Webhosting Billing Query

[Deano_Deano]

Our business has webhosting with Webfusion and what with Christmas we didn't act on an email reminder stating that our hosting would expire in 6 weeks time knowing that we had to the 29th of Jan until we would be billed again. I phoned today to cancel requesting the annual contract was allowed to expire but was told I would have to write in giving them 30 days notice (this is stated in the terms so I guess our bad for not acting fast enough).

This means that we will be charged again for another years service (~£170 so not an insubstantial amount) of which we will not use any of it.

I appreciate I am stuck with the 30 days notice due to their contract but I just wished to confirm whether I had chance of getting a rebate on the remaining 11 months. For example if I cancel now I will pay for another year, the account and hosting will cease to exist from Feb but I am still paying for another 11 months for nothing?

Any advice or information much appreciated

Thanks!
Deano

[LivinLaVidaLotus]

Very much depends on the company in question, as they are making you stick to 30 days notice in writing, I'm guessing you don't stand any chance of getting a pro-rata refund from them either. TBH 30 days written notice for a standard hosting account is pretty harsh.

[timskipper]

In my opinion (speaking as director of a company which offers web hosting) they are taking the piss. It sounds to me like you're choosing to not take up an annual renewal, therefore your contract expires on the renewal date and a new one starts should you elect to renew.

Making you say before the end of the 11th month that you don't want to continue doing business with them is very wrong IMO.

Ask them if they've heard there's a recession on and this kind of thing isn't good for future business!

Do not pay them, and cancel any DD/STO arrangement you have. If they bill your credit card, just issue a charge back.

[miniman]

timskipper said:

In my opinion (speaking as director of a company which offers web hosting) they are taking the piss. It sounds to me like you're choosing to not take up an annual renewal, therefore your contract expires on the renewal date and a new one starts should you elect to renew.

Making you say before the end of the 11th month that you don't want to continue doing business with them is very wrong IMO.

Ask them if they've heard there's a recession on and this kind of thing isn't good for future business!

Do not pay them, and cancel any DD/STO arrangement you have. If they bill your credit card, just issue a charge back.

In my opinion (speaking as COO of a company which offers web hosting) they are not taking the piss, but they are somewhat foolish to be dicks about it. Look at it from the other point of view - we often make every effort to contact clients when their agreement is about to end and it is a fairly regular occurrence for there to be no response whatsoever, despite repeated emails, letters and phone calls. One option is to pull the site on the day that the agreement expires. In which case the client would be on the phone within seconds pissy about the disappearance of their website. So in this case they have kept your service active despite no payment (if I read it correctly), and seek to hold you to the terms of the agreement. If it was me, I would bill you purely for the period that the hosting was in use, perhaps with a small admin charge. But although they are probably being a bit bloody-minded about it, I don't think they are being entirely unreasonable.

[timskipper]

miniman said:

So in this case they have kept your service active despite no payment (if I read it correctly), and seek to hold you to the terms of the agreement.

You didn't read it correctly. His original contract does not expire until Jan 29th, which he should be perfectly entitled to not renew. IMO, they are taking the piss.

[Deano_Deano]

Hi guys,

Tried to reply last night but as soon as I finished the site went down for maintenance.

Cheers for all the replies. Timskipper is correct, our contract doesn't run out until the 29th so we are still within our paid-up years hosting. The issue I see with Webfusion's practises is that effectively you only have a 5 day window, every year to get our of your contact if you want to get the most from it (i.e what you paid for). I was told it can't be allowed to expire so you can't cancel early if you want to get you get your full 12 months out them, only in the time window given.

Searching the net I found a page detailing (a lot of) people with the same problems http://www.mattbrindley.com/misc/webfusion-an-exam... the bottom few have identical issues to us.

I was even denied the right to talk to anyone in the company other than the first line customer services guy so after this and reading other peoples experiences I have made sure they won't be receiving payment and I'll be pulling any additional business I have with them.

Cheers again for all the responses.

[miniman]

timskipper said:

miniman said:

So in this case they have kept your service active despite no payment (if I read it correctly), and seek to hold you to the terms of the agreement.

You didn't read it correctly. His original contract does not expire until Jan 29th, which he should be perfectly entitled to not renew. IMO, they are taking the piss.

In my defence, I'd had quite a lot of Sauvignon Blanc at the time. I still maintain that although they are enforcing quite a dubious rule, it's a rule nonetheless and they are within their rights to enforce it.

[timskipper]

miniman said:

timskipper said:

miniman said:

So in this case they have kept your service active despite no payment (if I read it correctly), and seek to hold you to the terms of the agreement.

You didn't read it correctly. His original contract does not expire until Jan 29th, which he should be perfectly entitled to not renew. IMO, they are taking the piss.

In my defence, I'd had quite a lot of Sauvignon Blanc at the time. I still maintain that although they are enforcing quite a dubious rule, it's a rule nonetheless and they are within their rights to enforce it.

I bet trading standards would have something to say about that!

[LivinLaVidaLotus]

miniman said:

timskipper said:

miniman said:

So in this case they have kept your service active despite no payment (if I read it correctly), and seek to hold you to the terms of the agreement.

You didn't read it correctly. His original contract does not expire until Jan 29th, which he should be perfectly entitled to not renew. IMO, they are taking the piss.

In my defence, I'd had quite a lot of Sauvignon Blanc at the time. I still maintain that although they are enforcing quite a dubious rule, it's a rule nonetheless and they are within their rights to enforce it.

Actually it could well fall foul of unfair terms and conditions and be un-enforceable. It also depends if we're talking about a B2C or B2B contract as well to some extent.

[miniman]

The time to disagree with what you are signing up for is before you sign up for it.

[jacobyte]

miniman said:

The time to disagree with what you are signing up for is before you sign up for it.

OP: Clearly you won't be using their services, but you signed an agreement and accepted the terms. Try to negotiate with them; if they are a decent firm and you have always kept your account in good order, they should be flexible and give you, say, 50% off.

[LivinLaVidaLotus]

miniman said:

The time to disagree with what you are signing up for is before you sign up for it.

Not always, a great many people have no idea that there can be such a thing as "unfair terms and conditions" imposed upon them - Especially if they are a consumer, they just take it that they are going to be treated fairly (not a wise assumption).

If you've got a 5 day period out of 365 days in which you can cancel without a) Loosing time that you've paid for and b) rolling in to another 12 month agreement, then I'd hazard most would consider that unfair and unduly biased in the companies favour.

As others have suggested, if you really are that unhappy about it, get some proper advice (be it from CAB or a solicitor) and take it from there.

[miniman]

LivinLaVidaLotus said:

If you've got a 5 day period out of 365 days in which you can cancel without a) Loosing time that you've paid for and b) rolling in to another 12 month agreement, then I'd hazard most would consider that unfair and unduly biased in the companies favour.

I really don't understand this "5 day period" thing - you have to give 30 days notice, so give notice 30 days before the end of the agreement, surely? What am I missing?