On our web site we are hoping to have 5 subscription levels, ranging in price from $5 to $20 per month, and users should be able to upgrade (or downgrade) their subscriptions whenever they like.
However, when an existing subscriber tries to upgrade their subscription, they get the following error from PayPal:
"Amount can only be increased by 20%"
I believe this is because recurring payments with Express Checkout has the following limitation:
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You can only increase the profile amount by 20% in each 180-day interval after the profile is created.
Am I stuck with trying to put up with this limitation? Do I just need to have users cancel their old account and then sign up for a new one, or is there an alternative approach or configuration available in the software that would assist in fixing this?
Thanks.
Icefield,
Yes, this is a limitation with PayPal, and nothing I do in the code can get around that. Your users will have to cancel their old membership first and then buy the other Membership Plan. You can turn off the modify membership options so that users won't be able to upgrade, and provide instructions for them to just cancel their old membership if they want to upgrade.
Another option is to make the second (higher membership) only available to be purchased by users with the role from the first membership, then set the price of the second membership to $15/month instead of $20. This means that users will first have to purchase the $5/month membership, and then if they want the higher membership, they can purchase it in addition to the $5/month one at $15/month.
In the upcoming Membership Suite 6, the whole upgrade membership functionality is getting a remake, because every payment gateway has different rules and ability when it comes to changing recurring payments. So maybe it would be better to just wait until it comes out and see what you can do with the newer version.
Sincerely,
Leighton Whiting