Stripe Gateway Handling

I've been in contact with Stripe regarding some charges that have gone through & some that haven't due to different reasoning such as 3D security etc....
They took a good bit of time to research charges per our account and I was told to get in touch with you guys because the ordering of things wasn't being handled correctly, per them not us!

Basically, they said the ordering of the invoice vs subscription was different than should be. Additionally, they mentioned the trial period which was always being created even when there isn't a trial period, thus it causes a $0 invoice & still charges the subscription amount.

I will be receiving an email from them with these details which I can CC you on per their suggestion, could you please provide me (PM) an email to do so? I am happy to help in anyway. Thank you

In an attempt to expedite the process, I am including the important part(s) of the email from Stripe below. Note, I've replaced personal data with "xxxxxxxxxxxx" but please feel free to set this discussion to private:

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Thanks for taking the time to talk today, it was a pleasure speaking with you. I wanted to send along a summary regarding a non-regular behaviour of Subscriptions on your Stripe account in example of two customers - xxxxxxxxxxxx and xxxxxxxxxxxx - and recap the next steps that we discussed:
For the customer: dashboard.stripe.com/customers/cus_xxxxxxxxxxxx

dashboard.stripe.com/events?related_object=cus_xxxxxxxxxxxx

As mentioned over the call, we did not get a request to create a Subscription for this customer as per logs and events. If the request was sent, kindly follow up with me with a copy/screenshot of the API call that was sent to Stripe, and the response received from Stripe API so that we can investigate further.

Moreover, as this is an Indian user, I would like to highlight that there are specific integration requirements considering recurring payments using Indian cards, and these requirements come from the Indian RBI regulators.

Kindly refer to this documentation, which I would also highly suggest to share with the developer team:
stripe.com/docs/india-recurring-payments#impact-subscriptions
support.stripe.com/questions/rbi-regulations-context-and-faqs

For the customer: dashboard.stripe.com/customers/cus_xxxxxxxxxxxx
dashboard.stripe.com/events?related_object=cus_xxxxxxxxxxxx&starting_after=evt_xxxxxxxxxxxx
Looking into the event log
1. The customer was created
2. A payment was created (not connected to the subscription)
3. Card payment method was attached to the customer after the successful charge
4. A draft invoice for $0 was created when the customer was subscribed to the price with free trial.

There are a couple options for giving your customer a paid trial before starting their subscription!

Generally, we recommend *first* creating an invoice item on the Customer *before* subscribing them to a specific Product and Plan:
stripe.com/docs/api#create_invoiceitem
In the Dashboard, you can do this via the "+Add invoice item" option on the Customer page, however above is the API call as this is done via third party. That way, we'll bill for that invoice item on the first invoice of the customer's subscription.
You can also provide your developer team this documentation:
stripe.com/docs/billing/subscriptions/trials#combine-trial-add-invoice-items

Alternatively, you can create a one-off charge on the Customer to represent the paid trial - this is the option that WAS used in the above customer case - and because this was a one-off charge there was no invoice attached to it, however, the invoice generated for $0 were representing a free trial which was set (as expected).
To have the correct amount on those 2 invoices can be only set if the first option is used (create_invoiceitem).

I hope the above clarifies and help with the issue fix, but please do let me know here if you have any other questions or concerns. I am just an email away!

What exactly is the problem you're having? Are payments not being created? We're already using add_invoice_items to handle the initial payment (e.g. if first payment is different from recurring payment). The only time we create a $0 invoice is for a SetupIntent if you have a free trial (e.g. 1 month free, then $30/mo afterwards). Are you using onsite payments or Stripe checkout? Please also describe to plan price and duration setup.

I believe that is the irony, we're not using any trial period. It is submitting it as if we are, but there is only the subscription, no trial of any kind and the initial payment is == the recurring payment(s).

However, the way it is being submitted to Stripe is as they mention in the email above.

Please describe your plan setup (price and duration), what payment method (e.g. credit card, bank transfer, etc..) you're using, and if you're using onsite or stripe checkout. Additionally what problem is this causing? Are payments not going through or is it failing and not activating subscriptions? Please also be sure you've the latest CBSubs release installed as well.

-Pricing & Duration-
Is the first amount and period different = Always same period and price
Regular Price of plan = 69.00
Regular Validity duration = 1 month
Total number of occurrences of regular validity/price = 0
Auto-recurring renewals (*): = Yes: subscribe user to automatic recurring payments

-Payment Method-
Stripe & PayPal (this is relevant to Stripe so will focus on that)
Name of gateway account = Stripe
Enable Stripe E-Payments = Enable single and auto-recurring payments at user's choice
Stripe server = Normal Stripe server
Stripe Webhook Credentials = all completed but will not share for privacy purposes
Accept payment once = Payment is authorized and captured (means completed)
Payment Button method = Inline Form (Elements)
Accepted Payment Methods = Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Diners, JCB
Customer Portal = No

-Problem-
There was a payment made with a user from India, the initial payment was accepted, however on the recurring payment it took the payment but there was no update from Stripe so the user's subscription expired & shows they have no subscription via the Stripe dashboard (covered in the email from stripe). I tried to have the user re-subscribe but it wouldn't let them as the little loading icon kept spinning (stripe says this was a result of them not completing the 3d security which is similar to 2 factor authentication, this is also covered in the stripe email response).
As a result of this, the Stripe team began looking into other payments received/completed etc.... they noticed they're all handling it differently than they would recomment as they cover in their email response.

Please let me know, I hope this helps!