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Charge upfront is now mandatory, apparently (Patreon)

Published:
2023-04-29 23:39:10
Imported:
2023-04

Content

First off, I want to say that if anyone is double-charged this month, I can refund one of the charges. I do want to wait on that until I get this all figured out, though.

Okay, so here's the issue. Before, my Patreon was set to monthly charge, no upfront. That meant that new Patrons were only charged on the 1st of the month. They weren't ever charged the day that they signed up.

But now, it looks like they got rid of the "no upfront charges" option. They quietly shifted to a model where Patrons are charged on both the day they sign up, and then charged again the first day of the next month. (After which, billing would continue to be on the first of the month.)

The way I understand it, if a patron signed up my Patreon in April, then they would be charged on both the day they signed up, and also the 1st of May. That means that if someone signed up on April 30th, they'd be charged two days in a row! That sounds like a really bad idea, but that's apparently how Patreon wants to do things now!

So, since some of the alternate billing options are no longer available, it looks like I have only two options:

First, I could keep things the way they are, which would result in a lot of double-billing and would probably piss a lot of people off

Second, I could change to subscription billing. This is how most Patron creators are set up now. Basically you're charged on the day you sign up, and then you'll be charged a month after that, on whatever day of the month you signed up on. This would fix the double-charging issue, but could potentially be very confusing.

I really don't like either of those options and I hate that Patreon is apparently making me choose between them, but Subscription Billing sounds like the better of those two choices! 

Let me know what you think, because I'm probably going to decide for sure tomorrow.

The document below is outdated, but still does a good job of explaining how the different billing tiers work. Only the first two tiers they talk about, Subscription Billing and Monthly Charge Upfront, are options for me currently.

support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002355991-How-Patreon-billing-works

Comments

MistressofTransformation

Well, what if you just send the monthly comics that you released that month to them so if they joined on the last day of march they would still get the march comics, then the next day the April ones. That would also give the instant gratification of joining your patreon so they don't have to wait until the 1st to get the comic.

Jack

I don't remember the exact date I signed up, but I do prefer the "beginning of the month" charge, as that's what I've been accustomed to since I started being a patron.

redfiredog
>>107457835

Yes, but then let's say that someone signed up late April, and already got the April comics off of Gumroad. Do I give them the comics from April 1st? Do I also give them comics from May 1st when those come out, even though they were only charged once and could unsubscribe at any time?

redfiredog

Why the fuck does Patreon have to make everything so confusing I'm sure it's because they make more money with charge upfront. Full stop, that's got to the be whole thing. So what if it makes things worse for a lot of creators and patrons to make it mandatory? The venture capitalists who invested their money in Patreon want to maximize short-term ROI any way they can

MistressofTransformation
>>107457835

I interpreted it as if they signed up April 25 they would be charged the full amount instantly. Then they would be charged again on May 1st the full amount. If they bought the comics on gumroad then that's their own purchasing errors. Not your fault. Like I get the same comics from other creators on here I could cancel that patreon for the month if it bothered me that much. If you did the option where they signed up on April 25th then got charged again on May 25th then you would just give them the comics from May 1st. It's still a monthly cycle and they would still always get that months comic. So other than making it harder for you to check to make sure everyone paid on the 1st, it should essentially be the same and I imagine the simplest to keep track of. There's no reason to take away the option, it let's their options fit to the way the creator operates. Hopefully you complained about it to them. I agree though the always charging on the 1st was very nice for me I dislike getting a few random patreon charges throughout the month instead of all at once. It makes sense for creators who do weekly type releases It also makes sense to sign up on say the 13th that you get charged for a whole month you should get a whole month.

patratter

Hey I'm curious if you have any prompts to get around chatgpt's guidelines?

Valkyrie Cain

Subscription seems like the best choice for now

redfiredog
>>107464680

No, I really haven't used ChatGPT that much I have used Sudowrite extensively, it has a monthly fee but as far as I can tell there are no content safeguards whatsoever

Goingsomewhere

I also prefer the "beginning of the month charge". All my patreon contributions are than charged at the same time which keeps it all nicely organized. If I remembered correctly, you gave every new Patreon a few comics when the sign on, so they are not left empty handed. If you let new subscribers know of the situation you are well covered in my opninion.

Kage Inu

I've been signed up since last year. That's why I shouldn't have two charges deducted. It's also convenient for me that my subscription is paid on the 1st of the month. According to these new rules, it's better for newcomers to subscribe from the 1st to the 3rd of the new month.

Anonymous
>>107457835

Actually it's funny. I missed April due to vacation, and specifically waited until the end of the month to subscribe. Moreover, Patreon himself wrote that money would be withdrawn from me on May 1, everything is as usual. Suddenly, on the 28th, they take money for a subscription. The first thought is that this is May, but no. April. Wrote in support, and they immediately redirect to the author. Damn geniuses. Sorry for bad english.

omnomplus

I like to change pledge level depending on the comic plot and author, so I would have a hard time avoiding the double billing and be annoyed by it.

redfiredog
>>107478232

Yeah, but unfortunately that isn't an option anymore, unless I want to charge new subscribers twice in a row. Someone could sign up for Tier 3 and potentially get charged $30 in the course of a few days. Not to mention that I'm pretty sure it could happen not just to new subscribers, but people who drop their subscription and then re-subscribe.

GodLiquid Z

Subscription is fine