[GlobalStep] An error message appears on checkout page while placing order for "free trial subscription" product. (378)

[gglobalstep]

Bug Description:

An error message appears on checkout page while placing order for "free trial subscription" product.

Environment:

Woocommerce Version : WooCommerce 5.6.0 WooCommerce PayPal Payments 1.6.0 - test WordPress version: v5.8.1

PC: Windows 10, Mac 10.14.6 Chrome(Version 93.0.4577.82) Firefox(Version 92.0 (64-bit)) Safari: v14.1.2

Steps To Reproduce:

1. Create any test site using JN site.
2. Install and activate all the required plugins.
3. Complete the setup wizard.
4. Connect the store to Pay Pal payment.
5. Go to WooCommerce > Settings > PayPal and make sure “Enable saved cards and subscription features on your store.” next to “Vaulting” is enabled.
6. Go to the store and add your free trial subscription product to the cart. Proceed to checkout.
7. Make sure the total is 0.0.
8. Click the “PayPal” button and follow all the steps in the modal window. Use your PayPal sandbox buyer account details when asked.
9. Observe that an error message appears.

Actual Result:

An error message appears on checkout page while placing order for "free trial subscription" product.

Expected Result:

User should be able to place order free trial subscrption product sucessfully.

Screenshot:

Isolating the problem (mark completed items with an [x]):

• [ ] I have deactivated other plugins and confirmed this bug occurs when only WooCommerce plugin is active.
• [ ] This bug happens with a default WordPress theme active, or Storefront.
• [x] I can reproduce this bug consistently using the steps above.

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wp_wc_customer_lookup: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.03MB + Engine InnoDB wp_wc_download_log: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.03MB + Engine InnoDB wp_wc_order_coupon_lookup: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.03MB + Engine InnoDB wp_wc_order_product_lookup: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.06MB + Engine InnoDB wp_wc_order_stats: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.05MB + Engine InnoDB wp_wc_order_tax_lookup: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.03MB + Engine InnoDB wp_wc_product_meta_lookup: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.09MB + Engine InnoDB wp_wc_reserved_stock: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.00MB + Engine InnoDB wp_wc_tax_rate_classes: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB wp_wc_webhooks: Data: 0.02MB + Index: 0.02MB + Engine InnoDB ### Post Type Counts ### attachment: 25 mailpoet_page: 1 page: 7 post: 2 product: 19 product_variation: 7 shop_order: 28 shop_order_refund: 1 shop_subscription: 4 ### Security ### Secure connection (HTTPS): ✔ Hide errors from visitors: ✔ ### Active Plugins (9) ### Query Monitor: by John Blackbourn – 3.7.1 Companion 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[jorgeatorres]

I'd like to add that it was discussed whether a warning was a good idea to add. I'm not against it, but we already have a ton of warnings. I believe it'd be better to clearly document that this is not supported at the moment. As for the customer experience, it'd be good if PPCP could remove itself from the list of available gateways when it detects a free trial subscription in the cart. Similarly to how it doesn't appear as an option when vaulting is disabled and you're playing for a subscription product.

[WillBrubaker]

Pretty sure I've got a case of this in 32602728-hc

[dreamtooloud]

Hi there! I was working on an issue today for 4388477-zd (closed but not resolved). I would like to note that this issue does not only impact free trial subscriptions but it also impacts merchants that synchronize their renewals with no prorate or fee at sign up (ie: All subscriptions are renewed on the 5th of the month, customer places order on the 25th of the previous month; no money is taken from that customer until the 5th, so a 'zero amount' is needed for customer signup).

So, this does impact more than free trial subscriptions.

I saw in a forums post that the work around is currently to ensure that customers have $0 checkout enabled in WooCommerce Subscriptions but that does require the customer to manually renew the subscription when the first payment date arrives (since payment methods won't be saved for a customer if they have a $0 amount). I will suggest this to the merchant I am working with for now, but I did want to make note here that there are more impacted merchant configurations.

[adambware]

Is this the correct issue to be following for updates on a fix for this "free trial" or "zero sum subscription" issue?

Consider this my vote 👍🏻

[InpsydeNiklas]

Yes, there will be more related issues but this one will be closed once the feature has been implemented. For PayPal, this likely happens in one of the next updates, so version 1.7.1 or 1.7.2 but I'm not sure about the PayPal Card Processing. Until then, the workarounds as suggested are enabling either zero-sum checkouts in the WooCommerce Subscriptions or setting a sign-up fee.

[EricaKuschel]

Adding hc-25352288 to this report to be contacted.

[darcie]

Request in 4915026-zen

[ziodave]

The fix should be in 1.8.0, adding a reference link: https://woocommerce.com/document/woocommerce-paypal-payments/#free-trials

[melek]

36300525-hc

User is on WooCommerce PayPal Payments 1.9.1 but is getting an error at checkout with a synchronized subscription that 'Never' prorates using WooCommerce Payments:

CANNOT_BE_ZERO_OR_NEGATIVE Must be greater than zero. If the currency supports decimals, only two decimal place precision is supported.

[InpsydeNiklas]

Update 1.8.0 implemented support for subscription products with a free trial period. But synchronized payment dates are not yet supported. These will follow in a future update. For the time being, saving a payment method with a free trial subscription product requires the merchant to have Reference Transactions transactions enabled. Without Reference Transactions, it may result in an UNKNOWN_BUSINESS_ERROR. Payment methods can be saved in the Vault without Reference Transactions for regular products and subscriptions. But for free trials, it only works with Reference Transactions enabled. We are looking into whether or not this requirement could be bypassed somehow but if Reference Transactions are available, it should be working.

[marklifeboxfood]

Hi @InpsydeNiklas - thank you for that helpful information. Regarding Synchronized Payments - if the value upfront payment is non-zero (i.e. my synchronized payment subscription includes a Sign Up Fee) the order completes successfully, and renewals "seem" to work fine... should I still avoid using paypal payments for synchronized payments if there is a non-zero fee, or is this use case generally supported? In other words, is there some other bug in this logic that would make future renewals fail or is the issue solely down to the CANNOT_BE_ZERO... issue

Thank you very much!

[InpsydeNiklas]

@marklifeboxfood The only problem is PayPal API not accepting zero-sum payments. So as long as the checkout total is non-zero, e.g. due to a signup fee, there is no problem with processing the payment and saving the payment method in the Vault. Free trial subscriptions use a special logic as explained here in the docs to save the payment method in the Vault without a payment. The next update (pre-release is available here) expands the functionality used for free trials to all scenarios where the Checkout total is zero and there is a subscription in the cart. So then it will also work when payment is synchronized and there is no signup fee.