"Recurring charge cancelled" when merchant updates their capped amount

[rorz]

We've been using recurring application charges with no real issues for the past few months now in our app.

However, from this week, multiple merchants have had their recurring subscriptions automatically canceled when updating their usage cap in our app.

We use the 2020-07 GraphQL API to update the `cappedAmount` field via `appSubscriptionLineItemUpdate`. This then presents the "confirmation" page to them on Shopify's end to restart their trial with a higher capped amount.

Upon confirming, these merchants receive no errors on Shopify's end, but from our Partners dashboard their recurring charge gets canceled outright, meaning that we are no longer able to bill them for usage charges at all.

Has something breaking-changed to recurring charges recently that I could have missed? I am confident that nothing regarding billing in our app has changed and we are not using any deprecated APIs...

Would be great to hear if anyone else is facing this issue at the moment, as it is breaking our ability to charge merchants, and is also not reproducible(!) using test charges.

Thanks

[syf_]

Hi @rorz,

We are aware of a bug related to the use of the appSubscriptionLineItemUpdate mutation when trying to update the cappedAmount field that cancels merchants' recurring subscriptions. Our team of developers are investigating this issue further. Though I'm not able to provide you with a specific timeline, I would update you on the issue once I hear anything back.

I'd like to suggest a workaround in the meantime, which would be to create a new charge using the appSubscriptionCreate mutation (which has no known problems, and ideally should behave in a similar manner) with a different cappedAmount. Let me know if this works.

If you have any additional questions relating to this issue, please get back to me and I'd be happy to help answer them.

Best,
Seth.

[rorz]

Thanks for getting back to me on this, @syf_  — notification of a fix would be really appreciated.

We might hold out instead of using that other mutation, so long as the timescale isn't too big, due to the fact there's a decent chunk of other code that would need updating. Thanks for suggesting that workaround though.

Might I ask here if there are plans to bring the testing and production charge systems up to parity? Have caught a few (edge-case) differences between the two and am eager to know if it's going to actively be made more reliable in the future.

Cheers

[syf_]

Hi @rorz,

I understand how tedious such a change to your codebase can be, and the impact this bug has in terms of you not being able to charge customers for usage. I have no updates from the dev team as yet but I'd get back to you immediately I do.

In the meantime if you do have any suggestions or additional context to provide regarding this issue, we would very much appreciate it, as this would increase the robustness of our platform and make it easier for developers like yourself to use.

Thanks,
Seth.

[ShanifAtApteo]

Hi @rorz, glad to help with your query. Actually, there was a bug after a new update in a recurring application, and they have solved this bug.

Let me know if you are still facing the issue.

[rorz]

Hey @ShanifAtApteo, thanks for your reply! Appreciate you letting me know about this.

Since there's no way to test if this bug still exists except in production, do you have any docs from Shopify to support this as being solved now?

Otherwise, I'd really also appreciate confirmation from somebody at Shopify (such as @syf_ ) before we roll this back out.

Cheers!

[rorz]

Unfortunately, it's still not working for us as a merchant just tried to update their capped amount and it was canceled again.

I'm un-marking this thread as solved because this issue has now been unresolved for over three weeks!

@syf_ Would really appreciate updates on this now and a timeline for resolution as it's now seriously affecting our ability to take payments and operate normally.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Cheers

Rory

[syf_]

Hi Rory,

The billing team are still working on pushing out a fix, and though I'm unable to give an accurate timeline. I'm hopeful that a fix should be shipped by next week (can't guarantee that it would).

I'd let you know when the fix does roll out.

Thanks,
Seth.

[rorz]

Thanks for getting back to me here, Seth.

Hoping for a fix soon!

Best

Rory

[ShanifAtApteo]

Hi @rorz, it'll be fixed in the upcoming release of " API version: 2021-04 " 

You can find the detailed review here

[rorz]

Thanks for the link @ShanifAtApteo , but this functionality is already listed as working in all live versions of the Admin API... See 2020-04, for example. I don't see anything in particular about the implementation in 2021-04 that would indicate it being fixed, or in fact that it is any different from the other versions.

To be clear, the `capped_amount` update call is not working due to a bug (see earlier in this thread), as confirmed by Shopify.

Thanks

[syf_]

Hi Rory,

A bugfix just shipped, and I believe you should no longer be having this issue.

Is it possible for you to verify (on a small scale) if the rollout fixes the problem you were experiencing?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,
Seth.