Formalized the question as a suggestion: https://help.ting.com/entries/22245513
It would be really nice to adjust the billing month closing day. Right now my closing day is on some obscure day that I can't remember and was decided on a whim because that was the day of the month that I activated my first phone. Quite arbitrary.
I know this would involve one short (or long) billing month with prorated charges. That's more than acceptable. Heck, I wouldn't mind if it was assessed a $5 fee or being double taxed or something to cover the quirks involved in moving the day. Losing phone numbers just isn't an option for most people.
Update 2013/02/16 - Thanks to the feedback from Andrew, I believe there is a workable solution to change the billing date (though it's a little involved) detailed below:
- Open a new Ting account with a new email.
- On the desired billing day, activate a device. *
- Migrate all other lines over and close the old account. **
* Note, if this involves a BYOD phone, the device should be migrated over a few days before the desired billing date as the BYOD takes a couple days to go through. The BYOD process is separate from the activation process, so BYOD'ing a device will not then result in activation, only setting the device as available for activation.
** This can be done via a support request to Ting if the devices are active (and the phone numbers would like to be kept). If inactive, the devices can be activated directly on the new account.
Comments
I would like to know *why* Ting refuses to do more than merely "consider" addressing this issue.
This is not something we are actively working on. We will put it on the backlog for consideration though.
I have a couple follow-up questions about this. I presume a possible work around would be to open a second account and activate a device on the desired day of the month. This somewhat brings up the question of whether devices/lines can move from one account to another. Can they? Do they have to be deactivated before moving (and thus lose the number) or can service be maintained without interruption?
I did find a topic on this https://help.ting.com/entries/22318742)
That is technically a work around Ryan. While we generally prefer not to move devices between accounts, if someone gives us a call we can do so for them without deactivating the device if need be.
Understood. One last question.
Is the billing date determined by the day the account is opened or the day the first device on the account is activated (and not necessarily simply added to the account)?
It's based on the date the first device on the account is activated.
Scratch the final question bit, here's a couple more:
If I have a device on account #1 listed as "Not yet activated" can account #2 activate that device just by using the http://ting.com/activate process and punching in the ESN? Do I have to worry about removing device association beyond simply deactivting it with account #1 before I can activate on account #2?
Does my billing closing day stay the same under this scenario: I have had active devices with billing end day X, then I removed all active devices until I have no active devices on my account and then activate a device 2 weeks later?
@Ryan
As to question one: yes, it does work this way. So long as the device isn't active, you can add it to another account and activate it through the Ting site directly and without needing the help of support.
Question two: I'm not sure how this would work out. We'd have to test it to have a clear idea. If I were to guess, I'd say that the bill date likely resets on a cancelled account hat's reactivated, however, two weeks may not be a long enough interval.
You may need to wait at least a month for the bill period to fully close, or it happen once the last bill is paid.
If I can get more specific information as to what exactly happens, I'll post an update here.
Thanks Rob. That second one was mostly an academic question because of how much downtime would ensue, but I was curious all the same. I'll probably be able to test it out myself at some point once I get this primary account free of any active devices. I'm glad there is a relatively painless way to switch around the billing closing day.
Something to consider. Since it is possible to change an email address associated with an account, would it be better to change the address on the account to a secondary address and create the new account with the primary address? If changed after would there be any collisions in the billing system? We do have primary official addresses and secondary not so important ones.
Please sign in to leave a comment.