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Delay Start of Subscription

I wondered if there was a way to offer an option to delay the start of a subscription? I want to market my subscription as a present, which means the subscription should be available from the time the present is given not from when it is purchased.

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Heather shared this idea  ·   ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →

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  • Shemzone commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Indeed, it would be very useful and needed ASAP. I am in the case of a syndicate of professionnals who need to subscribe at anytime for an annual subscription starting from the 1st january and ending the 31st december. I chosen WC Subscriptions because of its automatic renewal feature. At this time, I have to find a workaround by coding it. Not very productive for a paid plugin...

  • FlyingFish.ie commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    This functionality would be extremely useful, we currently allow customers to sign up for annual magazine subscriptions that automatically renew - but sometimes customers do not want to start the annual plan right away, for example if they already have that month's magazine and don't want to start until the next one is out.

    We take payment up front, but we do not want to activate the subscription until the month chosen by the customer. Please look into adding this functionality as we are currently doing everything manually, but will have to look at alternatives in the future if our subscription base continues to grow.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    please add the delay subscriptions feature, I think that is the most needed feature.

    best,

    leo

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    We are looking into solutions for our client who would like users to set up subscriptions on a specific date of their choosing with a price amount they can set for annual donations.

    An improvement to the woocommerce plugin would be to allow users to select a start date for their subscription so they are billed annually with the date they have selected.

    This feature should also allow users to control their subscriptions from an account area. Allowing them to change the date or cancel their repeated subscription.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I totally agree! We are using this to offer a CSA farm subscription. The subscription dates are fixed based upon the growing season, but I do marketing well in advance in order to fill the subscription and ensure I grow enough vegetables or don't grow too many. I want the billing to sync up with the weeks or months that the subscribers will pick up their product. Simply having a field to enter "subscription start date" and to would be a godsend! Currently, like others have listed here, I use the free trial option to sync up the start date, but that displays a "free trial" on the product and confuses shoppers. I'm not actually giving away free weeks of the CSA but just delaying their billing. I think this would be relatively easy to add and would offer great flexibility to people like me.

  • Mike Frates commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    A "Start Date" for subscriptions is highly needed. There's an expiration, why not a start? For example, I'm starting a subscription business and gathering users through a promotion period. Having a start date for the subscription to take effect benefits all early adopters, since cards, billing, and shipping details are already stored and the subscription automatically takes effect at a specified date. Using a free trial period doesn't work, because we can't capture the credit card information at the time of purchase since it's $0.

  • Abdullah D commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Would love this! Very necessary for courses sites where the course starts at a later date.

  • Hayes commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Yes, please. The ability to set a Start Date for subscriptions is critical to many business models. Woo Subscriptions *almost* does this already with the free trial. The trial works by assigning a term based on an administrator-defined parameter (trial length, e.g 2 weeks) modified by the date of purchase. This results in a date being calculated to begin the subscription payments. Somewhere in the code a variable “date” is generated. It should be fairly straightforward to let an administrator control the variable “date.” There may be limitations based on credit processing policies, and it may be variable based on provider, but it clearly is possible, since a variation of it is being done already. :-)

  • Aurora commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I am currently using the 'Free Trial' in order to delay the sign-up so I can edit the ACTUAL billing date, but that is creating a customer service headache. 'Free Trial' to customers means something ABSOLUTELY different than what you are using it for here. I have to explain to 90% of my customers that they are NOT getting a month for free. I wanted to have recurring payments set up to make the overhead easier, but really, my time is now simply being spent on customer service 'damage control' while I also paid $199 for it. :) Furthermore, when I go on vacation and am not around to log in for EACH AND EVERY ORDER to change the start date, then they get billed way too early for the subscription period they bought. So, before I leave, I have to edit EVERY product and change the 'Free Trial' to be long enough to get me through vacation. Aside from creating this NEW problem for me, I DO really love the service, just needs some improvement! :)

  • Pj Foley commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    This is also great for startups that need to prove demand and pre-plan ordering. Putting customers through a zero-dollar ordering process using 'synchronize' is confusing--as well as for admins.

  • Charlie commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I also need this - will look into building it if a solution isn't presented any time soon.

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