Subscribing user to downgraded free plan upon expiration

I am using AcyMailing which works really well with CB & CBSubs user statuses when I need to send emails to specific segments.

However, I think I might have missed a config setting in the plans I set up on what to do with users once they expire.   

I have a site with 3 paid plans and 1 free plan.   What I would like to have to happen is that when a user does not renew their membership and lets it expire I would like to downgrade them to the "Free Plan". The main reason for this is that when the plan expires their account is disabled which as a result also disables being able to send them emails from AcyMailing as it too shows us as deactivated.  

Right now the user is downgraded to "Registered" (I created user groups for each of the paid plans and the free plan that are children of the "registered' user groups.

I'm also pretty sure that since the account is marked as disabled that is what prompts them to reactivate their account, so I figure I would lose this opportunity to have them renew when they do log in again.

It looks like the AcyMailing setting is working properly as the users are added to the correct list upon expiration



Any thoughts on how best to handle this?   I guess what I am trying to figure out if there is an automated way to not deactivate the account for the purposes of being able to send emails with AcyMailing.   





 

If you don't allow free registrations without a subscription then their account will be blocked. On next login they'll be prompted to renew. So if you want them to still be able to use the site after expiring you need to adjust that setting in CBSubs configuration.

I did find that setting,  but I had set up a free subscription plan to make it easier to control access based on the different subscriptions.  It was easier to keep all user access inside CBSubs so all users fall into one of the subscriptions, including a free one (The free one is et to lifetime, but the way)

Is there no way to automatically "downgrade" a paid user to the free plan I set up and thereby on expiration the user is still active but on the lower limited access plan?

If they later wished to upgrade can select that in their profile setting.   

Incidentally, I have disabled "Allow upgrade to this" for that free plan.

Is there no way to automatically "downgrade" a paid user to the free plan I set up and thereby on expiration the user is still active but on the lower limited access plan?

Only way to do that is with CB Auto Actions as we don't have functionality to push them into another plan on expiration built in. You'd need to act on your paid plans expiring and force them to be subscribed into the free plan, but this is going to make renewals likely strange for them as a manual renewal is then an upgrade back into the paid plan. You can use the below to act on subscription states in CB Auto Actions.

Plan Active
Global
Triggers: onCPayUserStateChange
User: Automatic
Access: Everybody
Conditions
Condition 1
Field: Custom > Value
Custom Value: [var3]
Operator: Equal To
Value: PLAN_ID_HERE
Condition 2
Field: Custom > Value
Custom Value: [var2]
Operator: Equal To
Value: A

Plan Expired
Global
Triggers: onCPayUserStateChange
User: Automatic
Access: Everybody
Conditions
Condition 1
Field: Custom > Value
Custom Value: [var3]
Operator: Equal To
Value: PLAN_ID_HERE
Condition 2
Field: Custom > Value
Custom Value: [var2]
Operator: Not Equal To
Value: A

Be sure to replace PLAN_ID_HERE with the actual id of your plan as found in CBSubs > Plans. In your case you'd just use the CB Paid Subscriptions action and from there you can configure it to subscribe them to your free plan.

Auto Actions to the rescue!  Thanks!

In your case you'd just use the Field action and adjust the fields value however you like. As for the auto action type set it to CB Paid Subscriptions and from there you can configure it to subscribe them to your free plan.

I'm not entirely clear on what this means but I will have a closer look at the steps and seek out clarification if am lost.

this is going to make renewals likely strange for them as a manual renewal is then an upgrade back into the paid plan.

Do you mean that in order for them to upgrade, they would need to take some extra steps (go to the subscription tab in their profile) to select the plan they used to be on?    I know that the way it is now it's a smoother process when they try logging in after the expiration where they are prompted to renew.

Since I have set the pais plans to be on a calendar date (July 1 - June 30 annually) will this mess up the renewal times if they decide to "upgrade" at other times throughout the year?   In other words, the expiration date will always be what that upgraded plan is no matter when they upgrade (It's as if they are a new sign-up?)


Additional questions:

1. I was wondering if there is a manual (possible bulk) way to move users to this free plan since now the number of users is low.

2. If the members are already expired, will the auto actions suggested still fire?

3. If I don't add the auto actions and the user is prompted to reactivate their plan AND I also enable the "Allow Upgrade to this" for the free plan (even though it's a downgrade) will this work?   This way the user can choose to move to the lower plan themselves to continue having access (albeit limited by the free plan).

This way the prompt to renew the paid plan is still there along with the downgraded option.      I have set AcyMailing to subscribe expired members to a "free plan" list so in theory once they move themselves to this free plan AcyMailing will reactivate them in the correct email list.


 

 I'm not entirely clear on what this means but I will have a closer look at the steps and seek out clarification if am lost.

Whoops copy and paste error. I have to provide the above information quite frequently, lol.

Do you mean that in order for them to upgrade, they would need to take some extra steps (go to the subscription tab in their profile) to select the plan they used to be on?    I know that the way it is now it's a smoother process when they try logging in after the expiration where they are prompted to renew.

I don't know your exactly plan setup, but basically by doing this it isn't really a renewal since they'll be active in your free plan. "Renewing" the paid plan will be counted as an upgrade more than likely due to this. It's just something to consider when configuring your plan.

Since I have set the pais plans to be on a calendar date (July 1 - June 30 annually) will this mess up the renewal times if they decide to "upgrade" at other times throughout the year?   In other words, the expiration date will always be what that upgraded plan is no matter when they upgrade (It's as if they are a new sign-up?)

It will likely behave the same as if they never had a paid plan and upgraded into a paid plan. So however you have that setup expect that kind of behavior.

1. I was wondering if there is a manual (possible bulk) way to move users to this free plan since now the number of users is low.

The CBSubs Import tool built into CBSubs can bulk move users from 1 plan to another.

2. If the members are already expired, will the auto actions suggested still fire?

No.

3. If I don't add the auto actions and the user is prompted to reactivate their plan AND I also enable the "Allow Upgrade to this" for the free plan (even though it's a downgrade) will this work?   This way the user can choose to move to the lower plan themselves to continue having access (albeit limited by the free plan).

I believe so, yes.

If this is all just to get around AcyMailing checking the blocked state of the Joomla user see if there's a setting for a newsletter to ignore that as maybe that'd be a better solution. I'm not sure why you want to manually send an expiration newsletter to them as you can automate that with CBSubs Mailer.