Grouped Domain Notices are sent on the 11th of the month - no choice!

[stormy]

I have recently learned about a half-baked feature that was added to WHMCS 5.1. There are no configuration settings, and no documentation at all.

 

All the changelog says is:

 

"Added Grouped Domain Notices whereby clients will receive only 1 combined email if multiple domains are nearing expiry"

 

What it really does, in the words of WHMCS support, is:

 

On the 11th of the month WHMCS sends a combined reminder to clients for all their domains expiring in the next 30 days. So instead of sending potentially hundreds of domain reminders to a client, once for each domain, they get one email listing all their domains due for renewal soon.

 

This can't be turned off, and the date can't be configured.

 

In order for it to work, you are required to alter your domain renewal template, like this:

 

Dear {$client_name},

{if $days_until_expiry}The domain(s) listed below are due to expire within the next {$days_until_expiry} days.{else}The domain(s) listed below are going to expire in {$domain_days_until_expiry} days. Renew now before it's too late...{/if}

{if $expiring_domains}{foreach from=$expiring_domains item=domain}{$domain.name} - {$domain.nextduedate} ({$domain.days} Days)
{/foreach}{else}{$domain_name} - {$domain_next_due_date} ({$domain_days_until_nextdue} Days){/if}

To ensure the domain does not expire, you should renew it now. You can do this from the domains management section of our client area here: {$whmcs_link}

Should you allow the domain to expire, you will be able to renew it for up to 30 days after the renewal date. During this time, the domain will not be accessible so any web site or email services associated with it will stop working.

{$signature}

 

If you don't have these conditionals in your renewal notice template, it will simply send an extra notification to every customer with a domain that expires in the following 30 days.

 

I have my own renewal templates, that include the domain name in the subject (this alone has cut the number of support requests noticeably), so this doesn't work for me.

 

I have also taken the time to configure my Automation settings, and I don't appreciate WHMCS deciding this for me.

 

Let me sum this up:

 

• All your customers will get a domain renewal notice on the 11th of the month, like it or not, if they have domains expiring on the following 30 days
  
• This will include customers that have just received a renewal notice the day before, according to whatever you have chosen in the automation settings.
  
• It's not configurable
  
• You can't choose the date is sent
  
• You can't turn it off
  
• It doesn't have its own template, which would make a lot more sense, i.e. "here's a list of domains that are nearing expiry", etc.
  
• 
  

 

So, if you are surprised about the number of domain renewals you get every 11th of the month, now you know why.

[nobaloney]

Lots of domain reseller systems do this; I believe it's done by the LogicBoxes (i.e., ResellerClub, NEO, etc.) system as well. You really shouldn't turn off your own settings, because if you do, some uses will get only one notice, at the last minute, for a domain expiring in less than 24 hours.

 

Not sure I like this, but I can live with it, even without configuration. If you really want to turn it off, and you're using exijm, I suppse you could create something in exim.pl to read the subject of the email, and null-route the email with the matching subject line.

 

Jeff

[stormy]

I don't think you are understanding me correctly. WHMCS has a lot of settings for domain renewal notices. In Automation Settings you can choose to send up to 5 notifications (which I do) and configure how many days in advance you cant to send them.

 

On top of this, there's this mandatory, non-configurable, extra notification sent on the 11th of each month, that WHMCS has decided we need to send, want it or not.

[nobaloney]

Yes I'm aware of the issue. I pointed out that all the registrars I've worked with appear to do it as well. And I pointed out a way to use exim.pl script to keep them from going out.

 

But I agree it would be nicr to be able to turn them off.

 

Sorry if I was a bit confusing in my reply.

 

Jeff

[Debma]

As what is my understanding the domain notices ONLY get send on the 11th and no more on the other day's so turning it off with exim.pl is not a good idea. And the settings for the domain notices aren't that useful anymore because it depends when the notice is being send out if you want it to send for example on 90, 60, 30 and 15 day's it will send that notices 4 times on the 11th of the month. I also agree we should at least have a choice in this but WHMCS clearly thinks they now it all for everybody.

 

I got this reply when I asked about it :

 

Any reminder setting 30 days and above will be sent on the 11th of the month. The renewal reminder email has been updated to support this also, and you can find the default text which should be on your reminder email below.

 

Your settings are 90, 60 and 35. So, on the 11th of the month, WHMCS will send the 90 day reminder notice for all domains expiring in the next 90 days that have not had this email sent. The same applies to the 60 and 35 day notices. However, depending on your domains, you may see some duplicate mails sent at this time as this is a new feature.

 

For example, say on the 11th, you have 5 domains for a single client expiring in 90, 87, 82, 80 and 68 days. WHMCS will send the reminder on the 11th and group these domains together in the one email. WHMCS then notes that the 1st reminder has been sent for those domains in the "reminders" field in tbldomains - this is a pipe separated list of the reminders sent. For example, once the 90 day reminder has been sent, WHMCS will put |90| in the field, when the 60 day reminder, the field will read |90||60| etc etc.

Continuing with the example, next time the 11th comes round, WHMCS will see that the 90 day notice has been sent and will not send that again for the domains, even though they expire in the next 90 days. WHMCS will however send the 60 day notice for these domains. And then next time, the 30 day notice.

 

For all domain reminders with less than 30 days, WHMCS will send those as the days come up, so this would be on exactly 25 days, or exactly 1 day before the next due date on the domain.

 

So to be clear the notices will only be send on the 11th of each month and NOT on other day's

[stormy]

So to be clear the notices will only be send on the 11th of each month and NOT on other day's

 

No. The 11th is an additional notice, sent on top of whatever you have chosen to send.

[Debma]

No. The 11th is an additional notice, sent on top of whatever you have chosen to send.

 

I don't now what version you have but in 5.1.2/5.1.3/5.1.4 they only are send on the 11th, did you check you daily "WHMCS Cron Job Activity" mail from the last months?

[stormy]

I'm on 5.1.4. 51 domain notices were sent today, and the system does send them everyday, fortunately.

[Debma]

I'm on 5.1.4. 51 domain notices were sent today, and the system does send them everyday, fortunately.

 

That is interesting because mine does only send on the 11th, 4 day's ago it send almost 600 but on the other day's nothing.

When I look at my customers mail in WHMCS I also only see notices of 59 or 48, 32 but not with 60,90, or 35 like I config it.

How did you config the notices ? all five? and witch email template do they get the standard "Upcoming Domain Renewal Notice" with the new text like you mentioned above?

[stormy]

My settings are: 60 - 30 - 15 - 7 - 1

 

I have my own custom template, I don't use the new text at all. I did get this interesting piece of info from support today:

If the renewal period is greater than 30 days the emails are sent on the 11th if they are sooner they are sent on the normal cron run.

[Debma]

My settings are: 60 - 30 - 15 - 7 - 1

 

I have my own custom template, I don't use the new text at all. I did get this interesting piece of info from support today:

 

If the renewal period is greater than 30 days the emails are sent on the 11th if they are sooner they are sent on the normal cron run.

 

That explains a lot ;-) but I am still not happy with that change and not having the ability to disable that new feature and use only the normal cron.

[nobaloney]

I'd be much happier if they let us choose the cutoff day. Instead of 30 days, I might choose 45 days or 60 days.

 

Jeff

[WIS hosting]

I am also not happy with the new feature. It took me a while to figure out why the normal crons were not being sent at all. After reading this post it makes everything clear why the mails are sent out today (the 11th)!

 

Today there where 227 emails sent out. I am not happy with that at all.

 

to Matt: It would be nice to be able to decide for ourselves to use this or not... I would disable it immediatly.

[LDHosting]

I just noticed this new 'feature' today too and would love to turn it off... if there was an option to do so.

 

I could see this being an absolute nightmare for resellers on servers with email sending limits.

[dxer]

Me too, I noticed this yesterday and I was suprised so I asked support what is going on. I am not satisfied with this. I want option so we can switch it off and use classic domain reminder setting. I hope they will reconsider this.

[stormy]

This "feature" is confusing but I've come to like it. I make a lot of money every 11th of the month, like today!

[stormy]

Just bumping this up, in case someone is wondering why everybody wants to renew their domain today (11th of the month).

[dxer]

I don't know whyt is going on with this option but it was not working for several months , and now I see again is working, sent e-mails for domain on this 11th.

[ikasp]

What it really does, in the words of WHMCS support, is:

 

 

 

This can't be turned off, and the date can't be configured.

 

In order for it to work, you are required to alter your domain renewal template, like this:

 

Dear {$client_name},

{if $days_until_expiry}The domain(s) listed below are due to expire within the next {$days_until_expiry} days.{else}The domain(s) listed below are going to expire in {$domain_days_until_expiry} days. Renew now before it's too late...{/if}

{if $expiring_domains}{foreach from=$expiring_domains item=domain}{$domain.name} - {$domain.nextduedate} ({$domain.days} Days)
{/foreach}{else}{$domain_name} - {$domain_next_due_date} ({$domain_days_until_nextdue} Days){/if}

To ensure the domain does not expire, you should renew it now. You can do this from the domains management section of our client area here: {$whmcs_link}

Should you allow the domain to expire, you will be able to renew it for up to 30 days after the renewal date. During this time, the domain will not be accessible so any web site or email services associated with it will stop working.

{$signature}

 

 

The above template we already had as the default from the install, but with this change done, the WHMCS support gave me the following template:

 

{if $expiring_domains}{foreach from=$expiring_domains item=domain}{$domain.name} - {$domain.nextduedate} ({$domain.days} Days)
{/foreach}{else}{if $domains}{foreach from=$domains item=domain}{$domain.name} - {$domain.nextduedate}
{/foreach}{else}{$domain_name} - {$domain_next_due_date}{/if}{/if}

 

Note the "if" clause after the "else" statement. Seems there are two scenarios where multiple domains are given.

 

Very strange this change has not been communicated clearly after it got implemented and also strange people seem to get different messages about what template to use.

[stormy]

Yes, they are very different. I wonder which one is correct?