The 'Cancel trial subscriptions' update is used to cancel single, zero priced (not including tax or shipping and handling), zero paid, non-renewed, single-copy subscriptions. In addition, subscriptions must have a status of active (A), graced (G), suspended indefinitely (SI), or suspended temporarily (ST) and meet the criteria specified on the filter in order to be canceled. Subscriptions canceled by the 'Cancel trial subscriptions' update will be given a status of canceled by publisher (CP).
Example: Let's say that you used the 'Make trial subscriptions' update to create a five month forced-free trial subscription to your monthly publication. However, after serving a couple of issues, the response to your attempts at converting these subscribers to paid has been much less than what you expected. Instead of serving three more issues, you decide to only serve one more issue perhaps with a wrapper (a last attempt at trying to convert the subscribers to paid). After serving the third issue, you would use the 'Cancel trial subscriptions' update to cancel these subscriptions.
To use this update, select 'Cancel trial subscriptions' on the 'Trial subscriptions' submenu of the 'Updates' menu. The filter for this update has four tabs.
Publication
Enter the code for the non-audited publication being served for subscriptions you want to cancel. You may either type the code directly or right click once in this field to select from a list of defined publications.
Subscr start date range
Enter a date range, and the update will cancel only subscriptions whose first order was entered within that range.
New order batch
Enter a range here, and the update will only cancel subscriptions that where created in a new order batch that falls within that range. This field is when you know that all of the trial subscriptions you want to cancel were created in the same new order batch(es).
Original term
Enter a range here, and the update will only cancel subscriptions where the term of the original order falls within that range.
Served
Enter a range here, and the update will only cancel subscriptions that have been served a number of issues within that range.
Maximum subs to cancel
The number you enter here is the maximum number of subscriptions that QuickFill will cancel no matter how large your file or which selections you make. Entering a number in this field lets you cancel an exact number of subscriptions.
Hint: randomize your selection
You may be better off using the 'Random numbers' fields (on Customer data 1 tab of the 'Cancel trial subscriptions' update) in addition to the 'Maximum subs to cancel' field to select a subset of your subscribers. Why? Say you have 1,000 trial subscriptions with the tracking code "TR9901," and you want to cancel 500 of them. If you select the first 500 subscriptions using the 'Tracking code' and 'Maximum subs to cancel' fields, your canceled subscriptions may include a disproportionate number of low-numbered zip codes, especially if the subscriptions were originally entered in zip code sequence. By choosing subscribers with random numbers from 0 to 49, you can randomize your selection. At a later date you can select the other half of the subscribers by choosing numbers from 50 to 99. (Click here for details on random numbers.)
Complimentary subscriptions
Select whether or not you want the update to cancel complimentary subscriptions.
The fields on the remaining tabs of the filter are used to specify customer and subscription criteria for the subscriptions to be canceled. Click here for more information on Filter screens.
After you are done filling in the filter, click on "OK" and a message box will appear with the following options:
Run it now exclusively, only lookup allowed
Run it now shared, all transactions allowed, much slower
Run it with tonight's jobs
Save to an existing job list
Create a new job list
Click here for details on options for running updates.