Free edition - Envelope allowance exceeded

Hi ​@deb92,

Thank you for reaching out to the Docusign Community.  

If you have confirmed that all the account details match those of your original account, and there are no payment methods linked to it in Settings>Plan and Billing, you may disregard the banner. Signing documents in eSignature will remain free of charge, only envelopes sent from your account will be deduced from your monthly quota.

Feel free to let us know if you need further assistance with this. 

Best regards,

Alejandro R. | Docusign Community Moderator  

Please click "Best Answer" below if you find my reply to be a valid solution to your issue!

Hi. I’m in the same situation as the person above. I signed in again and checked my settings - I only use it to sign and send documents about 3-4 times a year (usually about 5 documents each time). I was able to send three documents yesterday - the first time I’ve done this in six weeks - but when I went to send the fourth, it said ‘the envelope allowance for the account has been exceeded.’ I have tried again today, same message.

I have no idea what an envelope allowance is. How can I send my last two signed documents?

Dear Alejandro,

thank you for your reply.

As I said, I have a free account so no payment methods are linked to it.

As you suggested I tried to ignore the first banner, but I got another banner “Invalid envelope status. Envelope not yet sent”. So problem not solved...

There is no way to simply upload and sign the document, I need to create an envelope first and then check the box “I am the only signer”. This is the way I used Docusign so far, without any sort of problems (60 docs in the last 6 months).

In fact, in my homepage I cannot select “Sign a document” option, I only have a generic Start button that creates an envelope (and then I check I am the only signer)

Thank your for your help

Deb

Thank you, that option to create an envelope doesn’t appear when I click docusign on my documents.

Anyway, I have now seen I can sign  on Dropbox and I will use that instead.

Thanks again for replying

Hi ​@deb92,

Thank you for following up.

Since your account does not follow the default behavior expected from a free account in eSignature, the root cause of the issue might be related to how it is configured on the back end. Docusign Support can assist in confirming if this is true, or, help find the root cause of the issue otherwise. To help expedite the troubleshooting of the problem, please try collecting your user’s logs as described in the guide provided below, and then attach the resulting file as part of a new support case. To create a new support case, fill out the form provided, here:

https://support.docusign.com/en/contactSupport 

 API Request Logging

If you can’t open the case on the same page, you should scroll down to More Support Options and select "I can't reset my password or don't have an account.", you will be able to fill out the form. 

Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I will address them as soon as possible. 

Best regards,

Alejandro R. | Docusign Community Moderator  

Please click "Best Answer" below if you find my reply to be a valid solution to your issue!

Sorry that’s way too complicated when I can just sign elsewhere.

FYI the problem happened in the same session - I hadn’t logged out then gone back. I signed and sent three documents, then minutes later when I tried to do it with another document, it didn’t work.

Hi ​@kghk,

Thank you for reaching back.

I do apologize for any inconvenience caused by this unexpected behavior from eSignature. We will gladly help you correct the issue, if needed. Please don’t hesitate in continuing the troubleshooting process through a support case at your earliest convenience by filling out the form provided in my previous comment.

Best regards,

Alejandro R. | Docusign Community Moderator  

Please click "Best Answer" below if you find my reply to be a valid solution to your issue!

I attempted to create a support case by filling out the form. However, since I only have a free account, I cannot be helped. I received the following response:

Thank you for your interest in support from DocuSign. Please note that direct assistance from DocuSign Support is available to paid account users only. As a free account user, you can still access our wealth of self-service resources by visiting the Docusign Support Center at support.docusign.com. This page includes support articles, product documentation, video, chat, and access to additional resources such as Docusign Community and Docusign University.

 

You can also purchase a plan to access additional support services or review the additional resources below:

• View the Troubleshooting and Help page to find answers to our most common support inquiries. 

• Learn about your options with a free account.

• Read our FAQ for the DocuSign eSignature Free Trial. 

I am the exact same type of user as the original poster.   I use self-signing only and have been successfully doing so for over a year.  Then in the past week, I received the same “The envelope allowance for the account has been exceeded”.  I thought maybe I had too many saved completed envelopes, and purged my collection.  But that did not resolve it.  If DocuSign is eliminating this free service, that is certainly their right.  But it seems to be a bug that needs to be fixed, rather than an intentional limitation that has been added.  A resolution from DocuSign would be appreciated. 

​@LEI I think maybe there some policy change for the free account recently. many community users report this issue. It should not be related to the envelope you are keeping.

FreeLink/甫连信息

🌍 Docusign Partner | Partner Profile

🏆 Docusign 2024 APAC Reseller Growth Partner of the Year

🌟 The only Docusign Partner globally certified as both a Certified eSignature Administrator and eSignature Technical Consultant.

📊 Docusign Community Leaderboard Top 5 contributor.

🚀 Expertise in Docusign integrations with on-premises systems for leading enterprises across various industries.

I just explored Dropbox, and they allow unlimited self-signing with their free account.  As noted above by another user, free account holders with DocuSign can not submit a support case, or communicate with DocuSign in any way.  If a paid DocuSign subscriber of this community would be willing to report this issue, I’m sure all users of the free version would be grateful. Otherwise there will likely be a mass migration to Dropbox.  

Hi ​@LEI,

Thank you for making us aware of this issue.

If the account is not allowing you to sign documents, the issue must be related to the plan assigned to it on the application’s backend. Even though you can’t create a case for technical support by following the usual steps, there is the option of requesting Docusign Support to follow up on this issue by scrolling down to More Support Options in the case creation form and selecting "I can't reset my password or don't have an account.", you will be able to fill out the form there . 

You can refer the support agent to this post, for them to have a better context of the situation.

Best regards,

Alejandro R. | Docusign Community Moderator  

Please click "Best Answer" below if you find my reply to be a valid solution to your issue!

It looks like DocuSign fixed the problem (at least for me).  I am able to sign documents again as of this morning.  I offer my thanks to any and all who helped get this resolved.

Scratch that.  Turns out cookies logged me in with a work-around account I had used.  My account still gives the “envelope limit exceeded” message.  

I have the same issue. I’ve been using a free account to sign documents since 2020 with no issues. In the last couple of weeks, I get a banner saying I’ve reached the maximum number of envelopes. This makes absolutely no sense as I have never sent an envelope. Like the other posters, I reached out and got the generic “free accounts don’t get support” message. Thankfully, it looks like I can sign with Adobe Acrobat, so I’ll be using that instead. Also good to know that Dropbox is an option.

Has any one gotten this resolved? 
I am having the exact same issue. 
Checking before I switch to Dropbox tomorrow 

Docusign support gave me the same answer as everyone else and they will not help 

Even with a free account, it would have been nice to be told this change was coming or that this error was possible - I’m unsure which it is 

I haven’t even tried in a while, but I gave it a shot today, and it appears the issue is resolved.

For me, and some colleagues, the exact same issue has reappeared after it appeared the first time a few weeks ago and was gone for a brief period after.

Reviewing my settings, I can even see that I have used 0 of the 3 envelopes initially assigned to the free version account. Also, there has not been any change of policy notification, so this seems to clearly be a bug (I am not sure DocuSign is willing to resolve, given the duration of this thread?)

I’m in the same situation…

I guess this issue still hasn’t been resolved by DocuSign?