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How do I exit from hetzner at the end of the billing cycle cleanly without being billed again?
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How do I exit from hetzner at the end of the billing cycle cleanly without being billed again?

lowendguy7lowendguy7 Member
edited March 2019 in Help

I remember when it came to start using them I read a few reports about people's services being billed 'infinitely' and the bailiffs being sent to get them. Upon reading a bit more I think it was said simply because these people in question were too lazy to terminate their service in their control panel and thought it would stop automatically when they stopped paying.

Well just to be sure I wanna check I get a 'clean exit'. I just paid my current invoice until the 5th of april though I didn't see an option to terminate at the end of the billing cycle like I do on most providers; only 'delete' which would be immediate.

So do I have to just delete at the instant I am ready to leave and not before if I want to keep using the service up to the end of my cycle?

Comments

  • ClouviderClouvider Member, Patron Provider

    The best answer would surely be given by Hetzner support, tagging @Hetzner_OL

  • ehabehab Member

    write a support ticket, and explicitly say " is the invoice ### last invoice?"

    Hetzner less scary than others but bills have to be paid off course.

    Thanked by 1Clouvider
  • ehabehab Member

    @Clouvider said:

    hey, Clouvider how are you doing? we need a new avatar photo! specially if you now have a mustache j/k.

  • Just don't exit from Hetzner.

    Thanked by 1t0m
  • @graphic said:
    Just don't exit from Hetzner.

    Like the mafia?

  • Actually, they have one of the more straight forward cancellation procedures, there is a cancel button on the service in the panel, when you select it, it should ask for the last date you would like the service to be online. As long as you terminate before the next billing date (or on it) then you will not be billed for another month. Additionally, say you decide you need it an extra two weeks, you can still pick a date and it will prorate your services until that date in the next invoice. They even outright tell you the earliest you can cancel on the page:

    http://prntscr.com/mz0rhh

    Cheers!

  • their accounting department answers tickets in a helpful way in my experience with them

  • angstromangstrom Moderator

    @lowendguy7 said: So do I have to just delete at the instant I am ready to leave and not before if I want to keep using the service up to the end of my cycle?

    From https://www.hetzner.com/rechtliches/agb/ :

    9.2 The contract is cancellable without giving reasons by both parties at any time during a period of 30 days to the end of the month, but at the earliest on expiry of the minimum contract period stipulated in the contract. A cancellation can be done in writing by letter, fax, email or via the secure online administrations interface, provided this option is available.

    If there isn't a cancellation option in the panel, then just submit a ticket indicating that you want to cancel your service at the end of the current contract period.

    (Apparently, there are people on LET who never cancel their Hetzner services explicitly and just never pay the new invoices with no negative consequences, but I personally wouldn't recommend this practice.)

    Thanked by 1Amitz
  • @angstrom said:

    (Apparently, there are people on LET who never cancel their Hetzner services explicitly and just never pay the new invoices with no negative consequences, but I personally wouldn't recommend this practice.)

    Well those were the guys I read ending up with bailiffs knocking on their door several months down the line :smile:

    Sent them a support.

  • AmitzAmitz Member

    I cancelled several services with Hetzner (just to get new ones afterwards) and never had a problem with the process and have never been billed for a cancelled service. I really guess that most people with issues thought that they could do it OVH style and simply stopped paying the invoices. This is not how it works with Hetzner (and most other hosts). And it is good like that.

  • Only Hetzner exits u.

  • run a tor exit and they will exit you very fast

  • Hetzner_OLHetzner_OL Member, Top Host

    Hi there! Thanks @TheLinuxBug, this is true. If a customer chooses the pre-selected date as the termination date on a server termination, he will no longer receive a bill, if the termination date is in the future. If a customer terminates immediately in the Robot, he will receive a partial bill for the server on the next invoice. Licensed products (Plesk, cpanel, windows) may be charged until the end of the month.
    --Julia, Marketing

    Thanked by 2ehab Amitz
  • lowendguy7lowendguy7 Member
    edited March 2019

    @Hetzner_OL said:
    Hi there! Thanks @TheLinuxBug, this is true. If a customer chooses the pre-selected date as the termination date on a server termination, he will no longer receive a bill, if the termination date is in the future. If a customer terminates immediately in the Robot, he will receive a partial bill for the server on the next invoice. Licensed products (Plesk, cpanel, windows) may be charged until the end of the month.
    --Julia, Marketing

    I still am not seeing where to select a date to cancel? There is only a big read delete button which says

    This will delete the server. All data stored on it will be lost. Backups created from this >server will also be deleted. This action is irreversible. Do you wish to proceed?

    I also sent support ticket and they replied I will still be charged for april and when I asked why they just send me faq response which didn't really explain to me any better

    They replied 1st

    We charge our cloud server hourly. You can delete them when ever you want. We charge your cloud server always until the end of the month. So if you delete them until March you will only get one more bill in April.

    Their second reply when I asked why I would be charged for april just a copypasta from faq

    How do you bill your servers?

    Servers have both a monthly price cap and a price per hour. Your server's bill will never exceed its monthly price cap. If you delete your Cloud Server before the end of the billing month, you will only be billed the hourly rate. We will bill you for each cloud server until you choose to delete them. Even if you aren't actively using your server, we will bill you for it.

    Do you bill servers that are off?

    Yes. All servers that have finished their creation process will be billed until they are deleted, regardless of their state.

    This is because, internally, we allocate full resources to servers regardless of their power state. And it enables rapid startup and boot times for you, the customer.

    We will always charge the cloud server at the next month. Because we can not now how much you will use it in one month.

    So...if you are charged for when servers are off, and I also will be billed for april doesn't that mean I will also have to pay for april even though I want to stop using it by end of this billing period which would be apr 4? before next one would start. The last support response did not explain it any better with the copy and paste so will ask here instead.

    So what exactly do I need to do and where is this phantom option to select date to terminate.

  • HaxHax Member

    @lowendguy7 said:

    @Hetzner_OL said:
    Hi there! Thanks @TheLinuxBug, this is true. If a customer chooses the pre-selected date as the termination date on a server termination, he will no longer receive a bill, if the termination date is in the future. If a customer terminates immediately in the Robot, he will receive a partial bill for the server on the next invoice. Licensed products (Plesk, cpanel, windows) may be charged until the end of the month.
    --Julia, Marketing

    I still am not seeing where to select a date to cancel? There is only a big read delete button which says

    This will delete the server. All data stored on it will be lost. Backups created from this >server will also be deleted. This action is irreversible. Do you wish to proceed?

    I also sent support ticket and they replied I will still be charged for april and when I asked why they just send me faq response which didn't really explain to me any better

    They replied 1st

    We charge our cloud server hourly. You can delete them when ever you want. We charge your cloud server always until the end of the month. So if you delete them until March you will only get one more bill in April.

    Their second reply when I asked why I would be charged for april just a copypasta from faq

    How do you bill your servers?

    Servers have both a monthly price cap and a price per hour. Your server's bill will never exceed its monthly price cap. If you delete your Cloud Server before the end of the billing month, you will only be billed the hourly rate. We will bill you for each cloud server until you choose to delete them. Even if you aren't actively using your server, we will bill you for it.

    Do you bill servers that are off?

    Yes. All servers that have finished their creation process will be billed until they are deleted, regardless of their state.

    This is because, internally, we allocate full resources to servers regardless of their power state. And it enables rapid startup and boot times for you, the customer.

    We will always charge the cloud server at the next month. Because we can not now how much you will use it in one month.

    So...if you are charged for when servers are off, and I also will be billed for april doesn't that mean I will also have to pay for april even though I want to stop using it by end of this billing period which would be apr 4? before next one would start. The last support response did not explain it any better with the copy and paste so will ask here instead.

    So what exactly do I need to do and where is this phantom option to select date to terminate.

    It's postpaid, you need to pay after you used the service. If you deleted your server on 4th April, you'll get a bill of your server usage (1st April to 4th April) in May. If you deleted your server today, you'll get a bill of your server usage (1st March to 18th March) next month, April.

    So if you want to stop using it, just delete it and wait for the bill next month.

    Thanked by 1Hetzner_OL
  • @Doutei said:

    Ah postpaid makes more sense then :smile: thanks.

  • Hetzner_OLHetzner_OL Member, Top Host

    lowendguy7 said: I still am not seeing where to select a date to cancel? There is only a big read delete button which says

    Yes, it's true. I should have mentioned that our cloud servers can only be deleted immediately, sorry.

    Doutei said: It's postpaid

    Exactly. I understand that when our customers don't know that our servers are postpaid, our FAQs may be confusing. The FAQs are actually pretty useful. I'll give my colleagues a hint about phrasing them more precisely regarding billing info. Hope everything is clear now.

    Thanked by 3eastonch Hax lowendguy7
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