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ghost payment charge from Alpharacks
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ghost payment charge from Alpharacks

I'm sorry with my English.

The case:
I do not have any active service with Alpharacks and today they charged me for 24 dollars

I made a ticket and they responded that they added the credit to my account to make use of the site.

Very bad

I do not need and I do not want a service with them either.

Obviously I requested my money again

«13

Comments

  • Cooontext

    Did you have a service before? Did it cost 24 dollars?

  • ElementElement Member
    edited August 2018

    yes, but i cancel it a few months ago.
    exactly May 1

  • Cancel your paypal subscription and/or any paypal agreements when you cancel service with anyone.

    Thanked by 2Element Clouvider
  • jvnadrjvnadr Member
    edited August 2018

    Reply to them that they charged you for a since months cancelled service, tell them that you never wanted to buy new services from them nor did any actions for ordering and ask them immediately for a full refund.
    If they don't answer or deny it to you, open a paypal dispute or even a chargeback, sending to Paypal also screenshots of the tickets, the response for... credits and the cancelled service. You'll win the dispute and they will get into serious trouble for unauthorized and/or unexcused charge.

  • we can have this old argument again about whether its the customers or service provider's responsibility to cancel paypal subscriptions when a service is cancelled!

    quick, take a side!

    Thanked by 1Ole_Juul
  • @JoeMerit said:
    we can have this old argument again about whether its the customers or service provider's responsibility to cancel paypal subscriptions when a service is cancelled!

    quick, take a side!

    Paypal subscription is irrelevant from OP's point of view and from what he has posted, his service cancellation request was acknowledged and confirmed, and that is where OP's involvement ends.

    Just because a Paypal billing agreement is still in place, does not allow a merchant to charge as they please!

  • a subscription is different from a agreement. The subscription is scheduled to pay $x to a provider on a certain day whether you have active service or not.

  • I once forgot to cancel my pp subscription with alpharacks, and they were kind enough to refund the whole amount. Just tell them you want a full refund

  • desperanddesperand Member
    edited August 2018

    The old story happens again, and again, and again and again.
    Why top providers like Ramnode just warn about re-activation, or asking you manually confirm a payment before getting money from PayPal? Why many other providers do maximum efforts before automatic payment, or subscription to notify a client SEVERAL TIMES that they will charge a money to continue service, and make their best to make sure that the client is informed about the payment.

    Such hidden ghost payments must be classified as scam and fraud from a provider side.
    By using let since maybe 2012, I saw so many frauds made by providers, even top ones here around let, but nobody wishes to accept, that provider can be a abuser/cheater the same as the client. And better add extra IP filterings plus some kind of blacklist of bad providers and their methods like that, and never ever use such providers.

    Sorry for my butthurt, but I really understand the OP, several times got such fraud from a provider. And don't tell me a bullshit about paypal subscription, many services, and providers when you cancel it in their CP automatically via API cancel it in paypal too.

    Why do I talk that provider is abuser/cheater (not the current one, but people who do such thing especially). Because 10$ here, 20$ there, some client forgot, some doesn't care, some another did not even saw, and so on, and there is extra 1-2k$ easy just because of "a mistake", which is not a mistake. This is super dirty methods.

    Thanked by 2corbpie bjrjk
  • Come clean this thread up Willie, so vicious and much hate at Alpha racks

  • JohnMiller92JohnMiller92 Member
    edited August 2018

    @Element, did you have a recurring paypal thing with them?

    Might have been charged automatically, which doesn't equate fault towards the provider. Just kindly ask for a refund

  • ChuckChuck Member
    edited August 2018

    Sue paypal! they stole your money and then threw it in trash can.

  • deankdeank Member, Troll

    I agree. Suing is the only way.

  • His cancelation request is prior to the first of May 2018, the date of it's cancelation confirmation. Now, he got charged around the fourth of August 2018 - the provider took his money, for no viable reason. They must give him back his money, not as a store credits, but as real money. Otherwise, this is a theft.

    Thanked by 2easy Chuck
  • AnthonySmithAnthonySmith Member, Patron Provider
    edited August 2018

    PayPal subscription- an agreement between the end user and PayPal to SEND money to a given PayPal address on a schedule, this agreement is NOT made with the provider, you make this agreement with PayPal directly the agreement is your responsibility to maintain, correct and more importantly UNDERSTAND before you agree to it and you are not forced to use this, you can make a single payment instead.

    If you don't care, click next next, agree then you don't care about your own money and expect providers to wipe your arse for you, you generate extra work and for no good reason as such usually credit is given only (in fact whmcs does it automatically)

    I only agree with this stance instead of a refund when the provider does the following.

    1) does not force subscription payments.

    2) offers alternative payment methods generally.

    3) warns the end user in their terms

    4) warns the user In all invoice emails regarding subscriptions.

    5) specifically requests that the end user cancel any subscriptions they might have post cancellation.

    6) includes information regarding subscriptions in the initial welcome and vps details email.

    This means even after just 1 month of service the end user will have had at least 5 email and 3 on screen reminders about their subscriptions.

    Any less then that and the provider should refund.

    PayPal billing agreement - an agreement where you authorise the provider to take payments directly from your PayPal account including funding sources, this is not as common and in all cases the provider should refund if they charge for a cancelled service as the provider was an agreeing party in the billing arrangement.

    So @Element which was it?

  • FHRFHR Member, Host Rep
    edited August 2018

    @Janevski said:
    His cancelation request is prior to the first of May 2018, the date of it's cancelation confirmation. Now, he got charged around the fourth of August 2018 - the provider took his money, for no viable reason. They must give him back his money, not as a store credits, but as real money. Otherwise, this is a theft.

    The provider didn't take his money nor charge him. OP sent them the money. That's how PayPal subscriptions work. In this case, it's entirely OP's fault since they have to manually cancel the subscription from the PayPal dashboard - the provider cannot do it.

    Element said: The case: I do not have any active service with Alpharacks and today they charged me for 24 dollars

    Anyway, open a ticket asking for a refund mentioning you forgot to cancel your subscription.

    Thanked by 1Janevski
  • AnthonySmithAnthonySmith Member, Patron Provider

    FHR said: the provider cannot do it.

    Actually we can, but keeping track of 20,000 peoples subscriptions and double checking everything on your (the customers) behalf is a little bit to much work at scale.

    Thanked by 1MichaelCee
  • AnthonySmith said: AnthonySmith

    If the default way on paying a provider is paypal agreement, then, IMO the provider should send email and have notice on client's area that the subscription is ending and they are going to do an automatic charge for renewing it.
    If the client cancel his service, then, in the page where the "cancel" button is, the provider should write with bold letters that he should also cancel his paypal agreement, or he will be charged.
    Of course, I totally agree with you on what a client have to do when ordering a subscription. He has to read the TOS and AUP, knowing what is the pay method he agree to etc. If he just click yes, yes and yes, he has no excuse when things won't go the way he imagined...

    JoeMerit said: quick, take a side!

    On a second thought, I guess I will agree with you. It seem that he did not open a ticket explain the situation nor did cancel a paypal agreement. So, the paypal sent automatically the money to alpharacks and they convert it as credit for future usage. If so, the fault is completely on client's side... And, of course, paypal will not give any money back on a dispute, when a paypal agreement is involved.
    And because @Element has disappeared from this thread, I guess he had a paypal agreement indeed! :)

  • AnthonySmithAnthonySmith Member, Patron Provider

    jvnadr said: If the default way on paying a provider is paypal agreement,

    Its not, I even said that this is not as common, but perhaps you meant to say 'Subscription' or perhaps you meant agreement as in agreement with PayPal.

    jvnadr said: IMO the provider should send email and have notice on client's area that the subscription is ending and they are going to do an automatic charge for renewing it.

    They do, WHMCS does this automatically, by default 14 days in advance, then 7 days then 3 days.

    jvnadr said: If the client cancel his service, then, in the page where the "cancel" button is, the provider should write with bold letters that he should also cancel his paypal agreement, or he will be charged.

    Yep that's what I said, 3 on screen notifications + 5 emails in the first month alone.

    Also i would like to point out that paypal also directly emails you when you set up a subscription to let you know that you have set up an agreement with paypal to send money automatically, they tell you the amount and when it will next be *sent**

    Thanked by 1jvnadr
  • jiggawattjiggawatt Member
    edited August 2018

    jvnadr said: Reply to them that they charged you for a since months cancelled service, tell them that you never wanted to buy new services from them nor did any actions for ordering and ask them immediately for a full refund.

    The original poster did open a ticket, as described in the original post. (There is no Edit indication)

    desperand said: Why top providers like Ramnode just warn about re-activation, or asking you manually confirm a payment before getting money from PayPal?

    Ramnode uses WHMCS for billing which doesn't generate an invoice if the service isn't active. So their billing system can't warn you about anything, because the billing system doesn't know if you have cancelled a subscription or not.

    WHMCS just tacks these subscription payments to the end of the last invoice and adds it as account credit.

    But nevertheless, Ramnode refunds these payments promptly without any B.S. if you open a support ticket. Unlike Alpharacks. That's why Ramnode is a top provider.

    Why many other providers do maximum efforts before automatic payment, or subscription to notify a client SEVERAL TIMES that they will charge a money to continue service, and make their best to make sure that the client is informed about the payment.

    Who does that? If the service is cancelled in WHMCS, the provider has no idea if a subscription payment is coming or not.

    FHR said: Anyway, open a ticket asking for a refund mentioning you forgot to cancel your subscription.

    The original poster did open a ticket, as described in the original post. (There is no Edit indication)

  • jiggawattz said: The original poster did open a ticket, as described in the original post. (There is no Edit indication)

    From what OP said, i suppose he opened a ticket with no reply from him, just to inform them that there is a charge of 24$. And the support answered that it is true and the amount is there as credit. From what OP wrote, there is not an answer from his side to tell them he did not wanted this payment and he want a refund.

    jiggawattz said: But nevertheless, Ramnode refunds these payments promptly without any B.S. if you open a support ticket. Unlike Alpharacks. That's why Ramnode is a top provider.

    We don't know if Alpharacks denied to refund OP. All we know is a confirmation on a charge for credits. If OP has not asked for a refund, explaining the situation there, it is unfair to bash Alpharacks for not giving a refund.
    You know that a refund is not cost-free. it costs man hours. If charging is a client's mistake, they are not obligated to do a refund (although, if you search LET/LEB, you will find cases that Alpharacks did give a refund). And from disappearing of the OP, I would say either he is on wrong here, and/or he did take his refund.

  • deankdeank Member, Troll
    edited August 2018

    To be fair, if person A doesn't have an active service with provider A and person A's paypal subscription accidentally allowed a payment to slip through, an immediate refund is in order.

    Account credit? Catshit. It's a mark of lazy/desperate move to keep someone.

    Having said that, it is the person's responsibility to cancel the subscription, so the blame is not all on the provider. Lack of memory capacity doesn't excuse one from responsibilities.

    Because claiming that you don't remember sleeping with woman A and getting her pregnant doesn't free you from future troubles.

  • AnthonySmithAnthonySmith Member, Patron Provider

    Well it seems we now live in a world that has a good percentage of people that believe its OK to shit on someones door step them knock on their door to demand they provide toilet paper.

    GG.

    The end is here.

  • deankdeank Member, Troll

    AnthonySmith joints the cult; the end is truly nigh.

  • VirMachVirMach Member, Patron Provider

    As others mentioned above, it's important to cancel your "bill pay" agreement with PayPal if you do not want them to forward money to the company every month. If you use PayPal, it also helps if you understand the type of payment you're making and you should at least glance at the bill pay agreement to understand how it works.

    • One-time payments are a single payment (like a single swipe at the store)
    • Subscriptions are bill-pay style, same amount sent to seller every month (like sending monthly checks)
    • Reference transactions/billing agreement is any amount at any time (like saving your card with the seller)

    If you tell your bank to send your electric company $100 per month, and then cut off your electricity service, your bank will keep sending them $100 checks every month. It's not really a new concept, but it could definitely be handled better. With WHMCS, the way it works by default is that the payment gets sent and accepted as a deposit to your account -- so it depends on how the provider treats deposits. Are they non-refundable?

    I think in a situation like this the provider should offer a refund, but they should at least be able to bill you for their time in some way. Because they probably need to explain all this to you while you're upset, assist you in cancelling your subscription, and correctly removing the credits (especially if it auto-applied to any invoices) and refunding the proper transaction. Plus unless something changed, PayPal has a refund fee (30 cents? maybe also international conversion fees), so the provider is losing money there as well. The problem is customers are not very open to a fee when they make a mistake that costs time & money, and they'll spend even more time arguing, so a lot of providers will just say no refunds.

    Anyway, I'm pretty sure as of a recent version of WHMCS, there should be an option to auto-cancel subscriptions on service cancellation so any provider still doing this doesn't really have an excuse anymore.

  • AnthonySmithAnthonySmith Member, Patron Provider

    VirMach said: Anyway, I'm pretty sure as of a recent version of WHMCS, there should be an option to auto-cancel subscriptions on service cancellation so any provider still doing this doesn't really have an excuse anymore.

    That's great however please consider that it cancels the complete agreement, if the end user is using it for multiple services it is still a single subscription with a higher amount due to the limited way in which WHMCS handles them and they cancel 1 of lets say 10 services they are going to be pretty annoyed when the other 9 services get suspended for none payment next month.

    You know I think if anything the reality is switching to billing agreements rather than subscriptions is probably the way forward.

    Thanked by 1VirMach
  • VirMach said: If you tell your bank to send your electric company $100 per month, and then cut off your electricity service, your bank will keep sending them $100 checks every month. It's not really a new concept, but it could definitely be handled better.

    this actually is a very good comparison. question: what would the electric company most likely answer and do with the money, once you found out and ask them about it? I'd say 'account credit' isn't it ;-)

    as a provider simply refund once the customer found out about his fault and asks for his money back. no need for fuzzy tos, lengthy mails, discussions and stuff. click click done.

  • deankdeank Member, Troll
    edited August 2018

    I think Paypal is partially at fault. They've got to come up with something better than this.\

    I always cancel my subscriptions on time, so I haven't had an issue but it's a pain.

  • FHRFHR Member, Host Rep
    edited August 2018

    jvnadr said:

    jiggawattz said: But nevertheless, Ramnode refunds these payments promptly without any B.S. if you open a support ticket. Unlike Alpharacks. That's why Ramnode is a top provider.

    We don't know if Alpharacks denied to refund OP. All we know is a confirmation on a charge for credits. If OP has not asked for a refund, explaining the situation there, it is unfair to bash Alpharacks for not giving a refund.

    You know that a refund is not cost-free. it costs man hours. If charging is a client's mistake, they are not obligated to do a refund (although, if you search LET/LEB, you will find cases that Alpharacks did give a refund). And from disappearing of the OP, I would say either he is on wrong here, and/or he did take his refund.

    AlphaRacks does refund mistakes like these. I had a subscription set up with them and accidentally paid manually (so paid for the service twice). They promptly refunded me without any issues and without me needing to persuade them.

  • We should not conclude that alpharacks did not or did not willing to give a refund. All we know is that OP send one ticket asking about the charge. Did he asked for a refund? Did they answer? It's unclear, since OP has never come back to LET to comment on his own thread.

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