Non paying clients

datman001 said:
We follow a 3 warning process as stated in the client service agreement. it is not good customer service to take a site down on the first non payment. Sometimes they forget to change their card or they have other things that they are doing. Either way, giving them a warning save you from having to deal with upset customers when they call wondering why their site is down.
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I have to agree that-basically things come up some times. Sometimes people genuinely have an emergency that means that for a week or two they can't pay, or a credit card expires. Being able to work with people helps to keep customers loyal to you.
 
For my company.

Client gets overdue notice saying that in 3 days they will be suspended if they don't pay.

If they haven't payed in 3 days the account gets automatically suspended and we send a overdue notice again.

If by 7 days they haven't payed their account will be terminated.
 
I like working with subscription services for my hosting. It simplifies my life not having to worry about another bill to pay and the host knows he's getting his money.
 
Besides the random times when a CC changes for the exp. date the only issues I have is that subscriptions for paypal do not play nice with client exec. I am still working to get over that.
 
shockym said:
Besides the random times when a CC changes for the exp. date the only issues I have is that subscriptions for paypal do not play nice with client exec. I am still working to get over that.
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Paypal has had problems with repeat payments and subscriptions for a long time. I wouldn't be looking to them for a solution any time in the near future, but if you can make the system just about work for you then at least it is better than nothing.
 
We send 3 notices and then suspend the site down if we do not receive payment within 30 days of the due date.
 
Its important to also see the "background" on the client I think.

If I have a good client asking to pay the outstanding amount in 3 weeks, i'll allways start by checking their payment history and support tickets.

If the client does this over, and over again... I will gently tell him/her that we need to fix this problem, cos of the time and effort it takes from my side. I will propose solutions for him/her, and await response.

Solutions can be changing payment to yearly, sending out invoice notice earliere 1 month before due date... and so on...

If the client is a "good" client, i'll in most cases accept the delayed payment... Since this only can be considered as good support.
 
headbull said:
Its important to also see the "background" on the client I think.

If I have a good client asking to pay the outstanding amount in 3 weeks, i'll allways start by checking their payment history and support tickets.

If the client does this over, and over again... I will gently tell him/her that we need to fix this problem, cos of the time and effort it takes from my side. I will propose solutions for him/her, and await response.

Solutions can be changing payment to yearly, sending out invoice notice earliere 1 month before due date... and so on...

If the client is a "good" client, i'll in most cases accept the delayed payment... Since this only can be considered as good support.
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I would agree with this. It does happen sometime and some of our clients tend to pay later, however, they have been with us for years and have always paid, so as long as it's overdue by a few days, it's not really a problem for us.

We have been burned once when a solid (apparently not though) customer just dropped off of the face of the earth and we eventually killed off his account. That was the only time we got burned and due to this we are now watching the overdue accounts closer.
 
If the invoice is not paid on the invoice day, we give the clients a grace period of 7 days to pay it. If it is not paid within that period, their account is suspended. Then terminated if it is not paid after 30 days.
 
Our SOP is to send a couple notices prior to suspension and then just suspend the account.

It's funny, we have a couple clients that wait for their account to be suspended prior to paying. I think that they think that they get more for their money that way...
 
UltraQuantix said:
It's funny, we have a couple clients that wait for their account to be suspended prior to paying. I think that they think that they get more for their money that way...
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I had a client like that. Kept up that behavior for over half a decade, until other circumstances forced the termination of our business relationship. My guesstimate was that they had problems getting the money from *their* clients, and so just followed our business model with them - passed the late fees / reconnection fees on down the pipeline. Either that, or they just ate the extra fees themselves for whatever reason.
 
I have only been in the web hosting industry for only 6 months but in that time I haven't had any problems with clients not paying on there due date. I have how ever had 2 fraudulent sign ups since I started.
 
If they don't reply your emails, and don't pay anything last 2-3 months, suspend their accounts.. I am sure they will contact you as soon as possible:))

I suspended only a few customers account because of same reason, now at least theyletus know if they are not able to pay for a month and when they will pay for it.....
 
What I do is after the invoice date, I give 2 days and then if still they didnt pay Ill suspend then they have 15days and everyday during the 15 days its 25cents per late day.
 
We send an email when the invoice is created, then a reminder is sent before the due date. If the account is overdue then an automated email is sent out warning them of possible suspension if they do not take care of the outstanding invoice soon.
 
We give 2 warnings & a final notice. 2 days after the final notice we suspend their account and send them another notice with instructions on how to reinstate their account.
 
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