Fasthosts taking money that I don't want?

sparky883

I do understand but loads of Companys have Auto-Renewal For example The AA,I Know its not the same amount of money,But is it not up to you to Remember.
Did you not wish to renew with Fasthosts??
I am not really "sticking up" for them as have no real opinion,Apart from i think most of these IT companys are out to stich us up.

macminiuser

@sparky883 I did not want to renew with fasthosts, no - and although I could have phoned up or written a letter at any point in the previous 365 days, I don't think it is right that a company can take that amount of money without informing the customer beforehand.

macminiuser

@sparky883 - legally, it was my responsibility to remember when it was up for renewal. I realise I have made a mistake, but this is a hugely costly mistake that I cannot afford.

morally, if fasthosts can send multiple emails reminding customers to update their card details and suspend their service until up-to-date debit card details are provided, they should be able to remind customers when their service is up for renewal!

sparky883

I See,Then yes i agree with you,Must be horrible,If sombody took £1000 out of my account i'd be in the doo doo too.
I would not mess around i would just keep phoning them and giving them grief untill i got most of my money back.
I went through the same sort of thing with "customer street" or "iomart group".
Just keep up the pressure ring them morning noon and night,Leave messages,Ask to be put through to somone higher,Send E-mails,Just keep on and on-Its only your time and a small cost you will be wasting and you might end up with the result you want.
The Law,The Right Way,Or the Correct way will get you Nowhere,Trust me i know-

macminiuser

@sparky883

I'm not messing around - I'm deadly serious. have a google for these guys - no amount of letter-writing will cause them to budge.

I'm now on the verge of bankruptcy - this may have come about anyway in due course, but FASThosts have FASTtracked my spiral into destitution.

With this in mind, I have already contacted The Register website and The Metro newspaper, both of whom are keen to follow my story. I am also in the process of rallying up support via Twitter and Facebook.

From the Week commencing 9th March 2009 I shall be staging a hunger strike (FAST-ing against FAST-hosts) outside of their headquarters in Gloucestershire, posting multiple daily videos to a youtube account so people can witness my rapid decline in health, which will be picked up by the nationals in no time.

macminiuser

Twitter account and youtube account set up:

http://twitter.com/fastagainstfh
http://www.youtube.com/user/fastagainstfasthosts

Do please follow me if you're on either of these services.

Any advice/support/feedback is greatly appreciated.

TruthOrDare_2

macminiuser wrote: »

@sparky883

I'm not messing around - I'm deadly serious. have a google for these guys - no amount of letter-writing will cause them to budge.

I'm now on the verge of bankruptcy - this may have come about anyway in due course, but FASThosts have FASTtracked my spiral into destitution.

With this in mind, I have already contacted The Register website and The Metro newspaper, both of whom are keen to follow my story. I am also in the process of rallying up support via Twitter and Facebook.

From the Week commencing 9th March 2009 I shall be staging a hunger strike (FAST-ing against FAST-hosts) outside of their headquarters in Gloucestershire, posting multiple daily videos to a youtube account so people can witness my rapid decline in health, which will be picked up by the nationals in no time.

And the hunger strike will achieve what exactly? You aren't starving Fasthosts or hurting them. You are just hurting yourself by starving yourself.

If you are short of money, get a job (I know, easier said than done in these times).

Contact Fasthosts, tell them that you demand a refund for the full amount and if you do not receive it, you will be taking legal advice and contacting the relevant consumer authorities. Then if they do not respond, go to the Citizen's Advice Bureau, who will help you.

Make sure you keep records of all the contact you have with Fasthosts.

To me, it just seems like you messed up and instead of sorting the mess out, you just want a load of attention and publicity.

macminiuser

@TruthOrDare I am hassling them night and day via phonecall, letter and email; I have contacted Otelo and Trading Standards and am following up with this in the traditional manner.

I do have a full-time job, thank you; however I am not in the financial position to take a £1,000 hit. Even if I were, I would probably take exactly the same steps on principle.

In the meantime, I'm hoping to give journalists something to fill their column inches with and get some awareness out there of how nasty this company is to deal with so others don't make the same mistake. I'm interested to see whether or not Fasthosts care that little about their customer base that they would sooner let one of them starve themselves than issue a refund.

There are many, many people who have tried and failed to get money back from this company - a quick google will demonstrate this. No-one as yet has taken the somewhat extreme step of parking themselves outside their HQ and generally making a nuisance of themselves until a refund is issued (that I'm aware of).

I am keeping complete records of all communications with them:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I do not appear to have received a personal response to this matter yet; I would appreciate it if someone could get in touch with me ASAP.

As a result of this money going out unexpectedly early, I have not had enough available funds for my car insurance direct debit to clear - this means I am incurring unauthorised overdraft charges, ridiculous interest, failed direct debit fees and now I cannot legally drive my car, and even if I could I could not afford to put petrol in it.

As I'm sure you can appreciate, a swift resolution to this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,
Rob

Dear Rob,

Further to our conversation yesterday, I can confirm that we would not be able to offer you a refund in this instance.

If you wish to close the server, you can call our closure team on 01452 561858 and they will be able to set the server to close the day before it next bills 20/02/2010.

Apologies.

Kind regards
Emma

Escalations Team
Fasthosts Internet Limited

Emma,

I am not satisfied with this outcome.

Last year my account renewed on the 24th February - there is nowhere in the dedicated server control panel which discloses when the account is due for renewal unlike my UKReg control panel which affords me complete visibility of my services and their renewal dates. No warning or reminder email was issued and no invoice was sent in advance of the payment being taken.

It is fair and reasonable to understand why I wasn't expecting my account to renew until the 24th, thereby giving me time to cancel the server prior to renewal - as was my intention. As soon as I realised what had happened I contacted your customer services team immediately - shortly after 11pm on Saturday 21st February 2009, but was unable to speak to the relevant department as they were not available until the morning of Monday 23rd February 2009.

I feel that I have been treated unfairly based on my account having renewed on a different date in 2008 and the subsequent confusion this has caused. I am just a one man band with a keen interest in the internet who wanted to play with a dedicated server in his spare time, and a loyal customer of yours since 2002 - it would sadden me to think that after such a long time we cannot come to some agreement on this misunderstanding.

Whilst I appreciate the need for businesses to exercise their terms and conditions both for your own protection and that of your customers, on this occasion I would urge you to exercise discretion in the interests of fairness. I may well be in the position to afford another dedicated server in the future, and I would sign up with Fasthosts again at the drop of a hat as the service I have received to date has been excellent.

I would appeal to your good nature that you kindly reconsider your position. I would be prepared to accept a refund of the total amount minus £150 to cover your administration costs in returning this money to me. If this is not acceptable to you I would appreciate your full and final position in writing, sent to:

[redacted]

Should we not be able to come to some amicable agreement, I will have no option but to take the issue up with Otelo.

Yours faithfully,
Robert [redacted]

Mobile: [redacted]

Dear Rob,

Thank you for your emails. Further to our conversation yesterday, the bill was due on the 21.02.08. As discussed because I am not able to offer you a refund I have asked further up and have been advised that we are not able to offer you a refund of any amount.

I feel it only fair to point out that it's unlikely that the decision will change unless you can provide further information that you haven't already provided me with.

Apologies.

Kind regards
Emma

Emma Newman
Escalations Team

Emma,

At the end of the day, I realise I could and should have cancelled this sooner. I have made a very costly mistake that I cannot afford.

Please can I have my money back less £150 to cover your administration costs?

Regards,
Rob

Dear Rob,

Again, I'm sorry but I am not able to refund any amount to you.

Kind regards
Emma

Emma,

Are you able to refund the money and allow me to pay it back monthly?

Because this is such a large amount of money, and has sent me so far overdrawn, even when I get paid on Friday, I will not have enough money to meet my mortgage repayment.

I'm begging now. As of 1st March I will literally have nothing to lose.

Regards,
Rob

Rob,

I'm sorry but I can't help you further and am closing this ticket.

Kind regards
Emma

TruthOrDare_2

macminiuser wrote: »

@TruthOrDare I am hassling them night and day via phonecall, letter and email; I have contacted Otelo and Trading Standards and am following up with this in the traditional manner.

I do have a full-time job, thank you; however I am not in the financial position to take a £1,000 hit. Even if I were, I would probably take exactly the same steps on principle.

In the meantime, I'm hoping to give journalists something to fill their column inches with and get some awareness out there of how nasty this company is to deal with so others don't make the same mistake. I'm interested to see whether or not Fasthosts care that little about their customer base that they would sooner let one of them starve themselves than issue a refund.

There are many, many people who have tried and failed to get money back from this company - a quick google will demonstrate this. No-one as yet has taken the somewhat extreme step of parking themselves outside their HQ (that I'm aware of).

I am keeping complete records of all communications with them:

It's good that you are taking the proper actions, and I hope you are successful.

But I still don't see how harming yourself by not eating is going to help as you'll probably have to fight this, and making yourself ill won't help.

macminiuser

TruthOrDare wrote: »

It's good that you are taking the proper actions, and I hope you are successful.

But I still don't see how harming yourself by not eating is going to help as you'll probably have to fight this, and making yourself ill won't help.

I appreciate your feedback, and you may well have a point; the thing is you have to do something extreme to get these companies to listen, otherwise you just get the standard copy and paste responses as per above.

Google search for "fasthosts refund" - makes for interesting reading:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=fasthosts+refund&btnG=Search