Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Running a Web Hosting Business : Billing is driving me nuts!

[mrzippy]

Every day we get about 2 or 3 people who have failed recurring transactions. It is driving me nuts.

Having to track them, contact them, contact them again, suspend them, unsuspend them, contact them again, and then finally confirm they actually updated their info and the transaction was finally successfull...

Arg. So much wasted time.

What do others do to help alleviate this work!?

[Tina J]

Are you using ModernBill or anything else?

[mrzippy]

Originally posted by AH-Tina
Are you using ModernBill or anything else?

Not at the moment.

I've been doing a lot of research into WHM AP and MB, but haven't selected anything yet.

I currently am using PaySystems, but that's definately going to change asap to avoid the upcoming problems with their "migration", etc... I use a customized database to store customer info, but it isn't connected to paysystems or anything... I am currently tracking payment "issues" on paper.

Will MB or WHM AP make it easier to track customers who flake out on their cc/payment info, etc? (ie: Is the automation of this stuff actually any good? Is it usable or will it just introduce yet another system I still have to track manually?)

Thanks!

[Macord]

it depends on which gateway system you use, for instance with paysystems and authorize.net it will be all automated if you want to as they do pass back information on recurring billing, however for systems like 2checkout that not yet have this option available it would still be a manual process to screen out the payments

[mrzippy]

I will likely be moving to PSIgate, since my company is Canadian.... but it doesn't seem to be supported by WHM AP.

[PrHosting]

I use whmAutoPilot that I am happy with. It takes a while to figure out, but overall, it is a good software product with many new features and payment gateways being introduced with the new version coming out shortly.

Currently, I have activated whmAutoPilot with PayPal and the NEW 2CO which is sufficient for me for the time being, and as a measure to prevent fraud, have signed up with varilogix, that is also integrated into whmAutoPilot.

Recurring billing procedures are taken care of with both the gateways mentioned.

[cnm72]

sounds like it is time to automate...

from what I understand Whois.Cart : http://whoiscart.net/ is an afforable and solid product

[PHPGeek2k3]

It looks like WHMAP is going to implement automatic suspension & customer notification in their 3.0 release along with PSI Gate module. from the post in their forums. http://69.93.73.188/forum/index.php?showtopic=3033 is a link to that post that outlines what looks like they plan to implement in v3.0

Thanks
- James

[mrzippy]

Originally posted by PHPGeek2k3
It looks like WHMAP is going to implement automatic suspension & customer notification in their 3.0 release

Yes, I was looking at that the other day... and I know that ModernBill claims to do this already.

However... does it work? I mean, does it actually work reliably and as desired so that it isn't just as much work to "fix" the billing application as it would be for me to manually track and do this all now?

The last thing I want is to install a billing application that is going to create just as much work, or possibly more work...

[JMichael]

tagging along

[DTR1]

Originally posted by mrzippy
Yes, I was looking at that the other day... and I know that ModernBill claims to do this already.

However... does it work? I mean, does it actually work reliably and as desired so that it isn't just as much work to "fix" the billing application as it would be for me to manually track and do this all now?

The last thing I want is to install a billing application that is going to create just as much work, or possibly more work...

I have modernbill 4.1.5 / billing director (Sphera branded with Sphera API)

I haven't had a case where it has suspended an account but I have set it up.

It will send out a warning x amount of days after invoice due - you decide.
then a 2nd - then a 3rd.

Then it will suspend the account.

I have set up my cron jobs accordinally. I see no reason why it won't do what it says it does.

It will automatically unsuspend an account once it's been paid up.

I have the cron job setup to check once a day for accounts to be suspended and every 15 minutes to look for accounts to unsuspend because they have paid.

[6PS-Jake]

I think I heard somewhere that CDGCommerce has a program or beta in Canada?

[Ramprage]

CDGCommerce doesn't support Canadians

From what I understand, after speaking with PSIgate rep, is that modernbill does support recurring transactions but you need to keep the CC numbers on your local server!!

I hope Autopilot V3 supports recurring PSIGate on the processors servers so you don't have to store them on your local server.