Can a hosting company lock your account when the invoice is there but it's not due yet?

by Richard Van

Posted: 14 years ago 18 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

I use Hostgator for everything but I have got one domain on another hosting company (not sure if the rules allow me to name them so I'll keep them anonymous) but I'll be shifting that to hostgator to.

I had a bill from the anonymous host 6 days ago, it's due in another 9 days. They tried to take payment out of my Paypal balance but having heard a scary story a while ago I clear it every week into my bank, when they went to collect payment, 11 days early, the account was empty. So, instead of waiting to the due date they locked my account and now the site in question is just a 404 error page.

I've paid them by card now and the sites fine but has dropped from #1 to the second page on Google. Naturally I'm a bit annoyed but the site will be fine.

Point is why did they lock the account and is it legal to do this before the actual due date. I mean I send you a bill and say "I'll collect the cash in 2 weeks" and try after a week, what right have I got to punish the customer? The company in question offered no apologies and said to avoid any future complications make sure there's money in there as soon as the bill arrives in case they decide to take it early again.

I'm just glad for them that the conversation that took place separated us via a phone line and wasn't face to face.

#account #company #due #hosting #invoice #lock

Myles Sinclair

14 years ago

Hello Richard,

If you are paid up to a certain date, the hosting company has no right to shut you down before that date. It sounds like they are desperate for cash, or a dodgy tactic to lock you into another years hosting.

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1 reply

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RuiGomes

14 years ago

Hey Richard,

The answer to your main question is NO. If you paid for 30 hosting days they have to give you 30 hosting days, no mather what they say.

However, since you are talking about Hostgator, one of the most popular hosting companies, I must assume that that has been an error from the billing system. You started the payment process and when the billing system tried to get the money, it failed, so they've just blocked your account.

Thanks
2 replies

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TinkBD

14 years ago

Originally Posted by RuiGomes

Hey Richard,

However, since you are talking about Hostgator, one of the most popular hosting companies,

Hello -

Actually, if you read his first paragraph more carefully, you will see that he is NOT talking about HG, he is talking about a domain he has with a DIFFERENT hosting company!

I use Hostgator for everything but I have got one domain on another hosting company (not sure if the rules allow me to name them so I'll keep them anonymous) but I'll be shifting that to hostgator to.

Just wanted to keep the thread on track... ;-)

TInk

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Richard Van

14 years ago

Originally Posted by RuiGomes

No the host isn't Hostgator, they have all my other sites and treat me great, no problem with them at all, it's just another company I don't want to name in case it breaks forum rules. It's done anyway but it was the way they were to me on the phone...the customers always right didn't exist, sorry customer service didn't exist! The company in question gave me an invoive and said the payment would be taken on such and such a date then went to collect a week before, there's enough in there again now to pay and I'll just leave it, It's yearly hosting but to be honest I'll just pay so they don't stitch me up then move it to Hostgator who themselves couldn't believe what they'd done but, hey they want my business so not exactly going to side with the other company.

Just wondered if it was fair practise to say "we'll take the dollars on this date but what we actually mean is we'll take it a week early...we just won't tell you that bit" 2 years ago I had a domain with them I didn't want anymore, I got the invoice and it had the same 2 week period before they took the cash, I went along after 5 days to cancel it and they'd taken the cash already. Smart tactic I guess but hardly a way to retain customers. Either way I should have learned my lesson then.

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seasoned

14 years ago

Richard,

You mentioned paypal, so how DID they set it up with paypal? Various things could have offset calculations, maybe things just didn't line up. ALSO, if you or they did anything to mess up paypals or their schedule, all bets are off.

UNLESS they used paypal pro, WITHOUT the express option, I don't see how THEY have control when you get charged at this point! ALSO, doing so is not legal, because it requires sending a code they are not allowed to save. THEY don't take money from your paypal account, paypal SENDS it to them based on the original terms.

BTW just so there are no misunderstandings, last I knew....

Paypal STANDARD goes to paypals site, and you have to log into paypal! Last I knew only THIS one allowed subscriptions.

Paypal PRO EXPRESS goes to paypals site through a link on their site, that is supposed to mention it is express, and back to complete it, and you have to login to paypal.

Paypal PRO STANDARD doesn't go to paypals site at all. You enter credit card details on the merchants site, and have to enter the cv code.

Steve

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1 reply

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Harrison Ortega

14 years ago

Seasoned,
he probably signed up the hosting using paypal and yearly recurring payments.
Many host companies requires the method of payment whether paypal or CC to be stored and charges it 15 days before the hosting renewal date(yearly hosting). BlueHost does that.

Last month one of my bluehost accounts had an expired credit card, I didn't update it because I was going to cancel the hosting. BlueHost managed to find out the new credit card dates, changed on my account and charged it. The credit card was never even activated but still they got the payment. I learned that we should not trust any hosting company whether they are big or small.

Originally Posted by seasoned

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Kay King

14 years ago

I learned that we should not trust any hosting company whether they are big or small.

How was that a trust problem for the company? It was your responsibility to cancel the hosting if that's what you wanted.

If you have recurring payments set up and you want them to stop - you have to stop them by canceling the payment plan you originally set up and agreed to.

kay

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Harrison Ortega

14 years ago

I wasn't in recurring payments. On bluehost cpanel we have the option to set the account to "do not renew" option and that was the option I had set two months prior to the renewal date.

But that is not the problem at all. With recurring payments or not any hosting company have no rights to use trial and error in order to find the new credit card dates, updates it and charges it. It was my credit cards fault though to allow the payment because I have never called my bank to activate that card.

I still consider Bluehost the best hosting company and I have more than 10 accounts with them but didn't like what they did with the credit card thing and not following their renew hosting ToS.

Originally Posted by Kay King

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RuiGomes

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Richard Van

Well, I'm then sorry for my misreading

However, the same applies for your hosting company. I'm sure that it was a mistake on their billing system (perhaps WHMCS, as most companies use).

If you could provide more information about their billing system, then we could help you more.

I know that all the companies that use WHMCS can't even do that (well, they can do, but they would have to do some dark tricks).

Perhaps they use some other billing system that got confused, because he tried to get the money and he wasn't able.

I would suggest that you move to Hostgator as you mentioned, since you're satisfied with their service.

Don't go for the low prices, go for the feedback

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seasoned

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Richard Van

I KIND of agree with Myles, but the date on the bill might be taking the grace period into account.

*******HOWEVER******* it is technically ILLEGAL to debit the paypal account periodically like you imply, at least last I heard! WHY? Because paypal requires the CV code, and credit cards insist you don't store it.

I therefore must believe that they used the most popular way, and the ONLY way that PAYPAL itself, rather than paypal pro, allows you to do this. And THERE, the date is set when YOU setup the SUBSCRIPTION!

Although paypal DOES retry on error, I wouldn't think it would retry on success, even if the successful attempt says you have no money to pay them.

If THAT is the case, they were probably in the right. It would be nice if they just notified you, but that isn't always done either.

Steve

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sbucciarel Banned 14 years ago

Sounds like a very desperate hosting company. You need to get away from them.
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- wordwizard 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by sbucciarel
  
  Sounds like a very desperate hosting company. You need to get away from them.
  
  I agree. A hosting company is one of the most important pieces in your business, so you don't want one that does crazy things like that.
  
  I have Hostgator too, and have been very happy with their service for several years now. I have also dealt with a few others because of some work I did for clients, and let's just say that my experience with them has made me appreciate Hostgator even more.
  
  Elisabeth
  
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seasoned

14 years ago

I'm still wondering about the paypal deal though. Oh well, it is friday, and I was thinking about checking them out again. I really doubt it changed though.

If it didn't change, the host was NOT at fault!

Steve

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rts2271

14 years ago

It happens from small companies desperate for money. I can probably guess the name of this web host as we've had a rash of people coming to our company complaining about a certain hosting company billing 10-15 days early and locking the accounts down if it declines. This is a pathetic attempt to finance their company on their customers backs.
We're currently kicking around our suspension policies. Right now we have none as we do not like to suspend business accounts as it can damage our clients. We have a ever growing group now though that are consistently 20-30, now 45 days late and we are reevaluating our policies there. We have a written policy of day after due date thats been in place since inception but I really hated getting my own account suspended back in the day from being a day late, forgetting a payment etc etc.

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IMStudentforlife

14 years ago

Two things..

First off maybe this is the time to think about backups for the rest of us. Getting backups for your site if its wordpress to have them sent to you weekly with all the latest plug-ins and comments/postings. It is a very important thing to do. Just so none of us would have to go through any of this..

Secondly,

I for one would like to know who this company is. I get the whole TOS on WF about this but how would a good (white hatter) IM'er protect themselves against unscrupulous companies like that one. Even just a one time desperate for money type of scenario what else are they capable of???

I'm not even sure private messaging the name would be against the TOS of WF..

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Kay King 14 years ago

I don't think we have the whole story.

Is that payment set to pay automatically monthly from paypal? If it is, what you have is a failed payment attempt. If that the payment is due to be paid through Paypal when invoice is issued, the date is secondary. If you pay the bill monthly by issuing a single payment each time, the date due comes into play.
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rts2271

14 years ago

I will say this you are correct except it goes beyond simple backups to having a bulletproof disaster recover plan for all your web assets. Web sites will get hacked. Hard drives will fail. The difference between a amateur and professional web presence is how quickly you can recover from a complete disruption.

Our main site could be nuked from orbit and I can have it back up anywhere on planet earth within a hour, less if DNS isn't a issue. Have backups and a recovery plan.

Originally Posted by IMStudentforlife

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IMStudentforlife

14 years ago

Originally Posted by rts2271

Well leaving it up to redundant backups is a matter of personal preference, its a matter of how far you are willing to go with CD ROMs and external flash drives. That is something completely out of some people's realm.

That's why I just chose the over simplification method of just having backups via wordpress or just making them yourself. Because this is something any one can do right this minute.

And like I say the rest is just personal preference...

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Can a hosting company lock your account when the invoice is there but it's not due yet?

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