Manage Product Upgrade Paths

Discussion in 'aMember Pro v.4' started by sorenhoyergroup, Jan 26, 2013.

  1. sorenhoyergroup

    sorenhoyergroup Member

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    Hey,

    I sell a Wordpress Theme.
    A personal license and a developer license. (2 seperate products at signup page).

    1) Right now I've set up a 3rd product - named it "Upgrade from personal license to developer license" and made it available only to those having active "personal licenses".

    2) Then I noticed the "Manage Product Upgrade Paths" at the Manage Products screen. I tried setting it up, but all it did was charge the full price for the product I wished to upgrade to.

    My question is... because 2 isn't working, is 1 safe enough or can people just buy a personal license first, then upgrade to the, now available product, and then refund the first - so they really only end up paying the difference between the two licenses?

    I think the "mange product upgrade paths" would be the optimal way to do this, since they end up purchasing 2 seperate products the other way, which I think is a mess. A real upgrade would be preferred.

    Doesn anyone else have problems with this "manage product upgrade paths"?

    Ps. I'm using the latest verson (4.2.14.3b7)

    Soren
  2. alexander

    alexander Administrator Staff Member

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    Soren,
    I believe this is safe enough because ammeber doesn't handle refunds automatically. So user can't refund payment himself without your attention.
    In regards to number 2, contact us in helpdesk I will check what can be wrong.
  3. sorenhoyergroup

    sorenhoyergroup Member

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    I like working with aMember, however I'd really appreciate it if you'd take a look at this feature again, and make it actually work as it should... ex.

    Product A (personal use) $10
    Product B (commercial use) $70

    Problem: People who bought product A. Learned it and would now like to upgrade to product B - can't.. as it is right now. If you set it up and enter a "surcharge" of say $60, they're just asked to pay the FULL amount ($70).

    I think when you integrate like I do with membership forums and different access groups etc. and for "good practices" it would be better to use this feature, and really upgrade their existing membership when they do - instead of having to set up a 3rd product (the upgrade).

    I hope this can be fixed as soon as possible, so I don't have to go back and change 100's of users permissions and purchases.

    Besides that - thanks for an awesome product!
  4. thehpmc

    thehpmc Member

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    Would it not be feasible to create a new product - Product C - for $60 and only make it available to those currently having subscribed to Product A?

    This way there would be a clear upgrade path available.
  5. alex

    alex aMember Pro Customer Staff Member

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    How do you tests it? Currently product upgrades are only used when customer clicks "Change Subscription" link in member area. I understand it is also good idea to use them automatically for new purchases, but unfortunately there are many technical problems to implement it.

    Thank you!
  6. orish

    orish aMember Pro Customer

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    Hi Soren,

    I'm not an expert in amember, but I'll try to add my 5 cents.

    One idea you might consider is to create coupons that you provide to Product A customers - "commercialupgrade" (say), which will be equal to $10. So send them an email with the Product A purchase confirmation, telling them they can upgrade at any time for only $60 by using the coupon code "commercialupgrade".

    The risk is that they might send the coupon code to someone else, but what the hell - a sale is a sale, even if you have to discount it.

    The other way (which is arguably a bit more cumbersome) is to create another product "Commercial Upgrade", which you sell for $60 - and is only available to people who have already signed up for Personal Use.

    You can do this in the Edit Product section, under Product Availability: "To order this product user must have an..." (select ACTIVE subscription to "Product A").
  7. sorenhoyergroup

    sorenhoyergroup Member

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    I setup the manage product upgrade paths. Loggedin as a paid user who had bought product A... Bought product B, but was charged the whole amount, and not just the difference between A and B.

    Where can a customer click "Change Subscription"? This options isn't there - at least for non-recurring payments and mine is one time payments. I don't have the "Change Subscription" link in my members area when I'm logged in as a paid user.

    If you can't implement this, can you perhaps answer me this Alex:

    Right now I've made Product A ($10), Product B (the better version, $70) and because the upgrade isn't working, I've created a Product C ($priceB-$priceA - an upgrade "product"). I'm worried that people buy product A first, get access to Purchasing the Product C upgrade that way, and then after purchasing product C, they'll go ahead and cancel Product A.

    If they cancel the PARENT of the product that was just made available to them after they bought that, would the CHILD (product C) then automatically be deleted as well? If no, this would be super easy for you to implement I think, and I can't find a good reason to why not? :) Of course it's not easy, but considering the complexity of the code you've already written.
  8. alex

    alex aMember Pro Customer Staff Member

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    Yes, it is expected behaviour, as I said upgrade system does not affect direct orders from signup form. TO see it in action, go to Member Area -> Payment History.

    If you have created upgrade path from product A to product B, then near active subscriptions to product A you will see link "upgrade". If you click it, it will show upgrade terms. Please try it.

    I believe it is more clear than any Product C or coupon solutions, and it works even for recurring subscriptions...
  9. sorenhoyergroup

    sorenhoyergroup Member

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    I agree with you Alex.

    Then I guess I can't see the "Change Subscription" because the testuser I'm using is just one I created in aMember without adding a payment. I just hope it is there, for users who paid. ;-) If it is, I agree, this is the best solution.

    Thanks!
  10. alex

    alex aMember Pro Customer Staff Member

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    It is possible to test (and it needs to be tested, as that is new feature).

    Add a new invoice for the test user (use real payment system), and add a payment manually. Then you must be able to see the link.
  11. sorenhoyergroup

    sorenhoyergroup Member

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    Alex I have a huge problem. I'm going to launch my product today, and I just asked a friend to buy and asked them about the "change subscription" under "payment history". Nothing is there. Here's a screen shot. This could cost me a lot of dollars i think, so I hope you'll look into this as soon as possible.

    Attached Files:

  12. alexander

    alexander Administrator Staff Member

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    Please contact us in helpdesk and provide access info, I will check what can be wrong.
  13. hilary

    hilary aMember Pro Customer

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    Thanks for this thread - it's helpful to know where to look for the upgrade link!

    So far I have got the upgrade link to appear next to a free product, and found a bug :rolleyes: - when I create an upgrade path from free to paid, and click the upgrade link, I get this error message:
    Which is not a real problem for me (I don't actually want an upgrade option from free to paid), but might be for someone else.

    Hm. I've followed instructions to create an invoice with Paypal and add a payment, and now my user has an 'upgrade' link from one paid product to another. The link shows up and displays the upgrade I'd expect. But when I click the 'upgrade' button...
    I think I will keep my large, clunky set of 'upgrade' products from version 3 for now. I have a support ticket in asking for a way to make them visible in the shopping cart only to people who can buy them (ie who own the 'upgrade from' product).

    I like the coupons suggestion - thanks for that.
  14. philip_b

    philip_b New Member

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    Hi,

    I have a similar problem. I have 3 subscription plans: Silver (USD 10/month), Gold (USD 15/month) and Platinum (USD 30/month). The users have to pay for 12 months in advance.

    When a user orders the silver subscription, let's say today july 16th, 2013, they pay 120 USD (12 x 10 USD).
    If somewhere in October, f.e. 16/10/2013, the user wants to upgrade to Gold, he should pay the extra fee of 5 USD for the period 16/10/2013 till 15/07/2014, or 9 months x 5 USD (15-10) = 45 USD.
    When he renews the subscription for another year, the user will pay de Gold fee: 15 USD x 12 = 180 USD...

    Anyone any idea how to implement this? PS: I do not want monthly payments.. It should realy be yearly...
    I am using V4.2.13

    Phil
  15. ak48avk

    ak48avk Angela Kane

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    I'm trying out the upgrade path. It works fine as far as I can see.

    The box that comes up with the upgrade info for the customer (from Payment History) doesn't seem to show the reduction for upgrade. Am I doing something wrong? The Customer won't want to continue to PayPal if she thinks there is no reduction.
  16. redorbit

    redorbit aMember Pro Customer

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    I'm new to aMember, hi.

    I found away around this so I'm posting so it can help someone else viewing this thread.

    Instead of adding the difference between Product A and Product B as a positive surcharge, you need to add it as negative. That way, the system takes away what the customer has already paid or what you want to count as paid. Members will need to go to payment history and click Upgrade on the product they want to upgrade to get the discount.

    [​IMG]
  17. ak48avk

    ak48avk Angela Kane

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    Thank you. That's very helpful.
  18. itsrich

    itsrich Member

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    Hello,

    How do the upgrades work exactly?

    Lets say I have 1 month silver subscription. Two weeks in, I decide to upgrade to 1 month gold subscription.

    The upgrade costs a flat fee of £5. Does this extend the subscription for a further month or does it just upgrade the remain days left from the silver subscription?

    Thanks
  19. alexander

    alexander Administrator Staff Member

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    First period of new subscription will not be changed.
    So gold subscription will be added with 1 month period. Price of new subscription depends on upgrade type.
    If you are using flat fee, price will be set to "surcharge amount". If you are using default price calculation, aMember will take unused amount from previous subscription and apply it as a discount to new one.
    For example if subscription price was $10 and user wants to upgrade in the middle of subscription period, aMember will apply unused $5 to first price of new subscription.
  20. powerkeys

    powerkeys Member

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    This thread solved my issue. Didn't realize that a payment needed to be recorded into the system to test the upgrade paths. Now I see how this works.

    Many thanks!

    If this could be added to the documentation, that would also help too.

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