Webmaster forum - Anybody else have billing problems with dotAmerica?

Author

Anybody else have billing problems with dotAmerica?

Sarah Kanary

2007-10-30, 11:17 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 ignored me, and the repeated 'pending' charges
still kept piling up in my bank account.

In desperation, I loggin 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

2007-10-31, 7:18 pm

In article <47266569$1_2@news.nauticom.net>, 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 ignored me, and the repeated 'pending' charges
> still kept piling up in my bank account.
>
> In desperation, I loggin 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?
>
>
>
How many times will you post the same question? You already asked in
alt.webmaster.

Change providers if you're not happy.

skanary

2007-10-31, 7:18 pm

On Oct 31, 10:09 am, SAZ <saz1...@nospamexcite.com> wrote:

> How many times will you post the same question? You already asked in
> alt.webmaster.
>
> Change providers if you're not happy.

My apologies. I posted once in my newsreader and it didn't show. So
I posted on Google, and then they both showed.

Thanks for your response. I've had customers over the years who've
paid me with credit cards, and when recurrent billing suddenly stopped
going through I usually contacted my processor, not the customer. I
thought it was just me.

Steve Sobol

2007-10-31, 7:18 pm

On 2007-10-31, skanary <skanary@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Thanks for your response. I've had customers over the years who've
> paid me with credit cards, and when recurrent billing suddenly stopped
> going through I usually contacted my processor, not the customer. I
> thought it was just me.

It's not. I don't believe it's your responsibility to detect and fix
brokenness with their CC payment gateway or processor, either.

--
Steve Sobol, Victorville, CA PGP:0xE3AE35ED www.SteveSobol.com

SoCal Fire news @the L.A. Times: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/breakingnews/
Local wildfire coverage, KFMB-TV San Diego: http://cbs8.com/