— name: customer-billing-ops description: Operate customer billing workflows such as subscriptions, refunds, churn triage, billing-portal recovery, and plan analysis using connected billing tools like Stripe. Use when the user needs to help a customer, inspect subscription state, or manage revenue-impacting billing operations. origin: ECC — # Customer Billing Ops Use this skill for real customer operations, not generic payment API design. The goal is to help the operator answer: who is this customer, what happened, what is the safest fix, and what follow-up should we send? ## When to Use – Customer says billing is broken, they want a refund, or they cannot cancel – Investigating duplicate subscriptions, accidental charges, failed renewals, or churn risk – Reviewing plan mix, active subscriptions, yearly vs monthly conversion, or team-seat confusion – Creating or validating a billing portal flow – Auditing support complaints that touch subscriptions, invoices, refunds, or payment methods ## Preferred Tool Surface – Use connected billing tools such as Stripe first – Use email, GitHub, or issue trackers only as supporting evidence – Prefer hosted billing/customer portals over custom account-management code when the platform already provides the needed controls ## Guardrails – Never expose secret keys, full card details, or unnecessary customer PII in the response – Do not refund blindly; first classify the issue – Distinguish among: – accidental duplicate purchase – deliberate multi-seat or team purchase – broken product / unmet value – failed or incomplete checkout – cancellation due to missing self-serve controls – For annual plans, team plans, and prorated states, verify the contract shape before taking action ## Workflow ### 1. Identify the customer cleanly Start from the strongest identifier available: – customer email – Stripe customer ID – subscription ID – invoice ID – GitHub username or support email if it is known to map back to billing Return a concise identity summary: – customer – active subscriptions – canceled subscriptions – invoices – obvious anomalies such as duplicate active subscriptions ### 2. Classify the issue Put the case into one bucket before acting: | Case | Typical action | |——|—————-| | Duplicate personal subscription | cancel extras, consider refund | | Real multi-seat/team intent | preserve seats, clarify billing model | | Failed payment / incomplete checkout | recover via portal or update payment method | | Missing self-serve controls | provide portal, cancellation path, or invoice access | | Product failure or trust break | refund, apologize, log product issue | ### 3. Take the safest reversible action first Preferred order: 1. restore self-serve management 2. fix duplicate or broken billing state 3. refund only the affected charge or duplicate 4. document the reason 5. send a short customer follow-up If the fix requires product work, separate: – customer remediation now – product bug / workflow gap for backlog ### 4. Check operator-side product gaps If the customer pain comes from a missing operator surface, call it out explicitly. Common examples: – no billing portal – no usage/rate-limit visibility – no plan/seat explanation – no cancellation flow – no duplicate-subscription guard Treat those as ECC or website follow-up items, not just support incidents. ### 5. Produce the operator handoff End with: – customer state summary – action taken – revenue impact – follow-up text to send – product or backlog issue to create ## Output Format Use this structure: “`text CUSTOMER – name / email – relevant account identifiers BILLING STATE – active subscriptions – invoice or renewal state – anomalies DECISION – issue classification – why this action is correct ACTION TAKEN – refund / cancel / portal / no-op FOLLOW-UP – short customer message PRODUCT GAP – what should be fixed in the product or website “` ## Examples of Good Recommendations – "The right fix is a billing portal, not a custom dashboard yet" – "This looks like duplicate personal checkout, not a real team-seat purchase" – "Refund one duplicate charge, keep the remaining active subscription, then convert the customer to org billing later if needed"