The service terms option is a set of parameters that defines how a subscription services processing is managed. Service terms are assigned to each service plan, and a customer purchases a service plan with the specific service terms assigned to it.
Service terms take effect only if a customer does not renew his or her subscription within a certain period of time regardless of the customer account balance and unpaid invoices presence.
According to the service terms policy the subscription services handling process looks as follows:
- A subscription grace period starts when the subscription expires. Services provisioning is not suspended during this period, and a customer still can renew the subscription. The subscription status turns to Graced in this period.
- A subscription hold period starts after the grace period is over, and the subscription is not renewed still. Services provisioning is suspended for this period. The subscription status is Hold during this period.
- When the hold period ends, a subscriptions status depends on the Destroy Service after Hold Period option settings:
- If Destroy Service after Hold Period is enabled, the subscription status turns to Terminated, and all the subscription data is destroyed. In this case it is impossible to restore a terminated subscription.
- If Destroy Service after Hold Period is disabled, the subscription status turns to Canceled. In this case it is possible to restore a canceled subscription in future by turning its status into Graced and then to Active.
Regardless of the Destroy Service after Hold Period settings, a subscription can be destroyed in case of its cancellation if the Destroy Service on Cancel option of the corresponding service template is set to Yes. Refer to the Destroying Canceled Subscriptions section for the details on using these two options for subscription cancellation settings.
Note: Service terms can be applied to a subscription in the Administrative Hold status. When the subscription is released from the Administrative Hold, its status became Graced, and then it is processed according to the service terms.
Creating service terms
- In the control panel, go to System > Settings > Terms > Service Terms. The list of currently available service terms is displayed.
- Click Add New Service Terms. The adding new service term form is displayed. Fill out the following fields of the form:
- Name – Input a service term name into the field.
- Subscription Grace Period (days) – Enter the time interval (in days) during which an expired subscription remains active.
- Subscription Hold Period (days) – Enter the time interval (in days) during which an expired subscription is on hold.
- Destroy Service after Hold Period – Manage this field the following way:
- Tick the check box if you want to enable destroying the held subscription services when the hold period passes.
- Leave the check box blank if you want the held subscription services not to be destroyed when the hold period passes.
Note: In some cases, for example, if the Daily Billing Process has not been ran in time or has failed for some reasons, expired subscriptions have the Active status instead of having the Graced status. For such skipped subscriptions termination is not applicable, the grace period starts from the date the Daily Billing processes them. As a result, subscriptions skipped by the Daily Billing get their grace period in any case.
- Click Save to finish creating service term.
Notes
- In case service terms were updated (edited), these changes do not affect subscriptions that are already in the Expired/Stopped status:
- Shutdown date is calculated when Expiration date has passed.
- Terminate date is calculated when Shutdown date has passed.
These dates are not re-calculated if settings of service terms were changed. After a subscription has passed the Terminate date, system decides – whether to destroy service or not – according to the service terms that were in effect as of Terminate date.
- We recommend that you create a separate set of service terms for each domain service plan according to the corresponding domain registrar policy. For example, if a registrar allows renewing the registration of an existing domain within a month after it expires, the respective service terms grace and hold periods total duration must not exceed 30 days, and the service should be destroyed after the hold period is over.