member areas How to Discount or Pause Member Subscriptions in Members Area???

Hello, I've recently opened up a membership community using the Squarespace Member Area feature. After a few months of testing we have come to a massive road block with regards to how membership fees are processed. We have a few beta members and we would like to offer them a few discounted months after purchasing while they test out the site. As well, in the future we would like them to be able to receive discounted months every time they refer a friend to sign up.

What we have discovered:

1) Discount coupons can ONLY be applied at the time of initial member area sign up. There is NO WAY to discount any future monthly purchases or offer any type of referral program. 

2) If you ever modify the purchase price of your membership area, it only impacts future purchases. There is NO WAY to modify existing members membership fees. 

Squarespace support suggested work around was ask our members to cancel their subscription, re-sign up at a reduced rate and then ask them to cancel AGAIN and sign up for a 3rd time at a new full rate!!!! I cannot believe that this is their actual solution. How unprofessional would that be for us to ask members to cancel and re-apply not once but twice.

Apparently there is a feature on the Commerce side of SS that you can pause monthly subscriptions to products, however this same function is not available to the member area.

I then tried to see if this was something I could manage in Stripe when processing their payments, but it wouldn't work. I would have to still CANCEL all my members in SS and then set them up as reoccurring payments in Stripe. This cannot be because as soon as I cancel them in SS they lose access to the membership area.

If anyone has ANY recommendation on how I can get around this it would be greatly appreciated. I assume we will need to find a third party processing work around or move to an alternative platform that can manage things like discount coupons for existing members and allow us to have affiliate benefits.

In summary, there isn't a workaround for this.

As I explained in a post earlier today, when someone new signs up to Member Areas, you can offer them a discount off their first recurring payment, or you can offer them a discount against all recurring payments. There are no other options to adjust payments up or down or provide payment holidays (other than by manually providing a one-off refund). In fact, you'll never be able to increase their membership payments. It's on a list of Member Area limitations that I shared with Squarespace.

On 9/15/2021 at 3:15 PM, Marlo said:

Squarespace support suggested work around was ask our members to cancel their subscription, re-sign up at a reduced rate and then ask them to cancel AGAIN and sign up for a 3rd time at a new full rate!!!!

The suggestion from Customer Care is totally unworkable, but I guess they are only trying to be helpful. There are no other solutions or workarounds that they can offer.

On 9/15/2021 at 3:15 PM, Marlo said:

Apparently there is a feature on the Commerce side of SS that you can pause monthly subscriptions to products, however this same function is not available to the member area.

This is only partly true. A merchant can delay a product subscription renewal if they need more time to replenish their inventory. For example, moving from 1st of the month to 7th of the same month, but it doesn't pause the subscription. It just changes the date of future renewal payments.

It's not good news, but I hope this is helpful.

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Thanks @paul2009. Yes, understand now that there is no work around but feel that it isn't communicated well when you start a member area. I will go and read your post on limitations and wish that I had seen this before investing in the member area.

I feel like these are major oversights of basic function when you have customers paying for a membership type platform or any commerce function. Hopefully there is enough outcry from users of the service that these features are considered for future development.

@Marlo Having the same issue - offering discounts to current members for future months. I think I found a solution. If you go to commerce>orders>customer you can authorize a refund (any amount). Maybe let the customer know that they'll see a partial or full refund after their next months payment comes through. You'll have to do it manually for each customer, but better than cancel>sign-up>cancel>sign-up.

There's a lot of things SS does right, but still so so so many things that are lacking, strange, or what feels like huge oversight.

Is it possible to create a 100% discount code for memberships? When I go to create the discount, the member site does not come up as an option?

@paul2009 you wrote "As I explained in a post earlier today" I'd like to read this but do not have access. Could you share the info here? Thank you, Heidi

1 hour ago, HeidiN said:

Is it possible to create a 100% discount code for memberships? When I go to create the discount, the member site does not come up as an option?

I see you've asked this in another thread, so I've explained how to create the discount there.

The information in my Circle-only post just explains that 

• you cannot offer a discount retrospectively.
• when someone new signs up to Member Areas, you can offer them a discount off their first recurring payment, or you can offer them a discount against all recurring payments. There are no other options, such as a discount for five months. 
• member fees are fixed. You cannot vary or increase the monthly cost of a membership without cancelling the membership and starting a new one.

I hope this helps.

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