Common-sense should have prevailed?

[infinite]

Hi

I really didn't want to post this to the forum since
all my other experiences with Hostgator have been
outstanding however today I experienced sales support
that was far less than they type of service that I
would have expected from Hostgator.

In actual fact it showed a lack of general "common-sense"
Here's what happened:

I requested the link to purchase a new hard drive to
enable me to save backups on one of multiple dedicated
servers that I have with you. The person on LiveSupport
was great ... provided me the link quickly and I placed
my order. (Incidentally - I was expecting to have to
pay at the time - $300 for a 200GB drive.)

Anyhow - several hours later I got an email from sales
telling me that I had an outstanding balance
(Ticket #DQH-187402).

"I am showing that there is currently an outstanding
balance on your account. Please login to
https://secure.hostgator.com/billing using your Email
address on file. Reply to this ticket once you've
submitted the payments so that we may proceed with
this request."

I quickly replied to say I did not in fact have an
"outstanding" balance and that they amount that this
sales person was referring to was in fact not due
until 7 August and that I had an active Paypal
subscription for it. My modern bill even shows it's
not due until 7 August

http://www.learn-the-basics.com/modernbill.gif

The same person (who I will NOT name) then replied:

"Until all invoices are paid and your balance is at $0,
we cannot continue to proceed. Please update us when
the invoice has been paid, thanks!"

I then went on to inform them this was pretty bad
service since I was a client who had been with
Hostgator for about 3 year and had paid $13,712.00
in dedicated server and hosting costs, I would have
thought that they would not worry about quibbling over
$279 which (if they cared to investigate futher) was
paid every month by Paypal Subscription AND was not
due for a few more days....

I have not received another reply.

Wouldn't the better way to handle this simply be to
invoice me for the $300 (hard drive cost) rather
than quibbling about a $279 recurring payment which
is not even due yet? I think so... and I would have
HAPPILY paid it!

I wonder what would happen in the (very unlikely - I
admit) event that this unnecessary delay resulted
in data loss?

Surely as a client who has paid over $13,000 in fees,
I deserve a little more than the standard canned
response that "until the balance is $0 we cannot
proceed"? Surely common-sense would have been to
get this issue sorted - or at least investigate the
issue further.

As I say - all my other dealings with support have
gone well HOWEVER I must admit this is not the first
time that an (allegedly outstanding) invoice issue
has delayed my ticket... and in THAT case too the
tech did not understand that whilst the invoice had
been GENERATED, it was not due for several days. That
ticket lead to my re-boot request being delayed
considerably whilst I sorted out the fact that the
invoice was indeed NOT overdue at all.

Aaron

[infinite]

Just quick update...

I am glad to say shortly after my post - that COMMON-SENSE
has prevailed! yay The same tech responded with:

I apologize, however we typically do not create such invoices
unless the current balance is at $0.
Due to your long time standing as wonderful client of ours, I have
processed invoiced your account and put through the request to
our data center to have this installed for you right away. Once this
has been completed, we will update you via ticket.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns, thanks!

My faith in HG has once again been restored... however I do still
query WHY I would have to "ordinarily" pay an invoice BEFORE it
was actually due.

Aaron