Cloudron subscription credit card expired

[ekevu123]

My company's credit card expired during the year and I didn't update the card details for the cloudron subscription.

Here is what could have happened:

• Cloudron sends me a friendly reminder before the payment is due
• I update the credit card details
• That's it
  (Actually, that's what most SaaS companies did throughout the year)

Here is what actually happened:

• Cloudron sends me an e-mail that the payment was unsuccessful
• Cloudron blocks the server running the license immediately including all 8 applications for our company
• I had to update it immediately literally sitting with my phone on the beach.

Now you can argue that I am supposed to make sure that the payment details for all subscriptions stay always up-to-date, but you could also argue that it wouldn't be a big deal for Cloudron to run a few more days for free (worst case) instead of blocking server access immediately.

Two more things if someone else comes into that situation:

• You have to restart the server after renewing the license
• For the time the server blocked Cloudron, it would run with maximum CPU usage, but would go back to normal when the issue is resolved.

[murgero]

@ekevu123 I can't imagine Cloudron shutdown any running apps simply because a payment was missed by a single day. It's also weird that when the payment failed that all the sudden CPU usage was maxed. This seems more like a bug or oversight than intentional.

I may be a little biased here cause I love cloudron - but their support team have ALWAYS been receptive and willing to work with me so I'd imagine they would have done the same for you if you opened a ticket or something.

I'd recommend hitting up their support, they may want more details as to what happened and may even come up with a resolution that would work here.

[BrutalBirdie]

@ekevu123 said in Cloudron subscription credit card expired:

Cloudron blocks the server running the license immediately including all 8 applications for our company

@ekevu123 This is not the default, definitely not.
Normally when your subscription runs out, nothing happens, just that you can't install more apps.
Everything else keeps just working.

Please reach out to support@cloudron.io so the team can get in touch with you.
What ever happened here is abnormal and should be investigated.
Sorry you had to experience this.
Tagging @staff so they see this as well.

[ekevu123]

@murgero There was no need to get in touch with support, because it was obvious what needed to be done to solve the problem. It seems like I started using Cloudron exactly 365 days before the issue occured.
Also, exchanging the credit card details, paying for the subscription manually and then restarting the server did solve the problem. So, I do see a connection here, not a bug.

@BrutalBirdie I sent an e-mail, happy to investigate it if it wasn't intentionial. After all, I do understand that you would want to enforce clients to pay for using your services, I just suggested to do it less radically.

[scooke]

@ekevu123 said in Cloudron subscription credit card expired:

So, I do see a connection here, not a bug.

The bug they are referrring to is the sudden blocking of your server. I too have had the expiration come, then I pay, and nothing stopped or was blocked. Seems very odd.

I guess your company offers X number of days of non-payment past a billing date? I really only deal with domains and various web services, and its hit and miss who ceases access to a service the day after a missed payment, and who continues to give access until X days have passed. I for one totally understand that Cloudron might prefer the approach taken - you the user solved the problem without their support needlessly getting involved. If you hadn't, the service ceases (do they need to contact you to make sure??) and life continues for everyone. Well, hope things stay positive for you. Happy new year.

[subven]

@ekevu123 can you please explain what you mean by "blocks the server"? Cloudron does not block or shut down your apps or servers if a subscription runs out. What should happen is that you lose the ability to install additional apps because the license status is checked during app installation. This should also affect app updates (in theory) but I'm not sure if this is enforced.

@ekevu123 said in Cloudron subscription credit card expired:

For the time the server blocked Cloudron, it would run with maximum CPU usage

This is a bit concerning but could be in correlation with your "apps beeing blocked" which is again, not intended or normal behavior.

@ekevu123 said in Cloudron subscription credit card expired:

I just suggested to do it less radically.

In fact, Cloudron does the complete opposite and if such behavior would be intentional, we would know that.

[ekevu123]

@subven "blocks the server" means in this case: I couldn't access any installed application nor the my subdomain to administrate cloudron. I could do it again after making the payment.

Good to hear that this might be a bug, not policy, then hopefully, the team will pick it up.

[nebulon]

@ekevu123 actually not sure what happened there, but at least from our side there is nothing implemented which would cause what you have seen on your Cloudron. If a subscription charge fails, then stripe our payment provider will retry for a week and will send reminders.

After that, the subscription goes into unpaid state if charge fails for a week, at which point the only limitation you will face is the inability to install new apps or update existing ones.

[girish]

@ekevu123 said in Cloudron subscription credit card expired:

@subven "blocks the server" means in this case: I couldn't access any installed application nor the my subdomain to administrate cloudron. I could do it again after making the payment.

Not sure what happened here but we have no code to block apps or bring down the server. In fact, you can run Cloudron with an expired license forever (you just don't get updates).

[girish]

This is documented here - https://docs.cloudron.io/billing/#canceling-subscription

[scooke]

It'd be nice if OP would return with some answers or explanations. Something happened, but it wasn't Cloudron who blocked things. They may never return to clarify, but it would be nice so that others looking up Cloudron won't stumble upon a post like this and conclude erroneously that it isn't trustworthy.

[BrutalBirdie]

@scooke I feel what you mean, but when all staff members declare there is nothing like that implemented
Also you can always just dig threw the code: https://git.cloudron.io/dashboard/groups

I mean, my first answer is, please reach out to the support since there is nothing like this implemented.

Like @girish pointed out this is what officially happens and can be verified by any other cloudron subscriber.
https://docs.cloudron.io/billing/#canceling-subscription

[scooke]

@BrutalBirdie I think my meaning wasn't clear. Obviously it wasn't Cloudron, so, it would be nice to hear back from the OP about what did happen, if they figure it out. E.G., another coworker who had access to the server did something, or there was a firewall change they didn't know about, some Cloudflare change they didn't know about, or they had Cloudron installed on a non-fresh server that somehow still managed to work, or some other error on their side. And thus, once they've realized and understand what did go wrong on their end, they can 'retract" their blame of Cloudron.

Cloudron support is incredible, but does this extend to troubleshooting someone else's server, particularly when they don't seem to know what's going on on it?

Since this all seems so unlikely, could this be a case of some other company trying to smear Cloudron? Just conjecture on my part.

[ekevu123]

@scooke That's a bit far-fetched. I am a happy customer of Cloudron and trust the support team providing clear evidence that nothing serious happened. Since everything is working fine again, there is not necessarily a need for me to work on this further as the problem has been solved. I was only bringing an issue to the attention of the support that looked suspicious and then we clarified it thanks to this forum.

Don't forget that all of this could still be a bug of some sort, so it has nothing to do with smearing Cloudron and I still feel it was the right thing to bring this forward. Also, it has nothing to do with not understanding with what happens on the server, I explained the chain of events clearly above what failed when and got resolved after which actions.

[girish]

@ekevu123 fwiw, I am happy you reported it and we have this clarification here!

[scooke]

@ekevu123 I hear you... it's working now, so let's get on with work! I'd personally be still very concerned to figure out what happened. You wrote, Cloudron blocks the server running the license immediately including all 8 applications for our company when all code points to that NOT being the cause of not accessing the server apps. "Something caused our sites to be unaccessible" is basically what happened, and you still don't know what that something was.

As for my last struck-out line, I was just thinking out loud, not trying to level accusations. I've read many support requests that end up being something wrong on the server, not Cloudron, so insisting it had to be Cloudron seems odd.

Happy new year!