payments? Or do I need both PayPal gateways?

    No, you just need PayPal express Gateway and nothing else.

    I hope that helps. Please feel free to ask if you have more questions on the same.

    Cheers
    PC
    Sales &Support

  • Shelly Haffly

    Great. I think this will finish that part of the set up. I assume I will need to change the IPN settings in PayPal to be http://www.yoursite.com/paymentreturn/paypalexpress to finish up.

    For the 12 finite and one indefinite - because it's finite, they will need to manually pay each month?

    In PayPal, I purchased/turned on Enhanced Recurring Payments for an additional $20 a month. Is this required to have those recurring payments?

  • PC

    For the 12 finite and one indefinite - because it's finite, they will need to manually pay each month?

    No that should renew automatically as its created like a subscription.

    The best way is to test this first. You can create a sandbox account https://developer.paypal.com/ here and test it easily by creating 2 finite 1 day rule followed by a infinite level.

    In PayPal, I purchased/turned on Enhanced Recurring Payments for an additional $20 a month. Is this required to have those recurring payments?

    No you don't need that with PayPal express. I have never seen the requirement of that.

    Cheers
    PC
    Sales &Support

  • Shelly Haffly

    I had the sandbox account, but the site is live now. I think it's set up correctly now. I double checked that last subscription - the indefinite one at $0 - and it was set to serial.

    What's disconcerting - and it could be because I turned on the PayPal Enhanced Recurring Payments option, is the user is getting too many notices from PayPal.

    They receive 2 emails in this 12 month thing I've set up:

    An email saying: You set up an automatic payment profile to DIVA…Women Outdoors Worldwide

    An email receipt saying: You sent an automatic payment of $84.00 USD

    ---

    For my other subscriptions - the one off yearly - they receive 3 emails

    An email saying: You set up an automatic payment profile to DIVA…Women Outdoors Worldwide

    An email receipt saying: You sent an automatic payment of $75.00 USD

    An email saying: Profile Canceled

    It's confusing for the end user.

  • PC

    Hey Shelly,

    They receive 2 emails in this 12 month thing I've set up:

    An email saying: You set up an automatic payment profile to DIVA…Women Outdoors Worldwide

    An email receipt saying: You sent an automatic payment of $84.00 USD

    This seems fine to me.

    For my other subscriptions - the one off yearly - they receive 3 emails

    An email saying: You set up an automatic payment profile to DIVA…Women Outdoors Worldwide

    An email receipt saying: You sent an automatic payment of $75.00 USD

    An email saying: Profile Canceled

    I think this might be coming due to the PayPal express gateway as its setting up a recurring profile, adding yearly access and then cancelling the profile automatically so that it doesn't renew..

    Let me check and find more info on this one.

    Cheers
    PC
    Sales &Support

  • PC

    Hiya,

    I am gonna need to have a look at your site to see what is going on there.

    Can you please send me your login details via our secure contact form

    1: Mark the email to my attention

    Attn: PC

    2: Include a link of this thread in the email

    3: Include FTP and WordPress super admin details.

    4: While filling the form, select "I have a different question" from the list.

    Looking forward for a response on this.

    Cheers
    PC

  • PC

    Hi Shelly,

    I just had a look at the subscription plans and gateways and they look fine to me.

    For my other subscriptions - the one off yearly - they receive 3 emails

    An email saying: You set up an automatic payment profile to DIVA…Women Outdoors Worldwide

    An email receipt saying: You sent an automatic payment of $75.00 USD

    An email saying: Profile Canceled

    Just to get a clarification on why this is happening, I have sent a note to our lead developer @Barry and he should be here sooner than later.

    Cheers
    PC
    Sales &Support

  • Barry

    What's disconcerting - and it could be because I turned on the PayPal Enhanced Recurring Payments option, is the user is getting too many notices from PayPal.

    They receive 2 emails in this 12 month thing I've set up:

    An email saying: You set up an automatic payment profile to DIVA…Women Outdoors Worldwide

    An email receipt saying: You sent an automatic payment of $84.00 USD

    It's confusing for the end user.

    I'm not sure what we can do :slight_smile: We can't control what emails PayPal sends out - PayPal is confirming what is happening, so it's telling your users that they have set up a subscription and that the first payment has been made.

    The profile cancelled email, I'm guessing, is because you have a finite subscription set up, which isn't really a subscription. Without the exact phrasing in the email I can't investigate / search further though.

  • Shelly Haffly

    The first email states:

    Hello xxxx,

    You just set up an automatic payment profile to DIVA...Women Outdoors Worldwide. Here's the information:

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    To:smiley:IVA...Women Outdoors Worldwide
    For:Annual - Manual Billing
    Profile ID:xxxx

    About the automatic payment you just set up:

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Amount to be paid each time:$75.00 USD
    Billing cycle:Yearly
    Payments start:Jun 29, 2013
    Payments stop after cycle:1

    The second email states:

    Hello xxxxx,

    You sent an automatic payment to DIVA...Women Outdoors Worldwide. Here are the details:

    (more details)

    The last email states:

    Hello xxxx,

    You successfully canceled the following PayPal Recurring Payment profile. We will no longer bill the buyer. If you did not request this cancellation, contact PayPal Customer Support toll-free at 1-888-221-1161.

  • Shelly Haffly

    She received the emails within minutes apart. I understand the process, but for the user, she signs up on what she thinks is a one off payment. Then gets an email saying she set up a recurring payment, an email saying she made a payment, and then an email saying her profile has been canceled.

    Lots of 'worry' for a user not understanding what's going on. First they freak out that they're going to be charged without their consent. Then they get that last email saying their profile is canceled, and think their membership has been canceled.

  • Barry

    It's paypal sending the emails out - we can't change that or what it sends. The third one definitely seems like it should be going to you, not to the purchaser - the wording shows that, as the customer doesn't have a "Buyer".

    At this point the only thing I can suggest is to contact PayPal support and ask if they should be sending that email out to purchasers? That may reduce the number down to 2.

  • PC

    Hey Shelly,

    It would be awesome if somewhere on the subscription setup we could select the gateway for membership to use for that particular subscription.

    That can be a good feature request where we can select which subscription should be handled by which gateway, I am not sure how feasible would it be as I am not a developer but if it were possible it'd be cool :slight_smile:

    Cheers
    PC
    Sales &Support

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