I really want to challenge the decision that disallows payment profiles to only be used for recurring billing. Currently I can create a tokenized CIM payment profile using an opaqueToken - but that profile can only be used for recurring billing.
Apple's support page for subscriptions says the following:
Your app or website can use Apple Pay to request authorization for a recurring fee. This may be a fixed amount such as a monthly movie ticket subscription, or a variable amount such as a weekly produce order. The initial authorization can also include discounts and additional fees.
It specifically says 'variable amount' is allowed. So how do I do that with recurring billing?
Recurring billing - for many scenarious is a HUGE PAIN with many limitations.
- It cannot be charged immediately on demand. The payments are charged at 2pm - therefore I have to set up a whole new system to manage this. Also it means if a customer says 'SHIP NOW' to get an early shipment then I can't do that easily.
- I already have a system that tracks peoples subscriptions, so they can stop and start whenever they want. I just want to use this same system for tokenized payments. I don't want to have to synchronize with the Authorize.net subscription system with all kinds of possible nuances.
I realize that a decision was made to only allow recurring billing - because that seemed to fit in better with what Apple's terms seem to say. But I disagree that Apple's terms require this and I really don't see why I can't just create a CIM profile and charge it.
The alternative is to just retain the opaqueToken which can be rebilled - probably only for up to two years when the certificate expires. But it can be reused - despite what I've read in some places.
Will this always be the case - or will it be like the expiration date being with a payment profile - which after years you guys eventually allowed us to see :-)
I really love ApplePay - it's not been as popular as I expected and I want to push it but it's not easy to with this in mind.
