A member cancelled and can still get in.
Their payment stopped and the tag changed, but the course still opens.
Danica LouweUpdated 5 min readAccess usually stays open because a cancelled or suspended tag was added and the tag granting access was left on. Have your CRM remove the access tag when a payment fails or a subscription ends, make sure that change reaches the site, then test it with a member who stays logged in. It should lock on the next refresh.
Something got added. Nothing got taken away.
On a tag-based site, a member’s access comes from a tag or membership level. When someone cancels, it’s easy to add a “cancelled” or “suspended” tag and assume that closes the door. It often doesn’t.
The suspended tag went on, the access tag stayed
In our test, adding a suspension tag changed nothing, and the member could still open the course. It locked only once the tag granting the membership level came off.
The change never reached the site
The tag is gone in your CRM, but the site still holds its own copy. Everything looks right in the CRM, and the member keeps getting in.
Someone has to do it by hand
If nothing removes the tag when a payment fails or a subscription ends, access depends on someone noticing. The ones who get missed keep their access.
Another door is still open
A course set to Open, or a group that also includes the course, can keep a member enrolled after their main access is gone.
Cancel a test member and watch what happens.
We use a real test account at the level you sell, logged in, and follow the cancellation from the payment to the course.
- What happens to the member’s tags when a subscription is cancelled or a payment fails.
- Whether the tag granting access comes off, not just whether a new tag goes on.
- Whether that change reaches the site, using a test member whose tags you can see on both sides.
- Whether the course locks while the member stays logged in.
- Every other route into that course: Open settings, groups and bundles.
- What the member sees afterwards, and whether their progress is still there.
One automation, one clear rule, then a logged-in test.
This is usually a rule and an automation rather than a rebuild. From your side it looks like this.
- 1
Decide what “cancelled” means
Does access end today or at the end of the paid period? Does a failed card get a grace period? Write it down first, because the automation follows it.
- 2
Swap the tags automatically
When payment fails or a subscription ends, your CRM applies the suspension tag and removes the access tag in the same step. Nobody has to remember to do it.
- 3
Choose what they see
Either keep the course page visible, locked, with your price on it, or show the content to enrolled students only. The first gives them a way back in.
- 4
Keep their progress
In our test progress stayed after access was removed. That’s useful on a monthly plan, because someone who returns months later doesn’t start again.
- 5
Test it logged in
Cancel a test member without logging them out, then refresh the course page. It should lock on that refresh.
The technical version, for your developer
Our test ran on Memberium, Keap and LearnDash in 2021, so confirm the behaviour on your current versions. The course was Closed with an auto-enrol tag and access came from a membership level.
- Memberium levels. Set the payment failure, cancellation and suspension tags on the membership level. In the Keap campaign, apply the suspension tag and remove the level’s access tag together.
- Verify the session case. With the member logged in, make the tag change and refresh. If access only changes after a new login, look at how and when the site refreshes that user’s tags from the CRM.
- WP Fusion. Confirm that removing a tag in the CRM clears it from the user’s tags on the site, using the logs and a test contact. A plugin update can change this, so retest after updates.
- LearnDash. Check the course access mode, any group that includes the course, and Course Grid or custom listings that may show a different state from the course page.
How owners describe it
“If I never log out, I keep getting access to the course.”
“When a tag is removed from a CRM contact, WP Fusion never removes it from the linked WP user.”
Watch it done
A member’s question, tested live on a Memberium, Keap and LearnDash site: the suspension tag alone changes nothing, removing the access tag locks the course on the next refresh, and their progress stays.
Questions owners ask
Do I need to log everyone out to remove access?
You shouldn’t have to. In our test the course locked on the next page refresh, with the member still logged in. If yours only locks after logging out, that is the thing to investigate, and it’s worth finding the cause rather than logging people out by hand.
Will the member lose their progress?
Not when access is removed the way we show here. In our test the course locked and the progress stayed, so someone who comes back later picks up where they left off. Clearing progress is a separate choice, and we’d only do it if you mean to.
Can they still see the course page after cancelling?
They can, unless you choose otherwise. By default the page can stay visible with the content locked and your price showing, which works as a way back in. LearnDash can also show the course content to enrolled students only.
We use WP Fusion, not Memberium. Does this still apply?
The idea does: the tag that grants access has to come off, and that change has to reach the site. WP Fusion keeps its own copy of a member’s tags on the site, so test that a tag removed in your CRM actually clears there.
Is this the same problem as failed payments?
They use the same rule. A cancellation and a failed payment should both remove access, though you may want a grace period for a failed card. Our failed payments guide covers that decision.
