FAQ: Declining a request to purchase SaaS

Q: What happens when a customer buys SaaS on Azure Marketplace and the provider decides they don't want to transact/sell to that customer (for whatever reason)? Given the action of a customer purchasing on Marketplace triggers a notification to the ISV to act, is it at the ISV's discretion to deliver on the purchase request and should they want to they could notify the purchaser their request to acquire their app was declined? 

 

I have transactable SaaS on Azure Marketplace, most transactions done via private offer but wanting to understand protections against customers going click to buy without consultation. 

 

A: The whole process has few steps for SaaS applications:

1. Customer subscribes to the ISV offering from Azure Marketplace, AppSource or Azure Portal
2. Customer enters information on the ISV portal linked to the marketplace offering
3. ISV needs to activate the subscription in their marketplace portal (backend) - this is the place where the ISV can contact the customer for more information and accept/decline the subscription

Nothing happens until the purchase is activated and this is completely under ISV control. If for some reason ISV activates the purchase and later discovers this was a mistake, they have to ask the customer to cancel.

 

The partner can also cancel the subscription from their end in the case they observe a mistake, but should probably communicate that to the customer in advance.