Burn some money: keep autorenewals on.
A disgruntled GoDaddy customer who received a collections notice over a failed charge for $8.50 insists that GoDaddy initiated the process with payment processor Certegy.
GoDaddy has denied that they initiated any collections process.
The GoDaddy customer clarified that the automatic renewal triggered a charge to a checking account that had been closed – not a credit card – which led to the subsequent charges:
“The collection agency reviewed it and said i was responsible. […] It was first regged at a bank account i closed.”
Regarding the handling of the charges by GoDaddy, he stated the following:
“What i cant understand is why godaddy let it happen. Its not alot of money, ill pay the $33, but they should stop such small amounts ($8.30 originally) going to a Collection Agency when an autorenewal doesnt go thru. Remember, they have all domains set to auto renew. WE have to turn it off. Its a shady practice. How many of you had a name renew that you didn’t want to keep ? “
I am telling you, when you turn off automatic renewals, someone at GoDaddy turns them on! I had 3 years of unnoticed charges on a Website Tonight that was never on a automatic payment plan, and was turned on. GoDaddy did give me a years free hosting or less, but I lost much more!
I had an expirred Credit Card on File, they did not care and used it with new date of year and renewed some yearly cahrge.
Since this time I left Godaddy. I don’t want to be screwed from the Big Boys.
Again it’s obvious that Go Daddy is screwing its customers one way or the other. It’s just hopeless and it really makes me tired to see how many new complaints there are online each and every day about this terrible hosting company. My page http://usa.weloveourhost.com/godaddy.html attracts more visitors than any of my other pages and now I understand why.
I’d like to provide some general details to clarify some of the information provided in this article, though we cannot discuss any customer’s personal account information.
When setting up GoDaddy products customers have the option to disable automatic renewals at any time during or after the initial purchase. The choice defaults to “on” because although we do rely on customers to keep their accounts current – there are times when that doesn’t happen.
If left on auto-renew, the product will attempt to renew as scheduled. If this is not what the customer wants, they can call support as soon as they see the charge and request that it be reversed. This is usually very easy and fast.
If the product does not renew, the customer could potentially lose the product which may or may not be recoverable. Because it’s in the best interest for the customer, the auto-renewal defaults to “on” to prevent unintentional loss of products.
I’d also like to state that GoDaddy does not change the auto-renewal choices that a customer has selected. If you aren’t certain about your settings, please contact support and they will check everything for you and make sure all is set up the way you like. We do all we can to help prevent issues like these from happening, but ultimately, we do have to count on our customers to keep their account information up to date.
Our support team is available 24/7 to assist anytime: http://support.godaddy.com
Please reach out with any questions.
^Cj
LOL
Cj – Thanks for the details on the automatic renewal process. It makes sense. Is there anything you’d like to add on the subject of actually sending a charge that failed to collections? Was it automatic, or someone actually thought it’s OK to involve a collections company for $8.50 ?
I certainly cannot comment on any specific customer information, however, I can confirm that we do not send accounts to collections due to failed credit card renewals. If a credit card renewal doesn’t go through, the customer is notified and if no new payment method is provided, the product would be canceled.
If the customer were paying by check and the check was returned, that does have the potential to create a returned check fee which is pretty standard for any business. See: http://support.godaddy.com/help/article/8061/payment-methods-we-accept-for-purchases#checking in regards to the article mentioning Certegy.
I think, as with any company, the dollar amount on a returned check (if that’s the actual issue) would not stop a bank from billing the business a returned-check fee which is then usually passed on to the consumer. That’s generally where those fees come in. Not sure if that helps answer the question, but the customer can definitely contact support directly anytime to find out specifics.
^Cj