Confused about Subscriptions

[yannisenglish]

I recently decided to give Subscriptions a go. I have a few clients who ask for regular content so I figured the system would be a good fit.

I set up a Subscription via custom offer and made it so that a new order would be placed every 5 days. I submitted the first order and saw that the next one was going to start on Feb 14th. However, it didn't. My Buyer said there was nothing on their end they could do.

I'm not sure if this is because they primarily use the app and maybe the subscriptions only currently work via the desktop site.

Have I been thinking about this all wrong or is this system bugged at the moment?

[lloydsolutions]

Check this out: Fiverr Help and Education Center (Subscriptions)

There is a contact us icon at the bottom of the article if you require further help.

[miiila]

15 hours ago, yannisenglish said:

I'm not sure if this is because they primarily use the app and maybe the subscriptions only currently work via the desktop site.

According to the linked article, you can't set them up from the app, but buyers shouldn't have issues:

Quote

 

6. Can I offer Subscriptions on mobile?

You can only create a Subscription custom offer from desktop or mobile web, but buyers can accept and pay via mobile. 

 

 

 

I'm slightly confused as well. I waited with activating this feature until I unpaused a Gig for which it, kind of, makes more sense, it's generally a bit difficult for many Gigs, as the buyer most probably won't have the same word count every time, etc. 

Somewhere, maybe during the set-up, or somewhere else I read, it said I can choose a repetition cycle, which I couldn't, so I don't know if the choice is only on buyer's end, and they can now choose between daily/weekly/monthly? I wouldn't actually want to offer a daily subscription but a weekly, or maybe only monthly one.

Quote

 

9. How long can I offer a Subscription? 

You can offer a subscription for up to 6 months. 

• Daily subscription: Orders can recur every 5 to 29 days
• Weekly subscription: Order can recur every 1 to 7 weeks
• Monthly subscription: Order can recur every 1 to 2 months

 

 

The article also says 

Quote

 

11. Can I change the start date of an order?

Currently, you can’t change the Subscription’s start date.

 

This sounds like a rather probable potential issue in the making, as buyers may not have their files ready and may want start dates changed then.

 

 

[yannisenglish]

4 hours ago, miiila said:

According to the linked article, you can't set them up from the app, but buyers shouldn't have issues:

 

 

I'm slightly confused as well. I waited with activating this feature until I unpaused a Gig for which it, kind of, makes more sense, it's generally a bit difficult for many Gigs, as the buyer most probably won't have the same word count every time, etc. 

Somewhere, maybe during the set-up, or somewhere else I read, it said I can choose a repetition cycle, which I couldn't, so I don't know if the choice is only on buyer's end, and they can now choose between daily/weekly/monthly? I wouldn't actually want to offer a daily subscription but a weekly, or maybe only monthly one.

 

The article also says 

This sounds like a rather probable potential issue in the making, as buyers may not have their files ready and may want start dates changed then.

 

 

You can choose a repetition cycle if you make a custom order. I was able to make this one repeat every 5 days for 6 orders total.

For this particular order we have a set number of words so it makes sense to use the Sub system.

In the end what happened was my Buyer deleted and re-entered their payment method details and the next order started. Funnily enough, that instantly activated the next order as well because several days had passed lol.

What I'm also not clear on are subs through package orders. The only option we have is to select 3 or 6 months. So does that mean the buyer gets 1 order per month? Or is it based on the deliver days set on the package, ie. my basic package has a 3 day turnaround, does that mean a new order will be set up every 3 days until the sub expires?

So many questions 😄

[miiila]

51 minutes ago, yannisenglish said:

So many questions 😄

Yes, I'm rather apprehensive, didn't add the option to my main Gig yet, but rather to one I often have on pause, just in case it will lead to more issues than it's worth. I'd hate to have to bother support with every second "subscription order unit", or whatchamacallit. Hopefully, some people who already got subscription orders and encountered the possible pitfalls, or can reassure us of its harmlessness 😉 will pass by and shed some more light on this feature. 

[vickiespencer]

50 minutes ago, miiila said:

Yes, I'm rather apprehensive, didn't add the option to my main Gig yet

I removed subscriptions after a buyer wanted to set it up, but we found many of the issues mentioned above. My solution was to tell the buyer to contact me before each order and I would give her a 5% discount. After reading @newsmike's advice on raising my prices I did that to cover the 5% discount. 😉

[miiila]

I'm actually surprised that Fiverr only thought of adding the option to give a discount, and didn't also provide the option for raised prices, as you can see this in two ways. While I do see the argument of a discount on buyer side, the option to monopolise a seller's time in advance (plus the potential of time spent on issues with this system), might just as well warrant 5% more as it does 5% less. 🙃