Hostgator - recurring payment
Hello,
Several months ago, I compared my experiences with fuitadnet, sonet7, hostgator, and asmallorange. I am posting again to share my most recent (unpleasant) experience with hostgator.
When my a month for a penny trial expired, I stopped using my account, pointed my domain to my new host (The site had no activity anyways.) I was under the assumption that hostgator would terminate my account, since I wasn't going to pay for it anymore. Now, I concede, that on hindsight, had I gone through the steps to cancel my account, then this would never have been a problem. But since I never heard from hostgator again (no invoices, no payment receipts), I assumed that my account was cancelled. Thus, it was to my horror when I discovered that hostgator continued to charge my credit card. What follows is my exchange with customer service.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan
Hello,
It was unpleasant to discover today that you have been making
unauthorized charges to my credit card. When I initially signed up for
the account, I did not authorize hostgator to keep my credit card
information on file. Upon expiry of my 1 month trial, I stopped using
my account (you can check server logs for activity). Nonetheless, I
have continued to be charged for service I wasn't using and did not
agree to pay for. On top of that, when my credit card was charged, I
didn't even receive a notice saying so, and there wasn't an invoice.
Below are the invoice numbers that I had to dig up through modernbill.
Please refund the charges or I will call up the credit card company
and have them do that for me.
285362 $9.95 2006/04/28
317570 $9.95 2006/05/30
349628 $9.95 2006/06/29
384395 $9.95 2006/07/29
423093 $9.95 2006/08/29
462231 $9.95 2006/09/29
501842 $9.95 2006/10/29
Thank you for your time, and please let me know when you have reversed
the charges. Thank you.
Regards,
Ryan
Quote:
Hello, we do not offer free trials. We only offer coupons for money off the first month of service.
To cancel your account please fill out
http://www.hostgator.com/cancel.php
You will receive an email back stating you were canceled at such time. If you don't get this email back within 24 hours, we didn't receive your cancelation request and you will be held responsible for any charges as a result.
Thank you for contacting the HostGator Sales Department!
Jay Weissman
Sales Team
Forum Administrator
1-866-96-GATOR
Quote:
Hi Jay,
Thanks for the quick response. The trial is not the issue here - I
never said it was free. I authorized hostgator to charge my credit
card for $0.01 (for the first month), not every single month after
that until infinity. My complaint is that not only was hostgator
making unauthorized charges, but that I wasn't made aware of the fact.
I have filed my cancellation request, but you have to understand that
this isn't exactly a discussion - if my request is denied, I will file
a chargeback with my credit card company, which is extra trouble for
both of us (and extra chargeback costs for you).
Regards,
Ryan
Quote:
Hello,
The account auto-renews. This is automatic and is per our terms of service,
www.hostgator.com/tos.shtml that you agreed to when you signed up for Hosting with Hostgator. This is from Section 4.) Payment Information:
You agree that until and unless you notify HostGator of your desire to cancel any or all services received, those services will be billed on a recurring basis. Cancellations must be done in writing via the cancellation form provided.
I'm sorry sir but those payments are indeed valid.
If there is anything else we can assist you with please let us know.
Thank You,
Carl
Hostgator.com
Quote:
Hi Carl,
The TOS says "...those services will be billed on a recurring
basis...". That is my problem. I was never billed. I was just charged
"on a recurring basis", using credit card information I did not
authorize hostgator to have on file. If you are unable to reverse the
charges, either let me know that so I can proceed with the chargeback,
or bring this issue to the attention of a supervisor.
Thanks.
Ryan
Quote:
Hello,
I have discussed this situation with my Manager. Our terms of service is clear about the recurring charge and it they were valid payments to Hostgator. If you do initiate a chargeback towards hostgator then we will have no choice but to report you to a collections agency as those charges were valid.
If there is anything else we can assist you with please let us know.
Thank You,
Carl
Hostgator.com
Quote:
Carl,
I have a hard time believing that anybody, including you, would think
that "billing" and "charging" are the same thing. It is disappointing
that we were not able to resolve this, but I appreciate your time and
effort for trying. Please close this ticket and send my regards to
your manager.
Ryan
I think a fair solution would have been to assume that I was being billed on a recurring basis. Then I would be obligated to pay once for the second month, but having been made aware that my account was still active, I would cancel the account from then on.