Suggestion: Billing of Non-Recurring Charges

[Douglas]

I'm posting this in hopes it serves as something of a heads up for other H9 Resellers and to get their thoughts on how H9 handled my request.

I've been with Hostnine for three years as a Reseller.

Because I have a Reseller account, and because my credit card is on file with Hostnine and all my monthly invoices for the reseller fees get paid automatically, I have my email setup to archive all hostnine billing emails. I archive them because, well, they get paid automatically, so what's to look at, right?

The other day I needed something I rarely use and that was to have a domain name changed. Resellers like me have to request domain name changes on this web page.

I fill in the form and right above the submit button it say this:

Please Note: There is a $5 service charge for domain changes. By filling out this form, your agreeing to this charge.

No biggie. I don't mind paying that. I hit submit.

A day or two later I'm searching my email for a client invoice and I see two invoices from Hostnine that look oddly familiar and very close in date so I think maybe I got double-billed by mistake. I click on one of them and I see this message:

The invoice for this service has still not been paid. If we do not receive payment within 48 hours your account will be suspended. This will serve as the final notice.

Suspended?!

First off, the wording of that email is just plain rude. Three years as a Reseller and that's the treatment we get, huh?

Second: if H9 wants to get payment within 48 hours, why not include the words FINAL NOTICE or ACCOUNT ABOUT TO BE SUSPENDED in the subject line of the email. There were no such words, in fact the words were the same words as the subject line that was generated when I received an email saying my request for a domain name change had been received. How would I know there's a problem?

And again, remember here that I had, until now, just been archiving all emails from Hostnine's billing email address because all my charges for three years have been paid automatically.

Okay, so I'm really shocked by this email because, and I don't mind saying that because my livelihood is wrapped up in my account here at Hostnine (yeah, yeah, I'm doing something about that ... now) and an account suspension would be a public relations nightmare.

So, with trembling hands because I'm not sure if the 48 hours has passed or not, I manage to pay that $5 bill online.

I then submitted a ticket to support where I clearly outlined how the automatic payment system leads to confusion with these domain name charges that must be paid separately. I went on to suggest that H9 make it more clear on the domain name change request page that the charges will be billed SEPARATELY and will not be paid automatically for Resellers on a recurring billing program.

Here's the reply I got from Nick:

I'm sorry you're unhappy about this. You are correct that your credit card is, indeed, configured to pay your recurring services. This is a one-time service, not recurring, therefore it was not charged to your recurring payment method, and required a one-time payment.

You were sent an invoice at the time the domain change was requested.

You received a personal follow-up from Brittany shortly stating clearly to login to pay the invoice:
"We have generated the invoice for your requested domain change. Please login to your Client Area (via https://secure.hostnine.com/billing/) to pay this invoice and reply back once complete so that we may complete the upgrade in our system."

Obviously Nick didn't really read my ticket where I said I was automatically archiving all H9 emails.

Nick continues with his reply ...

No payment or reply was received. After 48 hours, I replied advising that the account would be suspended.

Again, Nick sends me an email with no special words in the subject line, and again, because all hostnine billing emails are being auto archived, it was only a fluke that I saw it.

Here's the final kick in the 'nads ...

There was no wrong action done on our end. It is our job to ensure payment is collected on all invoices. Payment was not received on this invoice, therefore, the normal procedure we follow with any client that doesn't pay is followed.

Nice to know Nick is following policy with ruthless precision.

Again, my livelihood is in this business and I find it a tad unnerving that it could all get seriously disrupted because of a $5 charge and a support staff who are deaf to the well-meaning suggestions of a loyal customer to improve their system so other clients and H9 won't be inconvenienced.

Ultimately, I take responsibility for this problem because I made the erroneous assumption that all billings were handled automatically. I won't do that again, but I'm more than a little put out that Nick would not get the gist of what I was trying to tell him; namely, I think the wording needs to be clearer on the domain name change request page that those billings are separate from automatic billings. Is that too much to ask? Would it be too much to ask to get a thoughtful reply about my suggestion?

I mean we're all busy ... but how am I expected to read every email when 99% say "automatically paid, thank you" when H9's own staff don't seem to want to properly read their own customers' support tickets?

Am I off base here? I'd be interested to know what other H9 customers think of this.

[H9NickH]

Very simply put: Douglas put in a domain change request and accepted the $5 fee. The invoice was automatically generated and emailed to him at the time he put in his request, as it does for everyone. A personal follow-up email was sent by our staff 12 hours later specifically stating he needed to login and pay the invoice. Another 48 hours passed and payment was still not received - a final notice was sent with a warning of suspension.

There was nothing done wrong on our end. Very simply, Douglas forgot to pay the invoice, and got upset when he received a final notice stating he would be suspended for not paying for a service we performed for him. HostNine receives several domain change requests on a daily basis and this is the procedure we follow for each and every one of them, and have done so for the past 4 years. Up until now, I've received no complaints, which tells me that our process does work, and this was a one-time issue with one customer.

I read Douglas' email in full before replying and, again, fail to see where we did anything wrong.

This thread is being closed. If anyone has any questions or comments on our procedures feel free to open a Billing ticket or email me directly nickh[at]hostnine.com.