As our webhosting client base grows, it is becoming increasingly difficult to monitor when domains transfer to / from our control.

From time to time, we have irate customers calling us asking why we are still billing them for an account that they transferred to a different ISP, or decided not to transfer the domain over to us at all.

Our life cycle of a customer is as follows.

1. Customer fills out an order form.
2 . We put in a domain transfer request to NS (or whoever the registrar is).
3. Create the account.
4. Start the billing cycle.
5. Customer calls to cancel.
6. Stop the billing cycle.

The problem is that we have no method of tracking when a domain actually transfers to/from our control, because of time, and lack of automation tools. If a customer doesn't notify us that they are canceling, the billing cycle doesn't stop.

Any solutions or suggestions are greatly appreciated at this point.

Thanks in advance!

Kenneth Taylor

I suppose in theory it wouldn't be too difficult to write a perl script that would run a whois query on the domains you host and check to see that your DNS servers are listed with each one.

I guess my thoughts on it would put the responsibility on the customer to make sure they notify you that they are closing their accounts. It's a little unfair of a customer to expect you to read their mind or to be watching their account constantly to make sure they are not confused about something. If the customer doesn't transfer his domain or moves his domain without telling you and you bill him, then how are you supposed to be held responsible? It's an example of a customer trying to get something for nothing or one that is ignorant and should have done his homework. It would be like if you bought a new car, never drove it, and then want the bank not to expect you to make payments on it.

I've had a handfull of customers do the same thing to me. I've always let it come down to the customer's attitude. If they are polite and it looks like they made a genuine mistake then I give them the benefit of the doubt, but if they are irrate and pushy then I don't.

AP

An easy way to this is to inform the customers that when they register or transfer a domain to your servers that you are going to add your company as the ADMIN contact. Be sure to explain that this is to aid in billing issues if the domain were to be transferred. By doing this you will know if the customer moves their domain off of your servers because you will have to authorize the transaction in order for it to happen. Then when a customer does request a move just update your billing and customer info accordingly therefore eliminating the billing issues you are now experiencing. Of course this will only work if the customer does not go into their domain and change the Contact info to something other than your company. But if that happens then the problems lies in their hands and relieves you of any potential legal issues. Make sure you have this stated in some sort of Terms of Service agreement though.

Regards,
Brian P.

We charge for the hosting account. Whether or not the domain EVER points to that hosting account is beside the point.

Of course, we will make every effort to assist the customer transfer, if needed. BUT, unless they cancel the HOSTING ACCOUNT - even if they've transferred the domain elsewhere - their account is considered billable.

--Tina