Rick Guyton Posted July 27, 2018 Report Posted July 27, 2018 (edited) After the billing webinar yesterday, I'm left with a nagging concern. I intend to use the "bill this card directly" feature as the idea of having to pre-pre-pay my account isn't very appealing to me. My concern is though, as I understand it, one attempt will be given and if it doesn't succeed, all of my accounts will be shut off immediately. And that would be catastrophic to our business. On the one hand, I kind of understand it. I mean, if you don't have money on your card, that's your problem for not having that sorted. And if that were the only concern, I'd think, well heavy handed, but fair. But in the past 3 years I've had 4 cards replaced due to fraud. It's terrifying to think that if one of those indents could have lined up just right, it could have the effect of shutting all of my customers down. Not because of anything I personally caused, but because some dude skimmed my card at some point and bought the bar a few rounds in a bar in France (yep, that really happened). And this sets aside a plethora of other issues. Like, what happens if we have an issues like those fiber cuts on June 28th... Man, that was pretty close to the end of the month. What if that affected 2600hz's merchant processor. Or 2600's ability to reach their merchant processor? Or what if the merchant is just down? Or they enable a new cipher unexpectedly? What if VISA/MC/AMEX/DISCOVER, just randomly decided that the charge this month looks fishy and does a security decline until they can get ahold of me and approve it. AMEX is notorious for this. I mean the edge cases are everywhere. Just seems like some small safety net is in order. So, can we please have something a bit safer than that? Some ideas: 1) Give us at least 3 days to respond (in case it happens on a weekend) 2) Allow us to have the balance pulled a few days in advance. AKA, change "bill this card directly" to "Bill this card directly [NumberInputBox] days in advance". That way if someone really wants to live on the edge, they can put 0 in there. But, the rest of us can put maybe 3, 5 or 7 days in there. Thoughts? Edited July 27, 2018 by Rick Guyton (see edit history)
Administrators Darren Schreiber Posted July 27, 2018 Administrators Report Posted July 27, 2018 It's not possible to allow the account to go negative with a period to cure. I like your #2 suggestion. What we could maybe do is pre-charge your credit card a few days before the actual billing date under the assumption that you won't increase services very much between the pre-bill date and the actual bill date. Or perhaps allow you to set the date that the system will try to add funds to your account in anticipation of covering the next month's charges. This would achieve the same effect as allowing you a few days to correct any billing issues prior to the amount becoming due. Would that work?
Rick Guyton Posted July 27, 2018 Author Report Posted July 27, 2018 2 minutes ago, Darren Schreiber said: This would achieve the same effect as allowing you a few days to correct any billing issues prior to the amount becoming due. Would that work? Yes, that'd be great!
Administrators Darren Schreiber Posted July 27, 2018 Administrators Report Posted July 27, 2018 Also, we were debating allowing you to add a backup credit card.
Rick Guyton Posted July 27, 2018 Author Report Posted July 27, 2018 Just now, Darren Schreiber said: Also, we were debating allowing you to add a backup credit card. I like that idea as well. But, I'd personally probably still be a bit uneasy because it wouldn't account for potential issues between 2600hz and their processor. I understand this kind of thing is SUPER rare but, when you are talking about shutting down all of our clients... Maybe I'm being overly concerned about it, but that' just scary as hell not having time to react to something.
Administrators Darren Schreiber Posted July 27, 2018 Administrators Report Posted July 27, 2018 Yup, I think you have a valid point. I think we should do both things.
Karl Stallknecht Posted July 27, 2018 Report Posted July 27, 2018 1 minute ago, Rick Guyton said: I like that idea as well. But, I'd personally probably still be a bit uneasy because it wouldn't account for potential issues between 2600hz and their processor. I understand this kind of thing is SUPER rare but, when you are talking about shutting down all of our clients... Maybe I'm being overly concerned about it, but that' just scary as hell not having time to react to something. Honestly I don't think it's super rare. We have several hundred AUTO debits on our various cards per month for incredibly large dollar amounts, and if two vendors bill at the wrong time or we purchase extra equipment one month, it can max out credit by accident and then we have to use a different card or pay off the card and wait 24 hours. We typically pay off all of our cards once per week to keep the balances low. Small charges like credit refills aren't an issue, but the larger monthly charge could be a problem if something else goes through on the same day before. Several of our clients have this issue as well. I think it depends on what kind of transactions you're putting on your credit card. Companies that pay mostly via check don't have issues like this, but companies like ours that put everything humanly possible on a credit card will run into more issues, even if we have the cash in the bank.
esoare Posted August 1, 2018 Report Posted August 1, 2018 On 7/27/2018 at 9:47 AM, Darren Schreiber said: It's not possible to allow the account to go negative with a period to cure. I like your #2 suggestion. What we could maybe do is pre-charge your credit card a few days before the actual billing date under the assumption that you won't increase services very much between the pre-bill date and the actual bill date. Or perhaps allow you to set the date that the system will try to add funds to your account in anticipation of covering the next month's charges. Allowing to set the date is cool. I prefer like 7 days ahead (but that's just paranoia me) Also, emails at day 5,3,2,1 IF the amount in the account, isn't enough to cover the expected monthly charge. (Better an email, than having to call us all! ) p.p.s. I know some people have "Succession Planning" but what if some whitelabeler's doesn't have a plan if they are, I/E: I croak and my card is...well, I better get to that soon, eh! esoare
esoare Posted August 29, 2018 Report Posted August 29, 2018 @Darren Schreiber ? on the new billing. I just saw the 8/21/2018 Webinar, which stated that the new billing system will be on October 1st 2018 now. So, I get billed on September 10th for the Sept 11th - October 11th (it might be Sept 10th - Oct 10th...don't know). My question is. Will I be getting a credit that first time on October 1st, since I have already paid for October 1st-10th/11th? That would be 1/3 paid for already in October based upon my Charges on Sept 10th. I have not seen this question broached in any of the webinar's (it might have been, and I missed it), can you respond to this? Thanks, esoare
Rick Guyton Posted October 1, 2018 Author Report Posted October 1, 2018 @Darren Schreiber I looked at my account after the update today and I don't show any CC info filled out at all! But, thankfully, my card was charged for services, so I think I'm good. But, I'm not sure if I should update my card and how I can access either of the features we talked about in this thread.
Administrators Darren Schreiber Posted October 1, 2018 Administrators Report Posted October 1, 2018 Actually, it should not have charged your CC today. I'll check on that. We are a bit behind schedule. However, if it did already charge you, if your bill date is first of month, I can leave that as-is if you like. Tonight you'll get an email on your pro-rated additions from last month being applied to this month. As for not seeing the other options, this was discussed this on the previous webinar. I like and agree with the suggestion to "pre-bill" but the suggestion came in too late after we had completed most of the code, so for this month, we're simply not turning off accounts for not paying on the 1st - we'll just manually notify you. We'll then work to implement that feature and it should be on next month.
Rick Guyton Posted October 1, 2018 Author Report Posted October 1, 2018 Thanks for that update @Darren Schreiber! I've been worred sick about there being some issue and my clients getting shut off.
Rick Guyton Posted February 25, 2019 Author Report Posted February 25, 2019 @Darren Schreiber Any update on this? I just had Chase call me because I got fraudulent charges again. (Seriously, I don't know how I have such bad luck) I went to change my card to my AMEX, but it declined. I called AMEX and they said they have no attempted charges on file for more than a week. I'm safe for now as I've switched to my debit chard. But, considering what would have happened if this occurred only three days from now leaves me VERY uneasy...
safarov Posted February 27, 2019 Report Posted February 27, 2019 How about create dedicated cart to pay only important services like 2600hz? In this case credit cart cannot be copied by third party and you can safely use service.
safarov Posted February 27, 2019 Report Posted February 27, 2019 Also check you PC for viruses. May be installed key logger. That recognise credit card number and send to third part. As options, you can boot from Fedora live USB stick and safely add credit card to monster-ui.
Rick Guyton Posted February 27, 2019 Author Report Posted February 27, 2019 @safarov Actually, the dedicated card isn't a bad idea. I can get an employee card on my Ink account and just use that. The latter's probably overkill though. At the end of the day though, if this isn't fixed, it's a single point of failure. One that has 0 margin for error, as 2600hz will immediately disconnect a reseller's entire client base if a single charge fails. It's frustrating to have such a glaring threat to my business that I simply cannot add redundancy to.
Karl Stallknecht Posted February 27, 2019 Report Posted February 27, 2019 I agree, this is really annoying...
esoare Posted March 2, 2019 Report Posted March 2, 2019 Did you get billed on the 1st guys? I didn't... Wondering what's going on...
Rick Guyton Posted March 2, 2019 Author Report Posted March 2, 2019 5 minutes ago, esoare said: Did you get billed on the 1st guys? I didn't... Wondering what's going on... Oye... Nope... But, my account isn't disconnected, so there's that.
esoare Posted March 2, 2019 Report Posted March 2, 2019 On 7/31/2018 at 10:31 PM, esoare said: Allowing to set the date is cool. I prefer like 7 days ahead (but that's just paranoia me) Also, emails at day 5,3,2,1 IF the amount in the account, isn't enough to cover the expected monthly charge. (Better an email, than having to call us all! ) p.p.s. I know some people have "Succession Planning" but what if some whitelabeler's doesn't have a plan if they are, I/E: I croak and my card is...well, I better get to that soon, eh! esoare Hopefully something to the affect is in the works! Topped off my account for good measure. esoare
Administrators Darren Schreiber Posted March 2, 2019 Administrators Report Posted March 2, 2019 30 minutes ago, esoare said: Did you get billed on the 1st guys? I didn't... Wondering what's going on... Sorry about that, I'm running billing now manually. I have still been doing it manually since it rolled out just to check it every month. I have also been giving people complimentary credit when they are below their balance until the features I promised are rolled out (hence why I do it manually). Your clients are NOT impacted.
Rick Guyton Posted March 2, 2019 Author Report Posted March 2, 2019 1 minute ago, Darren Schreiber said: I have still been doing it manually since it rolled out just to check it every month. I have also been giving people complimentary credit when they are below their balance until the features I promised are rolled out (hence why I do it manually). Thanks @Darren Schreiber! Very happy to hear that!
esoare Posted March 2, 2019 Report Posted March 2, 2019 3 minutes ago, Rick Guyton said: Thanks @Darren Schreiber! Very happy to hear that! 5 minutes ago, Darren Schreiber said: Sorry about that, I'm running billing now manually. I have still been doing it manually since it rolled out just to check it every month. I have also been giving people complimentary credit when they are below their balance until the features I promised are rolled out (hence why I do it manually). Your clients are NOT impacted. Here here!! Thanks for being extra careful. Appreciate your concern for our customers! esoare
Administrators Darren Schreiber Posted March 2, 2019 Administrators Report Posted March 2, 2019 Yup, no worries. Your complaints about being really sure account issues don't break your account were heard. We're a bit behind on releasing the additional features to make it so you can charge a card first before utilizing your balance and charge a few days early, as you know. I'm hoping we get that wrapped up next week in time for April (and then I don't have to run this manually anymore - my incentive!)
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