Over the past year, Microsoft has taken ~ $1000 from my bank account for an Azure evaluation. I did not see the charges until my the card with which I subscribed expired. This month, they somehow managed to get 4 months worth of "bills" at once taken from my account, even though the card they had on file expired. My expectation was a pay for use model. I have not used the platform since my evaluation last year. They say that I have compute time charges. For what? I did not touch the abandoned instance! Can anyone help me here? Support has called me a liar and said that since my compute time fluctuated, I was obviously using Azure. Are you kidding me?I am trying to fight by using the bank because MS will not help. How can this be happening with Microsoft? I used to consider you a partner, and now what am I to think? I have always encouraged my customers to use your products and use them legally, even when your OS and other products used to float around virtually for free. How many times have I gone into businesses and said, "first things first, let's get you compliant." I suppose this is my thank you?

BTW, Azure support said that they would follow up last week. They have not sent an email with a case number, as promised. Last week, they somehow managed to charge my account on an expired card! The bank says that it was done using ACH, which is not something I have given them authorization to do, nor have I ever given them my account number/routing number. $400 additional dollars on top of the 6 months I was charged without knowing. 

Hi,

I understand you, but like you said, "abandoned instance"

That instance was deployed and costing them money at datacenter level. Azure it's pay per use, if you go to the doctor you'll pay, if you use Azure you'll pay.

I think you have no reason to call it scam, you owe them the money, regardles the credit card was expired or not. You have used the service haven't you?

Peoples just click next and next and next.... without reading....

I think they should help you, but I also think they are right.

Regards

Heath,

Going by your mail, looks like you're referring to compute instance charges.

If you noticed during subscription (or later), Azure billing policy for compute instances has always been the same - you pay unless you delete your instance. Even if you didnt use it!

When you say 'Abandoned', I presume you meant you didnt touch it! But, the instance was still alive?

"Compute time fluctuated" - not sure I understood that. I have a couple of small instances running for around 15 months now - I notice fluctuations only when billing occassionally bills me for 32 days in a month :) I noticed small errors and customer support had waived them too!

Agreed that it is a bit of a bother to go online to download the invoice each month and scan through 50+ pages of details, but, when I reveal my credit card number to a partner, I owe myself that little pain!

if your past invoices can show that the data inbound, outbound were all zeroes for the entire period (plus, similar zeroes on blobs / other storage), you can convince yourself and customer service that you didnt 'use' your instance. But, not sure if that would help you to get your money back.

Best wishes,

kk

• Proposed as answer by Vitor Tomaz Thursday, December 22, 2011 9:36 AM

Heath,

Going by your mail, looks like you're referring to compute instance charges.

If you noticed during subscription (or later), Azure billing policy for compute instances has always been the same - you pay unless you delete your instance. Even if you didnt use it!

When you say 'Abandoned', I presume you meant you didnt touch it! But, the instance was still alive?

"Compute time fluctuated" - not sure I understood that. I have a couple of small instances running for around 15 months now - I notice fluctuations only when billing occassionally bills me for 32 days in a month :) I noticed small errors and customer support had waived them too!

Agreed that it is a bit of a bother to go online to download the invoice each month and scan through 50+ pages of details, but, when I reveal my credit card number to a partner, I owe myself that little pain!

if your past invoices can show that the data inbound, outbound were all zeroes for the entire period (plus, similar zeroes on blobs / other storage), you can convince yourself and customer service that you didnt 'use' your instance. But, not sure if that would help you to get your money back.

Best wishes,

kk

• Proposed as answer by Vitor Tomaz Thursday, December 22, 2011 9:36 AM

Well, they just charged me another $71 dollars today.  Expired card, wrong security code, but they got their money.

I am fighting this through my bank. It is all I can do. Microsoft did not open a case for me, and still no email. I guess I will have to call again and talk to yet another person who will tell me that since my compute time fluctuated, I was using Azure.

Im am sorry, but this is a scam. I, along with hundreds of others, did not know that idle time would cost $100 per month. I was my responsibility to watch my bank account more closely, I will agree. And for the charges where they had legitimate card info (July through December 2010), I accept the charges. Fine. But in 2011, they did not have valid info, and I obviously had no intent to keep my instance alive. No usage, and no inquiry on why my instance was deactivated.

Just do a search guys. This happened to hundreds of people, if not thousands. We all misread or misinterpreted the terms. If I had known that this instance would cost me $5 a month, I would have never signed up for the trial. The way I read the terms, it was a pay for use model, meaning band width and processor load. Compute time? This is a term I had never heard until I looked at my bills for this. Compute time? Really? What is it that is being computed with no requests?

My bandwidth usage was .00000035 of a mb or something like that.

To say that I am disappointed in the response from MS is an understatement.  I have a project that I am developing right now, and it kills me to use .net. I think that this will be the last project. Had it not started before I knew about this, I would use another technology.

Same thing is happening to me and I did NOT use anything on Azure.  I contacted Azure billing and was told that my "subscription" was free , yet, I was charged.  Yes this IS a SCAM.