Improve PayPal integration

Discussion in 'Payment Systems' started by igpman, Dec 2, 2014.

  1. igpman

    igpman Member

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2010
    Messages:
    72
    I have had to hire a helpdesk team to handle auto-renewing subscription cancellations and refunds, because the workload involved in issuing refunds with aMember / PayPal is too high to maintain alone. It can be very time-consuming, having to log in to PayPal, search for a transaction, cancel it in PayPal, come back to aMember and inform the customer etc. For every single ticket we get, this becomes too much work. This workload is created by aMember's pretty poor PayPal integration.

    I also think it's silly when we see threads like this. We shouldn't have to modify our source code because we use PayPal. The developers should modify aMember to not display obsolete links to customers and admins. That seems fairly obvious to me, although I don't know if you intend to change this in future versions. That is why I have created this thread.

    My first question is can or will aMember ever be able to cancel subscriptions or refund via PayPal?

    My second question is if you can make it possible to cancel PayPal contracts in aMember, can you also make it possible to extend them? E.g. if someone has a 12 month contract and buys another one, can aMember automatically cancel the first one and extend it with the second one?

    These two limitations of the software are creating a heavy burden on our team, because we provide an auto-recurring subscription service. Every time we run sales on subscriptions, we have to make it for new users only, because aMember makes it impossible to offer it to our existing customers as well, since it can't cancel or extend their auto-renewing contracts. Maybe we've missed some functionality, so what solutions would you suggest for this? We want to continue offering auto-renewing contracts to our customers and be able to offer them deals to extend or renew their subscription for a discount at any time.
    Last edited: Dec 2, 2014
  2. igpman

    igpman Member

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2010
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    Any word on this? It's very important to us.

    Are there better payment method to use than PayPal perhaps? What does aMember.com use for example? I would guess whatever you guys are using is the best-supported system.

    I would still like my original questions answered too, because we would like to continue offering PayPal to our customers.
  3. robw

    robw CGI-Central Partner

    Joined:
    Dec 18, 2007
    Messages:
    287
    I agree that PayPal standard is a pain, but I'm not sure much can be done about it due to the PayPal API being used. I think (though haven't used it) that the PayPal Pro integration (via the CC module) will give you the flexibility you are after, however you need a PayPal Pro subscription to use this API.

    However, from what you say, it sounds like the $20 or so monthly fee is small beans compared to the scale of your operation here.

    Cheers
    Rob
  4. igpman

    igpman Member

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    Mar 17, 2010
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    Thanks for the lead Rob. Can anyone at aMember confirm if this is true or not?

    If it is, then it does solve all our problems, and for £20 a month that's fine.

    In the meantime, I will look in to integrating PayPal Pro.
  5. igpman

    igpman Member

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2010
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    I tried upgrading to PayPal Pro but my application was declined! Contacted PayPal days ago to find out why, no response.

    Speaking of no response... any word from aMember on all the questions?

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