Fasthosts: A Customer Journey

I Never Did Say What I Do For A Living...

But I'm happy to report that I will be participating in a project that includes the evaluation of webhosting services provided to the UK public sector...

Sometimes life is so sweet...

Fasthosts Terms and Conditions

Fasthosts are rip-off artists. On this weblog are close to 1,000 consumer complaints about their predatory practices. Do not use this firm.

What Are The Wages Of Theft?

How much does Fasthosts and its parent company make from stealing from you and me?

"

United Internet: Preliminary figures with record levels for sales, earnings and customer contracts. Earnings per share up more than 52%.

Montabaur, March 11, 2008. The Management Board of United Internet AG today announced the Group´s preliminary, unaudited results according to IFRS for the fiscal year 2007. The figures reveal further record levels of sales, earnings and customer contracts.

According to preliminary figures, consolidated sales of United Internet AG grew by 26.7 percent in fiscal year 2007 to EUR 1,487.4 million (prior year: EUR 1,174.1 million). Preliminary earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) improved by 39.6 percent, from EUR 221.2 million (prior-year figure) to EUR 308.8 million. Preliminary earnings before taxes (EBT) rose by 36.9 percent, from EUR 171.3 million (prior-year figure) to EUR 234.5 million. EBT includes various non-recurring items with a net positive effect of EUR 2 million. According to preliminary calculations, earnings per share (EPS) improved by 52.4 percent, from 42 cents to 64 cents per share. Including discontinued operations, EPS rose to 93 cents. "

This is How Fasthosts Chooses To Make Its Money

Leading result from Google search for Fasthosts, posted on ZDNet April 3 2008

Fasthosts rip off

"I thought I was alone with my dissatisfaction of the "pirate hosting company called FASTHOSTS but it appears not.
I joined Fasthosts hosting company many years ago and used to recommend them to many mates and others because the where British and at the time their support was great .
BUT NOW ---->>>
Utter and total rubbish , not only do they lie to you about the cost of changing servers they also take weeks to answer an email pleading them for an answer about why your website is down , and when asked if a paticular piece of software is on their servers to enable me to down/up -load some of my site modules they just reply saying "don't support that module " nothing about the software to install it .
SO IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS =====>>>
I told them to refund the money they conned out of me for the server change and to stick their hosting plans .
Lo and behold they stole money out of my bank account AGAIN before issuing an invoice and then said we don't do refunds when I requested my money back AGAIN !"

I couldn't have said it better myself.

The Good, The Bad... and Fasthosts

From The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of webhosts:

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of web hosting.
The UK hosts I've used over the last few years span the commonest range of methods of hosting sites at a minimum cost, culminating in an eighteen month nightmare association with Fasthosts (.co.uk) which ultimately taught us what to look for in a competent supplier. Thanks and credit must go to : Matt, Alex, Rob and Enigma for extra info and link updates. Fasthosts (Bad, but not as ugly as birkenhead.net.) Appalling commercial host in all respects. Offered a lot of features for very little cost. ASP, Coldfusion, Perl, unlimited everthing for (then) £300. They became an ongoing subject of web developement newsgroups and forums, with some rival companies gaining new accounts by offering "Special deals for ex-Fasthosts customers". Truly a laughing stock amongst web developers, network technicians in general and NT administrators in particular. They get more than just a mention on the alt.www.webmaster's "Web Hosts That Suck" list. In their termination email they sent us the KAK virus, which ironically is an old script kiddie virus, well known, well documented, and easy to protect against. If this email was an accident then at that time they were running their own email system with no virus protection whatsoever, and still are not, as the problem has occurred again, with the same, but by now much older KAK script. A Fasthosts forum is being maintained at SiteOnSite (registration required), where you will find current information on their Russian credit card fraud and recurring email virus situations, and recently a devastating report on a major security flaw reported by Daniel Sim. If you don't want to register here's a copy of my initial contribution. Further information involving Fasthosts' credit card security problems can be found at The Register and in this follow up article. The Register also has further details of the May 2001 Fasthosts vs BT outage dispute, and Google's Deja News search results now reveal a variety of discussions on the company. ...And finally (?): Here's one of the funniest Fasthosts excuses I've come across since we left. ...And sadly, you've been lucky. There's something even worse than Fasthosts in store for some web new-comers, the newer, the better. Some haven't even got computers yet?

This Is So Last Month, but Fasthosts shows again why you should not do business with them

Fasthosts in email crisis

Customers unhappy - Fasthosts denies problems...

By Sally Watson

Published: 28 November 2001 18:30 GMT

Show related
articles

Web-hosting firm Fasthosts has walked into a row with customers after several thousand emails went missing or were delivered to the wrong addresses.

One Fasthosts customer told silicon.com that his company had received over 2,000 misdirected emails on one day last week. "These emails include attachments, including stuff from solicitors and accountants," the customer said. "Fasthosts' customers are going ballistic."

Fasthosts' technical support line was weighed down with calls last week. Several customers waited in queues of up to 25 calls before being able to report problems. Those who have got through claimed Fasthosts was unable to offer a satisfactory explanation.

According to another customer, Brian Nash of Vision Software Solutions, the hosting outfit has been having sporadic problems for the last few weeks, but for Nash, it came to a head at the end of the week before last. "I sent a proposal to a customer and it ended up with one of our suppliers as well. It could have been confidential," he said.

Nash added: "I sent an email to my contacts to apologise about the problems - and some recipients ended up receiving the same email eight or nine times."

Andrew Michael, managing director of Fasthosts, admitted the company had been having some problems since a software upgrade earlier this month. However, he said the problems had not affected customers' email service.

Michael also denied an earlier report that a virus had infected the company.

"Since we changed the software it's not been completely trouble free. But we have not received any reports of misdirected mail, other than those cited," he told silicon.com.

Michael told silicon that his company had investigated Nash's complaint and found it to be a problem "at the customer's end".

He said: "He [Nash] sent out a broadcast email and then sent out a confidential email. He mistakenly sent both emails to the broadcast group of addresses."

Nash denied this, claiming he did not misaddress the mails.

Meanwhile, a third customer, who preferred to remain anonymous, confirmed that some outgoing emails had been misdirected. "Sending an email to one client meant that four other different clients also got the email. Not only very embarrassing but also a large security issue. Needless to say we're pulling all provision of services by Fasthosts."

Another company, which resells Fasthosts services to small and medium-sized businesses, said several of its customers had been affected. "Fasthosts upgraded their Matrix servers two weeks ago. Since then things have been going crazy," he told silicon.com.

"I received an email on Sunday night which was sent over a week ago. I've also received emails which weren't sent to me - I've had to forward them on."

Fasthosts claims to be the UK's leading provider of web hosting services. Its £10m Gloucester data centre hosts over 500,000 websites on Matrix Windows servers.

This Is What Fasthosts Claimed While Losing In Arbitration

Does this match your experience?

3. Complaint upheld
Fasthosts said there were no traffic limits in place for any of their shared hosting accounts. They explained that the high resource use policy was designed to prevent customers abusing the servers and believed the text in their terms and conditions of use made that clear. They said, to date, they had never had to tell a customer they could continue using the website only if they paid an additional fee. They said they would not repeat the claim "unlimited traffic to your site" and would make their high resource-use policy clear in future ads by including the statement "When a website is found to be monopolising the resources available Fasthosts reserves the right to suspend that site immediately. This policy is only implemented in extreme circumstances and is intended to prevent the misuse of our servers. Customers may be offered an option whereby Fasthosts continues hosting the website for an additional fee." Fasthosts said they no longer sold or advertised "Starter" or "Home" packages, only "Standard", "Professional" and "Business".

Fasthosts Gets Sued Constantly, But They Don't Care

"Excellent well I'll start court ASAP then, e-mails are counted I think so I can prove if it comes to it that I tried to deal with it without court action"

Received final response today.
Issued court action today

1. The Claimant has an account n422149 with the Defendant, opened May 2004 2. On 11/09/06 the Defendant debited a charge in respect of purported breaches of contract. 3. Defendant is aware of all details as my charge has already been supplied. Another copy will be sent. 4. Claimant contends: (a) The charges exceed the Defendant's losses caused by the breaches; (b) The Term permitting the Defendant to levy such charges is unenforceable under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 and at Common Law. 5. Claimant claims: return of the amounts debited of £47 6. Alternatively, if the charges are a fee for a service, then they must be reasonable under S.15 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982. 7. Costs allowed by the Court.

To see more, click into the extended post

All DooYoo Reviews for Fasthosts--I don't think anybody likes this company

Here are the reviews of Fasthosts Services on DooYoo. Same story. Is Fasthosts' corporate anthem in any way similar to Millward's?

One review picked at random: "  FastHosts? They're pulling a fast one! (226 words)
by mil22 - written on 26.11.02 (useful, 6 readings)
Rating: 
Total waste of money. Very attractive website, seemingly very good deals, but beware! 1) The description of the Home Users account makes untrue and unwarranted claims, such as "Many advanced services included at no extra cost", "No hidden charges", and "Flat Monthly fee +VAT". Once you've paid your money, ...  Read the complete review "

Another Fasthosts Victim Speaks Out

As this story duplicates mine, I can only reproduce it here faithfully and offer my sympathy:

"I actually don't like complaining - but this has me so mad I felt others should also be warned about it.

Two years ago I had to work with another organisation and as part of my work try and get a website/portal created. For this I went to Fasthosts and ordered a domain and relevant hosting package.

At the beginning of last year the organisation ceased delivery and the hosting which was in my name was no longer needed. I had completely forgotten about it until last year when I was charged for the renewals - Some £400. Which I could obviously not charge back to anyone.
I then went into my control panel provided by Fasthosts and switched off all the hosting requirements and tried to see if there was anything else I had to do to cancel this service.

I could find nothing else. No other cancellation advice or procedures. So switched off the hosting and domain and thought that would be the end of it. Until August when I had to pay a renewal for the domain registration.
Again I went into the control panel, which has changed significantly from the last time, to cancel the domain.
I checked to make sure that there was no hosting - there wasn't and no other bills expected - there were none. They have a recurring payments module and nothing was showing.

Two days ago I have been charged direct from my credit card for database and server configurations that I do not need £291+ for additional services for a hosting service I had cancelled.

You need to have hosting services to access these additional services, which I clearly didn't.

There is a very clear lack of transparency over charges and cancellation procedures within this company.

My first complaint was met with "you cannot complain unless you input a particular code", despite the fact they have invoice and account information. Then you cannot simply cancel your services - you have to find the relevant support article and then request cancellation from the appropriate department.
I clearly have no hope of getting my money back as I didn't trawl through the many many pages of sales information to find out how to cancel the service even though I thought I had.

I feel that someone should be making the public aware of the practices by some hosting companies that I thought had died out long ago.

There should be greater clarity in terms of what you are going to be charged and when.
Plus there should be an easier cancellation method. Goodness know they make it easy enough to purchase why cannot they make things just as simple to cancel.
Why is there no commercial body out there to supervise this kind of trading. I notice that Fasthosts are not members of the ISPA - which I find very significant, also really annoying because I cannot complain to them either.

My warning to everyone is - be extremely careful when ordering from this company because you may find it almost impossible to leave. Of course after the event - I am finding all sorts of warnings and complaints about Fasthosts all over the internet. Sadly too late for the £800 down the plughole.
Oh and it is almost impossible to get refunds from this company, even if you are in the right, they will happily wait for you to take them to court ."

In the extended posts, all 8 reviews of Fasthosts from hostingcomments.com. Sample quote: "Fasthosts are your worst hosting nightmare. In a nuthshell they offer UNRELIABLE services alongside the POOREST customer support I & MANY others have ever experienced. They also have a well known history of taking un-authorised payments from your card.... "

Take It To The Streets

Here is the contact information for what may be the worst company in the UK--there's no question about it being the worst ISP/webhost:

Fasthosts Internet Limited
Discovery House
154 Southgate Street
GL1 2EX Gloucester
UNITED KINGDOM

phone:   +44 1452 541251
fax-no:  +44 1452 541633

Just in case you want to talk to them about things like this: "I asked them via the phone. They state no bandwidth on any of there accounts.

personal is 1gb
business is 2gb
reseller is 10gb

The reason they dont state is so they can disable you once you get popular. You can't even host unlimited domains. I pointed this out to openhosting who had to find out the hard way about domains. But with the reseller account you get a maximum of 10gb bandwidth for the whole account and no-one domain can use more than 2gb."

Call them and let them know what you think of them. Do it twice.

If you want to moan a bit more or rally up some support, i would suggest a visit to :

alt.internet.providers.uk

and www.communityzero.com/siteonsite

Fasthosts News

1 to 10 of 30 results from all The Register sites. Search only theregister.co.uk »

Fasthosts primes another password reset Third time's the charm By Chris Williams • Thursday 13 Dec 2007 12:02 Punch drunk Fasthosts customers are set to be hit with a third compulsory password reset next week, as the budget web hosting company scrambles to cope with a major security breach. The latest system-wide wipe will affect people who run dedicated servers, have bought backup storage at the firm's Gloucester data centre, and who … HMRC still looking for disks - just don't ask Microsoft's Santa To subscribe to The Register's weekly newsletter - seven days of IT in a single hit - click here By Joe Fay • Friday 7 Dec 2007 11:48 Santa Claus is coming to town - hide It'll be Christmas soon enough, and we can all relax. Well, unless you're the developer behind the filthy Santa robot Microsoft stuck at the end of its festive Messenger progam. A few ho ho hos, and the jolly old gent was alternately discussing oral sex and insulting message senders. … Fasthosts customers still frozen out of websites More support staff drafted over password reset cockup By Chris Williams • Wednesday 5 Dec 2007 12:45 Fasthosts has promised it will bring in more support staff to deal with the volume of calls it is still receiving following its poorly-handled password reset on Friday. Many customers haven't received the replacement passwords that the Gloucester webhost said it had sent in the post. We asked for an update on the debacle, and … Virgin downs 1and1 and Germany Part of a lager problem? By John Oates • Friday 30 Nov 2007 13:45 Virgin subscribers spent yesterday without access to German websites. Popular web hosting site 1and1 was one of those hit - and its customers were not happy. But it is now clear that a routing problem at Virgin was the cause. Virgin broadband subscribers lost access to most German-based websites including gaming sites like … Fasthosts customers blindsided by emergency password reset Webhost confirms hackers have raided servers By Chris Williams • Friday 30 Nov 2007 11:08 Fasthosts has announced that "a number" of its customers'* FTP spaces were raided as a result of the major hack that triggered a police investigation last month. It has applied a system-wide reset of thousands of passwords as a result. The Gloucester-based webhosting firm yesterday performed the emergency reset of control … Banking data fears over Fasthosts intruder Customers in the dark By Chris Williams • Friday 19 Oct 2007 13:08 Investigators are racing to establish whether the intruder who hacked into a server at Gloucester-based web host Fasthosts stole banking information. The breach was revealed yesterday. Fasthosts has told customers to change all their passwords, which were not encrypted. Fasthosts has not revealed whether the attacker gained … Beautiful faces, Trojans and Fasthosts To subscribe to The Register's weekly newsletter - seven days of IT in a single hit - click here By Joe Fay • Friday 19 Oct 2007 12:02 It’s the end of the week. Thinking about that after work pint? Getting ready for the Rugby final? Pity the bods at Gloucester-based Fasthosts then. The hosting firm warned customers on Thursday morning that it had called in police to investigate a major data breach. Here’s the fun bit. It told us: "As a precautionary measure, … Microsoft throws a party for MUC as AC/DC chucks filth off its website To subscribe to Channel Register's weekly newsletter - seven days of channel news in a single hit - click here. By Billy MacInnes • Thursday 18 Oct 2007 14:45 Microsoft was in good spirits this week at the launch of its long-awaited "Microsoft unified communications software" in San Francisco, officially announced by chairman Bill Gates, business division president Jeff Raikes, and a guitarist in a red velvet jacket. Now that's rock and roll, especially as the guitarist was playing … Fasthosts customer? Change your password now Updated Police called to major hack By Chris Williams • Thursday 18 Oct 2007 11:26 Fasthosts, "the UK's number 1 web host", has fired off emergency emails telling customers to change all their passwords after police were called in to investigate a major data breach. The Gloucester-based firm contacted The Reg this morning with a statement. It said: "As the breach could relate to Fasthosts customer data... … Fasthosts admits email destruction fiasco Human error × no backup = whoops By Chris Williams • Wednesday 17 Oct 2007 12:44 Fasthosts, "the UK's number 1 web host", has admitted to a botched update to its mail server that permanently deleted customer emails. The cockup last week was compounded when the firm's backup system failed, meaning about half of the affected emails are lost forever. Fasthost sent us its side of the story: Following a human …

Name and Shame

In addition to Tom Hankin, author of the email below (which basically said I would have to get biometric authentication of my identity and that of my next of kin before they would give me access to the account they have already charged me for), I wonder why these proud professionals are working for an organisation with the ethical balance of pond scum?

Specifically, Adrian Smith, what are you doing with these bozos? Surely your experience at Supanet qualified you for something more interesting? Your hard work is supporting a business model that depends on fraud to continue--do you really want to be associated with them?

And Gareth Bromley--you have a fine record with Colt, Siemens, and Sports.com. You're obviously capable of better things. And you of all people should know that a future financial obligation needs to be explicitly referred to in a contract, rather than being buried in the Ts and Cs. You do financial modelling! You could explain how it would be to the benefit of Fasthosts to put mention of recurring charges in the contract itself. There's no excuse.

Mr. Steve Holford. How do you market reeking garbage like Fasthosts? Are you even able to tell your former colleagues at NTL, Argos and Tesco what you do for a living now?

And all of you--how do you describe Fasthosts to family and friends? "Well, erm, we charge people's credit cards for things they don't want, and we don't tell them we're going to do this." How does that go over?

And Mr. Andrew Michael, Managing Director. I doubt if you'll be shamed. I'm sure you're proud of what you do. I'm sure you're proud of your company's performance. "Cyprus-born Michael, 27, started his Fasthosts internet business in his bedroom, aged 17. From its Gloucester headquarters provides e-mail and other web services to small firms. Sales soared from £240,000 in 1999 to £20m in 2005, and last year the German company ISP United Internet paid £61.5m for Fasthosts. Michael picked up £46m for his stake."

This can't be you, can it? "ANDREW MICHAEL, age 38, BERNADETTE PAGAN, age 36, and PHYLLIS RIES, age 75, all of Las Vegas, are charged with one count of Bank Fraud, one count of False Statement on Credit Application, and Criminal Forfeiture. If convicted, the defendants face up to 30 years in prison and a $1,000,000 fine on each of the charges."

Or this? "

He was a real estate broker, but got his license by fraud. He's deceived both the medical field and patients by posing as a nurse, and later, a doctor. Now, after tracking this local con man for more than a year and half, News 3 Investigators tells us how he may also be duping you, the taxpayer. Andrew Michael claims many degrees, but we found he may simply have a masters in deception. He's forged college transcripts to get real estate and nursing licenses."

Or this? "

Criminal Complaint against Michael Andrew

---

From May 2001 until May 2003, Michael Andrew misrepresented himself as a surgeon and graduate of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He served as chief executive officer of Meadows Diagnostic Imaging Center in Henderson, Colorado and supervised at least ten contrast x-ray procedures while pretending to be a physician. (During such procedures, a dye is injected into the patient to highlight the areas that are being studied. A physician's presence is necessary in case the dye causes anaphylactic shock, a potentially fatal allergic reaction.) Michael had received a bachelor’s degree from the now-defunct Hamilton University, a nonaccredited online school based in Wyoming, and was enrolled in St. Luke’s School of Medicine, a correspondence school that has since been shut down by Liberian government authorities. In June 2005, Michael pleaded guilty to one felony count of attempt to practice medicine without a license. In August he was sentenced to serve 120 days in the Clark County Detention Center to be followed by 4 years of intensive supervision probation."

No, I don't think any of those are you. What you do is worse.

The Famous Terms and Conditions

It's Easter Sunday and you've nothing else to do. Click below into Fasthost's Terms and Conditions and find where it tells you that you are their paying slave forever.

I think this is my favorite: "Note to solicitors: If you wrongfully threaten legal action against UKReg on behalf of your clients your correspondence will be passed onto our solicitors who will invoice you for the time spent dealing with your case"

Fasthosts Is A Bad Firm

Review Centre has 110 reviews of Fasthosts services. Click into the extended post to read them all.

Here's just one, which we think is more or less representative of all of them:

on 7th Feb 2008

User Rating : 0
Respect : 0

I do not recommend Fast Hosts.co.ukAs far as I am aware this company has just charged me £400 for an account I canceled a month ago which they never actioned, and looks like I'm not going to see a penny back.In my opinion, how any company that displays the arrogance of this outfit manage to stay in business is beyond me.I've just moved to Heart Internet and they are like a breath of fresh air.
authordocs's full review

And Still More Anti Testimonials for Fasthosts

Search results: 15 matching "fasthosts"

FastHosts.co.uk (complaint) Posted: 2007-04-24 by Pamela Reynolds [send email] Fasthosts steal money from your account! I gave clear instructions to cancel my account three weeks before the end of an annual subscription. It was in plain English and I provided the security information they needed. They didn't cancel the account and they took the money for another year - and they won't give it back. ... FastHosts.co.uk (complaint) Posted: 2007-03-26 by Solmaiun [send email] FastHosts - UK's leading rip off web hosting! Fasthosts.co.uk - uk's is leading rip off web hosting - web hosting company uk scamming customers. Fasthosts.co.uk will rip off their customers with no conscience. The biggest rip off in internet web hosting and domain registration. We had several domains and when we requested a new provider... Fasthosts WebHosting (complaint) Posted: 2008-03-03 by Graham Taylor [send email] Invalid charges! I read the complaints about FASTHOSTS web hosting services too late to prevent what I consider fraudulent charges to be taken from my credit card. The service is terrible. They take subscription payments and fail to record on your account. Onlyafter proof-of-payment, and considerable effort... FastHosts.co.uk (complaint) Posted: 2007-06-09 by James Richards [send email] Shady practices Like many others I too have been stung by Fasthosts, and am well aware of Matthew Hillyard's arrogant stance with complaints from customers about being screwed by his company. Fasthosts is ingenious in fleecing their customers right left and center by imposing 'hidden'... Fasthosts (complaint) Posted: 2008-02-19 by Daniel [send email] "Debt recovery" fee They decided to change all login details due to a security breach, they changed it while I was on holiday. When I came back I could no longer log into my acccount or e-mail accounts. During this time my credit card expirory date had changed. When I could finally... FastHost.com (comment) Posted: 2008-03-03 by Unhappy Customer [send email] Useless organization! Customer service is zero! On the subject of Fasthosts, I can on advise any current or future customer, home or business, to steer clear from this company. Their recent security issues can only backup any claims of incompetence’s. For numerous months, I have been attempting to downgrade 2 packages. With most other... FastHosts.co.uk (comment) Posted: 2007-06-08 by Oisin O Gallachoir [send email] Fasthosts steal money from your account! I had the exact same problem with my Credit Card and FastHosts. They kept billing my card for months after the account was canceled and then refused to issue a refund. They're excuse was that the services had been used, which they were not as I had transferred to a different host. FastHosts.co.uk (comment) Posted: 2007-06-29 by England Diep [send email] Fasthosts steal money from your account! Same happened to me, DONT USE FASTHOSTS!!!... FastHosts.co.uk (comment) Posted: 2007-08-20 by Chris [send email] Fasthosts steal money from your account! After having my wallet stolen, my card details on the fasthosts website were not up to date. Not realizing my hosting account was due, fasthosts tried to bill my card, then when it failed, charged me £23 'debt recovery fee'. After many emails trying to cancel my account or get... FastHosts.co.uk (comment) Posted: 2007-12-11 by christopher harvey [send email] Fasthosts steal money from your account! I have been locked out of my fasthosts account for 2 weeks, i was locked out whilst making changes and have some horrific typos on my website. Customer support is engaged and Tech sup doesn't even exist. Dam... i have various sites with them. The moment i get my details back i am going...

FastHosts.co.uk (comment)
Posted: 2008-01-06 by Simon Green [send email]
Fasthosts steal money from your account! Fasthosts have gone from bad to worse. Check out http://fasthostshell.blogspot.com/...

FastHosts.co.uk (comment)
Posted: 2008-02-07 by Mike Jackson [send email]
Fasthosts steal money from your account! Hi, Fasthosts have just pulled the same trick with me. I cancelled my account before xmas and they've just billed me £400 for another year. They say the account was never closed! even though I moved everything off there and requested closure by email and telephone.

FastHosts.co.uk (comment)
Posted: 2008-03-21 by Mark Walker [send email]
Fasthosts steal money from your account! FastHosts are really terrible, in amost every way and care little for their customers or how they treat them. They costs us double thier fee, in damage to our business and reputation, due to their bad server performance. We are a long suffering reseller, with so many sites, that it would take...

More Anti Testimonials for Fasthosts

I feel comforted that I am not alone in a) feeling abused by Fasthosts, the scum-sucking devil dogs from the nether reaches of hell, and b) feel that their unethical behaviour deserves to be pointed out to the world at large.

"On 27 February 2007 08:12I received an email from fasthosts. Stating “Yearly Reseller Recurring - Signup ----- £587.50 VAT: £87.50.” they just taken the money from my bank. I was on the phone by 08:14 and explained I didn’t want another year with fasthosts and that I had checked on a number of occasion and not seen this recurring payment in my control panel. I was told by the sales chap that it was too late; I told him I didn’t want it and wanted to close my account. I was polite and was not rude.
I had explained to the sales chap that it was not obvious in my control panel the recurring payment was today, I had gone into the control panel on a number of occasions and it was not apparent. I was told by the sales chap that as it was a yearly recurring rather then a monthly recurring that it would not appear in the control panel. I explained that this was most unfair, but he pointed out that in there terms and conditions that they do not give refunds.
By the end of that day my account at fasthosts was closed, and I am more the £585 out of pocket. Fasthosts are a disgrace; the way I have been treated is a disgrace. I have been with fasthosts a number of years and never been a difficult customer and this is how I am treated. "

"I actually don't like complaining - but this has me so mad I felt others should also be warned about it. Two years ago I had to work with another organisation and as part of my work try and get a website/portal created. For this I went to Fasthosts and ordered a domain and relevant hosting package. At the beginning of last year the organisation ceased delivery and the hosting which was in my name was no longer needed. I had completely forgotten about it until last year when I was charged for the renewals - Some £400. Which I could obviously not charge back to anyone.
I then went into my control panel provided by Fasthosts and switched off all the hosting requirements and tried to see if there was anything else I had to do to cancel this service.  I could find nothing else. No other cancellation advice or procedures. So switched off the hosting and domain and thought that would be the end of it. Until August when I had to pay a renewal for the domain registration.
Again I went into the control panel, which has changed significantly from the last time, to cancel the domain. I checked to make sure that there was no hosting - there wasn't and no other bills expected - there were none. They have a recurring payments module and nothing was showing. Two days ago I have been charged direct from my credit card for database and server configurations that I do not need £291+ for additional services for a hosting service I had cancelled. You need to have hosting services to access these additional services, which I clearly didn't. There is a very clear lack of transparency over charges and cancellation procedures within this company. My first complaint was met with "you cannot complain unless you input a particular code", despite the fact they have invoice and account information. Then you cannot simply cancel your services - you have to find the relevant support article and then request cancellation from the appropriate department.
I clearly have no hope of getting my money back as I didn't trawl through the many many pages of sales information to find out how to cancel the service even though I thought I had. I feel that someone should be making the public aware of the practices by some hosting companies that I thought had died out long ago. There should be greater clarity in terms of what you are going to be charged and when.
Plus there should be an easier cancellation method. Goodness know they make it easy enough to purchase why cannot they make things just as simple to cancel. Why is there no commercial body out there to supervise this kind of trading. I notice that Fasthosts are not members of the ISPA - which I find very significant, also really annoying because I cannot complain to them either."

My warning to everyone is - be extremely careful when ordering from this company because you may find it almost impossible to leave. Of course after the event - I am finding all sorts of warnings and complaints about Fasthosts all over the internet. Sadly too late for the £800 down the plughole.
Oh and it is almost impossible to get refunds from this company, even if you are in the right, they will happily wait for you to take them to court .

Wide Boys and Refugees from Deliverance

Quick summary: Webhosting company Fasthosts, reviled in the press and all across the Internet (see below), hid the fact that they will bill customers every year without notification for their webhosting 'services,' which include letting hackers into client spaces to view customer records, going down repeatedly, etc. Well, caveat emptor--don't do business with Fasthosts, unless you like dealing with wideboys and refugees from Deliverance.

But although the recurring charge is treated by them as part of their contract, it doesn't appear in the contract at all. It is buried under a mountain of terms and conditions--I will post them soon and you can see if you can find them.

I do not have access to the email account I used to open the account with Fasthosts, so I cannot cancel my account, I cannot see why they are billing me five times what they did previously, and I cannot check to see if, as I suspect, they sent me no messages at all.

But their attitude towards customer service is at least refreshingly simple--they give you two fingers and tell you to get stuffed. They are defrauding their customers and giggling about it.

But they are not the only organisation involved. I have banked with NatWest for five years, and it is a NatWest credit card that was charged. Surely, my pointing out the fraudulent nature of this transaction would convince them to send the charge back to Fasthosts. After all, I am their client. Indeed, as NatWest would later point out in two letters, they have no relationship at all with Fasthosts.

This is where the tale gets really sad. I have had what I considered a good relationship with NatWest. I have my current account with them, two ISAs, two business accounts and was talking with my branch manager about a mortgage. The perniciousness of scum like Fasthosts is that they are capable of poisoning my relationship with NatWest, their owner (Royal Bank of Scotland) and their other subsidiaries, such as Tesco Personal Finance. Because the bank not only has rejected my request, they have done so without any investigation. The retailer (Fasthosts) tells them it is a recurrent subscription, they accept the claim and that's it. In their last letter they say 'I hope this clarifies the bank's position.' It does.

I don't know if this analogy is really apt--their spineless refusal to take their client's side is either like Pilate's washing his hands and asking 'what is truth' or they cannot upset the applecart that brings in fees and preserves their relationship with Visa International.

This is wrong. I did not authorize this charge. I did not know I was entering into a recurring subscription. Fasthosts went to great lengths to make sure I did not know. I cannot access my account, because Fasthosts won't let me. I cannot cancel my account, because Fasthosts won't let me. My banker, who continually tells me how much they value my business and how much they want to deepen their relationship with me, does nothing for me.

And the clock is ticking. If I pay the bill, the dispute is moot. If I don't pay the bill, my credit rating gets trashed. Is this really the way this country wants to do business?

Another Way of Telling You're Dealing With an Unethical Company

Dear Mr Fuller,

Thank you for your support enquiry,

As your account details have not been kept up to date with a valid contact email address we will require you to do the following so that we can update you contact email address and re-send you login details.

Send a copy of your driving licence or passport
Send 2 items out of the following:
Utility bill (Gas/Water/Electric)
Bank statement
Credit card statement.

The address details on these documents must be the same as the address on your account.

Include your account number on the coversheet for this fax and please provide an email address that we can send your details to.

We will be unable to provide a refund for the service you have been billed for as this was for the renewal of a service. When you first purchased this service we provided a 30 day cancellation period, this goes beyond the 7 day cooling off period to which you refer in your previous email.

As you have been charged for a renewal we cannot provide a refund.

I'm afraid we will be unable to assist further with this issue, however, if you are not satisfied with this response please email [email protected] and this descision will be reviewed by a manager.

If you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact our support team.

Kind Regards

Tom Hankins
Customer Support
Fasthosts Internet Ltd.

Fasthosts is registered in England and Wales.
Registered office: Discovery Court, 154 Southgate Street, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, UK. GL1 2EX

One Way Of Telling You're Dealing With an Unethical Company

Are Fasthosts faking reviews and recommendations

If like a lot of people recently you have been on the Fasthosts support page you may have seen this image on the bottom right of the page.

From first look you would think it is a glowing refference from a Mr. James Giffin for Fasthosts.

A closer inspection and in particular after seeing the profile of a James Griffin at linkedin it makes you wonder if Fasthosts have faked this glowing recommendation. Could the James Giffin who so highly rates Fasthosts be  James Griffin who worked at Fasthosts for 4 years?

Comments From Fasthosts Customers--or ex Customers

We have links to reverse testimonials on the right. Here are some comments lifted from blog postings, etc.

"This company has lost all respect for the one thing that keeps them going, the customer. With the latest password fiasco, lets just hope people have the confidence to leave them in droves. Merry Christmas from Fasthosts? More like Goodbye Mr Fasthost, good bye and goodnight."

"They have suspended all my FTP and Control Panel accounts pending sending out new passwords by post ... all accounts were suspended Thursday ... no new passwords received yet and it's Monday - I have sites to update that I can't access .... I have finally decided to move (although have a lot of domain names and hosted sites to move) .... "

"Good luck, kit kat. And welcome to the not-quite-exclusive-as-it-should-be "I've been dumped in it by Fasthosts" club."

"I still can't administer any of my sites, I can't change my email passwords as I don't have the password from Fasthosts yet... Things are not looking good!"

"

"I also have been fined by Fasthosts when my credit card was lost and the renewal system tried to charge the old card which of course had to be cancelled. They insisted on a letter from my CC company, confirming the loss, which was eventually provided, but they still refused to refund the fine. How should I remove my sites from them and stop them taking money from my card regardless? Will I need to write to them or just give the business to someone else and then close my FH accounts online?"

"Fasthosts have been sending me emails saying they can not take a yearly account payment from my account saying bank rejecting card number, but they seem to able to take my monthly charge from the same acount and card number, what is going on?"

"Leave FastHosts - they don't deserve your custom. I've closed my account with them today - they offered me 3 months FREE hosting if I stayed - I told them where to stick it."

"It may interest you to know that neither Fasthosts nor UKreg appear on the list of members of the Internet Services Providers' Association. All members of the ISPA are expected to follow the ISPA Code of Practice; Fasthosts and UKreg are not."

"The behaviour of Fasthhosts of Gloucester is a disgrace"

"I cannot log in to my fasthosts account with my usual password. I have received no emails or letters from fasthosts and have no clue as to what is happening ?????I cannot log in to my fasthosts account with my usual password. I have received no emails or letters from fasthosts and have no clue as to what is happening ?????"

"If you are currently using Fasthosts, I urge you again to start your move to an alternative provider TODAY.I've read many published reports from other Fasthosts users that would appear to suggest that Fasthosts make it difficult for their customers to move on without fuss and fees, but after these two disasters, I'm sure you can throw their terms and conditions in their face and see how they like it."

"If Fasthosts were a human being, I would have them rushed to the nearest hospital for observation; they appear to be operating without a spine, and the lack of coordinative function between the left and right hand alone is a clear sign that there is something seriously wrong with the brain."

There are more--I'll get to them later.

64 Minutes On The Telephone With Fasthosts Customer Service

It would have been longer if Zoe hadn't hung up on me. But that happened after Waiting in the queue (You have three callers in front of you... you have three callers in front of you...).

Nick was the first to pick up. I told him that as it was within 7 days of purchase, I wanted a refund. He told me verbatim what their later email said--I guess I'm not the only one getting defrauded through this trick. Here's the email:

"Dear Sir,

Thank you for your email.

When signing up for the account there was a tick box that had to be ticked to say that you had read and agreed to the terms of service and as previously mentioned you are able to see from your control panel the dates of all recurring invoices and cancel services before they are due so we are not able to issue a refund on this occasion.

Regards

Customer Support
Fasthosts Internet Ltd."

Sadly, I cannot check on this as I don't have a log-in. This can't be a surprise to them, after all the hassle they forced customers to go through when their server got hacked. So I ask Nick how I can get the details if I no longer have the company email I used to sign up. He says they'll mail it to me. I inform him I've moved and give him the new address. Then I ask why he can't give it to me over the phone. He says "security reasons." I then mention that he just agreed to send the details to a new address. "Isn't that a security risk?"

Later, after I tell him that agreeing to terms and conditions does not mean I forfeit my rights to the 7-day cooling off period under UK law,  (he says it does--glad we have a legal mastermind on the phone) I ask to speak to a supervisor. There is no supervisor around. Odd, that. I end up speaking to Zoe (hand over the mouthpiece--'Hey Zoe--would you pretend to be supervisor for this jerk?'--and after one repetition of the problem she hangs up on me. I didn't swear, lose my temper, call her names, speak badly about her company... she just didn't want to speak to me.

What is 64 minutes out of your life? Your time means nothing to the companies that cheat you. They use it--amongst other tactics, about which more later--to wear you down. Well, I've spent more than 64 minutes on this weblog now, and funnily enough I don't feel worn down.

I didn't speak badly about her company on the phone. I will now. Fasthosts is using fraudulent tactics to perpetuate subscriptions that customers don't wish to renew. It is obvious from the repetition in language in both their emails and their scripted telephone conversations that this is a deliberate strategy to take money from people who do not want their services. Scummy thieves.

It has now been more than a week. They have not sent me the log-in details they promised, and they now have resorted to silence--my last few emails have not been answered. However, I am not going to pay their bill and I'm not going to let this go unresolved. I will, however, ask for help.

The Message I Was Trying To Communicate

Here in the UK, the law allows you a 'cooling off' period of 7 days, during which you have the right to change your mind about a purchase and claim a refund.

So, the message I need to get to Fasthosts within 7 days is this:

My name is (well, my name--I may identify myself later, but maybe not just yet) and my credit card was charged £206.67 on 23 February. I do not wish the service this was charged for, and as it is
within 7 days of purchase, please cancel the charge, cancel my account (intelligentcommunities) and inform me when this has occurred.

"*Your rights as a consumer
*In accordance with the law, you have a 7 day 'cooling off period' in which
you have the right to cancel your purchase and receive a full refund. You do
not need to give a reason for cancelling your purchase."

So, now I need to find my login and pin number. Oops! I no longer have that, as I no longer work for the company and no longer have their email.... Time to pick up the dreaded telephone. The horror...

Fasthost's Customer Frustration Department, Chapter 1

Your first email to the Fasthosts customer service department will receive an automated response. The response will tell you:

Dear Customer,
This is an automated reply and your query has not been seen by our Support Team.
We have not been able to process your support request as either your account number and support PIN were missing or incorrect. Please re-send your request, including your account number and PIN in the first two lines of your email, remembering to include the "n" in your account number.

But, you see, it's your own fault. As they go on to explain... "This information is available within the welcome email we sent you when you opened your account." Oh, yeah! Now I remember. And that welcome email is right high on my memory list...

And just to show they're a 21st Century kind of outfit, they don't miss the opportunity to brand and upsell/cross-sell: "If you would like to find out more about Fasthosts products, please visit our website http://www.fasthosts.co.uk/ or email [email protected]." Because while I'm trying to get a problem solved with you, I might as well do some more business with you, right?

Oh, well--this was the painless part.

Why I Don't Want You To Do Business With Fasthosts

Hi all,

If you are looking for Fasthosts, the UK Internet Service Provider, their site is here. This weblog is not affiliated with them. In fact, this weblog is a complaint blog about their callous treatment of clients and customers--it is my hope to persuade you not to do business with them.

If you've any initiative at all, you'll have found stories about their being hacked, going down, working with repressive regimes to suppress dissent, ignoring their customers, (Love that title--Fasthosts Hell) and losing their customers money. They even tried to rip off Microsoft--but don't let that inspire misguided sympathy for them...

I am one of the clients who feels unfairly treated by Fasthosts. I intend to tell you why, and what I am trying to do about it. I will at some point ask for your support--but not your money.

Welcome! And let the games begin.... Here's the story so far...

In February 2007, I was working for a company doing online research. We were exploring the idea of a special service that revolved around online communities, and I was asked to reserve a domain and webspace called intelligent communities.

Fatefully, I chose Fasthosts. They do it all online, you see--I didn't have to speak to anyone. As we didn't have company credit cards, I used my personal one. (By the way--don't ever do that...)

I signed up using my company email. Personal credit card... company email... (By the way--don't ever do that...)

Fast forward to May--I am resigning from the company. We never did anything with the intelligent communities idea, and I forgot its existence.

Fast forward to February 2008. A charge appears on my Visa card statement. Since I have online banking, I see it the same day. By the way, online banking is the best thing since sliced bread. The charge is marked Fasthosts, and the story all comes back... Oh, yeah--intelligent communities.

As this is an advance billing for webspace, it can't be that hard to cancel--I'm not going to use it, right?

Wrong.