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Do providers refuse to cancel overdue invoices for terminated VPS's?
While I understand it Is my duty to request cancellation of any VPS services I buy (as set out in the TOS), there have been some circumstances in the past in which I have failed to do so (I am obviously responsible for this). In such cases, the provider would just cancel the invoice.
This provider is refusing to cancel an "overdue" invoice created last year in relation to a VPS that was terminated for no payment. I currently do have a separate active service with this provider, so I wanted to sort this out.
It is worthwhile to note that the same VPS provider did in-fact cancel an overdue invoice before.
All the providers I've used since now will just cancel overdue invoice(s) as the service was not delivered for that term.
Do other providers do this? Just interested in seeing what other providers do in relation to this.
Comments
Is the invoice period that is remaining unpaid a period in which the VPS service was active? I think that is the most important point in determining whether you should pay it or not.
The VPS would have been terminated a few days after the due date for this invoice.
EDIT: I checked WHMCS email history, I did receive a "Service Suspension Notification" a few days after the due date
But the invoice would have a period on it, like 1st March till 1st April. When the invoice is marked as due and when it was terminated are different to this period.
We do cancel overdue invoices after the service is terminated, but I think this is something to do with WHMCS as WHMCS doesn't automatically cancel the invoices even after the service was terminated. It never cancelled any overdue invoices automatically for our side, we started planning to move to our own billing system for this reason - it's kind of annoying as it doesn't really automate everything
Invoice Date: 17/06/2014
Due Date: 01/07/2014
01/07/2014 - 31/07/2014
06/07/2014 04:00 Service Suspension Notification'
This was the second month of service, which I forgot to cancel.
The first month was paid for prior to provisioning of the service. I also had a RAM upgrade to the VPS, which again was paid for prior to the upgrade being added
We do cancel invoices once the service is terminated. It's up to the provider to do this though as it's not automatic. I'm sure WHMCS has a plugin somewhere that will automate this but I haven't found it yet.
Regardless it's up to the provider in question if they want to cancel it or not. I'd check TOS and even point out that they did cancel another invoice in the past.
Worth mentioning that a suspended service still takes up resources, it is the termination date that is important.
I take it on a case by case basis, although the hard and fast rule is if invoices have been simply abandoned the account is closed and all other services linked to the account active or not (although it would be very rare for me to do that).
If you get your phone and broadband from the same company for example it is your account that is overdue if you do not pay for 1 of these services.
It really depends though, I am much more lenient of yearly services, but if a customer is a serial abandoned of service as I call it then I tend to take a hard line, honestly some people don't pay overdue invoices and just order new service every 6 weeks which just creates a real mess.
First time offences are usually just overlooked to be honest but 2nd, 3rd time it is looked at a bit closer.
I don't believe WHMCS sends termination notifications, but the VPS is terminated now.
It's important to mention that I'm the one who brought this up (I have a new service with this provider now) and wanted to have the overdue balance removed.
I made this mistake in the past, it came back to bite me in the ass at christmas (24th December) I won't name the provider but they sent details off claiming for 200€ that was from a dedicated server that expired a good two years before? It was a sponsored Dedi, I did my part and did what they asked for yet they didn't remove the invoices and carried on billing me for it (yet every previous invoice was being struck off as paid) and yeah ... never again.
A few providers I've been with haven't minded, they've just cancelled it - half the time I don't check invoices and just pay them or expiry dates and I've had it where I couldn't cancel because the internet wasn't working properly but they've had no issue's cancelling it.
I'd just be careful and try make sure you do cancel them before an invoice is generated.
It does not you are correct, but regardless a suspended service still prevents that IP/RAM/Disk etc from being sold again, unless they have a policy of immediate termination (very rare) then you can probably be sure the data was available for unsuspension for 30 days past the due date.
That said it is a bit silly for the host to allow you to have active service on one hand and an over due balance with the other, it is a bit I want my cake and eat it syndrome.
If they are going to allow you to pay for another service they should remove the old balance imo, obviously be aware if you push it to hard they might go the other way and remove your current service too.
Then I will switch providers.
Yep, free will and all that good stuff
maybe it depends on the laws which may apply...
in germany if you order sth. you mostly do make a contract which will then have to be fulfilled by both sides until it is somewhat cancelled (written and considering stated periods)
so almost every service renews without doing something and if you forget to pay your invoice your service probably gets suspended or at last cancelled after some time, but be sure that you have to pay the invoices generated before and meanwhile - just because you made a contract...
Never thought of that, if it comes down to it I'll pay it, but will switch providers if that is the case.
Just so I understand your angle, you acknowledge it was your responsibility, you acknowledge it was your fault, it was not the first time but you will take your business elsewhere anyway?
Not a loaded question, it is just good to know what makes customers 'tick'
, just curious as to on what grounds.
The fact that they did cancel an invoice in the past, from all the other providers I've used they have just canceled the invoice and both of us were happy.
I mostly posted this here to see what other providers do, not to cause potentially bad publicity (which is why I will not mention the provider here).
Anyway, I'm still waiting for a reply from them.
I see, makes sense especially as they allowed you to continue paying for your other service.
There are also accounting and tax reasons why they will not cancel invoices. You cant just go around deleting invoices.
We mark the invoice as canceled after the service is terminated, obviously its a pain in the neck if someone doesnt request cancellation and then doesnt pay because its more work for us to manually check and remove the invoices and it takes up allocated resources on the servers. But it ends up easier for us to cancel them than not as its easier to see how many overdue invoices there are for actual active and live services, instead of trying to figure out which ones "should" be paid and which ones are long since goners.
I'm pretty sure Quadranet does this. I had one of their cloud VPS for a month or two, and canceled it a few days before the next invoice was due. They still send me a daily e-mail saying that I have an overdue invoice for like $5. It's been like 2 months.
Did you bring this up with them? Did you get an explanation?
It doesn't look like they want to cancel the ticket. I've mentioned this and will wait another reply from them.
That and is it something special about the VPS hosting business? I've never had something I purchased that I can run away from and not get chased for payments in the real world. In life - if you get a phone service or whatever even if monthly you have to pay for it - even if they suspend you or what not. That's life.
Might make me unpopular because people are cancelling it, but if doing the right thing is not popular (asking people to pay for a monthly committed service) then maybe the only choice is to "sell" free services.
I just paid the invoice ($10.25 which includes the late fee). The provider in question is fliphost.net. As long as you pay on time and don't forget to cancel before the new billing period (as with all providers), I guess they're okay. Personally though, I will be changing providers. (why? because they cancelled an older invoice in the past but refused this time. "He's no longer around. It should not have been done").
Lesson learned I guess.
I would cancel the invoice as a provider just because it is easier on me to just cancel it as I will not go around chasing to get a overdue invoice when it just takes too much time and plus if the the service was already suspended or terminated I will cancel it anyway just because its suspended what are you able to do? nothing you cannot do anything to the vps I understand this both from a customer side point of view and now as a provider side of view.
I think there is assumption that when you purchase prepaid VPS, then it will terminate automatically without problem if you fail to pay for next month. This assumption is there because this is how it works with most prepaid VPS providers. So, I think it is a reasonable expectation, and since there are great VPS providers out there who cancel invoices for terminated services, switching providers for the convenience of not having to remember to cancel things brings no disadvantage.
Edit: also AFAIK most prepaid cell phone providers won't attempt to charge you for going over your prepaid allocation. If you are talking about monthly subscription providers where you generally pay after the month, then I think you need to compare with providers that charge your credit card at the end of each month (like Digital Ocean and I think Linode).
I'm the one who chased it up with them, because I wanted to be in good standing with the provider. I could have left it. They've gained $10.25 because I'm nice (the vps was only there for 2 weeks, it was also terminated in that time so unusable).
If they had simply cancelled the invoice as they had done in the past, they wouldn't have lost a customer.
I've always assumed VPS providers were "prepaid" in that sense (you pay in advance, not at the end of the month). The contract starts and ends during the billing period in which it was paid. Obviously I was wrong.
I was saying prepaid in the sense that you pay for something and it runs for some duration. Whether the legal "contract" ends after billing period is over depends on the terms of service and the laws of the countries of the parties involved of course. Regardless, I was speaking in terms of the natural expectation of provider that comes out of fact that other providers are doing it this way, along with the convenience.
Note: fact that other providers are doing it some way is important with regards to legitimacy of the terms of service in the United States, because of the FTC "unfair or deceptive practices" provision. So in the same way you cannot put in terms of service "each customer must pay $20.00 upon registration" and expect to be able to sue customer if they don't pay, if other business entities are doing it one way and another one is not, then unless the other one makes it clear (i.e., well beyond a simple provision in terms of service) that they are doing differently, customer may similarly be able to argue this way.
No one ever wins in these situations because everyone collectively has a different opinion, if month to month VPS hosts cancelled the invoice, the service and terminated the VPS (deleted) at 1 minute past midnight people would complain.
If hosts keep your data and resources reserved for free in case you just forgot, and then you don't renew, the hosts is shafted.
If you don't cancel the host keeps your data but then you want other services afterwards but the host wont cancel your invoice you complain.
If the host cancels your invoice and allows you to continue you get badly set expectations and then the host gets a thread about them with negative publicity and loses a customer.
If the host had cancelled the overdue account for the second time they lose out again.
If the host had not noticed you had active service with an overdue invoice and once they did notice they suspended your live service due to your account being overdue you would complain.
NO ONE WINS.
It is what it is, deal with it, not a good reason to change hosts imo, you have already acknowledged you knew, you have done this before so I would say just deal with it, put it behind you and move on.
There was a plugin I had for WHMCS 4.x that prevented customers from ordering a new service if they had an outstanding balance or moved the outstanding balance to the active service if the other was terminated, but that was 3 years ago and it never worked with 5.x really sorted this whole problem out though.
I understand that probably I worded that wrong....I meant I don't care if you have a overdue invoice if you do and your service gets terminated or suspended I will cancel the invoice either way as I know how it is like to find a invoice asking you to pay overdue from a vps or service that has already been terminated or suspended.