Renewal Messages are Showing on CLIENT sites

[KermitParticipant]

My clients are getting renewal messages for my subscription on their sites. Aside from the ethically dubious approach of marketing Updraft to my clients directly, this new little system is buggy as well. It doesn’t stop showing after being dismissed and I renewed y’day so it really shouldn’t show at all!

I spent hours on the phone today reassuring my clients about this – which is money lost to me – and I’m getting very poor support. The first response I got simply told me how to renew (which I’d already done and had said as much) and the next message just defended the policy.

Kermit Woodall

[udadminKeymaster]

Hi Kermit,

(Reply re-written after I realised that you’re talking about dashboard notices, not about reminder emails).

Under WordPress’s user-level system, administrators are considered site owners – it is the all-powerful “deity” login level. If you have clients who you don’t consider to be site owners, then you should set them up with a lower level of access (e.g. editor) so that they can access the things you want them to access, and not have access to other things. There are also plugins like “User Role Editor” so that you can divide up the “admin” role into smaller parcels, if required.

You can also use CSS to hide the notices entirely if you don’t want them to show at all, even to admins.

If we don’t show messages to the site owner, then there’s nobody else to show them to… we already get complaints from people who say “I didn’t know that my renewal was upcoming, and I missed it – why don’t you make it more obvious?”. By the nature of email, emails go into spam folders, or never get delivered at all, unfortunately.

We don’t collect site email addresses or have any mechanism which attempts to collect them, and have no interest in doing so. If a client (i.e. non-updraftplus.com customer) has received an email somehow, then please forward it to us so that we can have a look. (But it sounds like you’re just talking about dashboard notices).

Many thanks,
David

[KermitParticipant]

You send emails – that should be sufficient. Your approach here is valuing your renewal marketing over everything else.

I can suggest several better approaches here.

1. Only show messages in admin where the plugin is licensed to an individual.
2. Allow an opt-out of the messages on the account here so they’ll be suppressed on all client sites.

Finally – part of this ignores the bug I mentioned in that the message won’t dismiss or close. Also, that the message is showing, even today after I renewed days ago.

Kermit Woodall

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[KermitParticipant]

I just got this email from you…

Currently you actually have more used more 35 licences and as mentioned we no longer offer unlimited license for the Agency (previously Developer) package. Our unlimited license is now being offered in the Enterprise tier package.

At the moment, only 35 active licenses were extended for another year. You will see this if you login to your Updraftplus.com account and go to ‘My Licences’ page.

So now I’m finding out that the unlimited license I purchased was downgraded to a limited license? I’ve renewed regularly and previously been a happy client.

My purchase, which still shows on my account, says I have UNLIMITED licenses.

“Premium – the whole package (all add-ons, upgrades, support) – Developer (unlimited sites)”

You do understand that this purchase is a contract between you and myself. Contracts aren’t normally revised by party side to the disadvantage of the other party. Contracts are revised by mutual agreement.

Kermit Woodall

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[KermitParticipant]

Still waiting for a response here.

Thanks.

Kermit Woodall

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[udadminKeymaster]

Hi Kermit,

(Edit: I missed out an idea in the first para).

Thank you for sharing your ideas with us. Unfortunately, the data collected when someone purchases is not sufficient to determine if they are an individual, or buying for a collection of clients with sufficient accuracy.

However, perhaps it could be implemented as a per-account setting – i.e. “Don’t show renewal notices on my dashboard”. If you like that idea, please do post it in our “feature requests” board so that we can guage interest from other users: https://updraftplus.com/feature-requests/

I don’t believe that the dashboard notice is directly dismissable. We get complaints from people who miss the information, and are annoyed that they missed out on renewing, so there’s a balance going on there. Again, do post it in the ideas forum so that we can see what the balance of opinion and interest is on this.

No, there have been no downgrades of previous purchases – that is a misunderstanding of what you’re reading. The email refers to the different tierings that can be purchased for *future* purchases.

Best wishes,
David

[KermitParticipant]

I would assume that you could tell from someone purchasing a developer or other unlimited license that this would be the case.

Ok – so if there’s been no downgrade, then why won’t the renewal message go away? Is this a problem with the license like other people have been reporting here?

Kermit Woodall

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[Dee NutbourneModerator]

Hi Kermit,

Apologies, I believe that my colleague misunderstood that you have already renewed.

The Developer package is now for 35 site licenses only, while the unlimited license has been moved to the Enterprise license.

Please may I ask what method you used to renew (i.e. through the My Orders page, via a renewal link sent via email, etc)?
You should have been recommended the new unlimited product for the renewal before the purchase was finalised. It appears that one of the renewal paths is not correctly set up.

I’m also going to consult with my manager, and see what I can do for you.

Best Wishes,
David N

[Dee NutbourneModerator]

Hi Kermit,

As you were not informed and were fully aware of the pricing tier changes before your renewal purchase, I have renewed your full unlimited license.

Please could you let me know the method that you used to renew your license? It appears that one of the paths is not showing the required information.

Apologies for the inconvenience.

Best Wishes,
David N

[KermitParticipant]

I’ve answered this in another post – but I will strongly suggest you reconsider downgrading customers in the future like this.

Thanks.

Kermit Woodall

[Author]

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