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Updating canceled Paypal customer

• Edit

Matti Varjokallio

04 Jul, 2011 07:34 PM

Hi,

If I try to update a canceled Paypal account I will get the following errors depending on the plan settings
401 () Not Authorized - Plan change on a canceled subscription is not allowed. Reactivate first.
401 () Not Authorized - Plan change prorate on a canceled subscription is not allowed. Reactivate first.

My question is whether it is really necessary to do the reactivation and update in separate steps?

I read this thread:
http://support.cheddargetter.com/discussions/problems/443-plan-chan...
and if I understood correctly, you did a fix for credit card customers to get this done in one step?

It would be simpler for customers to click only once instead of separate "reactivation" and "update" steps. Or programming it in two steps in our end becomes imo quite messy (need to store intermediate POST data etc). Or other way around, why is the plan data even stored for canceled accounts? Can it be deleted? In that case the reactivation+update would be quite similar to creating a new customer (which happens in one step).

BR,
Matti

1. Support Staff 1 Posted by Marc Guyer on 05 Jul, 2011 03:40 PM

   

   Hi Matti -- Yes, we did workaround this issue for CC but not yet for PayPal. I agree, it would be ideal to not have to do this in two steps. However, the way PayPal works makes this difficult. Often the reason why a customer's account is canceled is because they failed to pay an invoice and the invoice remains outstanding. Settling the outstanding invoice after the preapproval acceptance workflow makes it logistically difficult compared to the CC method.

   Long story short, yes, we want to do this and it's on our todo list.

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2. 2 Posted by Frank Koehl on 14 Jul, 2011 09:29 PM

   

   It would be simpler for customers to click only once instead of separate "reactivation" and "update" steps. Or programming it in two steps in our end becomes imo quite messy (need to store intermediate POST data etc).

   I'm actually not sure even this is possible. In my testing, I can make a payment on an existing, non-canceled account by passing the following parameters:

   [subscription]planCode
   [subscription]method
   [subscription]returnUrl
   [subscription]cancelUrl
   

   If I make an edit-subscription API call, passing this dataset to a canceled account, I get the "Plan change on a canceled subscription is not allowed." error. However, if I pass the same data and simply change the planCode to something other than the "current" plan, the account updates as you would expect.

   In short, I don't see how you can "reactivate;" you actually need to select a whole new plan, and then switch back. Ick.

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3. 3 Posted by Matti Varjokall... on 15 Jul, 2011 04:39 PM

   

   Hi Frank,

   As far as I understand, "Reactivation" with Paypal means doing update on a canceled account without any plan code just with these:

   [subscription]method [subscription]returnUrl [subscription]cancelUrl

   and then you will need another call with the plan code to get the plan you wish.

   -Matti

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4. 4 Posted by Frank Koehl on 16 Jul, 2011 12:55 AM

   

   As far as I understand, "Reactivation" with Paypal means doing update on a canceled account without any plan code just with these:

   [subscription]method [subscription]returnUrl [subscription]cancelUrl

   I just tested this and can confirm that it does work as you described. That's a relief, since I can steer a user to into a new preapproval without going through a plan selection.

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5. 5 Posted by Matti Varjokall... on 18 Jul, 2011 03:27 PM

   

   Hi,

   One more question about this reactivation and update. If the user reactivates his account and then changes plan lets say in short time like 5 minutes: Will he get billed for the original plan for that time? Not probably a problem, just interested how it will show to the user.

   -Matti

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6. Support Staff 6 Posted by Marc Guyer on 18 Jul, 2011 05:03 PM

   

   That depends a bit on your configuration. If you prorate, the customer could be charged for a portion of a billing period. If they have an "outstanding" invoice, then the invoice will be settled upon reactivation.

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7. 7 Posted by Miguel Angel on 04 Aug, 2011 04:38 PM

   

   Hello.

   I am not able to reactivate a canceled customer.

   In this example my customer has a canceled subscription and I want to upgrade it to the the BUSINESS-MONTHLY plan.

   So, as I read in this thread, first I update the customer.

   CG.new.client.edit_subscription(:code => "e8bac7438c", :subscription => {:method => 'paypal', :returnUrl => "#{url}/accepted", :cancelUrl => "#{url}/canceled"})
   

   And then I try to updata the plan code

   CG.new.client.edit_customer({:code => "e8bac7438c"}, :subscription => {:planCode => 'BUSINESS-MONTHLY'})
   

   Getting the error. "Plan change prorate on a canceled subscription is not allowed. Reactivate first."

   What am i doing wrong?. I am not able to reactivate the canceled customer.

   Thank you in advance.

   Best.

   Miguel

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8. Support Staff 8 Posted by Marc Guyer on 04 Aug, 2011 08:04 PM

   

   HI Miguel -- When the payment method is paypal, you must redirect the customer through the paypal workflow in order to complete the reactivation. More on that here: http://support.cheddargetter.com/kb/api-8/using-paypal-with-the-api...

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9. 9 Posted by Miguel Angel on 04 Aug, 2011 09:06 PM

   

   Thank you Marc.

   Definitely I was missing something :)

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10. Marc Guyer closed this discussion on 05 Aug, 2011 01:37 PM.