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Converting accounts to have free domain


towens

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We currently have a number of accounts that have a single hosting package and domain that we want to convert to offer in a new plan that includes the domain for free. I have the free domain with hosting package setup but I want to make sure the users aren't billed for both separately. How do free domains get "connected" with a hosting package? The documentation says the registration date for the domain and the hosting package order have to be the same. Is that the only requirement?

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No i dont think thats the case actually, what if the client has carried over the registration from another host when they signed up with the new host. So that would make the hosting due before the domain reg is due every year, (unless its a new client) that you have to do 1 year min, or the hosting due and the registration not due.

 

My thought for free domains is that, the money comes out of your registrar account when someone gets a domain. The registrar could care less if you recoop that money or not with your client, thats up to you to collect. And if you choose to not collect it and just eat the cost or pad the cost into your hosting fees or other add ons. Then you can just set all your domain pricing to 0.00 and not worry about it..

 

Thats my take on it... Unless of course im missing something here..

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I can't set the cost of all domains to $0 in WHMCS because we also have orders that are domain-only orders. The free domain option is limited to when it's bundled in with a hosting plan. If someone was moving hosting providers they would transfer a domain in to take advantage of it. But you're right, the renewal date would then no longer be in sync with the hosting (although the order date would be the same). But I assume the system has to have some way of knowing the two belong together since it's waives the cost of the domain on an order.

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Yes, I have this setup in the product options as a free registration/transfer with the purchase of that hosting plan. So I'm trying to figure out how that works with converting accounts that were previously paying separately. Maybe it just works but I don't want to assume that and then have customers start receiving invoices for hosting and domains separately and get confused.

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All i might suggest is setting your registrar to test mode and set your payment to test mode as well or just have it create an invoice for a test company, then run thru the bundle sale and then check your test client account to see what the rebilling would be.

 

I am honesty just beginning to set up my bundles so im def not a bundle pro, someone else might have a way for you to really test this.

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for those accounts that you have to convert, but don't want to sync the two next due dates together, another option might be to just change the next due date on the 'free' domain to some future long-off date (e.g 15+ years) ?

 

that way you wouldn't have to worry about the client being sent a domain renewal by whmcs at the same time as the hosting renewal.

 

I suspect syncing the dates will be the easier option, but just suggesting the above as an alternative solution.

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Thing I'd worry about with that solution is that a domain would get renewed even if the hosting account didn't. We have pretty high turnover of accounts due to the market we serve so I definitely want the two to be in sync. Looks like making sure the dates on both are correct is the way to go. I also found out the payment gateway for both has to be the same. After reading the documentation more closely I think I have a good handle on this going forward. Thanks everyone for your input!

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good to hear... in worst case and if no other way, i guess you could have two whmcs installs, maybe rent one for $10 a month for the free domains that way you could set the domain prices to 0 for all, and run everything else on your normal install. But that is way extreme i know..

 

maybe whmcs one day will have a way to do this..

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  • WHMCS Support Manager

Hi,

Ideally free domains should renew at the same time as the associated product, yes.

 

However WHMCS will attempt to prevent free domains being renewed by themselves (ie. if the associated product is not also renewed).

 

If there is a product with the same "domain" value as a free domain registration, should it be invoiced and paid, the renewal will not occur. An error will be reported in your To-List and emailed to staff so that you can make the decision whether or not to manually renew the domain.

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