Customized 2co payments

[kickmyserver]

I have dynamic prices for my customers and I have 2co, and I'm not wanting to go pay and switch to a whole new provider when I already have 2co. My prices vary depending on what the customer orders, like addtional features, etc... and it's on a monthly/yearly basis. Anyways, 2co doesn't allow you to do this with your customers...I tried making a script which everytime a client creates an account, it would go in, create the billing plan, and then give the client the billing plan, but I can't figure out any sucessful ways to do it. I've looked and looked and looked for shopping carts/billing programs that handles the billing for you, but none of them offer this feature..

Example,
say I sale a hosting plan for $5 and they want to add an addtional 4GB hard drive space at .10 per GB, I have no way custom bill them at $5.40

Please tell me of any solution to this problem or a bill paying program I can use with 2co (I also use DirectAdmin CP).

I'm willing to pay someone to create a script or anything to make this work (Or to setup a custom shopping cart to work with 2co).... PM me if you can do this and what you will charge (I'll take the best offer).... or just tell me if there is a program I can use.

[Chicken]

And something else to think about... what if a few months from now that customer wants to get an addl. 4GB hard drive space at .10 per GB, there's not going to be a way to "add" another $0.40 to the customer's bill (now at $5.80), probably without you cancelling the billing of the $5.40 plan and having them re-enter credit card details, address, etc., again for the new $5.80 charge.

All the above has nothing to do with your request/question, but it's just something I thought I'd mention in case you ended up looking for another solution and wanted this option.

[kickmyserver]

And something else to think about... what if a few months from now that customer wants to get an addl. 4GB hard drive space at .10 per GB, there's not going to be a way to "add" another $0.40 to the customer's bill (now at $5.80), probably without you cancelling the billing of the $5.40 plan and having them re-enter credit card details, address, etc., again for the new $5.80 charge.

All the above has nothing to do with your request/question, but it's just something I thought I'd mention in case you ended up looking for another solution and wanted this option.

What do you recommend? I love paypal the best, however I do not want to put the user through the whole process of making a seperate account with them, or is this really not a bad thing?

[Chicken]

Well, I have a 2co account that I got when I was offering hosting. It wo9rks for some things and seems inflexible at other times. For example, 2co has a shopping cart, which would be exactly what you're needin' -and they have recurring billing, but I don't think both of those can work together (use the cart to get a total and then rebill that amount every month). Of course if it can do that, well...

I also have a PayPal account and (despite the stories), I tend to use it to send and rec. payments and have started to pay for some services with it (vBulletin license). If it's your only method of accepting payment, you're questioned, but it seems to work pretty well.

If your volume is enough to justify a merchant account (which it might not be yet), then I'd see if that, or some other step between is right for you. I'm not sure if there's anything between, but there are a few members who offer merchant accounts here, and maybe they can steer you in the right direction.

[wisehosting]

if the customer adds an additional 4gb - go to 2co and click on the invoice a customer. make a custom invoice that is recurring and has the new price.

The customer then pays the invoice that is emailed to them adn you can cancel the old recurring.

will that work?

[kickmyserver]

Well, I know what you mean about being questioned about just accepting paypal, because I would question it too. I don't know, just seems paypal is just... relates to ebay or some sort, lots of people wonder why it's being used elsewhere heh.... Anyways, does anyone know about worldpay? I thought about seeing what they have to offer, BUT they do not list any setup fees nor list any features anyplace in their website, so I'm leary about them... all they list is how much they'll charge you when someone places an order (their rates are much better than 2co), but still doesn't list what features you get or any setup fees (Could be a thousand bucks for all I know)....

[Ehost4cheap]

I beleave the page you are looking for is here. http://www.worldpay.com/usa_en/sme/index.php?go=sme_pricing

[kickmyserver]

I beleave the page you are looking for is here. http://www.worldpay.com/usa_en/sme/index.php?go=sme_pricing

Very odd, eariler when I visited that site, it was just blank where it was to list prices.... but wow, they want a lot of money.... someone once said on here, they aren't very good if they charge a setup fee... but wow, $400... and I bet its no better than 2co

[kickmyserver]

Someone gave me the idea of processing the credit cards myself, which I may end up doing. Setup an ssl connection to a form that the user can input their CC data, then it can create an limited account (So they got something to play with), pending credit card authorization...then when I see I have a new order, I can just go to 2co, create a custom recurring account procedure for that user, and input the user's information and submit.... and be done with it, and if they have any changes... I can go back with my info, and do it for them.... that's if they choose to do a custom package deal, if they do a standard package, then I don't see any problem of just letting them setup the recurring themselves on 2co as I can just have the plans pre-setup in 2co......... But I am still open for other options.

You would think SOMEONE would have flexible options (But not 2co!) :rant:

[Chicken]

You can't store and enter cc details with places like 2CO. You'd need a merchant account for somethign like that. Different agreement, etc.

[kickmyserver]

Well, I posted a message on 2checkout's forum about my problem, and one of the tech. support people told me to create a new account, paying with a secret paypal address (So it wouldn't charge me), and use the version 2 of the 2co system. How this solves my problem is I can make a product of hard drive space, charge .10... then when it comes to ordering, I can enter multi products into the URL with the quantity amount... so I would do something like this:
?sid=xxxx&product_id=1&quantity=2&product_id1=2&quantity1=3&product_id2=2&quantity2=1
This will charge the person with 1 hosting account @ 4.99, plus add addtional 2GB (at .10 a peice) to hard drive and bandwidth space, making the total $5.35 a month - and it works :)

Only problem is, you have to transfer ALL your clients & product information to their version 2 system - which is gong to be a pain in the rear end. :cry2: