Kill Bill – START_ENTITLEMENT event returning product/plan as null during quick CREATE + CHANGE flow

[Julia Nunes]

Issue description

In some subscriptions, the START_ENTITLEMENT event returned before a CHANGE contains:

• product = null
• plan = null
• catalogEffectiveDate = null

This causes failures in PNL, which relies on the previous START_ENTITLEMENT to identify the product/plan before the CHANGE.

Observed pattern

The issue seems to happen when subscription creation (START_ENTITLEMENT / START_BILLING) and plan CHANGE occur within a short time window.

Notably:

• The START_BILLING event (same effectiveDate) contains product and plan correctly populated.
• Only START_ENTITLEMENT is missing catalog information.

Example subscription subscriptionId: 2bb94eb2-53cc-4d9c-96cb-8d9e46e8e8a0 Relevant events (excerpt)

START_ENTITLEMENT

{

  "eventType": "START_ENTITLEMENT",

  "effectiveDate": "2026-04-08T20:40:40.000Z",

  "catalogEffectiveDate": null,

  "plan": null,

  "product": null,

  "serviceName": "entitlement-service",

  "serviceStateName": "ENT_STARTED"

}

``

START_BILLING (same effectiveDate)

{

  "eventType": "START_BILLING",

  "effectiveDate": "2026-04-08T20:40:40.000Z",

  "catalogEffectiveDate": "2026-04-06T12:00:01.000Z",

  "plan": "PL_DTVGO_BR_AMZMAXPP_PFSN_BD_201_DISNEYPLUS-SKYFUT04",

  "product": "DTVGO_BR_AMZMAXPP_PFSN_BD_201_DISNEYPLUS"

}

``

CHANGE

{

  "eventType": "CHANGE",

  "effectiveDate": "2026-04-09T14:40:27.000Z",

  "plan": "PL_DTVGO_BR_AMZMAXPP_PFSN_BD_001_DISNEYPLUS-SKYCANFUT2705",

  "product": "DTVGO_BR_AMZMAXPP_PFSN_BD_001_DISNEYPLUS"

}

`

Impact

• PNL fails to process plan changes.
• Customers performing quick sign‑up + plan change are impacted.
• Affects upgrade/downgrade subscription flows.

`

[karan bansal]

Hi Julia,

Thank you for providing all the details. I have tried to replicate the behavior mentioned using KB version 0.24.16 on localhost. I have written a bash script to create subscription as well as then to change the plan. All the events, start_entitlement and start_billing as well as the change, had the plan and product information correctly populated. 

Could you check and run the script present here in your environment with a test account and send me the diagnostic output when the product/plan are empty. You will need to change the keys, catalog plans, account ID before running the script.

Regards

Karan