Billing issues with a collaborator

[UF_Preceptorshi]

I accidentally added a collaborator to my account. I didn’t realize that I would be billed again for inviting a colleague to join Airtable and be a collaborator on my account. Is it possible to speak to someone at Airtable about this charge? Can we remove the collaborator and get a refund or a partial refund since I really don’t want a collaborator for the workspace?

Thank you,

Wendi

[kuovonne]

Welcome to the Airtable community!

Billing is usually pro-rated for the amount of time the person has access to your base.

If this was a mistake, you can contact support and explain the situation. They are usually helpful.

[Bill_French]

UF_Preceptorship:

I didn’t realize that I would be billed again for inviting a colleague to join Airtable and be a collaborator on my account.

I always debate this with Airtable (contact support directly) because it is sort’a like double-dipping. They are always accommodating and gracious to reverse the changes (my experience thus far).

When a client adds me to their account, they pay for my account and I also pay for my pro account. Makes no sense and I think it was the premise for the movie The Firm where a client complains about billing for several hours of extra fees, Mitch (Cruz) realizes that mailing clients these padded bills is mail fraud, exposing the firm to RICO charges.

I’m not accusing anyone of anything here - it just seems nutty to charge a customer for another customer’s involvement to help that customer. Airtable should be thrilled you can find help, but they shouldn’t double charge when you invite help into your account. Different story if that new helper needs an account to begin with.

[Bill_French]

kuovonne:

Billing is usually pro-rated for the amount of time the person has access to your base.

This suggests you are entirely comfortable with paying additional fees for the right to access bases, and not for a specific account. So which is it - are we paying for an account? Or are we paying for base access? I’m confused.

[UF_Preceptorshi]

Hi Bill, as I’m researching this, I got an email from Airtable Support saying they would gladly refund me since I deleted the collaborator I didn’t need. I’m going to look through the payment details to see what I missed because clearly I missed something :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Wendi

[UF_Preceptorshi]

Thank you, Kuovone. I just received an email from Airtable Support saying they will refund me since we deleted the unneeded user. Woo hoo!

[Bill_French]

UF_Preceptorship:

they would gladly refund me since I deleted the collaborator

And that is still wrong. If company (x) needs to work with collaborator (y) and collaborator (y) already has a paid account, why should company (x) have to pay anything?

Imagine I know how to fix (x) and 200 Airtable customers invite me into their base to fix (x) and stay around to optimize (y) and (z) over the next year. Airtable will realize 201 times the revenue for just me.

This is nutty and I’ll continue to think that until someone can give me a good reason that this makes any economic sense for anyone except Airtable’s shareholders. :winking_face:

[UF_Preceptorshi]

But my collaborator didn’t have an account, paid or otherwise, when I added him. So, that part is null and void.

[kuovonne]

Bill.French:

So which is it - are we paying for an account? Or are we paying for base access? I’m confused.

I think we pay for base/workspace access, not an account. An account itself is free.

[Bill_French]

kuovonne:

I think we pay for base/workspace access, not an account.

But free accounts include access to vastly unlimited bases, right? And paid accounts are the same. If we invite a user to access a table, they must have an account, right? Ergo, we pay for accounts that give us access to bases.

If we invite a user with account to engage in activities that require a paid account, they must pay. If we invite them to work on another base in a second workspace, must they have two paid accounts?

If workspace owners complain that a consultant was added to their billing level who already has a Pro account, Airtable kindly removes that charge and the consultant is still able to access the workspace and shared bases. That said, is this not validation that there’s something wrong with the billing mechanism and model?

Still confused.