Doubled subscription fee

[Akira]

Yesterday, PayPal sent me a notification that it automatically paid for the renewal of the NG subscription yesterday.

I had already paid for the renewed subscription earlier manually, to be precise, on May 26 via PayPal.

I don't know how the subscription renewal was set to "auto", because I've always paid the subscription fee "manually".

I don't mind paying for subscribing this wonderful community forum, but I would like either to:

1.  get the money back.

or

2. be entitled as subscriber for the next two years.

In whichever case, I would like to pay for the subscription "manually".  I also would like to know where or if I can make sure of my subscription setting on my own, and how to do that if I can.  I looked into my Account Settings but couldn't find any check box for the way to subscribe.

Thank you in advance.

[Akira]

Apparently, an email was sent to me last week, but my mail server decided that it was infected by a virus and the content of the email was deleted.

I'd like to make sure if the filtered email was to address the issue posted above?

Thank you in advance.

[Ann]

Some Browsers now flag any "Http"-based Site (which Nikongear is) as "Insecure" and that is possibly what Paypal and your e-Mail service encountered?

I have recently learned that the IT profession is advising their clients to never even open an uncertified and insecure site.

I wasn't intending to get my own Site SSL Certified because my Site-hosting company used to charge extra for certification but that service now offers free SSL Certificates from letsencrypt so I did register for certification and changed my site to HTTPS.

This did entail quite a bit of re-coding: not only to my Home page (which was easy enough) but I found that all of my internal Links between the Home Button in my Galleries back to my Home/Index page had to be changed to https links too or my Site would still be flagged as "insecure" by most Browsers.

Manually correcting internal code for more than over 50 Galleries (and then re-uploading all of them, individually, back to the Host's Server!) took quite a while.

I don't know if Nikongear is losing possible members and visitors by being an HTTP (SSL Uncertified) Site but it might be something to consider?

[Akira]

Ann, thank you for sharing your experience and thoughts.

Although the doubled subscription fee doesn't seem to be caused by the insecurity of NG, I'm also concerned about the issue.

I found that the automatic subscription of NG in my PayPal account was checked and I forgot about that and renewed the subscription manually, which seems to have caused the problem.

I unchecked the automatic renewal of the subscription.  I confirmed that my NG Supporter status will be kept for two years (until 2021), so the problem is practically solved.

[MFloyd]

I discovered the same issue with my PayPal account. I have no problem to pay a subscription fee for NG; I hate, though, to be automatically debited. So I cancelled the automatic debit. And I will be happy to renew the subscription when asked.

[Akira]

I discovered the same issue with my PayPal account. I have no problem to pay a subscription fee for NG; I hate, though, to be automatically debited. So I cancelled the automatic debit. And I will be happy to renew the subscription when asked.

Totally agree.

If I remember correctly, a subscriber will receive a notification shortly before the yearly subscription expires.  Or, if one misses the notification and forgets to renew it, the displayed name in each post will turn to "brown" instead of "orange".

[Andrea B.]

I will ping Jan Ann to answer the questions about subscriptions.



Some Browsers now flag any "Http"-based Site (which Nikongear is) as "Insecure" and that is possibly what Paypal and your e-Mail service encountered?

Ann, thank you for this bit of info. I'm going to go order up HTTPS for Nikongear. It takes a while to get installed, so you won't see it immediately.

[Ann]

Andrea:
I am afraid that this will be a LOT of additional work for you but making NikonGear into a Secure SSL Certfied site may encourage more visitors and, hopefully, Members too.

[Andrea B.]

No work at all. Once paid for, SSL is installed in 3-5 minutes.

[Akira]

I will ping Jan Ann to answer the questions about subscriptions.



Some Browsers now flag any "Http"-based Site (which Nikongear is) as "Insecure" and that is possibly what Paypal and your e-Mail service encountered?

Ann, thank you for this bit of info. I'm going to go order up HTTPS for Nikongear. It takes a while to get installed, so you won't see it immediately.

Hi, Andrea, thank you for chiming in!

However, you don't need to forward my question about the subscription to Jan: the problem is already solved!  I'm entitled to be a subscriber for "two" years.

And thank you for your effort to upgrade the NG to an HTTPS site.  Hope your work won't turn out to be so burdensome as Ann described.

[Andrea B.]

We will have HTTPS running soon! There's really nothing for me to do except set up the request. The Site5 techs handle the 3-5 minute installation in a few days. The only reason we have a short delay is because Birna does not carry the NG credit card with her on trips. When she returns home in  few days and handles the SSL Certificate invoice, we will be good to go.

A.//

[Ann]

I found that I needed to change all of any internal Links in my Site to https otherwise every time that someone clicked on one of those internal HTTP Links my whole Site again displayed the "Insecure" flag in my Browsers.

You might be able to do a GREP Search-&-Replace but it didn't occur to me to try that.

[Jan Anne]

Hi Akira,

When you subscribed manually last year you forgot to uncheck the auto renewal option hence created an automated subscription unintentionally, PayPal just did what it was ordered to do and automatically extended the subscription with another year ignoring the fact you already extended it manually.

We'll try to figure out how to uncheck this option by default as this "feature" turned out to be more of a nuisance than beneficial for the NG community.

I've refunded the automated renewal to your PayPal account, sorry for the inconvenience.

[Akira]

Hi Akira,

When you subscribed manually last year you forgot to uncheck the auto renewal option hence created an automated subscription unintentionally, PayPal just did what it was ordered to do and automatically extended the subscription with another year ignoring the fact you already extended it manually.

We'll try to figure out how to uncheck this option by default as this "feature" turned out to be more of a nuisance than beneficial for the NG community.

I've refunded the automated renewal to your PayPal account, sorry for the inconvenience.

Hi, Jan, sorry to have bothered you.  I receive the notification of the refund from PayPal.

Now that I unchecked the automatic renewal of the subscription, the problem should not recur.  Thank you for your support!

[Eric Borgström]

A problem with payment I see I am not alone having.
Yesterday I sent €20 via PayPal for one year subscription renewal.
But today  26 November NetGear automatically took €20 via PapPal.
Will you extend the subscription two years? Or do you return the €20.
How can I disable the automatic payment? Dislike it.