## 🔍 Overview

Some customers who reduced their number of active OTTO SEO sites experienced a known billing issue where the platform continued charging for the previous (higher) site count, or the self-service downgrade returned an error. This article explains what caused the problem, what you can expect in terms of corrections and refunds, and how to get help if the issue persists.



## ⚙️ What Caused This Issue

Several related engineering issues have now been resolved on the platform side. The root causes included:

- OTTO site top-up add-ons not being correctly deactivated when a plan was downgraded, leaving stale records that blocked the downgrade.
- Legacy billing accounts being charged at an incorrect rate or receiving duplicate billing events after a quota change.
- A self-service downgrade error that prevented customers from reducing their OTTO site allocation manually.

All of these issues have been marked as resolved by the engineering team. If you attempted a downgrade during the affected period and it did not go through correctly, your quota and billing should now reflect the correct number of sites.



## ✅ How to Confirm Your OTTO Site Quota Is Correct

1. Log in to your Search Atlas account and navigate to the OTTO SEO section of the platform.
2. Check that the number of active OTTO sites shown matches the plan or allocation you intended to keep.
3. If the number displayed is higher than expected — for example, showing a previous or inflated count — do not attempt to reprocess the downgrade multiple times, as repeated attempts may compound the error.

## 💳 Understanding Refund Eligibility

If you were overbilled because of this issue, here is how refunds are typically handled:

- **Recent charges (within 72 hours of the billing event):** A full cash refund to your original payment method can be requested. For example, charges such as the $69 OTTO sites add-on fee are eligible for direct refund within this window.
- **Older charges (outside the 72-hour window):** A direct cash refund may not be possible, but the support team can offer an equivalent amount as account credit (HDC/account credit) applied to your Search Atlas account. This credit can be used against future billing.

Refunds and credits are processed manually by the support team after they verify the billing discrepancy on your account. They will also deactivate any incorrect add-ons or top-ups that were applied in error.



## 🚀 Steps to Take If You Are Still Being Billed Incorrectly

1. Log in to your Search Atlas account and check your current OTTO site count in the OTTO SEO section to confirm whether the quota is still showing incorrectly.
2. Review your most recent billing statements to identify the specific charge amounts and dates affected.
3. Contact the support team through the chat widget (see below) with the following information ready: the number of OTTO sites