Domain will autorenew, domain gets synced then customer pay for renewal, what will happen?

[DS-Dennis]

Hello,

 

I just recently switched from a competitor so I monitor how WHMCS works closely.

Now I noticed (I did enable sync domains) a domain was automated renewed according the TLD requirements.

Then the cron runs and updates the domain expire date to November 2015 but the bill has yet to be paid by the customer.

 

Now it is to be expected that if the customer does pay his bill, the system is going to renew the domain at the registrar. Which results his domain will expire November 2016 at the registrar, then after the cron runs the expire date will get updated so he is not going to be billed next year?

 

I am just trying to foresee things as I am new to WHMCS or am just to worried and need some more confident in this system? If I am correct in this matter, what are the best options to avoid this behavior? Should I just disable the cronjob that syncs domains? Why would such sync be in place at all if it causes such havoc in terms of renewals?

[brian!]

I think the important point for you to remember is that renewals are triggered by the "Next Due Date", not the expiry date... so don't worry about what whmcs thinks the expiry date is, it doesn't use it to generate invoices.

 

when you say the domain was automated renewed, do you mean by WHMCS or directly with the registrar?

 

the usual procedure would be that the next due date would trigger a renewal invoice; upon payment by the client, whmcs would attempt to renew the domain via the registrar assigned to that domain, and also add a year (or whatever) to the next due date.

 

but if the domain is automatically renewing outside of WHMCS, then you may have a problem - it's not something that i've ran into directly, but what you could do is switch the registrar for that domain (in the Client's Profile) to "None" - that will stop it from automatically trying to renew the domain with the registrar - so upon invoice payment, whmcs should just add another year to the next due date and domain sync should update the expiry date.

[DS-Dennis]

when you say the domain was automated renewed, do you mean by WHMCS or directly with the registrar?

It was renewed by the registrar due the automated renewal requirement for this TLD, to be precise, .be at eNom.

After that, while the client did not yet pay the bill, WHMCS cronjob did run and sync the domain.

I noticed that not only the expire date was synced but the renewal date as well.

 

Now the client should still pay the bill and because of that, a year will be extended by WHMCS at eNom.

I already did as you suggested and edited the domain record in the clients profile to have no registrar configured which I have to edit back after the payment. And of course edit the year back from 2016 to 2015 or wait till the cron corrects this.

 

Either way, this is not an ideal situation on TLD's which are set to autorenewal at the registrar.

I'll have to check if it still can be renewed if I switch of the auto renewal (if it supports early renewals). If so, then the client only risks his domain being lost if payment is not in time. If it does not, then I'm not sure yet what the best solution would be.

Edited November 24, 2014 by DS-Dennis

[brian!]

Hi Dennis,

 

It was renewed by the registrar due the automated renewal requirement for this TLD, to be precise, .be at eNom.

After that, while the client did not yet pay the bill, WHMCS cronjob did run and sync the domain.

I noticed that not only the expire date was synced but the renewal date as well.

that sounds like you may have "Sync Next Due Date" enabled too... unchecking it should prevent next due date from being changed to match the expiry date... though eventually they should match up anyway..

 

setup -> general settings -> domains -> Sync Next Due Date

 

btw - I could be wrong, but I think that is an Enom policy to auto-renew, the documentation with OpenSRS says that it doesn't automatically get renewed by the registrar... and I couldn't find anything on the dns.be site about it (though I only had a quick look!)

 

Now the client should still pay the bill and because of that, a year will be extended by WHMCS at eNom. I already did as you suggested and edited the domain record in the clients profile to have no registrar configured which I have to edit back after the payment. And of course edit the year back from 2016 to 2015 or wait till the cron corrects this.

you only have to reassign it back to Enom if the client needs to access any Enom management features - if not, then leaving it assigned to None won't affect future renewal invoices - they will occur as normal.

 

Either way, this is not an ideal situation on TLD's which are set to autorenewal at the registrar.

I'll have to check if it still can be renewed if I switch of the auto renewal (if it supports early renewals). If so, then the client only risks his domain being lost if payment is not in time. If it does not, then I'm not sure yet what the best solution would be.

perhaps you could change the next due date to an earlier date (7 or 14 days etc), so that the client has more time to pay before the domain is auto-renewed by Enom - though this would only work if the next due date is not being synced to the expiry date.

[DS-Dennis]

Thank you for your advice and getting me on track.

I overlooked the Sync setting on due dates which was also set to 0 days making it equal to expire dates. I could set it to 14 so invoices are send 14 days upfront plus this 14 days on domain renewals making it 28 days on domain renewals.

But that is a global setting for any TLD so I'm not ok with that. Besides, autorenewal is done 30 days before expire date at eNom.

 

So I disabled the sync on due dates and will switch to Hexonet for this particular TLD. eNom does not allow transfer in either while Hexonet does. What I found at Hexonet about this TLD:

Restores can be processed in realtime. A restore is possible within 40 days upon deletion.

I only have less profit but get a better situation in return.

[brian!]

it might be possible to write a hook that would change the next due date for all .be domains to -14 days or whatever.... i'm sure i've seen a post about that (it wouldn't have been .be, but another cctld)...

 

also, I think .be expire on the expiry date with no grace period - so once past expiry date, they would need to be restored (redemption) - so you may want to check want the redemption fee would be for .be domains... the basic rule is if you want to renew, do it before expiry - otherwise it might be expensive for you or your client!