Retries Not Firing

If failed payments are sitting in "Silent Retry Pending" status without any retry attempts being made, LostChurn's retry engine may be blocked by configuration settings or decline classification.

Symptoms

• One or more payments show a status of Silent Retry Pending for an extended period
• The Retry Attempts column shows 0/4 (or your configured max) with no progress
• The payment detail page shows no entries in the Retry History section
• Recovery rate metrics are lower than expected because retries are not being attempted

Common Causes

1. Max retries already reached -- the payment has exhausted all allowed retry attempts from a previous cycle
2. Payment marked as terminal -- the decline code was classified as a Terminal failure, which skips retries entirely
3. Quiet hours are active -- retries are paused because the current time falls within the configured quiet hours window for the subscriber's timezone
4. Retry schedule not yet due -- the ML-optimized retry timing has scheduled the next attempt for a future time
5. PSP connection is disconnected -- LostChurn cannot reach your payment processor to execute the retry
6. Recovery is paused at the account level -- the global recovery toggle is turned off in settings

Step-by-Step Fix

1. Check the payment's decline category

Open the payment detail page and look at the Decline Category field.

• If it shows Terminal, the payment will not be retried. Terminal declines (such as stolen_card, pickup_card, or fraudulent) indicate a permanent failure that cannot be recovered through retries. This is expected behavior.
• If it shows Hard Customer, retries are skipped by default because the customer needs to update their payment information. LostChurn escalates directly to dunning campaigns instead.
• If it shows Soft Retry, retries should be firing. Continue to the next step.

2. Check retry settings

Navigate to Settings > Recovery and verify the following:

3. Verify quiet hours and timezone

Quiet hours are evaluated in the subscriber's timezone, not your account timezone. If your subscribers are spread across timezones, a payment might be in quiet hours even though it looks like daytime to you.

To check:

1. Open the payment detail page
2. Look at the Subscriber Timezone field
3. Calculate whether the current time in that timezone falls within your quiet hours window

If quiet hours are the cause, the retry will automatically execute once the window ends. No action is needed.

4. Check the retry schedule

On the payment detail page, look at the Next Retry field. LostChurn uses ML-optimized timing to schedule retries at the time most likely to succeed. This may mean the first retry is hours after the initial failure, not minutes.

If the Next Retry timestamp is in the future, the system is working correctly. The retry will fire at the scheduled time.

5. Verify PSP connection

Go to Settings > Integrations and confirm your PSP shows a green Connected badge. If the badge is red or shows Connection Error, LostChurn cannot reach your PSP to execute retries. See Connection Errors to resolve this.

6. Check for account-level pauses

Navigate to Settings > Recovery and verify the Recovery Active toggle is turned on. If recovery was paused (for example, during a migration or testing period), all retries will be queued but not executed until recovery is reactivated.

When you re-enable recovery, queued retries will begin executing within a few minutes.

Still Not Working?

If retries should be firing but are not:

1. Try manually triggering a retry from the payment detail page by clicking Retry Now. This bypasses scheduling and quiet hours.
2. Check the System Logs section on the payment detail page for any error messages from the retry engine.
3. Contact support at support@lostchurn.com with the payment ID and a screenshot of the payment detail page. The support team can inspect the retry queue directly.