Billing Issue

[Keith W]

HI All,

I am kind of miffed this morning, why you ask? I will tell you why....

I realise that it is ultimately down to me to know when my hosting bills are due but, because I have had a lot happening, on this occasion it totally slipped my mind.

Now what am I miffed about? I am miffed because I did not get an email letting me know I had an invoice to pay, had I have got such an email I would have paid the invoice immediately.

I am also miffed because I did get an email from billing telling me my invoice was overdue and needed paying.

It really does upset me that you manage to email me to tell me I am overdue in paying my invoice yet you failed to email me when the invoice was first created.

Bad show if you ask me

Yours,

a miffed, upset and grumpy Keith

[GatorWesley]

Originally Posted by Keith W

Now what am I miffed about? I am miffed because I did not get an email letting me know I had an invoice to pay, had I have got such an email I would have paid the invoice immediately.

I am also miffed because I did get an email from billing telling me my invoice was overdue and needed paying.

Keith,

I'm a little confused by this, our billing system (Modernbill) will notify you when an invoice is past due, not that an invoice has been generated. I see that this email was sent on 1/18 and was paid the same day.

Your account is in good standing and was paid within the 10 day grace period, so no negative action was taken against your account.

[Pitrow]

Hmmm... I've never ever even seen an email invoice from HG. I setup for autobilling on a credit card and haven't looked back. I just log into my bank account twice a month to check that I A) have enough for next months payment, and B) that this months payment was deducted.

Never seen an invoice (or a receipt for that matter) from HG.

I suppose if I wasn't acting as my own accountant he/she would probably be pissed at the lack of receipt for tax purposes, and I also suppose if I were to log into the billing system I could print a receipt, but that requires action on my part.

[Keith W]

Originally Posted by GatorWesley

Keith,

I'm a little confused by this, our billing system (Modernbill) will notify you when an invoice is past due, not that an invoice has been generated. I see that this email was sent on 1/18 and was paid the same day.

Your account is in good standing and was paid within the 10 day grace period, so no negative action was taken against your account.

Hi Wesley,

I am not sure why your are confused as you reply just says what I was miffed about.

I got an email telling me that I was past due on an invoice and that invoice said it was over due, this is why I am slightly upset.

It would have been preferable if I had been emailed when the invoice was generated and not later when it was over due.

Take care, Keith

[GatorWesley]

What I was confused about is an email was in fact sent, did you just not like what was said on the email? You were notified that an invoice was there and you paid it.

This is just how our Modernbill setup works, if this is not to your liking then hopefully our new billing system will be up and running by your next renewal a year from now.

[dewt]

From a personal point of view I would prefer to be sent advance notification of an upcoming bill. It is very easy for a bill (especially an annual one) to slip your mind and you end up with not enough funds in your bank account to pay it.

As I am paying monthly for a baby it is not an issue but I can see it being one for those with large accounts with HG. Also since I am running my account as a personal venture I have no need for any form of actual invoice. Again, those who are running a business through their accounts would find a lack of paperwork at least an inconvenience. I hope that the new system will allow the issue of invoices in advance of the billing date (I'm looking to the future when I have several dedis and a thriving business)

[Keith W]

The invoice was generated on 12th January 2009 - I received no email telling me this

On the 18th of January 2009 you emailed me to tell me I had an over due invoice to pay, this is 6 days after the invoice was raised.

You only allow a 10 day grace period, the email I got meant there was only 4 days of the grace period left before I incur extra changes and possible site suspension.

It would be much more preferable if you emailed me to tell me I had an invoice when you first created in on the 12th.

It is a bit like a supplier coming and knocking on your door and saying "hey you haven't paid your invoice, it is over due, pay up" when they never even sent you the invoice in the first place so that you could pay it.

I hope the new billing system will be a big improvement on the current one.

To any "new" customers that may read this, this is just a personal gripe of mine and does not reflect on the excellent service that Hostgator provides.

Anyway thanks for taking the time to respond to my thread Wesley, it is very much appreciated.

Take care, Keith

[rkistler]

Well, from reading this thread, guess we at least know why we have not received a Renewal Notice for our service - which renews (or Expires...) on Feb 10, 2009.
However, while rummaging through the ModernBilling pages, found that they do NOT even show a renewal as being due - this month OR next: so will we even get a Renewal Billing when the Account pages show that NO renewals are coming up??

(OK: Assumption is that we WILL get billed - but a) agree with comments above that it would be nice to have an ADVANCE NOTICE that the billing is coming due, and b) the Accounts page really should SHOW that a renewal is nearly due...)

[dwrunyon]

I agree with the billing system notification being a negative. It would be SO much better as well if the billing was integrated in with the panel so you could *at least* have a *lot* more convenience in keeping up with it, but yes, it really *should* send you an email the very moment an invoice is generated.

I do understand that a new system is in the works and on the way, but the reality we face this very moment is an inconvenient system that's sorta cobbled together, with panel, billing & tickets all being separate, and inadequate notifications.

Another thing that bugs the crap out of me about the billing system is that I have had issues where the various trials I've done with HostGator accounts in the past have gotten the present support reps confused. I would put in for some sort of support need and they sometimes couldn't figure out which one of the accounts was my active one. I really do wish yall would simply destroy old accounts, and I really don't like it when reps (about 5 have done this) make comments that make me feel as if I am a problem for having tried HG more than once... I do not personally see anything wrong with comparison shopping, or simply changing my mind from time to time!