Written by Katerina

Expert(10140)

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Hello,

'Bind To Plan ID' is used if you want a coupon to be applied to certain subscription plans. For example, if you have 3 subscription plans with ID=1, ID=2 and ID=3 and in the Coupon settings->'Bind To Plan ID' you enter, say, 1, then the coupon can be used while purchasing a subscription with ID=1, the coupon will not work for other subscriptions.

As for your request, I need to know what payment gateway you're using. If you're using PayPal and you want the payments to be recurring, you can use 'Initial price' and 'Initial period' fields of PayPal plugin to set up a free subscription. You set 3 months as initial period and 0 as initial price. In the subscription plan's settings you set the price you want to be charged after 3 months have passed. So the user pays nothing when they purchase the subscription at first time and then after 3 months have passed and if they did not cancel the subscription on PayPal they are charged the amount specified in the subscription plan->Price field.

I don't know if Coupons can be helpful in this situation, but maybe I am wrong, so let me know what your thoughts are.

Kind regards.

Written by bluewavefunds on

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Written by Katerina on

Hello,

Yes, I was referring to our PayPal plugin. I don't know if what I mentioned is possible with Paypal Pro.

Discount(the one that you have in the Discount (%) field) gets applied only when the user purchases the subscription at the second time, at the third time, etc. For instance, if the plan costs 100 and the Discount is set to 10, then the user will pay 100 at the first time, 90 at the second time, 90 at the third time, etc.

Coupon can also be useful in your situation if you set it to be used only one time by each user:

Bind to User (ID): Any 
Bind to Plan (ID): specify the susbcription plan's ID here
Use Max Times Limit: Any
Use Max Times Limit Per User: 1

And the last option is:

Create 2 subscription plans that restrict the same content: a free 3-month one and a paid one. For the free subscription set 'Subscribe Only Once' to Yes. Set the price of it to 0 . In this case each user will be able to subscribe to it only once and after the subscription gets expired they will buy the paid one if they want.

Kind regards.

Written by bluewavefunds on

HI,

do i understand the coupon correctly ? only works after initial purchase ??

Here is what I would like to do.  When the purchase a subscription, I would like to give them a discount.  for example, lets say its 100 dollars for a subscription.  They get a 20 % discount (coupon).  So its 80 dollars for first year.  Then, with recurring payments, the second year goes back to the full 100 dollars. 

So basically, it is an upfront coupon (or discount) right when they purchase - but only this time period.

Is this possible ???

Written by Katerina on

Hello,

Coupons can be used at any time. I said that the 'Discount', the parameter that is located in the subscription plan-> 'General Settings' tab, works only after initial purchase.

What you want to do is possible with our PayPal plugin, but since you're using a 3rd party one, you can create coupon with the following settings:

Bind to User (ID): Any 
Bind to Plan (ID): specify the susbcription plan's ID here
Use Max Times Limit: Any
Use Max Times Limit Per User: 1

and suggest users to use it while they make an initial purchase. In order to get a discount they need to enter the coupon code into the special field on the subscription plans' list. If they don't enter the coupon code, they do not get the discount.

On the whole, you cannot make the discount to get applied automatically for the initial purchase. You can only offer users to use the coupon code which in fact can be used any time - at first or at second or third purchase, but only once by each user, if you set the parameters I mentioned above.

Kind regards.

Written by bluewavefunds on

ok, great !

Thanks !!!

Written by bluewavefunds on

Hi Tatyana,

I must say, I am surprised that there is no option to produce a subscription where you can let someone sign up for the year at 100 dollars, for example.  But, give them first 6 months free.  Then the subscription starts after the 6 months free for an annual basis of the 100 dollars. 

Written by JS.Support

Expert(13158)

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Actually your scheme looks like a deception. As users do not get any free subscriptions as they cannot simply subscribe for free but he should pay and then get free.

You may arrange such scheme:

- create 18 months free subscription plan, set it invisible. So it will be granted with paid plan,  you set 18 months to expand paid plan period as periods of different subscritpion plans do not concatenate but cross.
- create 1 year $100 subscription plan, under tab "Cross plans" for parameters group "Grant plans settings" you set "18 month free subscription". So each users get 18 month plan with paid plan.

or this one:

- free subscription with "Subscribe only once" restriction. So after one free users have to purchase to get access.
- ordinary paid subscritpion.

regards

Written by bluewavefunds on

No, this is not deception or trickery !!!!

Simply, we offer a service for reserach and written content.  We want to say "6 months free, if you sign up today".   They will know, when they select the plan that it will then cost money after 6 months.  We will advertise this way also.  There is NO deception.

The reason we choose to do this, is we are a new service and individuals are getting very expensive materials for free.  This stops free riders, or those who will exploit the system.  

Also, they can cancel anytime.  

In addition, we are only offering this to various individuals. and therefore, the automatic grant is too universal.  As we keep our standard subscription. 

But you pose a good solution.  I could set the automatic grant on for a specific day, then take it off.  I need to think about the universality this would cause and the effects. 

Also, this is for a group that a subscription is offered at a massive discount already.  They are notoriously free riders, and while we want them, we must be cautious with how we market to them.  Our more expensive subscription to companies does not have any of these problems.

Written by bluewavefunds on

i do like that 6 months free with 12 month sub (18 months).   that is a compelling option.

Thanks for idea !