MMOBugs Subscription Double Payments

[Fry]

Hey Guys,

In December we enabled re-occurring subscriptions at MMOBugs for the shorter subscription lengths (1 month, and 3 months). I have always been totally against them, but it had came to a point where we were coming up short revenue wise to pay our MQ2 developers for there services to the community so I was willing to give it a shot. I was actually pleased with the results as it solved the revenue problem and I haven't had to worry about how we were going to pay developers since, but after further looking into the data I was very shocked.

I have had about four people contact me since December about double payments which I have cancelled and refunded for them, but today I finally decided something must be up, so I exported all re-occurring subscription data to check into it. What I found was around 25 people that have two active subscriptions, hence being charged twice and getting double the subscription length granted. The paypal system does not check if you already have a re-occurring payment active, so when people get the warning there MMOBugs account is about to expire, they go and send another payment, not knowing that there is already a re-occurring payment about to be sent.

I just went through everyone with double subscriptions and cancelled them all. If you wish to ever cancel your re-occurring subscription, do the following steps

To cancel your subscription or recurring payment:

1) Log in to your PayPal account.
2) Click the 'Settings' icon at the top of the page.
3) Under 'Payment settings', click Pre-approved payments.
4) Use the filter to select the seller whose agreement you want to cancel and click Cancel.
5) Click Cancel Profile to confirm your request.

If you have or have been double charged and want a refund, or you can't figure out how to cancel your subscription, please shoot me a private message so I can sort it for you.

I am really sorry for those that have been affected by this, I will be keeping a closer eye on those with double active (added to my end of month checklist) and will see if I can find out a solution to stop this from happening

Thanks.

 

[JimJohnson]

Any chance you can find an alternate to Paypal? It has taken a shit in the last 10 years. Bitcoin/CC payments lot of other ways to receive payment now vs even 5 years ago.

 

[Kodilynn]

Google wallet is a thing apparently. Wonder if that's a viable substitute.

 

[JimJohnson]

Google wallet is a thing apparently. Wonder if that's a viable substitute.

I was thinking a lot of people were just going back to CC processors. Since you save no money with paypal.

I know RevTT dropped paypal awhile back for just straight CC/Bitcoin.

 

[imgregrice]

I am using square cash for lots of things now. C
an make a payment directly from bank account with no fee

 

[Blitzkrieg]

More options the better!

 

[Zippzipp]

Stripe is awesome.

 

[Kodilynn]

Stripe is awesome.

But it loses its flavor so quickly. Oh you weren't talking about gum

 

[anothergeneric]

You should start accepting Daybreak Cash!

/s

Really though, it's good to hear this sort of stuff and hopefully the new TLP server brings even more success for you guys.

 

[devestator]

Paypal may have gone downhill a lot, but imo they are really still the easiest to set up and use for receiving payments. Plus as a payment receiver on paypal it is really convenient to simply have a paypal debit card that gives me direct instant access to the money in my paypal account. Google Wallet has a card for this now as well, but they still aren't as easy to integrate into a website as Paypal is as far as I've seen.

Other than that, all the other payment solutions have delays on actually getting to the money, and they all charge about the same fees overall.

Square is great for face to face transactions.. but I don't think they have a website integration system do they?

Oh and as for direct CC processing... meh. I still feel like they take to much of a cut (many of them take more than paypal), and it also leaves you with a lot bigger security concerns since you'll be taking payment details directly on your website.

As for bitcoin... eh, I don't see it as a viable primary payment system. With no solid value, and exchanges for it being even slower than the transfers for other CC systems, it's just not worth the hassle IMO.

 

[Fry]

I'd love to use another payment processor if our version of vbulletin wasn't so limited for that sort of stuff.

We'd really need to switch to amember to handle subscription processing, or update our forum systems to something more cutting edge, like XenForo.

aMember really would be a band-aid fix to the problem, upgrading to XenForo looks inevitable. Vbulletin has become too dated.

I'm a huge fan of Stripe and love what they are doing, I've also had some success with google wallet.

 

[William12]

XenForo is WAYYYY better VBB sucks now.

 

[imgregrice]

Paypal may have gone downhill a lot, but imo they are really still the easiest to set up and use for receiving payments. Plus as a payment receiver on paypal it is really convenient to simply have a paypal debit card that gives me direct instant access to the money in my paypal account. Google Wallet has a card for this now as well, but they still aren't as easy to integrate into a website as Paypal is as far as I've seen.

Other than that, all the other payment solutions have delays on actually getting to the money, and they all charge about the same fees overall.

Square is great for face to face transactions.. but I don't think they have a website integration system do they?

Oh and as for direct CC processing... meh. I still feel like they take to much of a cut (many of them take more than paypal), and it also leaves you with a lot bigger security concerns since you'll be taking payment details directly on your website.

As for bitcoin... eh, I don't see it as a viable primary payment system. With no solid value, and exchanges for it being even slower than the transfers for other CC systems, it's just not worth the hassle IMO.

Dev you can send money via square just like paypal. I can txt you cash through them with no fees. they even give you $1 to sign up!

 

[Morx]

I didn't realize ongoing subs were allowed! Setting mine up now, as I'm about to expire!

 

[Fry]

I've removed recurring subscription from 3 month option, it's now just on the one month option only. We'll see how that goes. I think I'm going to set up a test forum on XenForo too, and see how well everything ports over, then see how hard it will be to design a skin for it.

 

[zdozbou]

Have you considered SMF? Admittingly, I don't know too much about forum software, but it seems to be a really popular (and free) option.

 

[aspire2008]

Paypal may have gone downhill a lot, but imo they are really still the easiest to set up and use for receiving payments. Plus as a payment receiver on paypal it is really convenient to simply have a paypal debit card that gives me direct instant access to the money in my paypal account. Google Wallet has a card for this now as well, but they still aren't as easy to integrate into a website as Paypal is as far as I've seen.

Other than that, all the other payment solutions have delays on actually getting to the money, and they all charge about the same fees overall.

Square is great for face to face transactions.. but I don't think they have a website integration system do they?

Oh and as for direct CC processing... meh. I still feel like they take to much of a cut (many of them take more than paypal), and it also leaves you with a lot bigger security concerns since you'll be taking payment details directly on your website.

As for bitcoin... eh, I don't see it as a viable primary payment system. With no solid value, and exchanges for it being even slower than the transfers for other CC systems, it's just not worth the hassle IMO.

Dev you can send money via square just like paypal. I can txt you cash through them with no fees. they even give you $1 to sign up!

When I signed up for paypal, they were giving out $10 for signing up and $10 dollars every time you got referred by someone when they joined.

You would think after 15 years of inflation any type of company like this would give out more than $1 dollar by now. I think Skrill might have given me $5 bucks for signing up but can't recall.

 

[wired420]

I've removed recurring subscription from 3 month option, it's now just on the one month option only. We'll see how that goes. I think I'm going to set up a test forum on XenForo too, and see how well everything ports over, then see how hard it will be to design a skin for it.

XenForo is alright. I kind of dislike all forum options available now. vBulletin is selling on name alone though. It's definitely time to get away and never expect another update except a version number change.

Have you considered SMF? Admittingly, I don't know too much about forum software, but it seems to be a really popular (and free) option.

Bug ridden. I can't keep one from getting hacked with a high user base (I'm a web host), CONSTANTLY dealing with customers with SMF issues with spam and hackings. Stay away from it.

Paypal may have gone downhill a lot, but imo they are really still the easiest to set up and use for receiving payments. Plus as a payment receiver on paypal it is really convenient to simply have a paypal debit card that gives me direct instant access to the money in my paypal account. Google Wallet has a card for this now as well, but they still aren't as easy to integrate into a website as Paypal is as far as I've seen.

Other than that, all the other payment solutions have delays on actually getting to the money, and they all charge about the same fees overall.

Square is great for face to face transactions.. but I don't think they have a website integration system do they?

Oh and as for direct CC processing... meh. I still feel like they take to much of a cut (many of them take more than paypal), and it also leaves you with a lot bigger security concerns since you'll be taking payment details directly on your website.

As for bitcoin... eh, I don't see it as a viable primary payment system. With no solid value, and exchanges for it being even slower than the transfers for other CC systems, it's just not worth the hassle IMO.

Dev you can send money via square just like paypal. I can txt you cash through them with no fees. they even give you $1 to sign up!

Square DOES charge. They just charge the seller a percentage of the sale so they know what to jack your price up by up front. Nothing's free.

 

[imgregrice]

I've removed recurring subscription from 3 month option, it's now just on the one month option only. We'll see how that goes. I think I'm going to set up a test forum on XenForo too, and see how well everything ports over, then see how hard it will be to design a skin for it.

XenForo is alright. I kind of dislike all forum options available now. vBulletin is selling on name alone though. It's definitely time to get away and never expect another update except a version number change.

Have you considered SMF? Admittingly, I don't know too much about forum software, but it seems to be a really popular (and free) option.

Bug ridden. I can't keep one from getting hacked with a high user base (I'm a web host), CONSTANTLY dealing with customers with SMF issues with spam and hackings. Stay away from it.

Paypal may have gone downhill a lot, but imo they are really still the easiest to set up and use for receiving payments. Plus as a payment receiver on paypal it is really convenient to simply have a paypal debit card that gives me direct instant access to the money in my paypal account. Google Wallet has a card for this now as well, but they still aren't as easy to integrate into a website as Paypal is as far as I've seen.

Other than that, all the other payment solutions have delays on actually getting to the money, and they all charge about the same fees overall.

Square is great for face to face transactions.. but I don't think they have a website integration system do they?

Oh and as for direct CC processing... meh. I still feel like they take to much of a cut (many of them take more than paypal), and it also leaves you with a lot bigger security concerns since you'll be taking payment details directly on your website.

As for bitcoin... eh, I don't see it as a viable primary payment system. With no solid value, and exchanges for it being even slower than the transfers for other CC systems, it's just not worth the hassle IMO.

Dev you can send money via square just like paypal. I can txt you cash through them with no fees. they even give you $1 to sign up!

Square DOES charge. They just charge the seller a percentage of the sale so they know what to jack your price up by up front. Nothing's free.

Perhaps for business transactions yes. But I send money to "friends" buying stuff from them all the time with zero fee.

 

[wired420]

Yeah. I used it for my local business for a bit. It was a bit more expensive than paypal, but you do get your money the next day most of the time.