Oohhh I see, it sounds like it could be a bug. @mindy is that right?
This is something that’s been brought up a few times. We literally have patrons declined for multiple years at this point. And the most frustrating part is even if they add a new card (which they so rarely ever do) they still get “credit” for being a patron the entire time. Pledged once in 2016, Repledge in 2020, “Your patron for 4 years”
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Which is indeed very inaccurate.
It also creates a significant problem for limited-subscription tiers. The declined patron is still counted against the limit and there is no way to remove them short of blocking them. You can unblock them later, but that just seems wrong on several levels.
I agree with not dropping them the first month they decline - if there was fraud on their card or it was lost, it might take a fortnight to get a new card and make the change. But the second decline thirty days later? That should remove them from the limited tier. And they certainly shouldn’t count as a ‘patron’ at that point.
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That’s a really good point, actually. I think after 3 months is fine (which is the same time Patron stops trying, because every attempt costs money)
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Any news on this?
I have a non-english speaking patron who by a miracle managed to sign up, but now asked me to stop charging him each month. I translated what was on the helppage and sent it to him, but he’s still a member so I assume he didn’t figure it out
I want to delete his pledge but also leave it open for him to rejoin when he inevitably changes his mind and wants to see my patreon only content again
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I get about 14-18 Declined Patrons each month. Some reset their payment methods, others don’t. I like sending a reminder email, but I would like to move those who haven’t responded out of the “Declined” category. The only way to do that is to “Block” them. But then they get an email saying they have been blocked. Not a nice feeling. It would be nice to move them to a new category, say “Paused” or something like that. So every month I am blocking 4-5 patrons whose payments have been declined for over 60-days. I give them some time to update their card. Occasionally I will get an angry, "Hey, why did you ‘Block Me!’ " email. Come on IT - figure this out already. Been years now with this issue.
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Same request as this thread:
and this thread:
For whatever reason, Patreon has chosen not to implement this, despite the wants/needs of the creator community. 
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I would love this too. I’ve been on Patreon since 2013, and have something over 60 declined patrons on my lists, including one of the biggest patrons in the history of my campaign. The last thing I want to do is BLOCK someone who’s given me over $3,000 dollars.
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I like having these folks in the “declined” category so I can send them messages every now and then, like when I have a special offer or something – inviting them to come back.
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Which is perfectly fine, so long as we have the option to remove them from a tier. That’s necessary for limited tiers. The fact that the option isn’t available is a major problem for those of us who use limited tiers.
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You are right, but there’s more to it.
The button used to exist, and they removed it. At first we were asking for it to be restored. It’s been so long that it’s become a “new” feature request.
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ooooohhhh now I see your point. Sorry so clueless. Yeah, that’s frustrating.
Well I had a lovely (sarcasm) situation to deal with today.
After 10 months of not paying and no remove button in sight, and after MANY DM’s and even discord pings to this person to try to help them update their payment info and get their content, i decided this month was clean up time. I sent them a warning PM some days ago informing them they might get a block email which would be incorrect, when i removed them, because its the only way patreon allows creators to remove folks from their pages.
Of course today, after 10 months of no responses to patreon PMs or responses to my pings about it (but idle chatter in the server a little lately) they of course, come out of the woodwork to be like “why did you block me? I’m depressed now” and it’s all because patreon can’t give us something they HAD before. MANY creators have said that having block emails sent is a terrible idea not only because if someone actually had a reason to block someone (harassment, etc) it would escalate the situation in a negative way AND we’ve also stated that in those cases where you’d like to clear out folks who haven’t paid in forever it could ruin the relationship between the creator and the patron! And low and behold, it has definitely scarred mine. It’s not likely I’m the only person who has had this issue either and i know many creators who are terrified to use the block feature to clean their list or to take action against actual abuse because it will prompt further action from their abuser! (There is a reason why other platforms DO NOT tell you you’ve been blocked until you view the persons profile.)
WHY is this a hard feature? You had it once before and it’s much less work than whatever coding went into the block button. I am beyond frustrated about this and it’s been literal years we’ve been bringing this up. I’ve been told that those with declined statuses can’t get content on patreon but we’ve seen time and time again that that is not always the case. This breaks often enough for it to be a problem and it’s not fair to limit the creators available actions to handle situations that come up in a way they prefer to handle it in. Having a “quiet” remove is not hard.
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Another solution would be to simply not have an automatic message sent to the person when they’re blocked. We could block and immediately unblock someone, allowing them to come back without issue and without the bad feeling of having been blocked.
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Last month I had another limited-member tier member decline. I’ve sent a message, but don’t want to bombard them. I’ll wait another day or two, but having a permanently used slot means I have to increase the number, AND that allows them to come back. I’ve had to do this before. It’s a sub-optimal solution at best. Banning them, with them receiving a message, seems completely crass.
For sure, as I said, that email causes a ton of issues. There are multiple ways to go about what is needed/wanted and things to address that have not been done in years and it’s frustrating.
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the more and more pain points like this one (plus the landing page changes, plus the relationship manager not working) are just showing us how little patreon really cares about us : /
i really want this feature! hundreds of creators want this feature! this has been a thread since april of 2018 and we’ve heard nothing.
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More and more it becomes clear that Patreon decides what we want, and claims ‘studies show’ that they are right, and yet there are numerous complaints. Often, the complaints are about things which Patreon could easily implement, OR which could be made totally opt-in. Fundamentally, the important things we ask for are not addressed. It’s frustrating. I want to like Patreon, but it’s harder each day.
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Just adding my voice to the thread as another person dealing with this issue, especially with limited-slot tiers.