Subscriptions API is highly inconsistent

[Innov8Digital]

We have integrated subscriptions with webhooks on multiple sites now. We are noticing that we receive:

• Sub created
• Sub activated

Then nothing, no payment notification comes through for sometimes days. We have also cancelled some subscriptions using the API and again we are receiving nothing, in these circumstances our clients and their clients would have access to services they have not yet paid for, and if they wanted to cancel they may have an unwanted charge because the cancellation seems to have been completely ignored. 

The documentation is terrible and does not clear state what events actually mean, IE what is activated? Does it only happen when the initial payment is received? Or does it just activate the subscription without charging the customer (Insane if this is the case)

The whole experience of using PayPal for subscriptions is a complete farce, can someone shed some light as to why exactly docs are so bad, why nothing actually works? All API calls are successful so why are we waiting days for a response to the webhooks? We expect instant notifications to our webhooks so that our client's flow is not disrupted, in what world will a client sit around for days hitting refresh waiting for their payment to be processed?

Will give 2 days for this to be resolved in this thread before moving completely to more robust and reliable solutions such as Stripe. we have waisted weeks waiting for sandbox webhooks and are extremely dissatisfied at the quality of this service.

[rcorfman]

I don't know if this will be helpful for you or not. I'm setting up subscriptions for a web site. Setting up webhooks wasn't really an option, so each time a subscriber logs in, I use the API to check the status of the subscription and take appropriate action. That way, whenever a subscription lapses, or is cancelled, the user will no longer have access to subscriber benefits.