I issued my first refund from my instabill account this past month.

I noticed that they took the entire amount of the refund out of my balance instead of using the 'hold back' fund.

Anybody know what this 'hold back' fund is for? I've been holding 10% back for about 7 months now... I always thought it was there to cover chargebacks/refunds.

It is for charge backs only.

This brings up a good question. I just signed up for instabill...but have not started using it yet....while I explore actual merchant accounts.

Here is a scenario I just thought about....

You sign up a customer for an annual plan at $500.00, The "buyer" uses a stolen card. At this time instabill takes their 10% (actually 20% 10% commision...10% chargeback fund)
Several months later...the real card owner catches it, and reports the card stolen/fraudulent charge, etc.

At this point after investigation, instabill issues a chargeback for $500.00.....I have to assume since they only took 10% that goes toward fee's, etc. because it can not cover the whole amount that needs to be paid back to the CC agency. And they surely are not going to let you keep the $400.00 they credited you for the "sale" you made.

So now...not only are you out the $100.00 in "commision and chargeback fee" they kept....but also the whole amount of the chargeback, plus the few months you had some jerk using your server space.

Is the above scenario how this would actually work?? :confused: can anyone shed some light?

Thanks! ;)

are you saying you just have one client signup after 2 months? not very realistic.

I was using the above as an example of how the system MAY work. I suspect Instabill will not just take the whole amount of the chargeback from the "chargeback" percentage they take out and let you keep the rest. They would lose a lot of money that way.

Can any instabill user clarify? Since I'm asking how about Revecom?

actually knipper's concern is not to be worried for instabill. I'm using them and last time, my client sign-up over $1300 using other's credit catd, instabill just check that carefully and know the Phone No. is WRONG!

I think instabill just make every payment REALLY careful and won't need a Charge back anytime :D

This is my real experience!

Instbill: :agree: :agree: :agree: :agree: :agree:

there's some email bug. I will never get "New order" notification from them. Kind of weird. I have email them several time to fix this problems. Anyone had encountered such problem b4?

I used to get notices, but now I don't.

So it wasn't only my imagination after all.

Maybe what we can do is check the instabill admin every 12 hours or so.

Originally posted by MxHub
there's some email bug. I will never get "New order" notification from them. Kind of weird. I have email them several time to fix this problems. Anyone had encountered such problem b4?

I've been having this problem too. I emailed them after going a couple weeks without any notifications, and they told me the problem was fixed.

After going a week with still not getting any notifications, I emailed them again. This time they said that there was a delay with the emails, and I would get them all eventually.

I still have yest to get any notifications.

New order alerts are not as important to me as the alerts we are supposed to get when a reocurring charge is rejected. This kind of makes it hard to keep track of who is paying and who isn't.

You also may want to check any orders you may have had a couple weeks ago to make sure they are on your reocurring charges list. I had an order that wasn't on that list (that should have been), and know of another instabill user who had the same problem that weekend. We both emailed them about the problem, and it was fixed.

Someone must have experience with Chargebacks...can you fill me in on how it works?

knipper it did happen to me once but not a charge back but a refund. I setup an annual payment plan by mistake to reoccur every 10 days :) One customer signed up on it soon after and was charged the whole annual amount every 10 days. He caught it and emailed me, I issued him a refund. My balance was in the red like $300 the end of the month. They never asked me to pay, they just kept on adjusting the balance with the new payments in the following month until the balance reached zero.

instabill is a very good company. I like their service, although the missing email notifications annoy me a bit

Originally posted by Wazeh
I setup an annual payment plan by mistake to reoccur every 10 days :)

LOL, what a good idea to earn money!

I have had problems with both and used there AIM to resolve the problems. When I contact them with AIM they call me back instantly and we get the problems fixed.
They are a very good co.

I have been with instabill for 8 months now.

During this 8 months I had one refund due to a mistake on processing. The "whole" amount was refunded and they kept the 10% commission + the 10% holdback.

I contacted support and could not get anywhere. So now I am out the initial amount + 20%. So I lost 20% on a non-sale. Granted I will get the 10% holdback in 6 months, but that does affect cash flow. Besides who's to say they will be in business 6 months from now?

I voiced my opinion and don't believe the 10% hold back should be held on an amount that is charged back or refunded....Doesn't this seem fair?

Overall I think instabill is a good company! I just don't think this hold back policy is fair. This should be reversed on a refund. This is how a CC account normally works. Merchant accounts do not keep the hold back from a refund....they give it back to you. Hold back should be "only" applied to charge backs on "current" amounts.