Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : help with data393 / venturesonline billing question

[cholo1124]

Hey guys, just wanted to get some opinions.

Like many here, I had an account with VenturesOnline. This past year, they merged with or were bought out by Data393. Overall, my experience there has been mostly positive both before and after the acquisition or merger.

My credit card on file with them was set to expire 6/2004 of this year, that was also around the time I was going to move out to a dedicated server.

So I transferred all my sites out, and re-pointed all my DNS before 7/1. They had sent me a notice on 6/7 and again on 6/21 that my credit card expired and that I should contact them before the end of the month in order to make the next billing cycle.

But since I didn't want service beyond 7/1, I figured if they didn't hear back from me by the end of the month, they would cancel my service.

It seemed to make sense at the time, as it's pretty much how everything else works in the business world. You don't pay, your service is cancelled.

They did send a third notice on 7/7 saying they would "immediately" suspend my account if they didn't hear from me.

Then I never heard from then again. Until yesterday.

Dave Stevens from data393 emailed me saying I owed for the month of July cuz they didn't cancel my account until 7/27.

This seems a little odd. Not just the fact that they are contacting me 3 months after the fact (my email on file with them is the same and has worked all this time). But that they knew as early as 6/7 (and again on 6/21) that my cc expired and yet dragged out my account until 7/27 and expect payment for a month where I no longer even used their service.

It seems by their own email history, that if they weren't intelligent enough to have seen the writing on the wall and cancelled me on 7/1, they should've at least cancelled on 7/7 (their third notice claiming "immediate suspension") and charge me one prorated week of service.


I mean, it is "only" $35, so I guess the simple thing is to just pay off the account (my credit is perfect, and I don't want them to ruin it). On the other hand, it just seems silly. They knew 3 weeks in advance that my cc no longer worked, yet continued service for another 7 weeks?

Just thought I'd get some opinions. Should I even bother arguing with them?

p.s. Funny thing is, I am hoping to colocate by sometime next year, and was considering data393. I guess I may have to rethink that.

[msldystrkr]

You need to read your TOS. We all think at times that when we don't want a service any longer all we need to do is ignore the invoices. that is not always the case. Most have a 30 day notice to cancel. If you do not give this notice then you are liable for the billing.

[bofh]

You can never just assume that the company in question is just going to cancel your account. How were they to know you weren't going to contact them later with a new CC? They rendered services to you during this time, I agree with the ISP in this case and that you should pay your bill for the service they gave you (even if you didn't use it).

[cholo1124]

I see both your points. Though most webhosts here (based on a cursory search through WHT) would do the logical thing - if there's no response for 3+ weeks and their domain DNS is no longer pointing to you, then just cancel. Why drag it out when the signs are this clear?

At any rate, I did appeal, and they agreed to cancel the final invoice. So it worked out in the end. I guess I won't make assumptions in the future since all they really wanted was a simple email indicating I wanted to cancel. I wasn't trying to get away with anything, I just figured not renewing my CC info was just a good of a "notice" as any.

Anyway, I didn't have a bad experience while with them, and this certainly helps. So I would definitely consider them for future projects I have planned in '05, and continue to recommend them.