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 .
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