This article is specifically about cancelling subscriptions as a vendor. See also Processing returns and issuing refunds.

Attention

From 01.03.2022 and 01.07.2022, a new amendment to the law on the cancellation of subscription contracts will come into force for all Digistore24 resellers. This is intended to protect buyers from excessively long contract terms and cancellation periods. The legal changes will be automatically implemented at Digistore24. See also Cancellation of subscriptions (legal requirements for private customers).

At Digistore24, you as a vendor can carry out subscription cancellations yourself. Subscriptions are partial services or recurring services that are provided over an entire payment period, e.g. an annual coaching subscription with monthly coaching sessions or a six-month online course with lessons published weekly. Each monthly coaching session or weekly lesson counts as a partial service.

Subscriptions can be created by you as a vendor with or without a minimum term:

• Subscriptions with a minimum term
  The minimum term defines the minimum duration of the subscription contract.
  If a subscription is cancelled before the minimum term has expired, the cancellation is noted in the system. Payments, however, are only automatically stopped after the specified minimum term has expired.
• Subscriptions without a minimum term
  Since there is no minimum term, the order can be cancelled immediately. The customer still has access to their product for the service period for which they've paid. Depending on the settings, you can automatically block access once this paid period has expired. See here.

You can find the settings for your subscription in the payment plan of the respective product. See here.

Attention
The return period you set for your products does not apply to subscription products. The minimum term setting is crucial for the cancellation of subscription products.  

Carry out subscription cancellation as a vendor

• In the vendor view, go to Reports > Transactions.
• Search for the desired order using either the customer's last name, email address or order ID.
• Click on the magnifying glass icon of the corresponding transaction to view the transaction details.
• Scroll down to the Log area. There are various buttons under this.
• Click on the button Stop payments NOW.
• The subscription cancellation is noted in the system. Depending on the subscription type, payment is stopped either immediately or after the minimum term has expired.

Info

Customers will not automatically be informed about the execution of the cancellation. Please inform customers,

1. that the cancellation has been carried out
2. when the payments will be stopped (immediately or after the minimum term has expired). This information will appear at the top of the page when you click on the "Stop payments NOW" button.

Attention
There is no refund of the purchase amount for subscription cancellations. The reason for this is that customers have already received the service for the paid period.  

Allow customers to cancel subscriptions themselves

For low-priced products, it's worth offering customers the option of cancelling their subscriptions themselves via a support link. This saves both time and minimizes support effort. The support link will be included in the customer's order confirmation email, provided you have enabled this feature in your return policy. 

Note
The following also applies to cancellations by customers: if a customer cancels a subscription with a minimum term, the cancellation is merely noted. Payments are not stopped until the minimum term has expired.  

1. In the vendor view, go to Product setup > Return policies.
2. Click on the button Create return policy or click on the pencil icon of an already created return policy in the list.
3. Set your return policy to Active.
4. Select one or more products to which you want the return policy to apply.
5. Set the Easy refund handling for buyer button to Yes. This allows the customer to cancel via the support link in the order confirmation email (see example 1).
6. Additionally: set the Show button for rebilling cancellation on the order confirmation page to Yes. This will display a cancel button on the order confirmation page and allow customers to cancel their subscription (see example 2).
7. Click on Save. The changes will be automatically applied to new orders of the selected products.
8. To apply the changes to existing orders, click on the button Apply to existing orders.

Allow customers to cancel their installments themselves

You can set per payment plan of a product whether customers can cancel their installments themselves.

Proceed as follows:

1. In the vendor view, go to Product setup > Product configuration.
2. Click on the pencil icon next to a product to edit the product.
3. Switch to the Payment plans tab.
4. Edit a payment plan.
   • Scroll to the Add payment plan card.
   • Or click on the pencil icon of an existing payment plan to edit the payment plan.

     The Add payment plan card changes to Edit payment plan.

5. Select the number of installments in the Number of payments field (2-24).

   Additional fields will be displayed and others will be hidden.

6. Select Yes in the Buyer can cancel payments field.
7. Click on Add payment plan or Update existing payment plan to save your changes.