A user, Jim_Starkweather, reported that after a Patreon subscriber cancelled their annual subscription, they immediately lost access to patron benefits despite having paid through September. The plugin, per Falco, removes users from paid-tier groups when they’re moved to Patreon’s default “free tier” — even if they’re still within their paid period. Jim_Starkweather argues this is problematic, noting that most subscription services allow continued access until the paid period ends, and questions whether Patreon’s classification of cancelled users as “free” is causing the issue — especially since he has no free tier configured. Firepup650 suggests the behavior may stem from how Patreon internally labels such users. Rule34_Diffusion agrees the system is flawed and proposes a workaround: tagging cancelled users with a modified tier name (e.g., “Tier (Cancelled)”) to preserve access until expiration, noting some users still retain tier status post-cancellation. The core issue appears to be a mismatch between Patreon’s tier logic and user expectations around paid-access duration.
I just had a user who had an annual subscription in Patreon report that they lost access to their patron status after cancelling the subscription/billing for their account, even though it was not going to expire until September.
I assume this was working correctly in the past as this is the first report I have had of this happening in the 2+ years using this plugin.
I mean we aren’t removing access that they paid for correct? That would be kinda dumb. 
The plugin assigns users in paid tiers to groups. Users who left a paid tier into the free tier will be removed from groups as the plugin doesn’t have any support for the free tier.
If the user current tier is the free tier, as per the screenshot, it’s working as intended.
Well no disrespect but in most deployments I can envision that would be a problem. Is this an issue with the way Patreon is classing the user as “free” tier while showing they have an access expiration in the future? FYI I have no free tier setup in Patreon. I assume this is a default group (for them) for users that have cancelled their membership to avoid getting rebilled automatically.
As with almost all of the subscription we tend to use today (music and streaming channels come to mind first) we can ‘Cancel’ our billing arrangement but still fully intend to get the benefits of the subscription we have paid for. In fact I would almost bet that their are many state or governmental laws dictating that you cannot remove access to a paid subscription by cancelling your billing arrangement. And Patreon is essentially the billing 3rd party in this transaction.
IIRC that’s something to do with following being considered “free” or something…
I hope they fix this because it throws everything out of whack, they should at least make a new class of people who are marked as the Tier name but with (canceled or something) at the end to show they still have access because I have canceled members that are not marked as free and stick to the tier they are on until their access expires..so their system is messed up I belive.
