Overcoming Authorize.net ARB delayed processing / delayed receipt?

[lesliejmatthews]

Hi

I am using authorize.net as payment processor.  The problem is that for first-time recurring contributions the credit card payment doesn't get processed until 2am.  Therefore, the customer who signs up as a recurring donor on our web site does not receive a receipt from Civicrm for up to 24 hours, instead of almost immediately.  This is troublesome, since most are accustomed to promptly receiving email confirmation from web sites when they use their credit card, for example to make a purchase.  Also, one-time donors receive email confirmation immediately, raising expectations that recurring donors would as well.

I believe this must be because civicrm doesn't receive the post back confirming the successful contribution until after this 2am processing, and that post-back is needed to trigger sending the receipt from civicrm.

MY QUESTION IS:  How hard would it be to set things up so that the FIRST contribution in a new recurring subscription is processed through the AIM system at Authorize.net, so that it is processed immediately, and at the same time, a new subscription via ARB is submitted that would commence the following month (or whatever the next time point is in the subscription interval). 

I'm a pretty novice coder.  Can anyone tell me how hard this would be?  Is anyone else who uses authorize.net interested in making this possible?

Or if anyone can suggest to me a better way of triggering an immediate receipt from civicrm for a pending recurring contribution that would be helpful too. 

Thanks!

Leslie

[bdombro]

I totally appreciate this issue, as I've encounted it several times.

It would be a lot easier and less complex if you would instead send an immediate confirmation email before processing completes, and then a second confirmation email once processing completes. That way you aren't changing the way Civi or Authorize.net is supposed to work.

[flug]

We post a note on the Thank You page that the user lands on at the end of the contribution process:

If you signed up for recurring contribution: Recurring contributions are processed on a batch basis. The system may take up to 24 hours to process the first payment. You will receive your email receipt--along with instructions for changing or cancelling your recurring contribution--as soon as that first payment is complete and within 24 hours.

This is still an annoying problem as not everyone reads this page carefully.  But it does help to at least notify users.