This article covers 

How to merge customer records with the same email address?

How to match several subscriptions that belong to one customer?

Why multiple subscriptions per customer doesn't work when the portal setup is configured as SSO via API?

Summary

You can prevent users from creating multiple subscriptions and customer records with the same email address using Chargebee’s checkout page in the UI or the API.

• If using the Hosted Pages - Disable “Allow customers to have multiple subscriptions” and make “Email” field mandatory in the Checkout & Self-serve portal

• If using APIs 

  • Use “checkout_new_subscription API” to handle new records

  • Use “list customer API” to check for an existing email address and proceed accordingly. For example, if an existing record is available - Return an error.
    
    

If you have existing duplicates, Use “merge customer API” to combine multiple subscriptions that belong to a single customer. Contact support for more on this.

Please refer to this recording.

Solution

To disable customers from having multiple subscriptions, Go to

> Settings 

> Configure Chargebee 

> Checkout & Self-serve portal. 

> Disable the option "Allow customers to have multiple subscriptions"

> Set the Portal login as Chargebee login. (When this option is selected the customer will be prompted for an OTP sent to the respective email for verification to check whether the email ID is valid) 

Using Portal login as Single Sign-on API doesn’t let your customers stop creating multiple subscriptions with one email address.

Note: Disabling “Allow customers to have multiple subscriptions” setting won’t apply for existing or new customers who checkout using the API. In this case, duplicate customer records will be created without Chargebee’s intervention.

> Navigate to Account Information under Fields tab and set the Email as Mandatory (This action lets the customer to mandatorily enter his email address)

> Publish the changes

With these settings in place, if an existing customer tries to checkout then, a prompt that reads "You already have a subscription with us" will be triggered as displayed below.

Using Chargebee’s API

If you are an API user, refer to this document to know more about how to handle existing and new subscriptions.

Related articles and Documentation

Can we have multiple subscriptions in Chargebee?

Can I change the plan of an existing subscription on behalf of the customer?