Webmaster forum - Anybody else have billing problems with dotAmerica?

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Anybody else have billing problems with dotAmerica?

skanary

2007-10-30, 7:19 pm

I've had an account with dotAmerica since they bought Affordable Host.
Every month, my credit card would get automatically billed, and
everything went smoothly.

Until last month, when they switched credit card processors. I
started getting emails saying that my credit card(debit card) payment
failed. Repeatedly. Yet, when I checked the bank account online, the
charges for dotAmerica still appeared as 'pending.' My card had not
expired. My card number had not changed. I was not overdrawn. Yet,
there were repeated charges, some with late fees tacked on, shown as
'pending'. Those didn't look like "failed" charges to me.

But they shut off my email and site for 'non-payment'. I told them
that since the only thing that was different was their payment
processor, they should probably look into that as the source of the
problem, since nothing was different on my end. I was trying to pay
them, even trying different credit cards, all to no avail; their new
processor just wouldn't let the payment go through. They kept telling
me it was MY problem, not theirs. And the repeated 'pending' charges
still kept piling up in my bank account.

In desperation, I logged in to my billing account, and tried different
variations of my name than the one they had on file, like including my
middle initial, then my full billing address, etc. but it wasn't until
I included my telephone number with area code that the card finally
went through.

Now the question: Should the customer be responsible for figuring out
what details a new payment processor requires before they have their
account terminated for 'non-payment'? Am I expecting too much?

SAZ

2007-10-30, 7:19 pm

In article <1193748374.691373.319510@57g2000hsv.googlegroups.com>,
skanary@yahoo.com says...
> I've had an account with dotAmerica since they bought Affordable Host.
> Every month, my credit card would get automatically billed, and
> everything went smoothly.
>
> Until last month, when they switched credit card processors. I
> started getting emails saying that my credit card(debit card) payment
> failed. Repeatedly. Yet, when I checked the bank account online, the
> charges for dotAmerica still appeared as 'pending.' My card had not
> expired. My card number had not changed. I was not overdrawn. Yet,
> there were repeated charges, some with late fees tacked on, shown as
> 'pending'. Those didn't look like "failed" charges to me.
>
> But they shut off my email and site for 'non-payment'. I told them
> that since the only thing that was different was their payment
> processor, they should probably look into that as the source of the
> problem, since nothing was different on my end. I was trying to pay
> them, even trying different credit cards, all to no avail; their new
> processor just wouldn't let the payment go through. They kept telling
> me it was MY problem, not theirs. And the repeated 'pending' charges
> still kept piling up in my bank account.
>
> In desperation, I logged in to my billing account, and tried different
> variations of my name than the one they had on file, like including my
> middle initial, then my full billing address, etc. but it wasn't until
> I included my telephone number with area code that the card finally
> went through.
>
> Now the question: Should the customer be responsible for figuring out
> what details a new payment processor requires before they have their
> account terminated for 'non-payment'? Am I expecting too much?
>
I would think the answer is "no", it's their responsibility if they want
to get paid.

IMO - I would switch hosting companies. You would think they would be
more eager to find out what the problem was. If you had a problem, I
guarantee many more had the same issues.