Runaway query has left us with a $20k invoice

Question

Hi,

We've been using your API for the last few months to get a few queries around Netflix. We're looking to utilize the service more and purchase a bigger package, but it looks like a job one of developers wrote did a large number of queries more than we were expecting. We were expecting to run around 2000 queries against the API endpoint at a cost to us of around $200 but the bill has just popped up as $20,000.

As you can imagine, this is completely outside our budget.

Can you please check into this and amend the bill, as we have to cancel this transaction.

Thanks and regards,

Richard Brindley
CTO, Itcher.

Admin · Answer

Actually the reason that I am using mashape is so I don't have to monitor the traffic that closely.  I give them 10% and I don't have to worry about anything but keeping the api running.  

As you can imagine setting up my own specific monitoring and limiting would almost put me in a position where I could cut out the middle man but at the moment I do not have the time or inclination to sort it out.  

That being said, if I look at the overall numbers for the 1st-3rd of October they do match up with what mashape is saying.  

Regards

Richard Brindley · Answer

Before I do that, can you please check the logs at your end and validate the absolute numbers of API queries we've made over the last couple of weeks? I just want to make sure the reporting is accurate at Mashape's side because we'll need to implement our own rate limiting to make sure we never hit an overage situation. Is it also possible to set up at your end so overages are completely denied and therefore non-chargeable to make sure we don't have this kind of issue in the future?

Thanks :-)

Admin · Answer

that sounds like a very generous offer.... 

Please email support@mashape.com letting them know that I have approved this arrangement.  

Email me at admin@unogs.com if they give you any trouble.

Kind Regards

Richard Brindley · Answer

Well your top package is $50 a month for 5,000 calls a day, which would be 150,000 calls a month. So if we've made 200,000 API calls (which I can't see us having done) then with a subscription package over 2 months we would only have spent $100. We'd like to continue to use your service, and we're happy to pay the $50 a month subscription charge, and we're happy to pay a "bit" of overage charge for this month, but the overage charge as-is is is extortionate and unjustifiable. You can see that we've never exceeded the "basic" package while we've been developing. I'm happy to effectively back-date the $50 a month maximum package for the last 4 months and pay $200 for this one-off issue, then subscribe to the $50 a month package going forward.

Admin · Answer

How much do you think is fair? 
As this error was on your side I won't forgive it outright, but I agree that $20,000 is a bit unreasonable.

uNoGS

9.8 / 10

936ms

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Runaway query has left us with a $20k invoice