[arin-discuss] ARIN billing practice

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

Owen DeLong wrote:
> 
> On Sep 21, 2009, at 1:33 PM, David Farmer wrote:
> 
>> On 21 Sep 2009 Owen DeLong wrote:
>>
>>> What about a policy that covers the situation of repeated receipt and
>>> reclamation? For example:
>>>
>>> 1.    Standard process applies the first time you get address space
>>>     as it does today.
>>>
>>> 2.    You return the space or fail to pay your bill.
>>>
>>> 3.    You come back for a second round of addresses on a new "initial"
>>>     application. Based on your history, you are expected to front a 
>>> deposit
>>>     for your next two years renewal as well, 50% of which is refundable
>>>     if you return your space at the end of the first year. (In other 
>>> words,
>>>     you pay 3 years up front, if you only use 1, you get 1 back, 
>>> costs you
>>>     two.)  If you use for more than a year, the deposit is forfeit, but,
>>> you don't
>>>     owe fees until you begin your fourth year of utilization.
>>
>> Refunds can create accounting issues, they may be
>> considered future liabilities and need to be carried on the
>> books until the second year of registration is started.  I'm not
>> an accountant so I don't know all the details.  But I know
>> accountants don't like refunds, especially ones built-in to a
>> process.  I suspect this is why ARIN has no refunds written into
>> their current contracts.  So I would suggest going with a non-
>> refundable charge even at this step.
>>
> I didn't want the policy to be punitive to organizations that may
> be legitimate, but, go out of business in a year or whatever.
> 

The problem is this is 10 times worse if the org goes out of business.

If a company goes out of business, and has a refund due, what the
company (ARIN in this case) has to do with a refund is governed by
(at least in the United States) the laws of the state the company is
in.  In California, I think the requirement is ARIN would have to take
out a newspaper advert, then turn the money over to the state dept.
of unclaimed funds.  There's specific times and dates that have to be
observed.  This is going to be different for most states.  And that's
just in the US.  I hate to think of all of the other conflicting
regulations on unclaimed funds in other jurisdictions.

Ted