Changing a Subscriber’s Tier

Benecaster normally tracks subscriber tiers automatically through your membership plugin — when a subscriber upgrades or downgrades in MemberPress, WooCommerce, or another bridge, Benecaster updates their token tier on the next subscription event. A member holding several levels at once is always shown on the highest, and adding a lower level does not record a downgrade.

With Built-in Membership, subscribers can move to another of your tiers themselves from their account page. See The Subscriber Account Page.

• An upgrade lands straight away and is charged today. An upgrade is a move to a tier whose price, at the billing period the subscriber is on, is higher than what they actually pay now. They pay the difference for the rest of the current billing period, prorated, and get the new tier at once. Their renewal date and feed URL do not change.
• Access moves only once the payment succeeds. If their bank asks them to verify the payment (3D Secure), the account page opens the check. A failed check or a declined card leaves them on their current tier, with nothing charged.
• Every other move lands at their next renewal, with nothing charged today — a move down, to a tier at the same price, or to your free tier, and any change of billing period. They keep what they have paid for until then.
• A paid extra the new tier does not offer ends at the end of the current period. It is not refunded, and it is named before they confirm. This applies to tier moves in either direction; a billing-period change still refuses to go ahead while they hold an extra that is not sold on the new period.

Occasionally you need to correct a tier manually — for example, if a subscriber was incorrectly mapped, or if you want to grant temporary access to a higher tier outside the membership system.

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Changing a Single Subscriber’s Tier

From the subscriber detail panel, click Change tier. A dialog appears:

1. Select the destination tier. The list is the show’s tiers: from Benecaster → Memberships → Tiers on a built-in-membership show, without Public or any tier you have made inactive (a subscriber already on an inactive tier still sees it selected), or from your tier mapping on a membership-plugin show.
2. Confirm.

The subscriber is sent the Tier change email if it is switched on for the show. See Notification Email below.

The change takes effect immediately. The subscriber’s feed will include the episodes available at their new tier on the next poll.

Important: This change updates Benecaster’s token record only. It does not change the subscriber’s plan in your membership plugin. If your bridge syncs on the next subscription event (payment renewal, plan change), the sync may revert the Benecaster tier to match the bridge — or not, depending on your bridge type and configuration.

Use admin tier changes for corrections and temporary grants, not as a substitute for managing subscriptions in your membership plugin.

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Bulk Tier Changes

From the subscriber list, check the rows you want to change and select Change tier from the bulk action bar.

A dialog lets you choose the destination tier. On a built-in-membership show it offers your active tiers only, never Public. Each subscriber whose tier changes is sent the Tier change email if it is switched on for the show.

The maximum per operation is 200 subscribers. For larger batches, filter the list and run in stages.

A benecaster_subscription_tier_changed action fires for each subscriber whose tier changes. If you have add-ons or custom code hooked to this action, they’ll fire for every subscriber in the batch.

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Notification Email

A tier change, single or bulk, queues the Tier change email to each affected subscriber when that email is switched on for the show, under Benecaster → Shows → [your show] → Subscription → Welcome and Feed URL Emails. Neither dialog has a per-change choice: to change tiers without telling anyone, switch the email off first. The email shows:

• Their previous tier name (struck through)
• Their new tier name (bolded)
• A link to their account page

The email is sent through Benecaster’s standard email queue — delivery follows your configured sending rate. If you’re changing tiers for many subscribers at once, emails will go out over time rather than all immediately.