Billing Policy
Birdhouse offers yearly billing cycles only — we do not offer a month-to-month hosting plan (except in the case of Plan Z custom configurations). Payment for the coming year is due immediately upon account creation, when the initial invoice is issued. Payments can be made either via PayPal or personal/business check. Birdhouse currently does not directly process credit card payments, though you can use your credit card at PayPal, even without holding a PayPal account.
A reminder message will be generated after 30 days of non-payment. Accounts will be suspended after 60 days of non-payment, accompanied by a suspension notice. Non-paying accounts will be terminated 30 days after that, i.e. after 90 days of non-payment. Termination means full deletion with no option for data recovery.
Invoices are sent electronically only – you will not receive a paper copy of your invoice.
Cancellations
If you decide to terminate your hosting account with Birdhouse, we’ll happily refund the unused portion of the coming year. Refunds do not apply to account setup fees, domain registrations, or a la carte items. Only the unused portion of your hosting year can be refunded.
Labor
Birdhouse is both a web host and a consultancy. While we’ll always take care of issues that are our responsibility for free, we do bill for advanced support needs such as site setup and configuration, customization, upgrades and troubleshooting. Our current consultancy rate is $75/hr, with a minimum of 15 minutes.
Account Modifications
If you decide to change hosting plans (e.g. from Plan B to Plan C or vice versa), we’ll issue a new invoice for the coming year at the new plan rate, and credit you the unused portion of the hosting year at the previous plan rate.
Student Discounts
Student discounts remain in effect up to one year after graduation. When the billing cycle following graduation plus one year arrives, the account will be modified from (e.g.) Plan A Student to Plan B.
Support of Indirect Customers
Because Birdhouse accounts can host multiple domains and lots of email addresses, it often happens that we end up working with small businesses with lots of employees, each of whom require support configuring mail clients, setting up individual mailing lists, configuring spam controls, etc. Thus, a single paying customer can spawn 10 or 20 additional people needing support services. Birdhouse may, at their discretion, add consulting charges to invoices for support of non-paying “indirect” customers.
