Free Trial Period Forcing Customers To Pay Upfront

[JaredLev]

Dear Stripe,

I’ve purchased the Stripe Payments Addon Plan Bundle because I’d like to add subscription plans to my coaching business.

Specifically, I’d like the subscription plan to have a 7 day free trial period.

Everything is fine and works great until the customer clicks the landing page button. I am able to customize the landing page button, but I am NOT able to customize the button on the customer payment form.

I’ve uploaded an image on my website for more info:

weightlossenlightenment.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/wrong-button.jpg

As you can see, the button is telling people to purchase “19.98”. Even in the email receipts which I am testing, the emails say this person is being charged $19.98. I’ve switched off test mode and tried live mode, but the button is still the same.

As far as I can tell, the problem is there is no option for Trial Period Billing. While there is a setting “Trial Period (Optional)” this setting does not pause billing.

I’ve done google searches for this problem and it seems like other people have had this problem on different plugin providers. For example, I’ve uploaded another image:

weightlossenlightenment.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Untitled.jpg

Or, you can go to this webpage:

simple-membership-plugin.com/forums/topic/stripe-subscription-button-not-recognizing-trial-period/

These other plugin providers provide an option for “Trial Billing Amount”. There is no such option, as far as I can see, on this stripe plugin.

[Admin]

Thats actually how Stripe works by default. They always show the actual amount that will be charged after the trial. So even though they are not going to be charged anything today, they like to be transparent and show the user what they are agreeing to pay (after the trial is finished). If you subscribe to the plan, you will see that it won’t charge you anything until the trial period is finished. We will investigate this more to see if Stripe offers an option to customize the amount text in their checkout popup window.

[alexanderfoxc]

Hi Jared and thank you for bringing this up.

The whole idea to display the amount is to notify your customers which amount is going to be charged when trial period ends (it DOES NOT charge the customer during the trial period itself like you stated). But this could be misleading indeed as checkout results and receipt email shows that the amount was actually paid.

We will see what can be done make it less confusing.

[alexanderfoxc]

We have made changes to how trial subscriptions are handled.

Now “Start Free Trial” will be displayed on payment button in Stripe pop-up. Also checkout result will show amount as 0.

In order to test that, you need to install testing version of the core plugin: https://s-plugins.com/testing-version/

Also update Subscriptions addon to the latest version (1.4.5) via WP Dashboard -> Updates.

And then make a purchase of your subscription product with trial in test mode.

[JaredLev]

Hey thank you for the quick response!

I’ve gone ahead and deleted the original stripe payment plugin and updated all wordpress plugins.

Unfortunately, the payment button (in the popup) is still the same and shows “Pay $19.98” despite being a trial session.

Also, the receipt still shows payment.

I have tried coupon code, and for coupon code the receipt shows $0 payment, however for using a 100% coupon code the pop-up button still shows “Pay $19.98”

[alexanderfoxc]

Jared, you need to install testing version from here in order to test this functionality: https://s-plugins.com/testing-version/

[JaredLev]

Hey Alexander, thanks for getting back to me.

Yesterday when I replied I had already tested using the test-version. I tried again today, yet still didn’t work.

I deleted the origin stripe payment plugin yesterday, and downloaded the test one. I tried again today to make sure I somehow didn’t upload the original stripe payment plugin.

Button still says payment

[alexanderfoxc]

Just to make sure:

1. You’re using test version of the plugin (that seems to be correct).
2. You’re using latest version of Subscriptions addon (1.4.5 at the moment).
3. You have created a plan with trial period (e.g. Trial Period is not zero).
4. You assigned this plan to your payment button.

I’ve did exactly the same on my test site and here’s what is shows: desertfox.top/miniserv/cleanwp/asp-products/subs-with-trial/

[JaredLev]

Ah!

Okay, figured out the problem, but discovered another problem, I think!

I am on Stripe Payment Addon Bundle 1.4.4, not 1.4.5.

However, WordPress says I have no updates. I’ve put a pic here showing how my WordPress site is saying Stripe Payment Plugin is up to date, but also, the payment plugin version is 1.4.4. I have updated the WordPress site fully too and it says all my plugins are up to date.
weightlossenlightenment.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Stripe.jpg

[JaredLev]

Hey Alexander,

Figured out the problem –

The second step above you said:

2. You’re using latest version of Subscriptions addon (1.4.5 at the moment).

My version is 1.4.4.

However, there’s no updates available! (see previous reply for where I show pic of no wordpress updates + wordpress saying stripe is fully updated)

Any thoughts here? Thanks in advance – I appreciate the great customer support so far!

[alexanderfoxc]

Hi Jared.

Please try to check for updates now from WP Dashboard, Subscriptions addon version 1.4.5 should be available now. The reason why it wasn’t available is because we were testing it against new WP version 5.1.1, therefore it wasn’t publicly released yet that time. Apologies for the inconvenience.

[JaredLev]

It works!!!!!

Thanks so much, I really appreciate it!!!!

[alexanderfoxc]

Thank you for bringing this up and testing it.

Full version with these changes will be released shortly, so just update it via standard WP means when prompted.

[Author]

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