Hello, email their press office, press@1and1.co.uk one.com are also very similar how they try to stick you

In August 2009 I signed up for a domain account and hosting with one.com, for the domain name .net. I have never ever used the service due to the serious illness of my mother in law and looking after my wife who was not coping very well.

I called at first around the begging of June to say that I didnt want it to renew, they said to send an email which I did. I then called / used online chat again on 27th July to ask why it had not been cancelled and that I had got a reminder, the person appologised and said that they would cancel it and I got an email to say it would be cancelled.

Rewind on 1 month and I get an email saying they have charged be a fee, so instead of been £23.27 that its now £33.27 . Now we complain about the banks charging unfair fee's but what about one.com for anyone this can not be classed as a lawfull charge or in proportion to the claimed outstanding amount which I fully contest.

Previously I used to direct a company called ****Ltd, we had full access to nominets automation VIA pgp signing software, its all automated and no manual intervention is required unless chaning of a TAG is required.

One.com's attitude to the issue is tough, and that the balance is due and further charges will be added. They say that 35 days notice must be given to cancel the account, they dont take into account my previous request and threaten me with debt collectors. Not even SKY, mobile phone providers, landlords, credit cards, banks require any longer than 30 days to terminate a contract.

I have checked this morning with Nominet and they have not renewed anything. Looking on the internet, this company has done the same thing to other consumers they make it very hard to cancel to try and trap people. I would ask that you publish this story, consumers need to be aware of the underhand tricks.


Thank you for your time

They backed down

Here is a letter I have just sent to Trading Standards, UK. What a bunch of charlatans

Dear Trading Standards

I wish to complain about the unfair practices of 1&1internet, a registrar of domain names.

Their system is designed so that it is very difficult to cancel a domain name, which they then continue to charge for annually. I have already been charged for several years after I had ceased using a domain name.

This is because they use recurrent billing but fail to communicate to customers that their domain name is up for renewal. They may send emails out to email addresses that are no longer functioning because the domain name is no longer being used. They will not send out letters when there is no reply to the emails that are bounced back.

Here is a catalogue of some of the people who have been affected by their terrible practices and underhand tactics: http://www.grumbletext.co.uk/vt.php?t=1242

I run West Sussex Humanists on www.westsussexhumanists.org.uk. This domain name is registered with 1&1internet. I also have another domain name which I thought I had cancelled www.sussexideas.co.uk but which I have just been billed for again, without any prior warning.

1&1internet are threatening to freeze my www.westsussexhumanists.org.uk domain name unless I pay this bill for www.sussexideas.co.uk. They have also said they will add £15 debt recovery charge to the bill in 7 days.

I received an email from them to update my credit card details so that they could retrieve the disputed bill. The instructions told me to visit my 1&1 account. I did this only to find that www.sussexideas.co.uk is not contained in any of the packages listed on this account. I could only find an outstanding invoice. I am being charged for a package that does not exist. I have full details and copies of these website pages.

Please let me know how I can pursue this complaint.

Thanks

Andrew Edmondson