Invoice earlier

[colin]

Hi

Could I suggest that invoice are sent out earlier, say 4 weeks.

I had an invoice sent on 10 May which was for my renewal for 21 May.

Just go back from holiday and just caught it ok.

Could have been missed if I had went a week later.

There I would have been sitting by the pool thinking everything was ok when it not.

Colin

[John]

Hi Colin,

I appreciate the suggestion and I apologise for any inconvenience caused. I imagine you are referring to a domain renewal otherwise I'm sure you would have been very alert to potential renew dates. With annual domain renews it can be tricky to keep track of.

At present time we are not able to increase the renewal time for just domains, but I'll certainly put it fourth as a recommendation. In regards to our invoice dates, our billing system is set to invoice 14 days before the due date, so it seems like there is an issue with yours coming 11 days rather than 14.

We don't particularly want to change this number for normal orders as we have the majority of our clients on monthly billing. It would be a little depressing to sign up and receive an invoice straight away after paying the first invoice

In regards to our billing policies, we typically suspend an account 5 days after it becomes past due and then wait a further 10 days before termination. With domains we are tied into a third party API which can only be updated if a payment is applied.

Apologies if it caused you any alarm!

[colin]

Hi John,

This was not for domain renewal which I believe have a longer time so is not a problem.

This was for yearly hosting package fee.

Is it possible to set up a reminder just for those that pay annually.

I can see a problem arising if I was away for a 3 week period.

[ddstretch]

Hi John,

This was not for domain renewal which I believe have a longer time so is not a problem.

This was for yearly hosting package fee.

Is it possible to set up a reminder just for those that pay annually.

I can see a problem arising if I was away for a 3 week period.

I also had a renewal for a yearly hosting package arrive at only 10 days before the end date. I paid it almost immediately, but i could have been away from my computer for a few days, and the deadline would have been even closer. I paid it fairly quickly, and then the same day got another invoice for the domain renewal, which was puzzling. Given that there was a problem with eukhost accepting my proof of payment for this second bill, things got very close to a deadline (the last day, in fact) even though I took steps to pay that invoice as soon as I received it.

I do think that if it is at all possible now, or as soon as it becomes possible, some means of increasing the warning period would be much better for those of us on yearly renewal contracts.

[colin]

John

Just to add further pressure on having a longer bill reminder, when I am away from home I

During my holiday I switch off completely and do not access my emails till a couple of days after I return.

You can see with your deadlines how easy your service could fail me.

[Welshy]

not having a go here..... but its not the EUK service that fails you, its yourself thats failing ... its not massively hard to check in monthly into your client area to see when your domans are due and renew them, you could always set a calendar program on your pc to remind you a month in advance if your domains are due

for people like myself with several servers and vps`s who work on a monthly basis having more than the 14 days notice would be terrible.... pay an invoice then nearlly get another straight away... would cause more resent than good that would amongst people.

you could always change your holiday period and have a week like the majority of us that way then the 14 days notice would be plenty.... ehehehe god i'd love a holiday without a laptop... just doesn`t happen though....

[colin]

Welshy

Good points but....

Do I manage my other annual recurring charges like Car tax/insurance or wait for the invoice.

Obviously I am different to you as I am not a slave to technology as I never check into the client area for invoices, my logic is if a bill is due I will get an invoice. I would loose a lot of precious time if I checked all my recurring bills (gas/phone/electric/water/tax/) that way, time that I could be doing something better with.

A week? no way looking to extend them to a month ( I wish)...And not a laptop in site!

Try leaving your laptop behind next time Welshy and see how relaxing a holiday can be.

[John]

Hi,

I'll have a word with our development team to see if we can make it optional for customers. As Welshy said, It wouldn't be something we enforced on all as many people would be rather annoyed at receiving invoices so soon after paying one.

Thanks for the feedback though!

Just to reiterate again though, we don't suspend until 5 days after the due date has gone, so this usually gives people 3 weeks already.

[eUKhost.com]

There's a better solution to this situation

We can invoice customers 30 days in advance and you will get notifications after every 7 day to remind you about the due invoice, which would have been generated 30 days in advance. This will increase the number of reminders which are sent to customers like "Welshy", but this will allow such customers to choose a day in a month when he/she is most comfortable to release payments. Invoice will become overdue immediately after 30 days of invoice date, but 30 days time should be sufficient to any customer?

We have similar policies with our suppliers and we make payments between 10th - 25th of a month. 30 days time to pay the invoices will help all types of customers.

We can start a poll here to see how many customers are interested?

[euk-rob]

I look forward to seeing the poll results

I wonder if there is anyway we can develope an option in the billing area for customers to set their own reminder times, it could mean more work from both parties but then customers can have their own control on invoices without thinking they are being spammed with reminders hehe

But a poll would be a great way to find out although we would only see possibly one-sided views from forum members

[eUKhost.com]

I look forward to seeing the poll results

I wonder if there is anyway we can develope an option in the billing area for customers to set their own reminder times, it could mean more work from both parties but then customers can have their own control on invoices without thinking they are being spammed with reminders hehe

But a poll would be a great way to find out although we would only see possibly one-sided views from forum members

Fantastic suggestion mate

I have asked our developers to see if they can give such option to all customers. We can provide an option in the profile section where customers can choose their own schedule for invoice generation.