Charge for it

By the end of this track you will have

1. Step 1One offer, one price and one way to buy it, with nothing else on the page competing for that decision.
2. Step 2The price will exist as one value inside your payment system, and every other surface will read that value rather than repeat it.
3. Step 3A successful payment will grant access, send a receipt and write a record, with no human standing in the path.
4. Step 4Every decline and every expiry will produce a message the customer sees, a retry schedule you chose, and a definite end.
5. Step 5A refund policy in one paragraph, a refund you can issue in under five minutes, and nothing standing between the request and the money.

The steps

Each one ends with a check you run yourself. The box is yours to tick when it passes.

1. 1
   Step 1.Sell one thing before you sell three

   40 minutesOpen to everyone

   Done means

   From a private browser window, in test mode, you complete a purchase of the single offer. The confirmation names one line item, at the number you wrote down, and you made no choices on the way through. Run it again tomorrow and it produces the same single line.

   The check passed
2. 2
   Step 2.One price, in one place, in one system

   60 minutes

   Done means

   In test mode, change the price in the payment system to a number you have never used before. Rebuild, reload, and then read every public surface you own. All of them show the new number, and you edited none of them by hand. Change it back and watch them all follow again.

   The check passed
3. 3
   Step 3.What happens in the ninety seconds after they pay

   90 minutes

   Done means

   You pay in test mode and start a timer. Inside ninety seconds you can log in and use the thing, the receipt is sitting in that inbox, and the row exists carrying the amount that was charged. Then replay that same event again from your provider's console. Nothing duplicates and the row count does not move.

   The check passed
4. 4
   Step 4.Failed payments are a product problem

   75 minutes

   Done means

   In test mode, run a renewal using the card number your provider designates for a decline. The first email arrives and the record shows the attempt and its reason. At the end of your window the access state changes exactly once. Then run it with a card that recovers on the second attempt and confirm that no further email sends.

   The check passed
5. 5
   Step 5.Refund it without a fight

   45 minutes

   Done means

   In test mode, take a payment and refund it in full from the payment system. The refund shows against the original charge. Access is gone when you reload. The record holds both of those events against one customer. The whole thing takes under five minutes and no email gets written.

   The check passed