What Happens When the Soft Limit is Exceeded?
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Many times we get the question, “What happens when you go over our monthly limit?”
Soft Limit Policy
Our soft limit policy is intended to give customers flexibility when usage is unexpectedly higher than usual.
We ask customers to upgrade or chat with us to help diagnose why the account bandwidth or request usage was higher than expected.
What’s That Mean?
We know sometimes it’s hard to know how many requests you’ll have when you’re setting up, debugging, and getting our two systems integrated.
Many times demand is driven by website visitors, and a positive increase in website visitors can cause an unexpected increase in requests.
Additionally, bugs pop up sometimes that cause unexpected spikes in usage.
All of these situations can cause a spike in usage before you even realize it.
We don’t want success, bugs, or the discovery phase of your usage to ever cause your applications to suddenly stop.
That’s why we practice the soft limit policy.
We’re humans behind the system and we do our best to treat you like a human too.
What Happens As We Reach Our Limit?
We send usage warning emails as subscriptions approach their limits, beginning around 80% usage. However, usage can increase quickly and may reach 100% before your team sees or acts on a warning.
Notifications do not guarantee advance notice before suspension, a grace period, or continued soft-limit eligibility.
Keep your notification contacts current and ensure those addresses are actively monitored. Check your usage regularly and upgrade before reaching your plan’s limits if you need additional capacity.
Many times we can help debug why the spike occurred or discuss an appropriate plan for a temporary increase in usage.
Basically, our goal is to allow customers the flexibility to experiment, grow, and work on their business.
We just ask that, if that happens, you get in touch and work out the best way to go forward.
When Suspension Becomes Necessary
The soft limit is a courtesy. If usage continues climbing well beyond your paid plan and you have not responded to our emails, we reserve the right to suspend the service until the situation is resolved.
When reviewing an account, our team considers how far usage is above the paid plan, whether usage is still climbing, whether we have heard from you, and whether this has happened before.
An account that spiked once and went quiet for a day looks very different from an account that has been climbing for two weeks while ignoring four emails.
Please reply to our emails so we can work on an appropriate plan together. Even a short response is enough to keep the conversation going while we sort out the right plan.
Soft limits are a discretionary courtesy
QuotaGuard may allow eligible subscriptions to temporarily exceed their plan’s included usage as a courtesy. This allowance is discretionary, is not guaranteed, and may be reduced or withdrawn at any time. Receiving an allowance once does not guarantee continued eligibility or additional capacity in the future.
Customers remain responsible for monitoring usage and choosing a plan that meets their needs. Do not rely on soft limits to keep your application running beyond your plan’s included allowance. If soft-limit eligibility is unavailable or withdrawn, service may be suspended when the plan’s usage limit is reached.
Please note that repeated months of going over your paid limits, not responding to our requests to upgrade, and any other obvious abuse of this policy may result in QuotaGuard pausing of your account immediately until the appropriate upgrades take place.
To avoid this situation, we encourage you to always reach out to us and help us understand your particular situation so we can work out an appropriate plan going forward.
If you expect a temporary increase or seasonal change in usage, contact us to discuss an appropriate plan. We’re happy to help, but contacting support or receiving a courtesy allowance does not guarantee uninterrupted service beyond your included limits.
Hopefully that clears everything up, but if you have any more questions about our Soft Limit policy, please contact us at Support.