Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Running a Web Hosting Business : Chargebacks on automated billings...

[ForumsAddict]

Hi,

This question is for the big boys...ones who have more than 1,500 clients paying annually and are on third party automated billing systems like paysystems or 2co etc.

How often do you receive a CB on yearly customers who forget to cancel accounts and then deny the charge with their banks without even contacting you...

Now this question is directed to hosting companies that have thousands of clients paying yearly and that too small shared hosting accounts...

Personally i think they should be getting couple of them every month..

[jcphosting]

I wouldn't rebill yearly without having the client phone in and confirm their desire to continue with your services.

[Tina J]

We no longer auto-bill...the main reason being the increase in chargebacks we saw, when we switched to auto-bill for about a year. I don't have an exact number on how many, but I do know that at the time it was enough to make me *really* upset.

[benusa]

It should be in your TOS that it's their responsibility to send written notice of cancellation.

Chargebacks are costly. Write a check and mail for the disputed amount if the customer will agree to such a thing.

[cdgcommerce]

For those that do run auto-rebills on annual hosting accounts... you may want to send out an e-mail reminder note a month in advance just to make sure that the customer is a-ok with it.
(at minimum!)

This is important since more than a year has passed and your name may or may not be present in the customer's mind, especially if they started their Web site and then neglected it or didn't even remember that they had a Web site in the first place.

Now, for those that do monthly re-billings, your name will always be a lot more fresh in the customer's mind since they are getting a monthly e-mail receipt and notice. So the risk is not as high on a chargeback as with a larger annual re-billing.

[Tina J]

Originally posted by benusa
It should be in your TOS that it's their responsibility to send written notice of cancellation.

Chargebacks are costly. Write a check and mail for the disputed amount if the customer will agree to such a thing.

NEVER write a check refund for a credit card charge. You might as well gift wrap a pile of money and leave it on their doorstep.

[cdgcommerce]

Tina is 100% right.

If someone paying on credit card wants a refund, issue a credit return to the same card they purchased it through.

That is the only way you'll have protection against them charging it back.

Otherwise they could pay you $100, request a $100 refund, you'd send them a check for $100 and they could still charge back the $100 on the card and claim that you never refunded the charge.