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Can service providers switch billing methods without notifying you?
I have some VPSs from ultravps which were switched from regular Paypal payment, to a form of payment where the payment was to come directly from my bank account.
I don't know how or why Paypal did it that way but I don't remember authorizing it.
Can providers use that method without giving you prior notice?
I remember an old VPS with them which I cancelled, but it seems they retained that authorisation and in some way used it to authorize payment for different invoice at least a year down the line.
When I check my preapproved payments I found about that there were some old authorizatios from the past, but I don't understand how they created a new one when those there were for cancelled products.
How do they do stuff like this?
When I checked the invoice it said it would be coming directly from my account.
The first invoice on the same product said Please make sure this invoice has been paid to the invoice due date
The second invoice said The amount will be charged automatically using your PayPal account
How did the switch it from the former to the latter?
Comments
It seems highly likely that you setup a subscription payment or pre-approved payment either when you ordered or when you last paid the invoice. There's no way with PayPal that you can go from manual payments to having a subscription or pre-approved payment without you authorising it.
Check if you have ever setup PayPal billing agreements.
https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/how-do-i-cancel-a-billing-agreement-faq2254
Did you have a subscription before?
Far as I know the paypal billing agreements plugins for WHMCS also support converting a subscription to an agreement automagically.
Francisco
I wouldn't call it a subscription. I assume a subscription to be something more explicit.
I checked the preapproved payments list and I saw Bradler & Krantz listed 3 times, but I can't remember explicitly setting up a preapproved payment unless their payment form is rigged in a way that automatically sets up a pre-approved payment, and two of them were for services I cancelled long before.
As you can see the on the first invoice I was supposed to pay it by a certain date.
On the second one it says
The amount will be charged automatically using your PayPal account.Does having a previous subscription for a terminated service entitle them to setup a pre-payment on a new service?
If it is a recurring automated payment, it is a subscription. Or did you always manually pay?
>
The service being cancelled doesn't affect anything if a subscription is not cancelled. Can you clarify?
@op nothing surprises me with paypal, credit card companies and especially hosting companies. I check my control panels weekly and check paypal agreements at least monthly - and DISABLE all of them. I never use a credit card to pay a hosting company - only thru paypal and I have never and will never send an ID to a hosting company.
Given the likes of Johnny, Duke, HostDOC, and certain large DC's and too many others to mention in this industry - its a bunch of snakes. I learned about subscriptions and only refunds to hosting company credit a long time ago - took one time and never again.
Noone needs all this automatic shit in their lives - just grab a beer and check all your bills once a week for everything - it doesnt take long at all
Many eu providers have really odd payment and billing methods. The paypal authorization method means you authorize them to charge the amount to your paypal account. Did you cancel the service on their dashboard? Double check in your account if you did cancel the service. If will not just auto cancel if you dont use the service. You will need to cancel via dashboard.
Or contact them via email. They also have a chat. I like ultravps.eu however the workflow on getting things are really daunting. Billing, setting up vps with mounted disk, german language dashboard. The service is very good though, but now I only use them if my other providers doesnt have stock.
There are a few hosts around these parts that are guilty of likely what happened to you; There seems to be an increasing number of providers I have found who will provide you with a screen that shows both a subscription icon and a single payment checkout icon, this would be nice in practice, however, somehow (always unknown to the provider how it happened when you ask) both links are actually to subscription and not to a single payment, you then go through the payment thinking, "ohh gee, this is a single payment, no worries", only to find if you don't specifically go and look you have now an open payment agreement with them which allows them to automatically take your next payment.
So my suggestion is when you go through payments with Paypal you make sure you are not just randomly clicking through and take note if it asks you into an agreement, in some of the cases it's easy to look over because your luled into a sense of safety from clicking that single payment button. I ALWAYS go back into Paypal and just confirm no new subscriptions or payment agreements after I pay my bills because I have had a few cases like this that just managed to slip by my radar and like you I was miffed...
@ArubaCloud cough I am lookin at you kid.. no one more guilty of that maneuver than you sly cats....
my 2 cents.
Cheers!
PayPal is not a monetary institution.
When it comes to laws and oversight PayPal, Stripe and
insert some other alternatives hereare just accepting merchants. They are not merchant account providers, they are the merchants. They are not bound by traditional bank/transaction secrecy either. Keep that in mind on your next purchase.Your bank can't. Regular credit card processors can't. But with PayPal, you authorise PayPal to take your money, not the hosting company. From then everything is on PayPal's ground and yes, they absolutely can change to automatic payments. Even if their dark pattern interface suggests otherwise.