What problems is Chargebee solving and how is that benefiting you?
We approached chargebee with simple billing needs. We have clients that sign up for custom marketing packages that we have to invoice or charge a payment on file each month for the same amount until their package changes. Was told our needs were simple and easy to handle. Promised their system would be more efficient to setup and their system would save us time updating our clients payment methods when they expire or are updated, and that we could have more options on our payment processor. We were using Quickbooks Online, stuck with their payment processor and lacing simple things in QBO like the ability to retry payments through auto dunning etc. Sales team promised all simple tasks, and the ability to integrate with QBO and sync data etc.
Signed up on their started monthly plan. Discovered quickly everything was centered around subscriptions, no easy way to generate one off invoices, and couldn't even handle a simple task like setting up a recurring subscription that charged a client on the last day of the month in arrears for that month's services. Since we didn't have a limited set of "plans" and most of our customers had various items each client wold require a lot of manual work getting the pricing setup because everything is tied to subscriptions and plan pricing with limited options to customize.
Spent several days and countless hours trying to find workarounds to get it to work, but finally gave up. Took the time to share issues with their team, and no solutions just workarounds that required more manual effort.
Their pricing structure is based on ARR and gets expensive with overage charges if you have fewer clients that you need to bill higher amounts for.
If you run a gym or sell software subscriptions for low value and only offer a couple plans / prices and you want to bill in advance and have client prepay and don't need the ability to do a one off invoice then maybe their solution will fit. Otherwise, don't assume anything just because it's a well know billing solution.
To make matters worse, When I tried to part ways because I was tired of spending so much time and also realized their solution even if they could somehow address all of our issues, it would require more time and headache setting up and maintaining than we would ever save anywhere else, rather than respecting their solution wasn't a good fit for our needs within a week after we signed up they tried to claim we agreed to a 1 year term and are saying they are going to continue sending us invoices for the next 12 months.
I never signed a contract they claimed I agreed to those terms when I signed up which I never saw and regardless it just shows all they care about is getting you signed up and then trying to collect money without any accountability to provide a solution that works for your needs. I don't normally take the time to leave negative reviews, I believe in giving people grace but in this case I feel I need to because their billing actions are completely unacceptable and their service and support frankly leaves a lot to be desired especially for the price they charge.
Let this be a warning to all to look elsewhere. Or know 100% and have tested their solution to meet all your needs before signing up. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
