protected WsResult genericRequest(String url,
                                      Map<String, String> params,
                                      Set<String> returnValues) throws Exception {
        WsResult result = null;
        HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
        PostMethod post = new PostMethod(url);
        Set<NameValuePair> data = new LinkedHashSet<NameValuePair>();

        if (logger.isDebugEnabled()) {
            logger.debug(url);
        }


        for (Map.Entry<String, String> e: params.entrySet()) {
            data.add(new NameValuePair(e.getKey(), e.getValue()));
            logger.debug("{} - {}", e.getKey(), e.getValue());
        }

        post.addRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8");
        post.setRequestBody((NameValuePair[]) data.toArray(new NameValuePair[0]));

        try {

            client.getHttpConnectionManager().getParams().setConnectionTimeout(5000);
            //client.getParams().setSoTimeout(4000);

            int statusCode = client.executeMethod(post);

            if (statusCode != HttpStatus.SC_OK) {
                throw new Exception("got non 200 status code from billing: " + statusCode);
            }

            String httpRes = post.getResponseBodyAsString();

            logger.debug(httpRes);
            result = parseResult(httpRes, returnValues);
        }catch (ConnectTimeoutException e) {
            throw e;
        }catch (Exception e) {
            logger.error(e.getMessage());
            result = new WsResult(-2, "bad request to billing", null);
        } finally {
            post.releaseConnection();
        }

        return result != null ? result : new WsResult();
    }