Forum Access Issues - Subs Renewals

Folks,

Had a few peeps contact me recently concerning not being able to access the paid-for sections of the forum and other funnies, so thought I'd put this out, as it's related to payment of your subscriptions.

What happens is that, if your subscription expires, as far as the Forum's concerned you're now a "Free User", meaning there are only certain areas you can access. Soon as you pay your subs, all is forgiven and you're reinstated exactly as you were before, including reputation points etc.

However, membership doesn't expire at the same time for everyone - it's the anniversary of when you first joined, so mine is in September, and someone else's might be in February, etc. which is why Joe Bloggs might be having trouble, but his mate Fred Flan is fine and dandy.
So, to check your renewal date, and, indeed, to renew, click on "Settings" in the top right of the screen, then from the next screen presented, go down the column on the left and find "Paid Subscriptions" under "My Account". Click on that and you'll get a page showing your subs renewal date in the "Active Subscriptions" box, and below that, another box showing "Available Subscriptions". If you've had the heave-ho, click the drop-down, select "1 Year" (the only option), and click on "Order" and you're away, and all is sweetness and light.

...and yes, I did remember to put this in a section you can access as a Free User...wouldn't be much use otherwise, eh! :-P

- Your Friendly Neighbourhood Chairman Norm :)

Reminders would be helpful too,my subs lapsed in November although I thought I was on auto renewal.Anyhow I'm all up to date now :-)

Funnily enough I did get an email reminder yesterday saying my subscription was due to run out in a couple of days time. Now in place for another 12 months and selected auto renew option this time!

Yeah there wasn't a lot of communication around renewals late last year, early this year. I got an email saying it was automatically going to renew so didn't bother as I just assumed it would either happen or the club would cover it again. I hadn't lost access to the forum. Because I hadn't renewed I didn't get a calendar sent out even though my renewal wasn't due until late Jan.

Hello folks, just let me just clear something up for people....

Unless someone has changed the settings auto renew will not work and a new 2020 membership needs to be created. Why does auto renew not work?

Simple when it was in place the club decided to give 1 years free membership to people.

The forum has an agreement between you, and Paypal, if you change that agreement as we had to do to give you a free year Membership, it cancels paypal from paying the club direct from your bank, as it should, so you may get a reminder but it won't be paid by default.

This was explained when I handed over the club and a new 2020 membership needed to be created a fresh.

Also some members complained about it auto renewing, despite agreeing to it when they joined, and that caused us issues with PayPal.
Folk were going direct to PayPal and lodging complaints about the club instead of asking the club first. When we knew what happened we could fix it straight away. as it happened PayPal locked access to us causing issues.
So Auto Renew was stopped for 2018 membership, and was turned off so you should not even get the dropdown as an option to pick.

I think more people benefited from auto renew than dislikes it, hence why it was started, but as a small club we could not take the risk of PayPal blocking us due to the complaints.

Currently only 38 people are still on the auto renew account, but it wont renew.
I would suggest the webmaster move all these 38 to the 2019 membership and manually adjust the end date for each one so it works then delete the auto renew one.

Create a new "Auto renew membership" if that's what the membership wants and start again, all new members then have the chance to join that and let the forum sort it out or you have the choice to do it manually.

I hope this has not sounded like a lecture, more as just information, as that is what it is meant to me just information and the reasons behind what happened.
A Lot happens behind the scenes that folk are unaware of to keep the site spam free and working.

Have a great year

Ian

Cheers for that Ian, much appreciated to know what's caused the issue.

As you say, there's a lot going on behind the scenes - some of it, like this, that the committee either didn't know about, or were maybe told and forgot as it'd only appear 12 months later! Good job you keep an eye on us eh? :)

Thank you Ian now I understand a bit better.
I can whole heartedly understand the club not wanting issues with Paypal they can be real tyrants.

I have paid my subs for 2020 but will contact the membership sec to see if i can upgrade to an auto renewal.

Mind you messing up my paypal payments is nothing compared to messing up my payments to LB.....................I sent my funds request request to myself instead of my FA and poor Lydia was left wondering where her wonga had gone!

I'm a bit useless like that!

Ian, that's even more curious. When I recently renewed my membership you are right that the Club site didn't appear to give the option of Auto Renewal, but when I got my confirmation email from PayPal this does suggest that it is Auto Renewal ?????? - see attached.

Me too. I got the same.

Loft6.6
I can answer that one as well for you as well..

If you look at your receipt you will see membership 2020, that has been created with Auto renew switched on so if you join and use 2020 option (I think it has been renamed from 2019, but I might be wrong...lol) next year the forum will request the money from your bank for you.
This will work fine until you have no money left.....!! or...... the direct Debit is changed either by the owner or the club canceling it.

It will all sort itself out.

Take care

Hi
I have renewed my membership and the money has gone from my PayPal account but still don't have access to the forum. What have I done wrong please.

Martin,

PM sent

Mark

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Martin Crikey

Hi
I have renewed my membership and the money has gone from my PayPal account but still don't have access to the forum. What have I done wrong please.

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Martin, can you advise if this is still an issue?