Ask HN: received a suprise invoice, what to do

1 points by methou 3y ago ↗ HN

I was trying out smallstep using a free account, and clearly reading "Smallstep Free Account", nor have I ever gave them any billing information, yet still, they invoiced me US$100+ for using "Advanced Authority Minutes".

When creating an "Advanced Authority" earlier, I don't recall they say it's gonna incur charges. But now it does (just checked after I got the invoice).

I'm not really sure how to act, in most of reputable services I shouldn't be able to create fee incuring services before validation. This looks like some dark pattern to me.

4 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 20.0 ms ] thread

surprisetalk 3y ago ↗

First, reach out to Smallstep and ask for a refund.

If they don't comply, perform a chargeback through your bank or credit card provider.

jdoss 3y ago ↗

I'm a software engineer at smallstep and I just talked to our customer success team and if you email support@smallstep.com with your team ID and they'll look into your case and take care of you.

Also, I believe we have some front end changes that are going to make things a bit more clear when using advanced authorities. Sorry about that!

maxrabbit 3y ago ↗

I am with Customer Experience @ smallstep. We'll issue a refund if you were already charged but my assumption is that you got an invoice and no actual charge has been made. Either way, we'll cancel the invoice and/or refund the charge. We are also working on ways to clarify items in the system that will incur charges once the trial ends. Smallstep Certificate Manager can be free for home lab users. 1. Account tier is Free (Basic = email support only) 2. Only 1 Devops authority 3. That devops authority has fewer than 50 endpoints.

Hopes that clarify things. Sorry the invoice was unexpected. Please send an email to support@smallstep.com so that we can lookup your team and correct the issue. We'd do the same for any trial user - No public post needed :-)

brudgers 3y ago ↗

You've already burned a hundred bucks of brain cells.

Pay it close the account and do something worthwhile.

It's not worth the principle of the thing.

Good luck.