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5+ years with Hetzner, treated like sh#t this week
davidobrik567
Member
I'm here to share my shocking experience with Hetzner.
We've been a customer of them for more than 5+ years, so that amounts to 60+ invoices between the two of us. Never talked to the accounting/finance team (since it's basically autopilot the whole time.)
Unfortunately, we're unable to clear our bills on time this month, out of the entire years we've been with them.
If you've been using Hetzner, they will send payment reminders followed by "soft" suspension date inside the email.
Knowing that we're unable to clear our bills on time, we sent an email towards the accounting dept before the soft suspension date, requesting for a max. 4 days extension, and received no response. well there is, it's the automated we received your email thingy.
The soft suspension date arrived and account & services got blocked. Even after the blockage, no response is received from the accounting team.
I hopped onto a roaming call to Germany to talk to someone, and the CS rep is basically hard-headed with a high tone voice saying that it is not possible to do any actions in rescinding temporarily the account suspension. The only thing possible is to extend the hard-suspension date which results in server cancellations (data removed, etc.)
As a long-time customer who has been with Hetzner, this is shocking. I understand the reason they're not giving payment extension if it's a new customer, etc, but I've been with them for 5 years, asking for a 4-days extension without suspending active services.
Do people in Europe or Germany not take care of their relationships with long time customers? Is asking for a 4-days payment extension before suspension reasonable?
Comments
sadly most companies dont care and will kick you out even if you are 1ms late
this is why i keep credits on most vps hosting accounts, so incase i can't clear something, i can just use credits or whatever
also, once a company treats me like shit, i don't go back
plus i keep at home backups, so incase i land in hospital for few months/years, i still have my data at my and or my moms place
@Hetzner_OL This seems like very unprofessional behavior. Do something.
The things you read on LET sometimes.
From my experience, there was one time when my card expired during the New Year holidays, and the bank took almost a month to issue a replacement. I had to contact both Hetzner and Netcup to extend the payment deadline, and they both agreed to give me an extra 7 days. They did mention that it was only that one time, though, so I don’t think it’s something they do regularly.
Hi,
please do not equalize the behavior of a mass provider with the behavior of any provider.
What you describe is actually well known by mass providers. I dont know why you expect a mass provider to give you that much individual adjustment to their own default procedures.
Try to ask any bigger company, to adjust to your individual problem ( being a customer for thousands of years or not ). The result will be usually the same.
So essentially you got what you paid for.
I do not say that this is good or bad or what ever. I am just stating the fact that for providers of bigger size, thats actually to be expected behavior.
Unfortunately this is not what I'm seeing. we also requested a payment extension with AWS and got a 7-day extension (more than what we asked for) within 2 hours of writing in a ticket. same thing applies for Linode.
Those are companies that runs support centres in multiple countries/continents compared to being in one country
A very while back when a friend requested something similar Hetzner offered upto a month of late payment, and then 3 months of cold storage maximum.
And we were barely like their customers for a few months when this happened.
So unsure if things changed or just landed with someone else who wasn't as nice
Hi,
as to AWS i hope that you get for N-times more money a N-times more (individual) support.
As to Linode, i can not judge that but if i look at https://www.linode.com/pricing/
they seems as well more on the pricier side of life.
From what i saw from bigger companies like dell or vodafone ... if you want something that is not their daily business you must be lucky. You can not rely on it, you really must be lucky to catch the "right" supporter.
And with companies like e.g. Ionos (or the said Vodafone), it is a chance of 0,1%. Source: anecdotal experience.
And what? It's not hetzners fault you can't pay your invoices on time.
I have been been customer of hetzner since 2016, I was late on payment but service was not cancelled as they know me personally . I build relationship with hosting . Wish your case is solved. Hetzner will take into account and will resolve.
I appreciate their high quality service given to me
It is not about whose fault this is but about being reasonable.
How many days Hetzner give you for paying invoice?
I mean, what deadline was for "soft suspension" and "hard suspension"?
To make a post and whine about it when its his own fault is not very reasonable. He did what he could and the outcome wasn't as he desired so no need to make any post and cry about it.
that's not how real world business relationship work
Who are you to decide how hetzner values their "busniess relationships" clearly he isn't important enough to get any exceptions
That's the kind of thing requesting over phone is better than sending an email.
Is support from Hetzner not available through tickets or chat?
I understand your frustration. Service suspension is a nightmare scenario, especially after years of loyalty.
However, I noticed you mentioned this isn't the first time you've needed extensions from other providers like AWS and Linode. If payment timing is becoming a recurring issue, I'd gently suggest carefully reviewing your internal budgeting and payment processes to understand why cash flow keeps aligning poorly with due dates.
Most hosting providers have clear net-payment terms on their invoices, typically 7 to 14 days, not "when convenient." These aren't flexible credit lines, they are service agreements. AWS and Linode may offer extensions more readily because their enterprise support models factor credit risk into higher pricing. Hetzner's lower-cost model likely relies heavily on strict automation to maintain those prices.
If a 4-day delay significantly impacts your operations, you might want to proactively build a better financial buffer into your processes to avoid this happening in the future with any provider. This might include setting up early payment calendar alerts, creating an emergency payment reserve, or arranging a standby credit line.
It's ultimately better to fix the internal process than to rely on provider goodwill, which can change at any time.
Ai slop
actually I wont complain/rant about it here if they responded to our email request in the first place.
the fact that:
1. we sent a request before suspension date.
2. received no response even hours after suspension.
3. only received a response when we called them hours after suspension, still in CET working hours
4. CS-rep who talks in a harsh way to us.
and to reiterate - this is the first time us requesting any kind of payment extension to anyone.
Have you tried calling again? Wouldn't usually recommend this, however in this case I believe it's worth to try with a different agent, given people in this thread are saying they got extensions.
I just noticed you mentioned that you “sent an email to the accounting department.”
Did you send an email or open a support ticket?
I remember I emailed them once and they said issues need to be handled through support ticket.
If I’m not mistaken, after Hetzner sends the invoice email on the billing date, you typically have ten days to pay. If it’s not paid within those ten days, they’ll start sending friendly reminder emails, which usually give another roughly 5–7 days, and only after that do they issue a severe warning.
In other words, after the billing date you have at least half a month to make the payment.
That’s already quite a long time.
You can ask the providers on LET how long they give users to pay their invoices without deleting their servers.
He's been a customer for 5 years and didn't bother to contact them properly for a time sensitive critical issue. No wonder they're going out of business.
I don't see problems on both of side.
A customer can expect they can be treated special as a long term customer. But a company can also run a business own their way.
The customer should not call the company shit. There is no right or contract to postpone the invoice. Lower your expectation.
I don't think the time you've spent doing business with a hosting company matters in general, you don't get lower prices or better support. It's not like a job where the longer you've worked for the company, the better you're treated.
Hetzner, in particular, gives around 14 days for you to pay your invoice before they take action, which is generous. Most providers will suspend services for non-payment one day after the invoice due date.
Hetzner has a whole page dedicated to late payments here: https://docs.hetzner.com/general/others/late-payments-faqs/. You might find it helpful.
Doesn't Hetzner already bill company account after a month and not immediately at deployment?
Also 5+ years in business and not even has enough reserve for 1 month of expenses?
Yeah lol also thought about this. What kind of busniess are you running that you dont have enough money to pay some servers lol