$800 overcharge from theplanet.com - what would you do? Options

[avril]

Hi,

on top of my regular server fee of $89 for the last server I have with The Planet I was charged $800 by The Planet this week. There is no invoice in Orbit for this charge, and there would be no reason for them to place an additional charge on my credit card, as I didn't exceed any bandwidth limits, etc.

So I opened a ticket yesterday at 4.05am CDT and I posted the string with the charge description as I saw it in my online statement. At 7.47am someone responded and stated that they can't locate a $800 charge, and they only see the regular $89 charge. They asked me for a copy of my statement. Within a few minutes I responded and attached a copy of my statement (I blacked out all other charges) and I haven't heard anything else from The Planet.
Today I followed up on my own on the ticket and asked them if they were able to locate the charge and that I would ask my bank for a chargeback in the afternoon CDT if they wouldn't find it.
I have followed up again a few minutes ago and emphasized that I would like to get this resolved today, since no one responded.

$800 might be nothing for The Planet, but $800 is a little more than just pocket money for me.

What would you guys do?

[Kevin Hazard]

Hi,

on top of my regular server fee of $89 for the last server I have with The Planet I was charged $800 by The Planet this week. There is no invoice in Orbit for this charge, and there would be no reason for them to place an additional charge on my credit card, as I didn't exceed any bandwidth limits, etc.

So I opened a ticket yesterday at 4.05am CDT and I posted the string with the charge description as I saw it in my online statement. At 7.47am someone responded and stated that they can't locate a $800 charge, and they only see the regular $89 charge. They asked me for a copy of my statement. Within a few minutes I responded and attached a copy of my statement (I blacked out all other charges) and I haven't heard anything else from The Planet.
Today I followed up on my own on the ticket and asked them if they were able to locate the charge and that I would ask my bank for a chargeback in the afternoon CDT if they wouldn't find it.
I have followed up again a few minutes ago and emphasized that I would like to get this resolved today, since no one responded.

$800 might be nothing for The Planet, but $800 is a little more than just pocket money for me.

What would you guys do?

Avril, Please PM me with your account number and any tickets you have opened, and I'll make sure this gets straightened out as soon as possible.

-Kevin

[James Erickson]

I managed to get a hold of an accounting person today who investigated the issue, unfortunately, it is requiring additional investigation that may have to wait until Monday to get completed.

[ionut]

I too had this problem but instead of $800 I was billed $99. The only option that I had was to send them an attached statement or dispute it with my credit card company, I disputed it as it was easier.

The charge was on 08/26/2007 from THEPLANET.COM,INC/INT 713-333-7873 TX and not the usual THE PLANET 2147827800 TX.

Has anyone else had this problem?

[Brooke-Sales]

I too had this problem but instead of $800 I was billed $99. The only option that I had was to send them an attached statement or dispute it with my credit card company, I disputed it as it was easier.

The charge was on 08/26/2007 from THEPLANET.COM,INC/INT 713-333-7873 TX and not the usual THE PLANET 2147827800 TX.

Has anyone else had this problem?

Both of those could be us, the 713-333-7873 is a legacy Houston number. If you disputed the charge and have a server with us please cancel the dispute asap. Chargebacks are serious business, and our accounting team treats them as such. We cancel any account we receive a chargeback for, and unplug the servers immediately.

[ionut]

I was instructed in the ticket to do a dispute with the credit card company as there was no charge shown on your system. The strange thing is that the card no. was entered manually:

Merchant Type Providers of computer network
Method Card Number Captured 01 - Card Number manually keyed
Card Presence 2 - Card not present at time of sale - Mail Transaction

and not the usual way:

Merchant Type Merchants that provide business and trade services that typically are not considered professions. Examples of companies and Sercies include publishing
Method Card Number Captured 81 - Card number entered via the Internet or electronically
Card Presence 5 - Card not present at time of sale - Internet Transaction

[Penguin]

Chargebacks are serious business, and our accounting team treats them as such. We cancel any account we receive a chargeback for, and unplug the servers immediately.

That's more than a little worrying and something I'm certainly glad I'm aware of now. We were overcharged by $2500 last month and I was going to issue a chargeback for that as I wasn't getting any sense from staff initially over whether the refund had been processed or not and so if I had continued with this I would have then had all of our servers taken offline even though this was an error with the Planet! We were also overcharged this month as well due to some servers not being removed from our account that we had cancelled and confirmed. Looks like this is getting to be a bit of a regular habit

[Kevin Hazard]

That's more than a little worrying and something I'm certainly glad I'm aware of now. We were overcharged by $2500 last month and I was going to issue a chargeback for that as I wasn't getting any sense from staff initially over whether the refund had been processed or not and so if I had continued with this I would have then had all of our servers taken offline even though this was an error with the Planet! We were also overcharged this month as well due to some servers not being removed from our account that we had cancelled and confirmed. Looks like this is getting to be a bit of a regular habit

That certainly doesn't sound like a good situation at all. If you ever run into a ticket that doesn't seem to be going anywhere, don't hesitate to PM one of our staff members here on the forums... We will happily look into your account and escalate it to the right people if it is not handled quickly or correctly on the first run.

Best regards,

-Kevin

[Penguin]

To be fair Kevin, our account has now been assigned back to Laura L which gives me a lot of confidence again which I've lost recently. Credit where it's due, she's the only reason we still have servers with the Planet.

I still have many issues with support though - we've yet again had another issue today where techs don't read a ticket properly. If I didn't know what I as taking about then fair enough, but when I provide detailed technical info in a ticket and it gets closed due to them mis-reading it and basically telling me it's my fault I get pretty annoyed. Finally though it was admitted to be an issue and your end that has now been rectified. It just seems to be you've either got level 1 techs who just don't understand what they're doing or there are so many tickets they are rushing though them. Take a look at esc id 1486993 if you want to see what I mean. This is the second time in a month I've had issues with tickets not being read carefully enough - our excess billing was due to exactly the same reason last month.

[JamesC]

Both of those could be us, the 713-333-7873 is a legacy Houston number. If you disputed the charge and have a server with us please cancel the dispute asap. Chargebacks are serious business, and our accounting team treats them as such. We cancel any account we receive a chargeback for, and unplug the servers immediately.

So if ThePlanet over charges a customer and that customer can't get the charge taken care of in a timely manner they have no recourse to take?

hmmmm ok this gives me something once again to mull over, I have hung around here hoping the support issues would straighten out, just to read about billing and incorrect hardware issues now this.

Try and get your money back that does not belong to TP and lose your servers that you paid for, seems a little like a death wish for someone willing to take this sort of a chance.

[Tomy Durden]

So if ThePlanet over charges a customer and that customer can't get the charge taken care of in a timely manner they have no recourse to take?

hmmmm ok this gives me something once again to mull over, I have hung around here hoping the support issues would straighten out, just to read about billing and incorrect hardware issues now this.

Try and get your money back that does not belong to TP and lose your servers that you paid for, seems a little like a death wish for someone willing to take this sort of a chance.

Almost every provider of any service will do the same thing. The dispute process, in most cases, will take more time than working with a company over a mistake. If we're unaware of a mistake and someone just disputes it, then we have to treat it as it looks.

[AaronC]

> Try and get your money back that does not belong to TP and lose your servers that you paid for, seems a little like a death wish for someone willing to take this sort of a chance.

The thing is, JamesC, it is not hard to get that issue taken care of. I've worked with some of our billing team for years now and they are always anxious to make sure our billings are perfect and the numbers work out correctly. Taking too much money, and taking it incorrectly, can cause as many problems as not taking enough.

If your billing invoice shows a double charge... reference it in a ticket, point out the error and ask for an investigation. If the invoice only shows a single charge but your bank account shows that you were double billed, provide a record of that double billing and the billing team can address that as well. They may need your permission to confirm the charges with your bank.

The only worrisome situation, then, is if you feel we owe you money and we, after reviewing the situation, feel otherwise. All I can suggest there is escalate the issue. Ask for a manager, get new eyes on the issue. If we still disagree after all of that... well I'm sure you would do what you needed to, but I would posit that the business relationship would be mortally wounded already.

But as bad as that situation would be, it is equally unlikely. We want to fix your billing issue, and as quickly as possible. A chargeback should never have to even be a consideration.

[jmweb]

> Try and get your money back that does not belong to TP and lose your servers that you paid for, seems a little like a death wish for someone willing to take this sort of a chance.

The thing is, JamesC, it is not hard to get that issue taken care of. I've worked with some of our billing team for years now and they are always anxious to make sure our billings are perfect and the numbers work out correctly. Taking too much money, and taking it incorrectly, can cause as many problems as not taking enough.

Obviously it is if you guys gotta wait till Monday to investigate this.

Chargebacks are for unauthorized transactions. Overcharging someone, would be an unauthorized transaction.

[AaronC]

A chargeback takes much longer to resolve itself than working through our billing department, though, and will not result in any adverse issues with your account.

[ionut]

I got overcharged again, this time by $198.00. Whats going on here?

Transaction Detail
THEPLANET.COM,INC/INT 713-333-7873 TX
Transaction Date 09/26/2007
Post Date 09/28/2007
Transaction Amount $198.00
Reference Number MT072710100000***********
Merchant Type Providers of computer network
Method Card Number Captured 01 - Card Number manually keyed
Card Presence 2 - Card not present at time of sale - Mail Transaction

The charge also does not appear on the invoice.

[AaronC]

If I may... it makes a whole lot more sense to speak to billing about this than to ask in the forums. I believe they'll be in the office tomorrow during the day (central time).

[mazza]

I got overcharged again, this time by $198.00. Whats going on here?

Transaction Detail
THEPLANET.COM,INC/INT 713-333-7873 TX
Transaction Date 09/26/2007
Post Date 09/28/2007
Transaction Amount $198.00
Reference Number MT072710100000***********
Merchant Type Providers of computer network
Method Card Number Captured 01 - Card Number manually keyed
Card Presence 2 - Card not present at time of sale - Mail Transaction

The charge also does not appear on the invoice.

document everything record tickets and everything if you must file a police report "last resort" if you still do not get a an answer looks like you been having problems for a few weeks

[markcausa]

A police report? Good luck filing a police report against The Planet if you do not reside in Houston, TX.

You would actually report this issue to... Billing.

[ionut]

Unbelievable:

"Dear Customer,

On this account you have been charged $89.00 only. Please see attached document.

Thank you,
Customer Accounting & Control Department"

So I must imagine then.

EDIT:
I uploaded my last month statement. I hope this will be enough to fix the problem.

[Kevin Hazard]

Unbelievable:

"Dear Customer,

On this account you have been charged $89.00 only. Please see attached document.

Thank you,
Customer Accounting & Control Department"

So I must imagine then.

EDIT:
I uploaded my last month statement. I hope this will be enough to fix the problem.

Hi ionut,

I'm sorry it took so long for our billing group to track down the billing system error causing your headaches, but it looks like everything is squared away. Please let me know if you run into any more quirky charges.

-Kevin