Question

Free trials are converted after being cancelled due to a billing errors

  • 28 September 2023
  • 6 replies
  • 258 views
customuse
Badge +4

Hi RevenueCat team,

The question is about trial conversions for our iOS app Customuse.
The issue is that many of trials got converted after being cancelled due to billings errors.
I’ve attached a couple of examples. 

We have a 3-days grace period enabled for Paid-to-Paid renewals only, so it's not the case.
Moreover, the conversions occurred a few days after the trials expired.

Also from the Amplitude logs we see that users have not returned to the app to make a purchase, so the payments were made automatically.

Could you explain why the trials were converted, please?
And how can we avoid such false conversions.

At Customuse, we are really worried about this issue because users can blame us for scam.
Looking forward to your response.

Customer ids:
c98d6c3d-2946-4920-96bd-2919fd81be0f
6aacf173-34a3-492c-9f0b-dfa86d1316c8


Kind regards,
Dmitry, Customuse

6 replies

customuse
Badge +4

I noticed that we had such behaviour even before paid-to-paid grace periods were turned on.
So after the subscription below expired on Jul 19, I wonder how it was renewed on Jul 27?

From the Amplitude logs, we see that on that day the user opened the app, probably when he saw that he was changed.​

Could someone explain how this worked please.

 

 

customuse
Badge +4

Found this document from WWDC
Reducing Involuntary Subscriber Churn
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/in-app_purchase/original_api_for_in-app_purchase/subscriptions_and_offers/reducing_involuntary_subscriber_churn

Billing-related issues trigger a subscription to automatically enter a billing retry state, where the App Store attempts to recover the subscription.

So probably that’s why our customers were charged after several days.
Please let us know if the above screenshots mean entering a billing retry state. Thank you.

cody
Rank
Userlevel 6
Badge +8

Hey @customuse,

Our dashboard reports exactly what Apple is reporting on the user’s receipts, so there aren’t false conversions happening here. The likely case is that users start a trial, conversion fails so they enter a grace period, then eventually recover by fixing their payment method. It’s also possible to re-subscribe without launching your app, via the Settings app.

It’s worth noting that any successful purchase after starting a trial will be considered a trial conversion for RevenueCat, even if the user cancels the trial first (the next purchase would be considered a trial conversion).

Seth Miller
Badge +6

@cody wait really?? what happens in the following case: 

  1. user starts 7 day annual trial in onboarding
  2. user cancels 
  3. 14 days later, the user decides to subscribe to monthly product
S
Badge +2

@customuse it is very interesting and unfortunate to see that you have a high billing issue rate. I believe this issue is probably due to the fact that this app is downloaded directly on kids iPhone. I have not been able to prove my point but here are some facts that makes me think this:

  1. My app is designed to be set on kids phone and I have a very high number of billing issues as well
  2. when looking at other apps like TinyTap (making millions in revenue) I see that they implemented their own payment method same for Kidslox when stating that you are on the child device and you want to pay they redirect you to a payment method sent via email. 

@customuse do you have an opinion on that? @cody do you have one as well?

N
Badge +3

@customuse it is very interesting and unfortunate to see that you have a high billing issue rate. I believe this issue is probably due to the fact that this app is downloaded directly on kids iPhone. I have not been able to prove my point but here are some facts that makes me think this:

  1. My app is designed to be set on kids phone and I have a very high number of billing issues as well
  2. when looking at other apps like TinyTap (making millions in revenue) I see that they implemented their own payment method same for Kidslox when stating that you are on the child device and you want to pay they redirect you to a payment method sent via email. 

@customuse do you have an opinion on that? @cody do you have one as well?

Hey
I believe it has nothing to do with the problem being because the app is for children, because my app is for people over 18 and has the same problem.

Is your app just for IOS or also for Android?

I asked my friends here in Brazil to sign up for my app, even though they had a credit card, the error continued.


They claim that there is some problem with the person's Android account "Problem with payment with google".

I'm thinking about creating a new account as a developer to see if I can resolve this issue.

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