URGENT: Subscription charged customer every second

Hello,

Thanks a lot for reaching out and for bringing this to our attention – this does look like a serious issue.

To investigate it properly, could you please contact us directly using the support form available here: https://wpdesk.net/get-support/?
In the form, please choose “pre-sale question” as the topic and include a link to this forum thread in your message.

This way, we’ll be able to help you much faster, as we’ll likely need screenshots, your system status, and other sensitive information which we can’t request or share on a public forum.

Once we’ve identified the root cause of the issue, we’ll follow up here as well so others can benefit from the explanation.

When submitting the ticket, please make sure to include the following information:

• Which payment gateway you’re using
• Screenshots of the subscription product settings showing the subscription configuration
• Screenshots from Flexible Subscriptions → Subscriptions
• Screenshots of the specific subscription that caused the issue (especially the order notes section, but the entire view will be helpful)

Thanks again, and we look forward to resolving this with you quickly!

Best regards,

Thanks again for raising this issue — we’ve finished our investigation and wanted to share the findings here in case it helps others.

The problem was caused by a variable subscription product being added to the cart without selecting a variation — using a direct URL like ?add-to-cart=123.

The subscription product in question was set up correctly, with a variation that renews yearly. However, the product was added to the cart using a link like:
https://example.com/?add-to-cart=123

This bypasses the variation selection entirely. WooCommerce should block this for variable products, but in this case, it allowed the action.

As a result, the subscription was created without valid billing data. With no interval to work from, the system defaulted to every 1 second — causing repeated renewals until the payment method was declined.

We’ve released an update in Flexible Subscriptions 1.6.3 that prevents such misconfigured subscriptions from renewing. If this kind of invalid setup somehow slips through, it will no longer be processed repeatedly.

We’re also working on a future update that will:

• Automatically select the default variation if only one is available, or
• Block the cart action if no valid variation is selected

In the meantime, if you’re using variable subscription products, we strongly recommend avoiding direct ?add-to-cart links. Instead, link customers to the actual product page so they can select the correct variation.

Hope this helps others avoid the same issue! If you have questions or experience something similar, feel free to reach out.

Best regards,