How do you handle cancelled accounts?

[apollo1]

If you have a client who wishes to cancel their hosting account, how do you handle the WHMCS and WHM/cpanel accounts afterwards?

 

I do the following:

 

- send client an email saying goodbye and that their account will be closed

- Close Clients Account in WHMCS

- Make a backup of their WHM account via their cpanel

- Delete their WHM/cpanel account

 

I was curious what other people do. Are you making a backup, or do you just wipe everything out after a certain number of days? Do you suspend the WHM/cpanel account right away after they ask for their account to be closed, or do you let it sit there for a while?

Edited January 11, 2009 by apollo1

[chickendippers]

Customer submit cancellation request,

Cancellation request email is sent saying goodbye,

WHMCS terminates the account.

 

Easy.

[hostwes]

Same as chickendippers here.

 

No reason to make backup, just a waste of space for you. They are cancelling for a reason.. They should have all the files they need, usually they are already on another host.

[easyhosting]

dont make backup.

goodby messge sent to customer automatically

Terminate and remove their hosting account/s

after 14 days remove their whole account from WHMCS

[Matt Wade]

Remove their whole account? You really remove all accounting and history of a customer after 14 days?

[easyhosting]

I always print copies of all email/messages/invoices etc as and when they are produced, so i have hard copies of every customers history etc

[RapidCityHosting]

When a cancellation comes in,

 

I do the following,

 

Ask what they were unsatisfied with

Ask how we can keep their business

If we cant keep their business, we close the account.

WHMCS terminates the account after 30 days.

[hostwes]

You can simply set the client to inactive to keep all emails, invoices, etc..

[Dominic]

Isn't keeping hard copies of everything defeating the point of an automated system

 

We keep backups on our backup servers for a week generally, but only because we have the capacity....it also comes in handy if a client decides to reinstate their account which is rare but does happen.

[easyhosting]

Keeping hard copies is a legal requirement, it also helps in any legal action against any of our ex clients.

[apollo1]

You can simply set the client to inactive to keep all emails, invoices, etc..

 

Yes, this is what I did initially, then I just deleted them. But it's a good point, you can set them to inactive and also use the module command to terminate their WHM.cpanel account (which is nice because it sets the product status to "terminated" while still maintaining the field values of the hosting account, in case they return it will be easier to activate up again). The only thing you have to be careful of is when you send out mass mail to your customers, as it will be sent to these cancelled accounts as well so you have to use the filter (if you don't want to communicate to them).

 

Thanks everyone else for your ideas and input so far.

Edited January 13, 2009 by apollo1

[dkent]

It's a lot better if you just terminate their hosting account. I keep their WHMCS client account open even when they have no other services with me. Why delete their account when they might choose to return to you for hosting etc?

[easyhosting]

This may be OK if you have a few accounts, but if you have hundreds of account, when you leave an inactive WHMCS client account open, this take space up in your db etc., so it makes sense just to remove their accounts totally, when a client leaves not many ever returns.

[Dominic]

This may be OK if you have a few accounts, but if you have hundreds of account, when you leave an inactive WHMCS client account open, this take space up in your db etc., so it makes sense just to remove their accounts totally, when a client leaves not many ever returns.

:confused:

 

What a strange way to think!

[easyhosting]

This is just my opinion. I have been hosting for over 10 years and this time only 3 clients have left.

1 Died,1 closed website,1 refused to pay so court action was taken ad his account removed.

[Zorro67]

A bit concerned here. If you T&C say that you keep backups, and an account is cancelled, yet after a week those backups are overwritten.

 

So follow this; the client cancels, you approve that cancellation, the files are deleted, your rolling backups get overwritten after 7 days, on day 8 the customer requests a copy of their files; you have no accessible backup; the client could sue you for return of their information or costs for replacement of same.

 

And be careful in relying on just your T&C. if it could be shown that you were negligent or breached a duty of care; oouch!!!

 

Regarding deleting client infromation, I'm not sure how it works in other countries, but in Australia, we are legally required to hold accessible copies of all customer information involving transactions, for 7 years. So i'd rather leave it on the computer, or at least have an accessible archive of their invoices tickets etc, rather than print every transaction to paper and file it.

[easyhosting]

Our T & C does not mention that we keep backups

we have a MANAGED SERVICES DEFINITION & BACKUP POLICY that states the below, which recommends users to handle their own backups.

 

DATA RECOVERY/BACKUPS

 

Easyas ABC Hosting™ always recommends purchasing backup storage/service with any and all systems/services. Clients may purchase backup drives and/or backup storage and perform their own backups--with or without Easyas ABC Hosting™ or control panel supplied backup software enabled, or may purchase a managed backup solution from Easyas ABC Hosting™.

[msmom]

I may do things differently. The ones that terminate for nonpayment vs the cancellations.

 

The cancellations I terminate in WHMCS and make inactive, delete any cc data they may have in place and/or cancel the Paypal Subscription (otherwise, it'll bill their account anyway and I'll be refunding).

 

I haven't been removing their data from WHM, simply because some do come back (especially the nonpayment ones) and I like to be able reinstate them.

[hostlonestar]

When a client requests cancellation we send a confimation email that also asks for something like their last transaction ID from PayPal. We also ask what we can do to keep their business, offer a 25% discount for the next 2 months, and 10% recurring. Explain to them that on the date they choose to cancel the account (we allow any amount of notification, from 48 hours out up until the next invoice due date, and require at least 48 hours notice for this process). We also let them know that there will be a $15 administrative fee for their backups if they are requested after the cancel button is clicked. As well as some other formalities.

 

After they confirm, we acknowledge their confirmation, advise them that within 24 hours their service will be cancelled. Remind them of the necessity to get backups. And then go into cPanel and make a backup of the site as is. Copy it onto a disk, and file it away alphabetically in a box, which is stored by month. The disk is destroyed after 6 months (which we advise them of in the last email we send them). All disks are destroyed on the first day of the 7th month. So lets say someone cancels their account on January 15th, When July rolls around, the disks in the Jan. box are destroyed, the entire months.

 

The client is placed on inactive for 30 days, after 30 days, the client is closed.

 

We've had 3 people in the last month and a half leave and then come back.

 

Sorry for reviving a dieing thread, but, I thought I would throw in my two pennies, I was acutally searching for something and came across this thread.

[growe]

So follow this; the client cancels, you approve that cancellation, the files are deleted, your rolling backups get overwritten after 7 days, on day 8 the customer requests a copy of their files; you have no accessible backup; the client could sue you for return of their information or costs for replacement of same.

 

Yes, if your T&C state you keep backups then you must keep backups for the period in which you say you would. The question is... "Why on earth would you have T&C that force you to do anything for a ex-customer?" A carefully worded T&C would state that once the client requests termination that you are free from providing any and all services to them (including backups). That being said... if you want to be a !@#$% and operate with a zero tolerance attitude, you could totally delete everything the very second they request termination and be well within your rights.

[johnwey]

You guys are way in front of me

 

Then again, I was old before you were born I guess.

 

I've just had WHMCS installed, and put in a couple of my current clients, to try it out.

 

But they're getting invcoies and notofications as I play with it.

 

So I've set up a couple of emails on my own domains so I can fabricate a couple of dummy clients while I get the feel of things.

 

But guess what? I can't for the life of me figure out how to delete the clients I've already entered into WHMCS

 

Can anyone tell me?

[chickendippers]

Click the "Delete Clients Account" link on the Client Profile Summary tab. It's in red.