#igor_best-practices

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

versed orchidBOT
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worldly forge
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Please note that customers create subscription via payment link. So I need a solution that works for existing subscription. Or solution where I can attach a date of first scheduled call into subscription payment link.

static ginkgo
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this would result in the customer being charged for both the period between the subscription purchase and the first call
I'm not sure I follow since you mentioned you want customers to be charged twice?

worldly forge
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That's exactly what I am trying to avoid - I want customer to be charged only for period from first scheduled call and not for time between moment of subscription purchase and first scheduled call

static ginkgo
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Can you give me an example? Say I purchase a subscription on July 1. Do you want to charge me on July 1 or only charge me until after we have our first scheduled call?

worldly forge
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Right, here is an example. You purchase on July 1 and schedule a call with me on July 12. I want you to pay right away for 30 days, but I want the next charge to happen on August 12, and not August 1.

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I also want to charge you for period from July 1 until August 12 only my price for 30 days, and not 42 days.

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Because I am literally not providing you any service for period from moment of purchase (July 1) and first call (July 12).

static ginkgo
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Wait, so why charge me on July 1 and not until July 12?

worldly forge
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For many reasons - one of them, I want to make sure that payment goes through before I allocate time in calendar and schedule a call with you. If I charge you on July 12 and payment fails, I lost a slot in my calendar

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Or customer may change their mind in period between July 1 and July 12 and will not show up on call at all without paying anything.

static ginkgo
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Interesting, okay. So perhaps you charge them a one-time fee for booking time with you instead, save their payment details, and only create the subscription after you have a call using those saved payment details

worldly forge
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That would unnecessarily complicate my pricing model. I'd prefer to solve it technically if there is a possibility to do so

static ginkgo
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Let's go back to my example. If I purchase a subscription on July 1, are you charging me for July 1 - August 1 immediately?

worldly forge
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yes

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but I want the next charge to happen on August 12, and not August 1.

static ginkgo
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I think what you likely want to do is have a first phase that ends on July 12 (the day of the scheduled call), then start a second phase with billing_cycle_anchor: 'phase_start'

worldly forge
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Yep, but in this case, will the customer be charged for period between July 1 and July 12?

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Is there a way to avoid it?

static ginkgo
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I thought you wanted customers to be charged between when they signed up and when the scheduled call takes place

worldly forge
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Sorry if I wasn't clear. Here is example again:
You purchase on July 1 and schedule a call with me on July 12. I want you to pay right away my price for 30 days, but I want the next charge to happen on August 12, and not August 1.
I also want to charge you for period from July 1 until August 12 only my price for 30 days, and not 42 days, because I am literally not providing you any service for period from moment of purchase (July 1) and first call (July 12).

static ginkgo
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So to be clear, that means the customer is essentially getting your services for free between August 1 - August 12, correct?

worldly forge
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no

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Oh, sorry, yes! You can put it this way as well 👍

static ginkgo
worldly forge
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Is it possible to do it if I don't creaate subscriptions via API but send to customer the subscription payment link?

static ginkgo
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Not exactly. You could create a PaymentLink for a single price (one that corresponds to the price of a one-month subscription), then integrate with the Subscriptions API to create an off_session Subscription using the PaymentMethod they saved

worldly forge
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Oh, but that's not very transparent to the customer - the customer will see at the stripe page that it's a one time payment, but in fact he is signing up for subscription :/

versed orchidBOT
brittle gazelle
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Hi there 👋 taking over, as my colleague needs to step away

If you're using Payment Links for this use-case you'll likely run into issues (including the one you just mentioned). Payment Links aren't really intended to be used in place of a first Subscription payment.

worldly forge
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Hi hi! Maybe you could advise me on my problem? I'll summarize:
I offer a monthly subscription service where customers are charged immediately upon purchase. However, I begin providing services only from the date of our first scheduled call. How can I adjust the billing so that the second charge occurs 30 days from the first call date instead of 30 days from the subscription start date?
Here is an example. You purchase on July 1 and schedule a call with me on July 12. I want you to pay right away for 30 days, but I want the next charge to happen on August 12, and not August 1.
I also want to charge you for period from July 1 until August 12 only my price for 30 days, and not for 42 days, because I am literally not providing you any service for period from moment of purchase (July 1) and first call (July 12).
Customer pays via subscription payment link.

brittle gazelle
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I think the best thing to do here would be to just create a payment that's separate from the Subscription and make sure the customer knows that they're paying for a consultation, with the Subscription to follow

worldly forge
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That complicates the pricing model to the customer :/

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I'd rather solve it technically instead of making it complicated to the customer with two prices

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*and two payments

brittle gazelle
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Is the payment amount the same for the consultation and the subscription?

worldly forge
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There is no special consultation. Subscription just allows you to have one call per week with me during its validity.

brittle gazelle
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Ah, I see. Here's an idea. Why not created a Subscription Schedule with phases to represent each leg of the different billing cycles?

phase[0] would be from July 1 to July 12, and they would make the first payment
phase[1] would be from July 12 to August 12 and it would have a zero-dollar Price (or a "free" trial)
phase[2] would be for August 12 to forever and would represent the normal billing cycle for payment due on the 12th of each month

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I still think it would be easier to have a separate payment for the first payment, but if you are certain you want the first payment to be linked to the Subscription, then this is really the only way I can think of to do that.

worldly forge
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I see, thanks! And is it possible to do it with subscription payment links? Should I call API to make these phase modification after payment (subscription creation)?

brittle gazelle
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And is it possible to do it with subscription payment links?
No, this is a much more complex custom integration. A very high-code solution that needs customizability that Payment LInks don't have

worldly forge
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Maybe there is a solution to add trial dates after subscription ends? It's an alternative view on that.

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Or another solution I thought of in given example, is giving customer 42 trial days after he makes a payment on July 1. In this case customer will be charged on August 12 for new month, right?

brittle gazelle
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With trials there is no payment at the beginning. You just choose whether or not to collect their payment method details. The payment is created when the trial is over

worldly forge
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But if customer literally already paid me by creating subscription, on July 1, and one hour after payment, I give him 42 days trial until August 12, what does it do? Will customer be refunded?

brittle gazelle
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The only way to configure this with trials would be to add a one-off invoice item at the time of Subscription creation: https://docs.stripe.com/billing/subscriptions/trials#combine-trial-add-invoice-items

So you could create the trialing subscription with a one-off invoice item (to represent the first consultation payment) on July 1, ensuring that the trial ends on August 12. I believe that will have the desired effect, based on what you've told me you want, but you really will want to create some test Subscription with some Test Clocks to verify that the behavior is what you're expecting: https://docs.stripe.com/billing/testing/test-clocks

worldly forge
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Thanks! And the last question - if I pause payment collection, and unpause it on August 12, will it reset payment schedule to 12th of each month? As if starting new monthly subscription on the day of unpausing, or?

brittle gazelle
worldly forge
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Ok, thanks! I'll look into these options in greater detail.

brittle gazelle
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Sounds good! Best of luck