Unexpected High Charge for Microsoft Azure Standard Plan - Seeking Refund

Question

Hello,

I am seeking assistance regarding an unexpected and significantly high charge that I recently incurred on my Microsoft Azure account.

Issue Description:

• Date of Charge: 7th June
• Invoice Date: 9th June
• Initial Plan Selected: Standard Plan
• Initial Expected Charge: €26
• Unexpected Charge: €670

Details:

I signed up for a bot service on Microsoft Azure and chose the Standard Plan, which was indicated to cost €26. I followed the provided tutorials to set up and use the service. However, I found the interface unclear and did not achieve the expected results as shown in the tutorials. Consequently, I stopped using the service.

To my shock, I discovered a charge of €670 on my account dated 7th June, which was invoiced on 9th June. This amount was far beyond what I anticipated. The pricing and plan information I relied on did not indicate any possibility of such a high charge. I have attempted to resolve this issue by contacting Azure support and the publisher of the bot service, but I have not received a satisfactory response or resolution.

Steps Taken:

Followed Tutorials: Attempted to use the service following the tutorials on 2nd May. Signed Up: Chose the Standard Plan based on the available information (€26) in Plans and Pricing section of the bot service Following tutorials found the interface unclear and did not achieve the expected results. Stopped Using Service: Discontinued use after not achieving the expected results, on 2nd May. Charge of 670 euro taken from account on 7th June, before invoicing. Contacted Support: Reached out to both Azure support and the publisher with no satisfactory resolution.

Supporting Evidence:

Screenshots of the plan and pricing information. Records of my attempts to use the service (steps followed in tutorials). Correspondence with both Microsoft Azure support and the publisher.

Request:

Given the lack of clarity in the pricing information and the absence of satisfactory support, I believe this charge is unauthorised. I am requesting a refund for the €670 charge.

I appreciate any assistance or guidance you can provide in resolving this matter.

Thank you.

Attachments:

Screenshots of the plan and pricing information:

Records of attempts to use the service:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/bot-service/bot-service-quickstart-create-bot?view=azure-bot-service-4.0&tabs=csharp%2Cvs

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/bot-service/abs-quickstart?view=azure-bot-service-4.0&source=recommendations&tabs=userassigned

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/bot-service/abs-quickstart?view=azure-bot-service-4.0&source=recommendations&tabs=userassigned

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/bot-service/bot-service-debug-emulator?view=azure-bot-service-4.0&tabs=java

https://portal.azure.com/#create/Microsoft.AzureBot

https://community.openai.com/t/how-can-i-get-free-trial-credits/26742

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/ai-services/ai-bot-service/

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-services/qnamaker/tutorials/create-faq-bot-with-azure-bot-service

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk4hAIWKAPU&t=1415s

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/free/

Correspondence with Microsoft Azure support and the publisher.

Supplied on request. 

Answer 1

Hello Unauthorised Charge, the charges that you have received are inline with the pricing information published for the specific offer that you've tried to create. Based on your screenshot, I searched the Azure portal/Azure marketplace for the offer that you've tried to create and it clearly mentions that the prices START at $600/month. See the below screenshot.

Additionally, when I click inside the offer and tried to select the Standard plan, it asks to create additional GPT token capacity, embeddings capacity which further add to the cost. Even setting these values to the lowest minimum of 1 (which you probably won't do for an actual production scenario as you would likely need more) gets the cost to a minimum of the listed $600/month. In your case, you probably would have set a higher number for the token and embedded capacity thus adding more to your cost. See the screenshot below.

So, your understanding of the "expected" charge itself is incorrect. The bare minimum charge that you should have expected is the one slightly above the list price (due to the additional charge for the OpenAI components listed as part of the offer).

Please do not forget to "Accept the answer” and “up-vote” wherever the information provided helps you, this can be beneficial to other community members.

Answer 2

Hello @Unauthorised Charge

Thanks for reaching out to us, I am sorry to hear your experience. For billing issue, we can not investigate and do any action like refund here to protect your privacy.

Please feel free to raise a support ticket here - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/create-ticket/

Billing and subscription management support is available to all Azure customers.

There will be a support engineer who can help you go through the details of your billing and help you fix it.

Once created, please share the ticket number to us. Thanks!

I hope this helps.

Regards, Yutong

-Please kindly accept the answer if you feel helpful to support the community, thanks a lot.