FREEZING NON EFT \"SESSIONS\"

[LINDSEYR]

Is there a way to freeze non eft "sessions"
We sell a membership that is taken via eft and credit them sessions. The sessions do not expire as long as eft's go thru. If a customer would like to freeze their pmt. for 30 days I need an easy way to freeze their sessions for 30 days. Is there a sells code that would do that?

Thanks
Lindsey

[Andy]

Lindsey in the true sense of the word ... there is no way to FREEZE sessions. Of course they can be expired but not frozen. The nature of sessions relate to quantity that is counted down on use by the client and therefore normally no freezing is normally needed.

If you wish to give me a little more info on how this membership actually works, perhaps I may be able to offer some suggestion. To help me understand the following questions come to mind:

1. Normally Memberships are purely (but not always) date related, thus providing "Unlimited" service on a given level(s) of beds. How do your sessions related to this membership?

2. Do unused sessions within the month expire ... meaning if you give say 10 sessions with each months EFT processing, do any unused portions of a prior months "10" session OVERWRITE the current remaining value in the new month?

Lindsey, your sales code for using these sessions (assuming these sessions are in a separate Helios Accumulator from normal sessions) could also validate against the existance of the "EFT" membership, which if Frozen would not allow the use of the related sessions.

One other point that you could clarify for me if you would ... subject line says "NON EFT" but body of post says "Membership via EFT". The handling of freezes and unfreezing of NON EFT is very different and uncontrolled compared to EFT Memberships.

Hope this help ... awaiting clarification to assist further.

[LINDSEYR]

Andy
Thanks so much for your quick response. The way our membership works is when a client signs up they recieve x tans. every month they stay current they recieve x more sessions.( that we put in via code. Customer must visit store that month to recieve tans) The sessions will never expire as long as the stey current. The tans will roll from month to month. The only time they would lose their tans is if they cancel while still having sessions on account. I would like to create a code that if they decided to Freeze for 30 days they would not be able to use their sessions but at the end of 30 days they would be active again. We use an outside company for EFT transfers so I have not set this option in Helios (should I?)

Thank You
Lindsey

[Andy]

I believe that suggesting you use the Helios EFT/Freeze approach with this type of membership will likely cause you more problems that it will solve.

As described it sounds like the 30 days could be at any point during the month to the same point the following month. The Helios EFT/Freeze approach will always work related to the billing date of your EFT records, so I doubt that will help ... just to describe so you can decide for yourself ... if you FREEZE an EFT membership in Helios it remains in force until the next billing date and then FREEZES for the requested number of months. If the client request an early UnFreeze the membership DOES NOT become in force again until the being of the NEXT Billing cycle.

OK, there is what you can do ... BUT ... really very limited assistance here. You can FREEZE a NON-EFT membership ... what this basically does is it put the Membership on FLEX START for the requested number of days, in theory if this was a TRUE FREEZE (which it is NOT) you could have your tanning codes valid that the membership was in force and again in theory reject the ability to Tan because the membership is FROZEN/"not in force" ... BUT NO SUCH LUCK ... it is in fact the act tanning again that ends the FREEZE (engages the Flex Start) ... understand that this is intended for an InStore Membership that the client may or many not renew and this Flex Start approach works VERY well in this case.

The source of the problem in your example is that Helios does not expect "Memberships" to involve Sessions ... Memberships (including EFT Memberships) in Helios primarily related to dates rather than Accumulator values ... now as you know it works BUT as you are finding out only well in the purest of senses ... difficult to control any features ... the base problem here is there is not such thing as a FREEZE on accumulator values.

Thinking while I type ... HOW ELSE COULD YOU DO THIS

How about this ... FIRST, to be sure I understood what you are doing ... Client requests a 30 day FREEZE and you DO NOT process the next monthly EFT and do not add the X tans to their record ... BUT you want to STOP them from tanning on the sessions they have carried forward until the FREEZE is over.

Idea #1: Build a Sales Code to overwrite the Expiry Date with Days Valid of "1" (min value) or an old Valid Until date ... this would assume or require in the future that the code that gives the X tans per month makes them valid for 30 days (maybe should be 31 if it is really a month) ... processing the next month X tans would again extend all tans carried forward.

Idea #2: Build a Sales Code to do an InHouse Charge (or by Method of Payment) adding $.01 or $1.00 to the Balance of the Client and make it past due ... the Client will not be able to use any Membership and/or Accumulator value UNTIL this Balance is clear ... you could enhance this with a Display Interrupt Comments. When the FREEZE is over record a Payment on Account transaction for the .01 or 1.00 and offset with a refund for same.

Anything here strike your interest ... Lindsey we are moving into an environment here of consultation, call if you wish more help on this ... I would be pleased to be of service.

I will be out of the office most of today, in the office tomorrow


_________________

Andy Thompson
ACT Business Solutions
Toll-Free 877-777-6717
andy@atso.ca
ACT Help Center [ This Message was edited by: Andy @ ATSO.ca on 2003-02-27 08:30 ]