Account Expires after x Minute(s)/Hour(s) etc PROBLEM!

[smu johnson]

Hi again,

In the config screen under the PLANS tab, there are several options one can choose to decide when the account will become suspended. We have had absolutely no success using the "After ___ Minute(s)" option. We found found that the user is allowed through past any amount of time we put in here (10 minutes). We even checked the STATUS tab and found that the counter was counting higher than 10 minutes, and was still allowing the user access.

The reason why this is important for us is because if we were to have a user pay for 1 hr of time for example, and he were to shut his computer off after playing on the internet for 5 minutes, he could theoretically come back in a month and use the rest of his time. We want the counter to start clocking one hour right after he pays for his time, whether or not he passively logs in.

We have tried using the other "When airtime credit is used up: Initial time assigned (mins):" option and this actually stops the user from having unlimited time, but as described in the paragraph above, we need it to count down regardless of if he's using the system or not.

Can our problem be addressed in anyway?

Thank you very much in advance,

[SteveOllis]

I'll have a go..

Changing the plan AFTER it has been added to the Shopping Cart, or after the user has purchased it does not affect the running configuration.

For existing users, you have to manually edit EACH and EVERY user to have3 the right plan characteristics.

For existing shopping carts, delete the plan.. and then re-add it.

Steve

[smu johnson]

Thanks for the reply.

We have modified the plans before purchasing in our case. What we did was simply add a new "Slogger 10!" plan and a new item in the shopping card called "Test", and then we associated users with it.

Still no luck!

[alan]

Well, the "Account Expires after x Minute(s)/Hour(s)" attribute is designed for administrator to set rather than using shopping cart. So it does not make a lot of sense for using this attribute with shopping cart.
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[smu johnson]

Hello Alan,

The powers that be demand that Firstspot in our setup start counting down their paid time the minute they finish a paypal transaction. We have them logged in passively, so if they pay for 100 minutes, use 20 of them right away, go away from their computer for an hour (or even shut it off) and come back, they should have 20 minutes left.

Using an option like you mentioned, ie, an __Account that Expires After x minutes/hours/weeks__ is the only way we've been able to dream of this being possible.

We've tried the other "Account expires after airtime credit is used up" but this totally doesn't work like we need it to, because of the requirement we specified in the first paragraph.

Is there anything that can be done to accommodate our situation?

It is very much appreciated!

Thanks

[bbartell]

I'm stuck on this issue as well. I'd like a user be able to purchase 1 hour of usage and have FS log the user out after 1 hr. I've set up a 1 hour plan with the suspend after 1 hour entry. I setup a 1 hour cart that uses the 1 hour plan. User never times out. Infinite use. What am I missing here??
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Bill

[bbartell]

Hello Alan,
Any chance of getting support on this problem I'm having?
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Bill

[alan]

The confusing part about this attribute is that if the user purchases this plan the second time, it is quite ambiguous on what FirstSpot should do. Any more comment?
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[bbartell]

Alan,
I think I understand FS will become confused with the "Conditions to suspend this account" setting of let's say 1 hour.
So, I don't see anywhere to time limit users other than suspending them after so many minutes, hours or days. It must be right in front of me and I'm missing it.
Here is what I wish to configure: 1 hour plan, 1 day plan, 1 month plan. Where do I set the time limits? Thanks for your understanding.
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Bill

[jandersonteaco]

All, I service a small airport and on one of the earlier versions 4.02ish this functionality worked correctly. I know since 4.08 it has not worked and I am now on 4.12 and considering going back to the earlier version. I use this function exclusively.

Alan, to address the problem of what firstspot should do if a user purchases a second amount of "expires after xx minutes" (99.99% of the time a user will NOT purchase until the first block runs out), but if it happens, firstspot should just reset the account to the plan most recently purchased and ignore any previous time. if there is ever someone who mis-understands the plan, then they can request a refund.

The "what if scenario" above still does not address the issue of the system not functioning properly. It needs to be fixed please.

Also in the v5beta, this option did not function AT ALL when used. The user was set to "never" expire rather than to suspend the account at the specified time.

[alan]

Based on your feedback, we propose the followings:

1) When the client purchases a shopping cart item (with "After x minutes" in the Plan), FirstSpot will set the suspend time based on the current time.

E.g. assuming the current time is 16:05 and the client makes a purchase to a shopping cart item with the Plan's attributes set to "After 1 hour", FirstSpot will set the suspend time to 17:05.

2) FirstSpot will ignore the current user's suspend time. Again, using the above example, FirstSpot will set the suspend time to 17:05 and ignore the previous value of suspend time.

BTW, the above design won't cater smu johnson's idea "counter to start clocking one hour right after he pays for his time". The suspend time will be counted from the time of purchase instead.
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[jandersonteaco]

Alan,

The plan has the option to enable to the account when the user first logs in. That is what I am using. This or the "created" option would both work fine.

I do not see the difference between the two options you just proposed.

[alan]

First, we are talking about using Plan with Shopping Carts only (not creating users manually).

If we understand correctly, smu johnson wants the time to start counting after a fixed time (say 1 hour) when the user makes the purchase through Shopping Carts. Again, we won't cater that (see the proposal above) since it requires us to introduce another attribute and make thing a bit complex.

So either the time start counting at purchase time, or when the user first login. We plan to cater the both in v5.
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[jandersonteaco]

Ok, so we understand what will happen in v5. How can you fix the problem that we have now????

[alan]

We re-test v4.0.14 (using WorldPay, Authorize.net should be similar). The "After x minutes" attribute and shopping carts should work well at least the first time. If the client purchases the Plan for second time, the logic is kind of weird though.

Note that:
1) you need to set the user's original (before making purchase) air credit to 0. This will make user won't be able to login until the client makes the purchase
2) the user needs to relogin to have the new "After x minutes" attribute to take into effect (this will be improved in v5).
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