Changing the product or variant for an existing pre-paid subscription

Customers may subscribe to a product and tire of it after months of receiving the same product. To prevent customers from churning, you may want to offer them the option of updating their subscription product.

Customers may want to swap to a new product altogether, or to a different variation of the same product they are currently subscribed to. While customers subscribed on a month-to-month basis can swap their products through the customer portal, customers subscribed to pre-paid products must contact you to update their subscription. 

This guide explains how you can update the pre-paid subscription product for a customer on their next queued order.

Step 1 - Add the new product to the subscription

To update a pre-paid product for an existing subscription, you must begin by adding the new pre-paid product to the customer's subscription.

1. Locate the customer through the Customers tab in your merchant portal. This will open the merchant portal for the specific customer. 
2. The Subscriptions tab will open by default. Click the Add Product button. Make sure to select Add Product under the existing pre-paid product if the customer has more than one Address ID.
    
3. Search for the new subscription product using the search bar. Click on the product to add it to the subscription.
4. The pre-paid subscription product will open on a new page, where you can see the subscription properties assigned to the product. These properties should match the properties for the existing subscription. You can also select any variant options from the variant drop-downs if necessary. 
5. Select Add Product to add the product to the subscription.

Adding the new pre-paid product ensures that the customer is subscribed to the right product on their next recurring order.

Step 2 - Cancel the old product

You must cancel the old product to prevent the customer from receiving multiple charges.

1. Open the Actions menu for the original product listed on the Subscriptions tab. Select Cancel from the list of items in the drop-down menu. Make sure to use the correct Address ID if the customer has multiple subscriptions.
   
2. Provide a reason for cancelation. We recommend using the "Other" option and leaving a brief comment to describe the situation before canceling the subscription.
   

Canceling the old product ensures that Recharge uses the new product for all future recurring charges.

If the subscription has already expired

Some pre-paid subscriptions are set to expire after a certain amount of charges. You will need to immediately cancel the subscription for the new product as well if the customer's subscription has already expired and they still would like to update the product for any remaining shipments. This ensures that the product is reflected correctly in the customer portal. 

Step 3 - Add the new product variant to the existing queued shipment

When a customer purchases a pre-paid subscription, all of the shipments for that subscription are created at one time and are scheduled based on the subscription rules set. Each of these queued shipments includes the original product customer pre-paid for.

Once you have canceled the original product, you must update the remaining shipments for the current pre-paid subscription from the original product to the new product. This ensures that the customer receives the new products on all remaining queued shipments.

1. Click See Details beside the Address ID to view a list of charges for the customer. Make sure to use the Address ID related to the pre-paid subscription if the customer has multiple Address IDs. 
2. Locate the most recent "Success" charge from the list of Charges. Click on the arrow to expand the charge information.
3. Click Add Variant for the next queued shipment. 
   
4. Search for the new product from the Select Product menu.
5. Enter the quantity that the customer should receive on their next subscription and select Add.
   
6. A "success" message will appear once the variant has been added to the queued shipment. It may take a few moments for this update to process.
   
7. Repeat these steps to add the new variant to any remaining queued shipments.

Step 4 - Remove the old product from existing shipments

Adding the new product to the queued shipments does not automatically remove the original pre-paid product. You must also remove the original product from the queued shipment to prevent the customer from receiving multiple products.

1. Click the trash can icon to the right of the original product.
   
2. A message will appear confirming that you wish to delete this variant. Select OK.
3. Repeat these steps to remove the original product from all existing orders. 

Step 5 - Confirm the change with your customer

Review the customer's subscription once you have added the new product to the remaining queued shipments as well as removed the original product:

• Confirm that all queued shipments contain the new product variant.
  • Add the new product and remove the original product from a queued shipment if the shipment contains an incorrect product.
• Confirm that the next queued charge has the correct charge date. 
  • Update the charge date on the order if necessary. 
• Confirm that the product variant on the shipments for the upcoming queued charge is correct.
  • You may need to repeat the first two steps if the old products are still included in the next pre-paid charge. Contact the Recharge Support team for additional troubleshooting assistance. 

If everything appears as expected, inform your customer that the changes have been made to their subscription.