Disabling recurring members on first non-payment

Hi guys - I have been running amember 3.1.6PRO since 2009 and except for the 2012-12-31 disaster it's been working well. However, there is one aspect of the PayPal recurring membership renewal process I would like to change as some members are attempting to game the system. I do offer monthly subscriptions and some people sign up for recurring but then let the next payment fail. As PP attempts to bill them two more times five days apart they effectively will gain ten more free days out of their membership until PP gives up and disables it. After that they then simply sign up for a new recurring membership and then play that game again.

Sometimes they also use a different name and email address in their membership profile and I am unable to find them and disable them manually. But in general disabling them manually on the first payment failure has been my only resort. But it's getting really tiresome and there must be a way to disable the membership on the first payment failure.

Any input/suggestions/help would be appreciated.

I think the newer version of amember fixed this v3.2.x and up.

David

Hi David - would you care to elaborate? If I upgrade to the newest version of 3.2.x - what would be the expected behavior?

So they will get disabled immediately on the first failure? Right now the way it works in 3.1.6PRO is that it stays enabled for two more PP charge attempts. Only if the third and final charge attempt fails then it'll disable the membership.

Well, I am now running v3 and I do not see the expected behavior. I had several recurring payments fail today and when I check the member's profile I can clearly see that they are still active. Once again the problem with that is that some members abuse this 'privilege', in particular if they intend to discontinue and perhaps sign up again in the future.

So in a nutshell I want to disable members whose recurring payments are failing immediately - I do not want to wait for PayPal to completely disable the recurring membership. This is one of the main reasons why I bothered to upgrade in the first place and I was told that this was possible (see above). Where and how do I do that?

I did send you an email but received an ambiguous response. At least judging by that response I am unsure if disabling members with failed recurring payments is possible. Can I please get a clear answer?

I sent you guys an explicit example. PLUS I have been very clear about this issue:

Anyway, I think you continue to misunderstand my request. Let's try this one more time - and no, I won't give up until I receive a clear response:

• I have a recurring sub who gets rebilled every 18th of the month.
• The payment fails on the 18th - PP sends me a message about it but the subscriber continues to have access.
• The payment fails again on the 23rd (five days later per PP's schedule) and I receive another message. Still, PP does not deactivate the member's subscription.
• On the 28th the payment fails once more and only now PP disables the member.

Now as you can see the member had 10 more days of access which is unacceptable. I WANT MEMBERS TO LOSE ACCESS ON THE FIRST FAILED PAYMENT. This is not what's happening in v4 right now - at least on my end. Let me give you an example from a member who failed to pay today:


Profile ID: I-T2Y8F7J38U8D
For: ES Gold (recurring)
Invoice Number: 9610-MNK
Date Due: Mar 18, 2013
Next Payment Date: Mar 23, 2013

Buyer Contact Information

Profile Status: Active
Buyer Name: Christopher XXXX
Buyer Email: xxxx@gmail.com


However, Christopher still has access
In v3 I was able to manually deactivate someone who didn't pay. Now I have to continue give them access? I was VERY clear about this in my original question and I would have not upgraded had I known that v4 ties my hands. Is there ANYTHING I can do to prevent this?
Mole