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verifying rebilled transactions

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verifying rebilled transactions
I have a question regarding the processing of recurring/rebilled transactions using Authorize.net (but applicable to other processors also).

Let's say I have a gossamer-mail site that has an auto-recurring membership fee. Processing and tracking the initial payment is not a problem--the transaction request is sent to authorize.net and if the initial transaction is successful (or not), a callback is sent to gossamer-mail. If the initial transaction is successful, authorize.net marks the transaction in their system to be rebilled at the designated future time frame (monthly/yearly/etc).

My question is this: is there a way to automatically verify if the rebilled transaction has been successfully processed (or not)? According to authorize.net, they do not send a callback for rebilled transactions, they only send an email. Obviously, with a large user base, having to manually check/update user accounts on a daily basis to keep people from getting locked-out of their accounts is not practical.

I suppose a script could be written to parse these authorize.net emails and then update the local user data, but relying strictly on email for this type of verification is not sound methodology either. Is there a script that exists that can be setup on cron to query authorize.net using their AIM for the status of rebilled transactions? Or some other method...?

How are other people doing this? Any suggestions would be much appreciated!
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Re: [zeke] verifying rebilled transactions In reply to
It's been a while since we've looked over the payment processors to see if their support for various functionality has changed, but when we initially implemented authorize.net support, they did not have any form of recurring payment support that we could use. As you mention, they do not have callbacks/postback support and because of this, we cannot know to renew the user's account status.

I don't believe anyone has written anything to add recurring payment functionality to the payment modules.

I'm a little busy at the moment, but when I get a chance I'll have to look into seeing if the various payment processors have updated their API's and/or functionality.

Adrian
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Re: [brewt] verifying rebilled transactions In reply to
Thanks for the reply...

I just want to be sure I understand the exact process before trying to enable this feature. Is this an accurate description of the implementation of recurring payments as it currently stands:

1) someone signs up for a recurring gossamer mail membership that requires a membership fee, let's say it's supposed to rebill again one year from the signup date
2) the transaction is entered in the gossamer mail database as a recurring transaction, with an expiration/recurring date one year from the signup date
3) in the case of authorize.net, it is entered in their system also as a recurring transaction with a rebill date that is essentially the same as the recurring date entered in the gossamer mail system
4) one year from the signup date, the member's access will be blocked unless their account has been updated with whatever transaction information has been manually retrieved from authorize.net (via their notification emails or their user inteface)

Is that correct? Thanks again and please let me know when you have a chance to investigate further!
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Re: [zeke] verifying rebilled transactions In reply to
No, our payment libraries do not have support for Authorize.net's recurring payment.

Adrian
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Re: [brewt] verifying rebilled transactions In reply to
I apologize...for some reason I thought recurring billing was supported for authorize.net...maybe it used to be? Anyway, no matter...

Let's forget authorize.net and instead assume I am using one of the processors for which you do support recurring billing (per your online demo this appears to be Paypal and Worldpay only). My question essentially remains the same: how will I know if the rebilled transaction is successful or unsuccessful, and by what means is this information obtained? Is there some gmail script that queries the processor when a rebill is due or do the processors send a callback to the gmail software when a transaction rebills (successfully or unsuccessfully)?

thanks
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Re: [zeke] verifying rebilled transactions In reply to
The methods which support recurring billing have a postback, in which the payment provider will make a http request to your server with information pertaining to the transaction. This is what tells Gossamer Mail to renew their account status. If we don't get the postback or we get a non-successful transaction status, then their account doesn't get renewed.

Adrian
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Re: [brewt] verifying rebilled transactions In reply to
Thank you Adrian!