It's not really the payment method that's key here, it's having a relationship with sales / account manager.

Right, but Hetzner also just doesn’t auto-charge you (from my experience, at least). You get invoiced and pay it manually (there’s a link in the invoice), then the invoice is settled immediately in your account panel. I’ve even been late once by forgetting about it and they didn’t cut me off in any way.

> Hetzner also just doesn’t auto-charge you (from my experience, at least).

I have my Hetzner account set up so they pull the money automatically (through SEPA Direct Debit). Not sure how it works with credit cards, but it's not like pull payments are not possible with Hetzner.

Ah, I see. I use PayPal and while PP supports payment agreements (I have that setup with a few sites), Hetzner insists I pay each invoice manually. Maybe just bank debit payments support "auto pulling".

Can we talk about how google monetizes (weaponizes) this sales relationship? They force it on you as "common sense" but it makes them A LOT of money.

Ultimately its as bad as car dealerships to require a special connection to get basic tasks completed.

Except finance.

At certain scale (in my case, 5 figures/mo spend with a vendor and up), paying upfront is not something finance usually likes and NET-60/NET-90 is the norm.

Actually, it was exactly finance in the case of one of my clients. "Dear Mr dvfjsdhgfv, we're receiving invoices from this Hetzner company for some ridiculously small amounts each month which adds to our overhead, could you kindly ask them to bill us yearly? Thanks!"

It's quite unfortunate that your parents decided to call you dvfjsdhgfv.

“Mr. Dvfjsdhgfv is my father. Please, call me Shcyahudd Dvfjsdhgfv”

Just passing feedback from my peers at the surveillance van: fantastic joke.

Of course they don't like it, but that's why CTOs and the likes should be talking about these things in management meetings and not just fairy dust future plans.

I'm not a blind fan of Hetzner and I'm aware of their limitations, but billing works extremely well for me, and they're very patient with me when I forget to pay an invoice (sending friendly reminders and not threatening to cut me off right away).

However, I remember a case when I was the culprit - spam was being sent from one of my servers (one of the users had a common username and password, something I should have never allowed) and Hetzner notified me immediately, but they didn't block the server in any way (something I'd expect). They gave me some window for explanation/solving the problem. I was very happy with how they handled the issue - but of course others may have had different experiences.

> billing works extremely well for me

I suppose billing works extremely well for most GCP customers as well.

As for me, I hosted a side project on Hetzner a few years back for some European presence. IIRC I used PayPal for payment and they didn't support PayPal recurring payment, so I had to settle an invoice each month. Used them for about two years without problem, then missed payment for two months during a chaotic period when I didn't notice their monthly invoice emails. I got exactly one email reminder about missed payment titled "Reminder" (yes, that's all, I got all their correspondence in front of me right now) before the final "Cancellation of Contract" email and termination of my account. At that point, politely pleading with them to reinstate the account was useless, I only got a threatening letter back demanding a wire transfer of the ~€60 I owed within three business days or risk being sent to collections.

Was I in the wrong? Sure. Were they friendly or patient? No.

Hetzner also has a customer service phone number that you can call. I've never seen anything like that from Google.

i was BANNED from hetzner when i forgot to Pay ( it has been almost 10 years ).at the time i offer to Pay any debts, but they said that i was not welcome anymore.