PayPal is not visible in checkout for “Subscription” items

Hello @pixelplanet

The disabling of the gateway for guest users when subscription products are in the cart is a deliberate & temporary measure to prevent an issue from occurring.
With the previous version 1.6.1 and before, when a guest user created a subscription, this would happen in two steps: It would first fail, then they would try again and it “succeeds”. This could “corrupt” the subscription in a way that the initial payment works, but subsequent renewals of the subscription would potentially fail.

We understand that having the gateway disabled for guests is not the desired behaviour and are working to make this possible with another update 1.6.3 before the holidays.
For now, the best thing we could do is prevent the issue from happening by disabling the gateway for guest users to make sure that all the requirements for a successful subscription are met.
With the previous version, guest users could create the subscription but there is a high probability of automatic renewals not working.

When a registered user creates the subscription with the latest version 1.6.2, then we are very confident in its ability to automatically renew. With the next update 1.6.3, we aim to make it possible for guests as well.
So for now, we recommend that users create an account first before purchasing the subscription product.

Hopefully, this answers your question. Let us know if you have any other questions.

Kind regards,
Joost

Hi Joost,
that’s good to know. It would have been better if this had also been stated in the last release notes.

I ask for a short term improvement *please*, because we have mostly new customers who sign up for a subscription. The account is created with the first order.

Thank you,
Thilo

Hello @pixelplanet

I understand the request, but the only option we would have is to revert back to 1.6.1, but then the chance of failing 2nd payment is very realistic. This would simply mean delaying the issues for later. It is a choice you can make, but we would not advise doing so.

Kind regards,
Joost

Hi Joost,

This should be documented somewhere. Wasted last 2 hours looking into this thinking it was a config issue on my site. Anyway, do you have any ETA on this?? I mean, this is a HUGE issue as new customers don’t know they need to create an account so they can buy a subscription. And adding notices or any other instruction is quite pointless as most people don’t read them… so this basically means losing sells.

Please provide some visibility on when a fix for this issue will be available.

Thanks

Hello @thomas_92

Sorry for the inconvenience this issue has caused you. We are aware of the gravity of the situation and understand the impact it has on the customers and merchants and are doing our best to get this resolved ASAP. At this moment I do not see an expected resolution time for this bug but will chase for this. This is only intended as a temporary solution for a bigger issue, so I would expect a quick turnaround.

I have linked this thread to the bug, so you should receive an update when a workaround or fix is available for you. At this time I do not have more details on it that I can share with you.

Kind regards,
Joost

Hello @pixelplanet and @thomas_92,

Thanks for your patience and apologies for getting back to you just now.
There was a problem within our support system that caused us to miss your latest message which we deeply regret.

Anyway regarding your questions: For as long as the Vaulting feature is disabled, the gateway will not appear in the checkout when a (variable) subscription product is in the cart.
The only problem would be the express buttons on the single product page for example, as they can potentially still be loaded for variable products even when Vaulting is disabled.
When the non-checkout buttons are disabled, then this wouldn’t matter though. Anyway, this behavior should be resolved with an update sometime in February.

But regarding the guest checkout for subscriptions, this issue will finally be resolved with our upcoming update later this week.
We are currently testing the new update and it will be released once all tests have been completed. The latest pre-release versions can be downloaded from the plugin GitHub repo in case you are interested in giving it a try: https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce-paypal-payments/releases
We would suggest waiting a few more days for the official release though as this version requires a few minor tweaks before we would recommend it for use on a production site.

if any questions remain, then please do not hesitate to reach out.
Thanks!

Kind regards,
Joost