1&1.com hosting and shady policies

RoundBoy

I was looking for a new shared webhost in January, and after hearing mostly good reviews about 1&1.com, I went with them... specifically noting the '90 day refund' policy they have in place, because, frankly, many host just suck.

They had an offer at the time where if I paid for 6 months up front (@4.99 /month) they would discount it 50%. I took advantage of this offer, but i still ended up canceling in early march due to poor service.

.. then I get an invoice the other day for the next 6 months.

According to the customer service rep. I was in the special 50% offer plan, which is completely exempt from any money back offer, and is a 12 month term.

This is a complete shock to me, as I was specifically looking to avoid this.. and in *all* documentation I have on the signup page, welcome email, the 1&1 website etc, they expound very much on the 90 day return policy.

in fact, the rep needed to specifically point me to the 50% off Terms & conditions, as I couldn't find them normally.

My question is: What is my recourse?

I am a reasonable person, and I can maybe see that I missed it, although unlikely. It seems odd that I would have missed something like 'required 12 month term, no refunds' when i was specifically looking out for it.

I really have no desire to spend the cash on hosting I do not need or want. Any advice ?

supabeast

Have your credit card company block the charges and report One&One’s refusal to honor the refund policy as fraud to the Federal Trade Commission.

saint2e

It's quite common for limited time offers needing to be paid out in full. If it's in their Terms and Conditions, and you signed something on their website when signing up, I'm pretty sure you're sunk.

Djeet

How did you cancel in March? Did you contact them and ask them for a refund then (or the unused portion March thru June/July)? Was there a dialogue established when you cancelled that you can refer to?

It sounds like you have no real recourse (you could just refuse to pay, but they will likely ding your credit and send collections after you). When you initially signed-up, you probably had to sign a contract of some kind (click "Agree" to something). That contract had certain Terms & Conditions (including cancellation policy if extant). If the T&C the rep showed you were the ones you agreed to (usually its linked in tiny print that you'd have to scroll down to notice), then you're bound by that. They likely have an audit trail that logs on which page you clicked "Agree". Can you navigate to their site, bring up the deal you signed-up for and check the T&C on that?

Etelmik

1&1 did something like that to me, too. Maybe instead of sinking so much money into advertising they should spend it on giving a quality product and service.

Never take a promotion of any sort with 1&1, ever. Never ever.

RoundBoy

Well.. I paid up front for 6 months of service. i am now presented with a bill for my remaining 6 months.

When you cancel 1&1 .. you request it.. a link you must click is sent to your email. I clicked it, and a confirmation is sent to you. My cancellation was set to be made at the end of my term (i assumed the 6 months) ..

I can't speak with 100% reliability on what was shown on the signup page in january. but i am 100% sure that i would have NEVER agreed to a 12 month term with no refund available if I had seen it.

Links to the 90 refund policy do not mention any of these special conditions... this 50% thing is a completely seperate addition to the policy, and its held in a seperate document.

If you go through the motions to sign up now, you are presented with the 90 day T&C .. the 50% offer T&C is completely seperate from that... and at best, 1&1 is guilty of really hiding this fact from me.

Jasconius

It's in the fine print, you are going to have a hard time winning that battle.

I can sympathize, I have given 1&1 two chances, and they failed both times. Never going there again for hosting.

saint2e

They were pretty good when I got 3 years of free service way back in 2002. I'm still using them today. But then again I don't really use the service for much.

RoundBoy

I agree that the policy is in fine print somewhere.

The point being that they wave a bright pink 90 day refund flag in front of you, and send you one in the mail. But when they try and cancel, they tell you about this additional flag that you add on later. its been in a drawer the whole time.

i intend to dispute it, but I just wonder if anyone else is under the same impression I was. I fully stand by that the 50% policy was not made apparent or obvious.. but i would rather have a better leg to stand on then my memory.

Etelmik

If you dispute it, they'll do nothing for it. They only thing you can do with companies like 1&1 is to use an attorney.

You'll say you can't afford one, and that that's ridiculous. Which is why they operate that way.

Also, SBC sucks too.