Jump to content

Domain renewals submitted twice to registrar?


macconnect

Recommended Posts

A customer logs in and orders a domain renewal. No problems there. If they choose "Pay Now" on the invoice and pay immediately, WHMCS submits the renewal immediately to OpenSRS. Great, but then it seems to try again during the cron run in the middle of the night.

 

It happened yesterday again when a five year renewal was ordered, paid for, and submitted successfully to OpenSRS at 3 PM. We then found that WHMCS tried to submit another 5 year renewal at 2 AM during the nightly cron.

 

Is this a possible bug or are we missing something?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're right. Somehow two invoices were created for the renewal.

 

Invoice 10190 was generated 01/24/2008 03:15

 

Invoice 10191 was generated 01/23/2008 16:04

 

I did the order myself and while I'm certainly not above making a dumb mistake, I'm pretty sure I did it only once. Plus, how did the invoice with the higher sequence number get timestamped before the lower sequence number?

 

The invoice created on the 23rd at 16:04 is the one I did. Nobody was working at 03:15 on the 24th and the client herself has never logged in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The client can order a domain renewal at any time from the client area so it could have been generated by the client in that way.

 

Matt

 

The client never logged in. We manually put the domain into WHMCS as a transfer with no invoice and no confirming email to the client. We then manually accept the order without sending to the registrar. We then edit the domain info to reflect the actual expiration and renewal dates (the same, right?). We then log in as the client and go through the renewal process, paying the invoice immediately when it is created. The invoice gets paid and the domain is immediately renewed.

 

How, then, does the second invoice get created, and how did the higher sequence number invoice get created before the lower sequence number invoice (at least according to the time stamps on them)?

 

It appears that even after the client completes the renewal, payment is made and the domain is already removed, the admin area still shows a pending order with the options to send to registar and send confirmation email. Both were already done when the client paid. Could that be the issue?

 

So far WHMCS has been great for us. This is just a little mystery that we're scratching our heads over.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The "duplicate" renewals is that the first one is snet when you acknowledge the order, the 2nd one is sent when the client pays.

 

Unchecking the "send to registrar" and set registrar to "none" when accepting orders prevents most duplicate renewals.

 

I've found but not completely tested, an issue where invoice created for client renewal for 2 years, they go in and manually renew if for 4 years instead, nut expiry dtae has been changed to +6 years ...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think what we're wrestling with is the actual WHMCS logic behind domain renewals. By default, it appears that WHMCS wants to auto-generate a renewal invoice for a domain on the "next due" date. it will then attempt to charge the customer during the next cron run and if successful will renew the domain with the registrar.

 

Fine, but our customers have been manually renewing domains for 7 years now. If a customer manually places a renew order, WHMCS still generates that auto-renewal invoice based on the due date. The manually generated invoice gets paid, but the auto-generated invoice still exists and also gets paid in the next cron run. The renewal fails since the domain was already renewed, but now we've charged the customer twice for the same renewal.

 

Does WHMCS generate renewal reminders based on the expiry date, or the due date of a domain? Can we stop the auto-invoicing/renewals in some way?

 

I have no problem with the logic behind asking the customer to opt-out of auto-renew in some way, but when you're migrating an old customer base that never agreed to that policy in the first place, you wind up with lots of billing disputes to handle.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If a customer manually places a renew order, WHMCS still generates that auto-renewal invoice based on the due date

If a client manually renews a domain prior to the auto-generated invoice the nextdue and expiry dates are moved forward by "n" years so this problme doesnt occur (on our live setup it doesnt anyway)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

True - however what happens when a client manually renews a UK domain after say 1 year - the dates in WHMCS are moved forward by 2 years, but the domain renewal is declined by Nominet - meanwhile you client has been billed. Whilst this means that you have got your money for another 2 years, the domain expiry date has not altered as fasr as Nominet is concerned.

 

In a years time, Nominet will expire the domain unless you manually renew the domain, as they have not been paid.

 

Whilst this is not directly related to the OP question it is related to the whole issue of domain renewals, and needs to be looked at IMHO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

True - however what happens when a client manually renews a UK domain after say 1 year - the dates in WHMCS are moved forward by 2 years, but the domain renewal is declined by Nominet - meanwhile you client has been billed. Whilst this means that you have got your money for another 2 years, the domain expiry date has not altered as fasr as Nominet is concerned.

 

In a years time, Nominet will expire the domain unless you manually renew the domain, as they have not been paid.

 

There are several intercrossed threads going on about the same thing now :)

Yes nominet will decline it, as will several other registrars, but if WHMCS correctly moves the due-date on, and you manually set the expiry-date back (based on the NAK from Nominet or whomever) then when the mod to WHMCS is done which will auto-renew the domain when expiry < next due it'll just work :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

I see a lot of domains that have been renewed twice in a short time period. Something is confusing my clients to renew twice, or something else is going on.

Is there a way to tell if a client manually renewed a domain or it was a autorenewal by the system?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

True - however what happens when a client manually renews a UK domain after say 1 year - the dates in WHMCS are moved forward by 2 years, but the domain renewal is declined by Nominet - meanwhile you client has been billed. Whilst this means that you have got your money for another 2 years, the domain expiry date has not altered as fasr as Nominet is concerned.

 

In a years time, Nominet will expire the domain unless you manually renew the domain, as they have not been paid.

 

Whilst this is not directly related to the OP question it is related to the whole issue of domain renewals, and needs to be looked at IMHO.

Adding a check via Smarty's logic on the client area template page will prevent this - "if domain is .uk and >6m from expiry, don't show renewal button" :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use & Guidelines and understand your posts will initially be pre-moderated