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Why customers are unable to register for events

Sometimes, customers may try to sign up for a class, appointment, or course but find that they’re unable to complete the registration. This guide explains the most common reasons this can happen and how to resolve them.

Written by Costa Bontioti

📝 Overview

There are a few different reasons why a customer who believes they should be able to register for an event might not be able to. In most cases, the customer has the correct membership or available credits, but the system may still ask them to purchase a new membership or pay a registration fee.

While this can look like a technical issue, it’s almost always related to the customer’s membership, account status, or the event settings. Reviewing these areas usually reveals what’s causing the problem.

Let’s take a closer look at the most common reasons customers can’t register and how to fix each one.

🎫 Membership

Usually, when a customer can’t register for an event, it comes down to something in their membership. Let’s walk through the common reasons this happens and how to fix them.

Click on the arrow to view more info on memberships

🚧 Usage Limits

One of the most common reasons a customer can't register for an event, despite having the correct membership, is that they've reached one or more of their membership usage limits.

Click here to find out more about usage limits

Usage limits allow you to control how many classes or events a customer can register for within a specific period. These can be configured in different ways, so it's worth checking that the limits are set up as expected.

💡 For a more detailed look into membership usage limits, check our support guides here:

🔎 How to check a customer's usage limits

The first thing to check is whether the customer has reached any of the usage limits on their membership during the relevant billing period.

To do this:

  1. Go to the customer's profile.

  2. Select Memberships.

  3. Click on the membership they're using to register for the event.

Any usage limits that have been reached will be visible here.

⚠️ Important

A customer can reach their usage limit before the end of their billing period.

For example, if a membership allows four classes per month, a customer can only register for four classes during that month. If there are five occurrences of their usual weekly class in that month, they won't be able to register for the fifth session.

This can happen even when the customer's membership is active and they are otherwise eligible to register.

⚡ How to fix

If a customer has reached their membership usage limits, what you can do next will depend on whether the limits are working as intended.

If the limits are correct, no changes are necessary. The customer will need to wait until their next billing period for their usage to reset, or consider one of the following alternatives:

  1. Purchase an additional membership or Pack:
    The customer could purchase an additional non-recurring membership or Pack to give them additional usage for a specific period.
    ​

  2. Upgrade their membership:
    The customer could upgrade to a more suitable membership that offers a higher usage allowance.
    ​

  3. Edit the membership's usage limits:
    You can change the usage limits configured on the membership. Please note that this will affect all customers who currently have this membership, as well as anyone who purchases it in the future.


    You can find out more about recurring membership usage limits here.
    ​

  4. Set custom usage limits:
    You can customise the usage limits for an individual customer. This allows you to make an exception for a specific customer, rather than changing the limits for everyone. (Not Recommended)

📦 Renewed Packs

When a customer purchases a Pack membership and they then "renew" Pack instead of purchasing a new one, the new Pack membership they purchase will be set to start on the day after their initial Pack was set to expire.

Click here to find our more about Pack renewals

❓ Cause

This can cause a bit of confusion when a customer renews their Pack membership and attempts to register for a class only to find they're unable to, because the Pack they just purchased by renewing their previous Pack is set to start in a months time.

If a customer renews a Pack before it reaches its expiry date, then their new Pack will be set to start on a future date which will be the day after the original Pack expires. (not the day the renewal took place)

🧠 Example:

Adam purchased a Pack membership on the 20th of January, offering 10 class credits, and it is set to expire after 2 months (20th of March).

Adam used all his class credits by the 12th of February, and so instead of purchasing a new Pack, he renewed his existing Pack.

The renewed Pack will be set to become Active on the 21st of March, and not the 12th of February, because his original Pack was set to expire on the 20th of March.

⚡ How to fix

In this case, a staff member can go into the customers memberships section, and change the start and expiry dates of that Pack membership.

🚩 Failed Payments

In some cases, a customers membership payments may have failed, and this could cause issues for their membership in a couple of ways.

Click here to find out more about failed payments

When a customers membership payment fails, this can cause issues in a couple of ways, depending on the membership type, and if this is their first payment for that membership or not. Lets take a closer look at both possible options below:

💳 First payment for a recurring membership fails

We’ve introduced an update to help prevent situations where customers could purchase recurring memberships even if their card was expired, blocked, or didn’t have enough funds.

Click here to find out more about failed first payments for recurring memberships

Previously, memberships could be automatically blocked after a certain number of failed payments. However, during that time, customers could still register for and attend classes even though their payment hadn’t gone through.

With this update, customers can still try to purchase a membership, but if their first payment fails, the system will now automatically remove them from any classes they registered for.


This ensures that only members with successful payments can attend classes.
​
​❓ What this means

  • This applies only to the first payment of a recurring membership.
    ​

  • If the payment is successful, the customer’s class registrations stay as normal.
    ​

  • If the payment fails, the system automatically removes them, no manual action needed.

🚫 Membership reached the failed payments threshold (Registrations Blocked)

If a customer's membership shows 'Registrations Blocked', it means that the membership is unable to be used to make bookings due to the failed payment(s) on the membership.

Click here to find out more about Blocked Registrations

In order to remove the block and allow your customer to begin using the membership again, you will need to resolve all failed payments on their membership.

To do this, go to the customer's Profile ➔ Memberships ➔ click on the membership ➔ Resolve next to the failed payment.

💡 For more information about Blocked Registrations and how to resolve, please check our support guide here.

📅 Event Settings

In some cases, the reason the customer might be unable to register for an event may come down to the event they're trying to register for, and how it's set up. Let's take a closer look at a few details we may want to check.

Click on the arrow to view more info on Event Settings

🏛️ Class Size Limits & Occupancy

Most classes need to have an attendee limit in order to ensure their venue isn't overcrowded. Some customers may miss this detail when attempting to register for that class.

Click here to find out more about Attendee Limits & Occupancy

A Classes occupancy is set when you first set up the class type and time-slots.
​

In cases where the class has reached its capacity and a customer then attempts to register for that event, there will be clear messaging indicating that there are no more spots left in that event.
​

If however they contact you about this and you check that specific class session, you'll see the event is full in the event details.
​


⚡ How to fix

There's a few options you may want to consider when dealing with this issue, and these are listed below.

⬆️ Edit the Session Occupancy

Click here to find out more about editing the occupancy for a single session

If you'd like, you could edit the occupancy for that specific class session so that you add an additional spot (jus for this event), and now the customer will be able to register for that event, or you can add the customer to this event yourself.

💡 For more information on how you can register a customer for a class, please check our support guide here.

This wouldn't alter the default occupancy for this class time slot, but only for that single event.

To do this, go into that event, and select Options ➔ Edit on the top-right corner, and in the next page, set the new "Class Size Limit".

🔁 Edit Occupancy for All Sessions

Click here to find out more about editing the occupancy for all sessions

If you'd like to add an additional spot to your class and make this change permanent, you can change the default class size limit.

💡 For more information on how you can change your default class size limit, please check our support guide here.

⏳ Add a Waitlist

Click here to find out more about setting up Waitlists for classes

If you don’t want to change your class size limit but still want to give customers the chance to join, you can enable a waitlist. This allows customers to reserve a spot in case someone cancels their booking.

Enabling waitlists also helps keep your classes full, especially your most popular ones.

💡 For more information on how you can set up waitlists, please check our support guide here.

🕒 Registration Timelines

In some cases, a customer’s membership may be valid and there may be available spots in the class they want to join. However, the class registration settings might prevent them from registering, for example, if registration hasn’t opened yet or has already closed.

Click here to find out more about Registration Settings

Registration Settings allow you to control when certain events open for customers to start booking their spots. You can set these per class type, and control them in your Registration Settings section by going to Settings ➔ Registration Timelines.
​

You can also check if a Class is open for registration by going directly to that session, and the registration status will be visible. You can then click on this in order to see more information, such as when the registrations will open, close, and the cancellation cutoff.

⚡ How to fix

If the Registration Timelines are indeed the reason your customers are unable to register for the class in question, there's a few ways you may be able to resolve this if you need to.

🚨 Set up Priority Booking

Click here to find out more about Priority Bookings

You can use Priority Booking to give specific memberships, customers, or customer groups early access to certain classes before they open to everyone else.

💡 For more information on Priority Bookings, please check our support guide here.

🔔 Priority Booking is currently in Beta, so it hasn’t been rolled out to all businesses yet.


If you’d like to try this feature, please contact our support team to see if it can be enabled for your account.

✍🏻 Edit the Registration Timelines

Click here to find out more about editing your registration timelines

In some cases, you may want to consider editing your registration timelines, especially if your customers often contact you about not being able to register for a session because registrations are closed.

You may choose to open classes for registration earlier, or close them later. You can do this in your Registration Timeline Settings page by going to Settings ➔ Registration Timelines.

💡 For more information on how you can edit your Registration Timelines, please check our support guide here.

📍 Cancellation Cutoff

In other cases, the class may be open for registrations but past the cancellation cutoff point, which means that when customers attempt to register, they'll see a pop-up informing them of this.

Click here to find out more about the Cancellation Cutoff

Some customers may mistake this for not being able to register for a class, but they can register just fine once they click on "Book Now".

⚡ How to fix

If the customer has indeed mistaken this message informing them of the cancellation deadline as not being able to register for the event, then there's nothing to "fix" really as the system is working as intended, however, there are a couple of options you may want to consider.

📌 Change the Cancellation Cutoff

Click here to find out more about changing the Cancellation Cutoff

If you decide to change your cancellation cutoff in order to give your customers more time to cancel their registration without being charged, you can do so in your Registration Settings by going to Settings ➔ Registration ➔ Registration Timelines, and changing your Cancellation Cutoff from there.

💡 For more information on how you can edit your Cancellation Cutoff, please check our support guide here.

🛟 Offer to cancel their registration

Click here to find out more about cancelling a customers registration

If you don't wish to change your Cancellation Cutoff, but would still like to offer the customer an alternative course of action, you could offer to remove them from the class via the business side if they need to leave past the cancellation cutoff.

When a staff member or instructor removes a customer from a class, they can choose whether they would like to remove them as a "regular cancel" or a "late cancel".

💡 For more information on how you can remove a customer from an event, please check our support guide here.

👤 Customer Profile

There are also instances where the customers profile may require attention before they can register for classes or events first.

Click here to view more info about Customer Profiles

⚠️ Blocked Customer Profiles

If a customers profile is blocked, they'll be able to log into their account, but they won't be able to register for any events.

Click here to find out more about Blocked Customer Profiles

The 'Block Customer' functionality allows you to instantly block members from booking classes, appointments, and courses. Blocked customers can still purchase memberships and store items while blocked.

💡 For more information on Blocked Profiles, please check our support guide here.

⚡ How to fix

If a customers profile is blocked, they won't be able to register for any classes, appointments or courses, unless their profile is unblocked.

To unblock their profile, you'll need to go to the customers profile, and click on the "Unblock Customer" button.

🙅‍♂️ Incorrect Customer Profile

Customers sometimes create multiple accounts or profiles, often by accident. In these cases, they may have purchased a membership under one profile but tried to register for a class using another. It might seem unlikely, but this is actually a fairly common issue.

Click here to find out more about Incorrect Customer Profiles

There's many reasons why customers might end up with more than one profile, but the most common ones are:

  • The customer misspelled their email address when they originally signed up, leading them to create a second account with the correct email address.
    ​

  • They had originally signed up with a different email address, and then forgot which email address they signed up with, leading them to sign up again with a different one.
    ​

  • They had an existing TeamUp account registered to a different business, and then created a new TeamUp account to register with yours, causing them to have two TeamUp accounts.

In any case, when a customer tries to register for an event which they should apparently be able to register for, it's always smart to confirm their account details in order to ensure the profile you're looking into is the same as the one they're logged into.

⚡ How to fix

If you do discover the customer has more than one profile, let the customer know, and then discuss how they'd like to resolve this.

There's two options you can consider.

  1. Delete the extra account
    If the one of the two accounts is by all appearances redundant (has no memberships, registrations, incorrect email, e.t.c) and is of no use to the customer, you can offer to delete this for them, and advise them to log in using the correct login details.
    ​

  2. Merge the two accounts

    If the customer has two accounts and for whatever reason they want to only keep the one (they want to keep one email address, they have memberships on both, e.t.c.) you can merge the two accounts for the customer, and make sure their account is registered to the email address they want to keep, and all their memberships, forms, waivers, e.t.c. are saved under their account.

💡 You can find out more about merging customer accounts in our relevant support guide here.

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