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Thread: Account before payment?
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03-28-2003, 05:55 PM #1Web Hosting Guru
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Account before payment?
I had a client today who made an order but refused to pay until I setup his account and transfer all his accounts from his old host over. I told him I can not create the account until payment is recieved, so he said nevermind then. Do you think it is a good idea to setup accounts before payment is recieved? What would you have done in this situation?
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03-28-2003, 05:57 PM #2Junior Guru
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No way would I set the account up until payment was received.
Sounds like a scam to me.
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03-28-2003, 05:59 PM #3WHT Addict
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I've gotten burned from setting them up, even buying their domain name... then never receiving payment. So in my opinion, no, don't do it.
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03-28-2003, 06:10 PM #4Web Hosting Master
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I would have politely said, "Sorry, but it's against policy to provide services before payment is received" and let them go elsewhere if this did not suit - especially since this person was asking you to transfer the site files for them.
The only two reasons I can think of for someone asking for this are:
1) they've been burned before, and so don't want to prepay and lose their money again
2) they're trying to scam you☷ Lesli Schauf, TLM Network
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03-28-2003, 06:17 PM #5Texas Female
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You did the right thing for sure!
NEVER set up an account before payment is received.HostCaters.com - Quality Web Hosting - Under A Gig! - Since 1999
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03-28-2003, 06:38 PM #6WHT Addict
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Hmm, could you not just cancel their account in about 20 seconds if they didn't pay?
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03-28-2003, 06:42 PM #7Web Hosting Guru
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No. They want me to setup their account and transfer all of their old accounts over and get everything up and running. Then they basically want to decide if they like my service or not :/
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03-28-2003, 06:45 PM #8Web Hosting Master
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At what point would you cancel the account: 20 seconds after creation? A few days? Also, this is extra work that has to be done: you have to monitor the accounts to see which ones are on trial period, cancel the ones that aren't or send invoices, and all that. And even so, you're going to find people who complain that you cancelled their account for no reason if they don't pay.
There are pluses or minuses to either decision - but for me (and for most people here, judging by the replies) the potential pros of providing a free trial period are outweighed by the potential cons.
If you have someone who wants to decide whether they like your service or not, they can transfer over one account and be your hosting customer for a month or two or however long they wish to evaluate the value of your service before moving their other accounts over.☷ Lesli Schauf, TLM Network
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03-28-2003, 06:57 PM #9WHT Addict
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I agree with everyone here. Protect yourself from being burned. Also, if you have a 30 day money back guarantee, you could tell the guy he has nothing to lose by trying your service for a month.
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03-28-2003, 07:04 PM #10Web Hosting Guru
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I told him that but I don't think it's encouraging him. That is why I feel it may be a really bad idea.
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03-28-2003, 07:31 PM #11Invented the Internet
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Never ever ever ever ever setup accounts without payment.
Ever.
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03-28-2003, 07:49 PM #12Web Hosting Master
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Like the others say, don't do it.
You don't need or want the hassle, do you?
Many people get burned by scammers like these, so what if he is legit and all - he could at least trust your 30 day money back guarantee?
If you are desperate for his service, do it - otherwise I'd stay away from him.
Never setup accounts before payment, totally bad in the long run.
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03-28-2003, 07:56 PM #13Web Hosting Guru
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I'm far from desperate for his service. hehe I'm not going to do it unless he pays first. Thanks for the advise everyone!
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03-29-2003, 02:50 AM #14Aspiring Evangelist
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Personally (and this is just me), I would happily set people up before receiving payment, though I would not pay for their domain name costs. Why? Unless you are close to your bw limit for your server already, there is no actual cost to you. It also generates good will.
EDIT: In terms of how it works with the domain name, either they deal with it themselves or I give them a subdomain of a 3 character domain I keep around for the purpose.» OmegaSphere - http://www.omegasphere.net/
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03-29-2003, 04:22 AM #15Web Hosting Master
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Well, I do setup accts prior to payment if the order is for check/money order. But I state in my tos that acct will be suspended/deleted if payment is not recieved within a time limit. Now I know this could just open me up to abuse but it could also open up to a client who for whatever reason can't or doesn't want to pay via credit card. Or they don't feel comfortable posting their bank info with paypal. I think it just gives a good rapore with your clients.
However I will not purchase a domain name for them.Bonnie - http://ansmediagroup.com - http://peachydomains.com
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03-29-2003, 04:35 AM #16Web Hosting Master
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Re: Account before payment?
Originally posted by mhale
I had a client today who made an order but refused to pay until I setup his account and transfer all his accounts from his old host over. I told him I can not create the account until payment is recieved, so he said nevermind then. Do you think it is a good idea to setup accounts before payment is recieved? What would you have done in this situation?• WLVPN.com • NetProtect owned White Label VPN provider •
• Increase your hosting profits by adding VPN to your product line up •
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03-29-2003, 06:10 AM #17Web Hosting Master
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Yeah. I mean: Does your ISP allow you to signup before you pay?
Do they allow you to use the Internet before you pay?
Simple: THEY DON'T!
You said you are not desperate for their service, so just leave them totally alone. Sounds more like a scam to me than anything else.
I don't see a lot of other companies doing it, plus they want your service meaning they should bend to your rules: not the other way.
With an ISP or anything you pay in advance.
(Except with mine, they didn't bill me first month ... then they quickly picked up on it and double billed the next month )
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03-29-2003, 10:18 AM #18New Member
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I wouldn't cause
yea it's easy to deactive their accounts , but if it gets out that you give out accounts before you get paid, then script kiddies and spamers are going to flock to you.
on that note about the kiddies , if you offer to much for to little you'll attract them too.
a host I had offer *********** limited root access(all the perks minus Virtual reboot, and ability to recompile daemons) for CHEAP CHEAP , and he got flooded with script kiddies
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03-29-2003, 10:24 AM #19Web Hosting Master
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Yeah, there are just too many cons for offering Free Trial Periods - the very reason why so few do, if any even!
You're better off with a money back guarantee - if you even want to offer one of those too.
I cannot think off hand if any do, but I'll try and find some - maybe the topic starter can talk to them and see how they found the free trials go and whether they get abused.
Although I doubt I'll actually find many if any.
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03-29-2003, 11:18 AM #20Web Hosting Master
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If it's an account with a low profit margin, the customer can pay first and transfer the files himself. If it's a client willing to pay $20/month per domain, then I would be willing to work something out after verifying the order. My times too valuable to do any extra work on a low cost/low profit margin plan.
-Mike
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03-29-2003, 11:32 AM #21Web Hosting Master
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If you are making no profit on that account or it is just too low to be of any real value to transfer over the accounts - you're just waisting your time.
Personally, from all the information you provided and all these posts:
I SAY DUMP HIM
It's up to you, that is my thought though - why waist your precious time on something that you wont make money on?
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03-29-2003, 04:44 PM #22Newbie
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For your information its Adult 100gb+ reseller account (and growing). I have had several times (more like everytime) where sites were transferred inproperly I have post nuke sites, forum sites, script sites, etc and this is a move from Ensim servers to CPanel servers so the absolute paths dont exactly match. All I wanted was to show me that he could transfer them without a hitch, I did not even need login and password information so what possible scam are you talking about and if it was a scam why would the customer want to transfer sites? Why would it even be a big plan? Why not a tiny little 5 dollar plan?
Also for the person that said ISP doesnt allow you to sign up before pay....I think your extremely confused 90% of all ISPs allow you to sign up before pay.
For the people that keep yelling scam this scam that, I wasnt even aware of his 30 day money back guarantee until after he posted this thread and even then he uses 2checkout and I used them when they first started so pardon me if I dont trust their refund system. Anyone that used 2checkout back then knows exactly what im talking about.Last edited by Ifrit; 03-29-2003 at 04:53 PM.
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03-29-2003, 05:00 PM #23Web Hosting Guru
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I told you I had a 30 day money back gaurantee while we were chatting :/
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03-29-2003, 05:05 PM #24Aspiring Evangelist
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mhale, the customer is always right.
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03-29-2003, 05:12 PM #25Web Hosting Guru
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Originally posted by ddent
mhale, the customer is always right.+ Ahvio Networks :: webspace that works .. always
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