In Max Classic, when a customer's purchase attempt fails, Max Classic still generates an order record with an open balance. Max Classic will then attempt to re-charge the order, which creates risk for duplicate charges if the customer attempts their purchase again. This behavior is determined by the E-Commerce > Settings > Orders > Auto Charge setting.
On July 1 2021, Keap released an update to Max Classic that prevents failed initial orders from auto charging.
As of this change, the Auto Charge setting will only impact attempts on subsequent orders. Subsequent orders are any second, third, fourth, etc. payment attempt on a subscription or payment plan.
Orders
New orders will have Auto Charge set to No by default in the order's settings. Max Classic will still generate an order, however the order will not reattempt if the initial charge fails.
Subsequent orders
Any subsequent orders generated from a subscription or subsequent charges on a payment plan will reflect your app's setting chosen on the E-Commerce > Settings > Orders page for Auto Charge.
If Auto Charge is set to Yes, Max Classic will automatically reattempt charges for subsequent scheduled payments should one fail. Initial orders will never reattempt.
If Auto Charge is set to No, Max Classic will not automatically reattempt charges for failed subsequent scheduled payments. Initial orders will never reattempt.
Subscriptions
If the initial payment attempt for a subscription plan fails, Max Classic will generate an order record for the failed attempt, but will not generate a subscription. This will keep your subscriptions list clean and ensure that subsequent orders are not generated.
FAQs
Even with this solution, extra orders on failed attempts are still being created which clutter up my app and affect my reporting. Why is this not being addressed as well?
Our first step is focused on the core problem that Max Classic's E-Commerce retry logic can cause a lot of problems for our users and their clients when it results in duplicate charges. Once we address this, we will explore if orders for failed attempts can be categorized differently and if we can tie them to a successful order if one ultimately occurs.
Why not let the users control more of the retry logic through an added setting? This seems like a big change, and some Keap customers may want initial orders to reattempt.
Our current retry logic on initial orders does not meet normal standards and expectations of e-commerce. We are confident that with advance notice and communication, this is the right thing to do for Keap users and their clients.
How will this impact any billing automations that are set up?
Your billing automations will not be directly impacted, however they may be triggered less often due to these changes resulting in fewer failed attempts.
How will orders that I add manually and charge to a saved card on file be impacted?
These orders will be treated as described above. If the initial manually-added order fails, auto charge will be set to no.
How will this impact orders created from the “Create order” process in Campaign Builder?
The "Create order" process will also be affected by this change. When users choose an order to be created via automation and have auto charge set to on when creating the campaign if the initial attempt fails then the auto charge will flip to no. Max Classic will not retry the payment if the initial attempt fails.
How will this impact orders created from action sets?
Action sets also will not be affected. Users will still be able to choose if an order by an action set has auto charge set to on or off when creating that action set. If auto charge is set to yes, Max Classic will retry payment if the initial attempt fails.
How will orders coming from the API be impacted?
We will not make any changes to the auto charge settings of orders that are made via the API (both via REST and XMLRPC).
How will this impact manually added subscriptions?
We will not remove any manually added subscriptions even if the first payment attempt fails.
Can I add payments to a failed initial order that would have started a payment plan?
Yes, just be sure to change autocharge from “no” to “yes” on the order so that subsequent payments on that payment plan will automatically attempt at the scheduled time.
When will these changes take place?
We will be testing our changes in early June with select partners and customers and are planning to roll the change out to all customers in late June 2021.
When Keap moves forward with these changes, what actions will I need to take in my app?
No action will be required from users when this goes live.
How will you make sure these changes go smoothly?
We will extensively test internally and work with select partners and customers before we push these changes out more broadly.