CRC Billing subscription saver improvement
in progress
S
Stirgus CreditRepair
MAy we PLEASE stop ending/cancelling the client's subscription plan when their dunning attempts are over? I brought this up with Keenan a few months ago, and the importance of making this better. We offer a 30-day grace period, that allows the client to update their card on a better pay day.
When CRC Billing attempts all dunning attempts, it does not automatically update/process the client's card if they go to update their card later (loss of revenue).
Which means, we have to take time out of our day and manually "cancel and assign a new plan",in order to keep the billing system active for 30 days. This sends a cancellation notice to the client and confuses them. Clients then receive the cancellation notice and begin looking for new credit repair services or give up, because they think we really cancelled them out.
We need CRC Billing to work like our Chargebee client's subscription:
-Payment fails
-Dunning attempts for a week or so
-Subscription REMAINS ACTIVE and allows the client to update their card later on
-If no update on billing, subscription will give up on the previous invoice, then attempt to bill them on the next newest invoice. -Their subscription NEVER CANCELS!
If fact, this should be totally adjustable by each CRO. Everyone has a different billing policy and subscription savers should be modified how each CRO wishes.
K
Keenan Jones
Merged in a post:
REMOVE cancellation subscription saver email
S
Stirgus CreditRepair
When a client payment declines, they go through dunning/re-attempt billing stage. Majority of our clients are waiting for their next paycheck or waiting to pay their normal bills, before updating their card, etc.
If a client doesn't update their payment or have funds available within the few billing reattempts (1 week I beleive), CRC Billing sends our clients an email, stating we cancelled their account!-This is HORRIBLE!
- We have a 30 day late policy, meaning clients are told they have 30 days to make their payment.- It is a slap in the face to clients, when they receive an email 5-7 days later, stating we cancelled their account (which is a lie).
- We do not check billing every single day, we may do this once per month. When we contact clients to update their billing, we get told "I found another company because you cancelled my account". -THIS IS COSTING US REVENUE!!
- When clients are awaiting funds to pay within their 30-day late period, they receive emails stating their subscription is cancelled. We get 3-5 calls per day and have to explain to them we did not cancel their account, the billing system cancelled the attempts to collect and we must reactivate billing. This takes so much time out of our day and causes so much confusion.
WHAT SHOULD CRC BILLING DO?
- MOST IMPORTANTLY: Allow CRC users to edit their own subscription savers, that fits their billing/cancellation policy. If my policy offered a 30 day grace period, my clients should not get told they're cancelled within 5-7 days, this is unfair and a huge problem!
- Get rid of the cancellation email. Maybe instead, send an email that says "We've tried all billing attempts for this invoice, but was unable to collect your payment. Please contact us".
- DO NOT cancel the subscription. Follow how chargebee clients are billed: If a payment failed and all billing attempts are done, then the account still stays active and schedules the next payment. This allows crc users to decide if they will cancel the client or change the due date to fit the client. When you cancel their subscription, this prevents use from editing anything and must assign an entire new plan.
As someone who has been a CRC user since 2019 and also had the pleasure of being on the CRC Podcast twice-I highly believe I should know what is important to help CRC users and make CRC Billing better. I find that the cancellation alert sent to clients in a few days after being late, will soon cost crc users and lot of money, due to misunderstandings. Please fix this!
K
Keenan Jones
marked this post as
in progress
J
Jake Moore
Yes, adjust by CRO or better still by client! Some clients have high volume accounts and you have to catch it when you can. Others have very standard predictible income and they want payment to be when they get their money. Still others have irregular income and catch up provisions work best -- meaning being able to accrue and pay on a different schedule than monthly. There can be a default, but it would be very helpful and professional if we didn't have to cancel a plan + explain all of that + restart a new plan.
It should tell them that discover is not accepted. Some processing services don't accept amex so we should be able to elect to have it stated that is not an option.
Finally we should be able to put a debit card explanation that their issuer may deny until they validate it and then it will run through again -- or they need to reinput it. Whichever it is.
K
Keenan Jones
Merged in a post:
Do not allow CRC Billing to cancel subscriptions after failed payments.
S
Stirgus CreditRepair
Crc Billing cancels our clients billing, after the subscription saver/dunning attempts are done after a week. Most clients must wait until another pay period, before they update us on their billing situation. Therefore, when CRC Billing cancel billing attempts, we must "reactivate" their payment plan and it makes us ask for a card number all back over again. Chargebee never does this.
S
Stirgus CreditRepair
Still battling issues with this!!!
K
Keenan Jones
Merged in a post:
REMOVE "cancellation" from CRC step 5 of dunning
S
Stirgus CreditRepair
When clients payments decline, it is unlikely they will update their payment within a few days. Some may, but most usually wait for their next pay check in 2 weeks or so. We need to STOP CRC Billing from sending our clients a "your subscription is cancelled" after the 5th dunning notice. This makes too many of our customers think we cancelled their account, OR causes an issue when we go back and bill them manually as instructed by them.
For example, a customer stated they will pay on March 11th, so we attempted to bill them today, by processing a manual invoice. They called and claimed we shouldn't have attempted to bill them, because we sent them an email, stating their account was cancelled (CRC Billing auto email after 5th dunning attempt).
We had to slowly explain to the client we did not cancel their account with us and the email was invalid. This has confused tons of clients. We even had some clients state they went to another company, because we sent them an email, stating their account/subscription has been cancelled.-VERY CONFUSING EMAIL!
Answers to keenan questions:
- What should we state after the 5th dunning attempt? Something in the lines of "We have tried to collect payment multiple times and failure to update your billing could risk your account being cancelled in the future. Please contact us ASAP". -Please DO NOT send them an email stating we cancelled their subscription!
- Why is this important? It prevents customers from being confused and causing issues, by them thinking we cancelled their account with us.
- Are there any laws on changing these words? No...
- What should happen after the last dunning attempt? ANYTHING, besides cancelling the clients subscription, PLEASE! -Once all dunning attempts are over, leave it up to CRC users to manually send new invoices, set new payment dates, etc.
K
Keenan Jones
Hello Stirgus CreditRepair! I have a few more questions for you:
- What specific information would you like included in the email that replaces the cancellation notice?
- How would you prioritize the ability to edit subscription savers compared to other potential improvements?
- Can you provide examples of how other billing systems handle similar situations effectively?
S
Stirgus CreditRepair
Keenan Jones I know this was probably an AI response, but check out the answers to those questions in the initial feature request we're replying to.
K
Keenan Jones
Hello Stirgus CreditRepair! I have a few more questions for you:
- What specific wording would you prefer to use in the email after the 5th dunning attempt?
- How would you like to handle communication with clients who have not updated their payment information after the final dunning attempt?
- Are there any specific scenarios or exceptions we should consider when modifying the dunning process?
S
Stirgus CreditRepair
Keenan Jones I'm curious, Are these questions automated or are these really asked by you? I figured I'd answer these ahead of time, but maybe these responses are auto-replies/AI?
I answered this in my post, read here:
-Something in the lines of "We have tried to collect payment multiple times and failure to update your billing could risk your account being cancelled in the future. Please contact us ASAP".
-We have a policy to manually contact the client after 30 days of no payment, we will then cancel their account if not updated within 30 days of declines.
-Once all dunning attempts are over, leave it up to CRC users to manually send new invoices, set new payment dates, etc.
K
Keenan Jones
Hey Stirgus CreditRepair I want to be transparent - our follow-up questions are automated with AI assistance, but I personally review every response. Thank you again for your feedback. I'm reviewing this with our entire team.
K
Keenan Jones
Hello Stirgus CreditRepair! I have a few more questions for you:
- How long do you suggest the system should wait before canceling a subscription after failed payment attempts?
- Would you prefer an option to manually extend the payment retry period for specific clients?
- Are there any specific features from Chargebee's handling of failed payments that you find particularly beneficial?
S
Stirgus CreditRepair
Keenan Jones
- NEVER, clients go through many financial issues and many times clients will alert us 1-2 weeks after on their situation or is waiting for their next pay check. A client called us today to change their billing date and we couldn't, because CRC Billing canceled their plan. We manually cancel clients after 30 days of no payment updates, but I feel this should be up to us to do on our end.
- I'm not opposed to manually extending the dunning attempts. I just don't wish for their plan to cancel after 5 days. This is not ok and messes up everything!
- Yes, for starters-Chargebee doesn't have any glitches or billing issues as CRC Billing does. Secondly, chargebee doesn't cancel subscriptions because a payment is 5 days late or failed. It keeps the subscription open (until we decide to close it) and retry again when it's time for the next due date.