What happens if there are payment problems?
What you see in the Console when a charge fails, what changes if a service is blocked and how you get back to work.
A charge can fail because of an expired card, a spending limit or a default payment method the bank refuses. It makes quite a difference whether this happens while you are activating a service or on a renewal already running.
If the charge for an activation fails
The DR is not activated and the Console tells you straight away with the message “The payment failed, log into your Billing section to update the default payment method”. Update the method from the portal, then retry the activation from the same page.
If your default method is Link, the message points it out and asks you to set a different one. Automatic pro-rata charges do not work with Link.
If a renewal fails
The service keeps running and backups carry on. The Console suspends nothing on its own, neither at the first missed payment nor at the ones after it, so you have time to fix the payment method. Go to Subscription & Payments, open Payments, update the default method.
No automatic countdown starts. If the unpaid amount stays open we write to you, and any block on the service is agreed with you.
If a service is blocked
A block deletes nothing, your data and the backups already taken stay where they are, but operations stop.
- Commands disappear from the DR page, so no Initiate DR, no manual backup, no changes to the schedules.
- The button to add a new DR no longer shows in the list and the activation page refuses the order.
- Archive and the connected VMs behave the same way, their commands do not respond.
As soon as the payment goes through the block is lifted on its own and you find everything as before, with nothing to do about it.
If instead the subscription is closed, the resources under it are removed. At that point it is no longer a matter of unlocking, the DR has to be activated from scratch.
When to open a ticket
If the charge keeps failing even after updating the method, if you received a notice that does not add up, or if you are about to close a customer and want to know what happens to the fee, write to us with a ticket from the Console. It is faster than trying the payment over and over.
If you have already decided to close a DR, do not wait for the missed payment. Open it, go to More actions and choose Cancel DR Subscription, so it stays active until the end of the month and does not generate another fee.