this has go to be the most rediculous thing i have ever heard of:

i am allready in the process of leaving alabanza and this basically sealed the deal. the automated billing portion of the DSM has a serious bug in it! it turns out that some hosting company turned off there automated billing by simply not entering a cybercash id. (not physically disabling it)

when their DSM tried to process the hosting accounts payment (which were supposed to not run at all) it was searching for a cyber cash id. --> well there was none and since my hosting company had just run, it charged everything through my cyber cash id.

IT DID NOT RESET THE VARIABLE >>>>> IT PASSED MINE TO SOME OTHER COMPANY AND THEIR CLIENTS WERE CHARGED FROM MY COMPANY!!!!!!!!!!

talk about screwed up. now i have about 10 chargebacks in like 3 days because of this, and i am sure that there are likely 20+ more.

true, maybe i should have reviewed every single transaction and every single batch but i thought that is what the automation was for....and the $1500 i spend on that box.

if this does not strike any one as scary then i do not know what does....Alabanza has got to be the worst company....here is what they said "well, that is a bug and we will have to look into fixing that." YA THINK?

wow...i am just in complete awe of this and i cannot wait to break free of this poor excuse for a provider.

just thought maybe you folks would like to hear yet another major screw up by ala****

It's not scary. It's a fact of life. Everything has bugs. Things go wrong from time to time. I'm sure that there are loads of Alabanza customers that don't use Cybercash (from what I hear, it's a bit steep to use them anyway) and failed to turn it off completely. This could have been on either the cybercash OR the Alabanza side, you know. Cybercash should not accept a variable that does not match customer data/account information. Anyhow, I personally can't wait to see what you yell about when something goes wrong at your next provider. Because something always goes wrong. How you deal with it is what differentiates you from other people. not that I'm making light of your situation, mind you. But better to post calmly instead of blowing the top of your head off in a show for everyone else.

Why are you so hostile with all your replys to everyone sickofads. I would be just as mad, do you know that you can get your merchant account taken away and also bad credit for you company because of charge backs. AND IT WOULD REALLY MAKE ME MAD if I notified ALabanza and all they say is, well we will lok into it.

Yes everything has bugs but Alabanza has had alot of bugs and for as much as these people pay they should get a product of alot better quality then what their getting.

Who's hostile? Jesus you people are touchy. Yes, it is maddening. But do you really think the best way to deal with it is to act like a child? Are you ready to lay all the blame at Alabanza's feet, just based on his story? He didn't say how he knows his scenario is the right one. What do you expect Alabanza to do except look into it? I wouldn't take his word alone for what happened, either. Alabanza doesn't have any more bugs than VDI does, since from what I hear their cpanel isn't the best thing in the world, either (and apparently their support isn't all that great, directly, either, from some comments that have been made). Nothing is perfect. Not a thing. And you tell me what merchant account provider is going to immediately yank an account because of a single issue like this one? They know that things blow up. They deal with it. So should everybody else. If this guy was my host, I'd move away from him immediately (not that he is a host or anything). Most of what I've seen from him are rants about Alabanza instead of help to other people. This may be a place to vent a spleen or two from time to time, but some hosts should understand that this is not just their forum, unless Matt declares that it is.

SickofAds -

Anyhow, I personally can't wait to see what you yell about when something goes wrong at your next provider.

Do you usually get off on other people's misfortunes? And I guess you do not think that sounds hostile. It ain't nice.

Nate - I hope you get things straighten out quickly. I also hope that others read this and will check to make sure they do not leave themselves open for this kind of mistake. Personally, I am glad you made the post. Seems to me you are owed some money big time. You should not have to take the flack for that. I would ask for a letter from Alabanza saying that it is their fault so you do have some proof that this was not because of anything you did wrong.

Good luck to you.

Does no one get it? I am not happy that he's having problems, and said as much ("not that I am making light of your...". I guess that passes everyone by). I am, however, pointing out that there are problems everywhere. He is just the type of person who will not be happy, anywhere, because there is no such thing as perfection. You people are all wound just a little too tight. Crap happens (can you say c r a p)? Being angry only works for so long until you realize this, and realize what a waste it is to just blame blame blame without trying to address the issue as an adult. Realizing what a waste of time this forum has become is my personal epiphany for the night. No fun and irrational people who use this as their personal venting space instead of productive talk. I'll even give you a for instance before I abandon this place like others before me: in this particular situation, why not find out exactly what happened before casting aspersions? Why not detail the problem to BOTH Alabanza and Cybercash? Why not offer up a solution - like adding a check at the payment gateway to make sure things are being processed by the right id? Why not calmly ask Alabanza (if it's their problem) to refund any processing fees you might have paid? Or explain the stuation to the merchat account provider and ask them to refund any fees that might have been taken out? Why? Because it's just more satisfying to complain than it is to offer realistic suggestions I guess.

Nate - If you have not done so already, I would talk to your branch manager (specifically the manager) and let them be aware of the situation.

I know here, most things are done automatically. If you get overdrawn too much, or have too many chargebacks, your account it automatically shut down, then you have to request that it be re-opened, explaining what happened. Maybe if you let the manager know in advance, you can sidestep that.

Again, good luck to you...I hope it all works out quickly.

When you are actually messing with $$$, you need to triple check your code over and over again. This is one bug that you just can't afford to have. This is also the reason I have not released the cpanel billing software yet, I want to make sure it is foolproof. However thats just my 2 cents, feel free to take it with a huge block of salt.

Nick

Exactly, when you are dealing with money and especially money from multiple people charged through multiple companies. Some people could take it the wrong way, especially the card company who might just thing you were indulging in a bit of fraud.

As for the error being at CyberCash, it is unlikely, their system is to well tested for something like that to happen, and it would also be a coicidence that it happened to two Alabanza customers out of the thousands of merchant CyberCash has.

Any news as to when vdi's billing software will be available in WHM?

ok...so i am reading all of the constuctive replys (not sickofad's) and i appreciate all of the support.

i merely created this thread so that others would make sure to verify all batches run by the DSM or whatever the billing software is they are using.

My merchant account provider was, at first, threatening to pull my account but has since been made aware that it was 100% alabanza's programming bug. --> this is a good thing.

also, alabanza has since "fixed" the bug...but i feel like i ought to just do it all manually now to make sure that nothing like this happens again. i have not made up my mind yet what i want to do. i have 0% confidence in the automation of the DSM --> especially since it was a money issue. this is the most serious kind.

at any rate...thanks for listening and i hope this creates awareness that the software you may be paying $500-$1500 per month for may be screwing you up in the end.





[Edited by nate on 12-02-2000 at 09:28 PM]