Recurring Subscriptions

How do you handle them?

[pageoneresults]

We're having a little bit of difficulty with a Recurring Subscription model. This is a one (01) year subscription billed up front (one payment). It is set to renew automatically every 12 months. These are subscriptions using the PayPal process.

What we are finding is a large percentage of subscribers are cancelling their subscription right after signing up. I'm sure this is to avoid the recurring payment. They can cancel their subscription at any time and the existing subscription will remain in force unless it is refunded.

We're also getting a few who are not happy that their CC has been automatically charged for the yearly subscription fees.

So, the client has decided to turn the process into a one time "Buy Now" payment and then their internal staff will handle the renewals by phone or email when the time comes. We set up the PayPal process to minimize their internal bookkeeping steps and now we are reverting back to the old system. The yearly subscription model didn't work out that well.

Anyone else care to share their experiences in this area? Do you have a method of handling subscriptions that minimizes the fallout as described above?

[woop01]

We use a the recurring subscriptions with Paypal just like you are speaking of but we have 1, 3, 6, and 12 month subscriptions. The problems you mentioned seem to be a fact of life.

We've tried anything we can to make it clear the subscriptions automatically renew and there's always some least common denominator type that thinks we are trying to defraud them. I just refund their money since it's an online service.