How can I trigger another attempt at processing a failed recurring payment?

bproffit
Contributor
Contributor

I have a customer who is set up with a subscription that uses a recurring payment.  I got an e-mail yesterday from PayPal indicating that the payment couldn't be processed.  I talked with the customer who said she'd had received a new credit card and hadn't changed her info in PayPal.  She made the change with PayPal, and is ready for the recurring payment to be processed. So how do I trigger that happening?

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PayPal_Frank
Administrator
Administrator

Hi bproffit,

 

I'm glad to hear that it's been resolved.  I'll clarify what I meant by "This might be possible". 🙂

 

PayPal Recurring Payments  is a feature we offer that allows more control.  It's an API based solution so your shopping cart may need to support it.

 

When it's used, a "Recurring Payments Profile" is created instead of a "subscription".  Website options and API calls are available to update these profiles as well as immediately bill outstanding amounts if an automatic payment attempt fails.

 

More info about handling recurring payments here:

Handling Recurring Payments

 

It's possible that your shopping cart is already using this implementation. It would just need to have an option to bill the outstanding amount.

 

- Frank

If you see a helpful post, please accept it as a solution or give the author kudos. 🙂 Thanks!

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PayPal_Frank
Administrator
Administrator

Hi bproffit,

 

Welcome! 🙂

 

This might be possible depending on how you have subscriptions or recurring payments integrated into your website.  If you are using PayPal's basic subscription buttons, we will, by default, reattempt to collect recurring payments three days after the day on which recurring payments fail. If the first reattempt to collect a recurring payment fails, we wait 5 days to try again. If the second reattempt fails, PayPal cancels the subscription.  The customer would then need to setup a new subscription.  I would expect that the reattempts would be completed by now.

 

Reattempts will not occur if another subscription payment is scheduled within 14 days of the failed payment, so that payments do not overlap.

 

It's also possible for subscription buttons to be set to not reattempt failed charges but that would only happen if you manually changed that setting when the button was first implemented.

 

I hope this helps! 🙂

 

- Frank

If you see a helpful post, please accept it as a solution or give the author kudos. 🙂 Thanks!
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bproffit
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Frank,

 

Thanks for getting back to me.  Yes, the normal second attempt has already taken place.  What I was hoping to find out was how to avoid the five-day wait, since the customer told me she had made the needed changes to her account.  I appreciate your encouragement that "This might be possible" but unfortunately I didn't see anything on how to go about it.  This one is resolved, but if you have time it would be helpful for future reference to know how I might trigger it manually before the five-day delay.  I'm using aMember as the "cart" for renewable subscriptions and member management.

 

Thanks,

Brian

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Solved

PayPal_Frank
Administrator
Administrator

Hi bproffit,

 

I'm glad to hear that it's been resolved.  I'll clarify what I meant by "This might be possible". 🙂

 

PayPal Recurring Payments  is a feature we offer that allows more control.  It's an API based solution so your shopping cart may need to support it.

 

When it's used, a "Recurring Payments Profile" is created instead of a "subscription".  Website options and API calls are available to update these profiles as well as immediately bill outstanding amounts if an automatic payment attempt fails.

 

More info about handling recurring payments here:

Handling Recurring Payments

 

It's possible that your shopping cart is already using this implementation. It would just need to have an option to bill the outstanding amount.

 

- Frank

If you see a helpful post, please accept it as a solution or give the author kudos. 🙂 Thanks!
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bproffit
Contributor
Contributor

Ahhh, good advice!  Let me investigate and see.  Many thanks.

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