Heart Internet - need advice please

larrytango

I purchased a reseller account from Heartinternet.co.uk back in 2006 / 2007

using archive.org I have pulled what the website promised when I purchased it.

This is taken from the heartinternet website (reseller section) during the time i purchased the account:

One well-known hosting company charges an extra £25 per additional shared hosting account and only
gives you a cut-down account for free. At Heart Internet every additional shared hosting account that you add
is a full account and is totally free. Another company increased the amount they charged for their reseller
account from £30 to £50. At Heart Internet all our customers benefit from our price freeze guarantee,
meaning that the price you pay today is the same as you will pay tomorrow!


a quick google also finds this from heartinternet site

The prize freeze guarantee means that the price you pay when you sign up with Heart Internet will be the
price you always pay for as long as you are with them, regardless of any increases in the future. With so
many features at such a low price Heart Internet fits the bill if you are looking for a reliable web host that
provides exciting products and quick customer support.




yesterday i noticed my bill has increased and it has made me get a charge from my bank! ... the increase is £5 from £30 to £35 (before vat) I have tried to use the "ticket system" on the site to get an answer but i am told to complain i need to write in , i have tried to contact via phone but it is just for sales and could not help.

i have been told the prize freeze deal was removed last year from the site, but surely when i bought it it said it will always be that price for me??



has anyone got any advice on how i can talk about my bill to a real person or what i can do - isnt the company supposed to make it easy for me to make a complaint , telling me that only way to to discuss my bill is via a complaint in writing cannot be correct .. can it?

jennikitten

Most likely the contract you accepted said that they could make any changes to your account terms at any times, so I don't think you have grounds for complaint. It's fairly standard practice unfortunately.

Have you got a copy of the actual ts and cs you agreed to?

macman

No sane company will give a lifetime price guarantee, it's just a tactic to hook you in at the start. The T&C's will say that the contract can be changed, which is what they will say if you query it. However they should have informed you of any increase prior to billing.

The_Pilot

Hi Folks,
I too have found out Heart Internet have hiked their prices up and upon challenging then over it, they say they sent an email to everyone last month warning of the price increases, which i did not get.
They have now stopped being competitive and there are a lot of other providers offering reseller accounts for less.
I have gone one step further with this and am pulling the dedicated servers I have with them as well(I have 3), because wherever I go with my reseller account, I will take my other business as well.
They didnt even seem bothered about that when I spoke with them.

Their web site isnt very transparent either with the reseller account saying FROM £29.99. You cant get a yearly figure or anything unless you sign up for the reseller account and im not going to do that if I already have one.
They pointed out on the phone that I can pay for a year up front which will still work out at £29.99per month equivelant, but you have to find a one off yearly payment of £359.88 plus VAT, otherwise its £34.99 per month +VAT

Overnight I have lost a lot of respect from them and they have lost a lot of business from me. That extra £5 per month increase has cost them just short of £4,000 extra in business per year with dedicated server rental which is now going elsewhere.

I do believe there are a lot more people who arent happy with Heart Internet either in various other forums on the internet and i guess they are going to lose a lot of long standing customers.

jennikitten

I got the email a while back, so I'd check your junk. I received mine on 12th October, if that helps.

You seriously can't expect them to charge £29.99 for life?! The price increase is only the same as inflation over the past 6 years anyway, and like you said you can pay for a year in advance & get it for £29.99 anyway. I think it's reasonable.

Find it strange the way that both people complaining only have 1 post.

larrytango

I view posts on this site for a while but never felt the need to make any posts , im sorry if it is bad of me to make a post that was a question


the original page back in 2007 (can be seen via archive dot org) does mention the prize freeze , i showed heartinternet this and was told that i would need to put my request in writing



i really not happy with the customer service with this company

uksal

jennikitten wrote: »

I got the email a while back, so I'd check your junk. I received mine on 12th October, if that helps.

Their emails advising of the price increases were sent out on 12 October, and after a large "BIG SAVINGS" price tag went on to say..

{Prices removed by poster}

We want to communicate some important price changes to you. Please have a read below.

We know how important it is to stay competitive and that's why we have been working on some price changes so that you can build even more profit margin into your products or offer better prices to your customers. Recently we reduced the prices for Exchange mail boxes and Dedicated Servers just for our Resellers. From 11th November we will cut our prices for a whole range of other add-ons including SSL, mail boxes and domain privacy. All your existing add-ons will renew at the lower price from this date with the exception of Dedicated Servers.

If you are not already doing so we would urge you to add the full range of add-ons below to your product range. If you resell web hosting you should get these services listed on your website and consider a special offer for your existing customers. If you are a web designer we would encourage you to list these products on your website and talk to your customers about them when you quote for work. Selling just one or two add-ons a month can help boost your profit and offer your customers a full service.

Here are the full details on our add-ons price changes:

Old Price New Price
Exchange Mail Boxes
Dual Core Dedicated Server Linux
Dual Core Dedicated Server Windows
Quad Core Dedicated Server Linux
Quad Core Dedicated Server Windows
Domain Privacy
Email Virus Scanning
Premium Mail Boxes
Simple Secure Server
Search Engine Submission Basic
Search Engine Submission High
Search Engine Submission Super
Search Engine Submission Extreme


We hope these price reductions will help to make your business a bigger success.

So that we can continue to offer you market leading reseller hosting technology and customer support levels, we are making some changes to our Reseller Professional pricing. We believe in value for money and working with our resellers, and that is why we are able to provide you with a full service Reseller package. To maintain this, from the 11th November we are increasing the package's price and your new price will be £359.88 per year. Your renewal date will remain the same. We believe this represents great value for money for such a comprehensive Reseller hosting account.

jennikitten wrote: »

You seriously can't expect them to charge £29.99 for life?! The price increase is only the same as inflation over the past 6 years anyway, and like you said you can pay for a year in advance & get it for £29.99 anyway. I think it's reasonable.

It is somewhat surprising that anyone in this current economic climate will think is it reasonable to increase the annual cost by over 20%

I do not agree that this is reasonable, I am extremely unimpressed by their complete u-turn on the price guarantee less than a year after I signed up with them.

Heartinternet sold reseller packages with a "for life" guarantee" They are constantly adding to the range, by way of addons, so the original package sold becomes less and less favourable as the industry continues to develop.

jennikitten wrote: »

Find it strange the way that both people complaining only have 1 post.

Come on, that is complete rubbish, this is a forum, there is no hierarchy everyone is entitled to post.




Yes they sent emails out on 12 October with the price increase carefully hidden at the end of a long email advising price reductions and big savings..
- exactly 1 month prior to putting their prices up, and exactly 1 month prior to my first years renewal. :mad:

Uncle_Chris_2

I've recently been stung by the above mentioned rescindment of my "Price Freeze Guarantee" by Heart Internet. Like others, I had the notification e-mail in early October stating that prices were going up, but I never thought for one minute that they would apply it to existing customers, because of their explicit promise.

Imagine my surprise when the renewal notice showed a 20% increase for my reseller package. Thinking this was a mistake I quickly contacted their sales department, only to discover that the unthinkable had happened. What made me angry was the fact that they did not seem to consider it a particularly important issue, or that they had done anything wrong or immoral. I was expecting an apology, but all I got was, in their own words:

"The guarantee was valid for as long as the guarantee itself was kept in place".

NO ! The exact words were:

"The price at which you sign up is the price you pay for the duration of your account with Heart Internet - we guarantee you will never pay any more."

In other words, a lifetime guarantee !!!

I would like to see Dyson or Zanussi try that one after selling you a 5 year parts-and-labour guarantee. Apparently Heart Internet think it acceptable business practice to renege on its guarantees. The question now arises, will they honour any of their guarantees!

Anyway, after 30+ emails back and forward, it became apparent that they were not going to honour their guarantee, and so, sadly, I have today opted to let my reseller account expire at renewal and will be moving all of my business elsewhere.

No doubt this will be a huge amount of hassle for myself, and a few days of inconvenience for my customers, but I'm afraid there is an important principle at stake here, and quite frankly, I have lost all trust in Heart Internet.

I guess the bean counters made a calculated guess that most existing reseller customers would stay with the company to avoid the hassle of moving their customers websites. However, this decision must have created a huge amount of bad feeling, and I fear it will come back to haunt Heart Internet in the long run.

kevingr

Hi All,

Like everyone i have also been done by the price increase, im not against price increases but what Heartinternet have done makes me feel angry and betrayed.
I want to just tell them to poke their re-seller hosting just to prove a point but its a logistic nightmare.

Basically due to section 18 of their terms and conditions they can do what they like.
What next adding bandwidth limits and web-space limits

another crafty move by heart was to remove the free webhosting else i would have put a majority of my clients on this and ditched the re-seller package.

Look on the bright side next month it will go up 2.5% again:mad:

Anyone want all my clients

AGTC_2

Hi same experience from us. We have been with them since 2006 with the same price promise.
Now they have decided to increase the monthly charged to £42 instead of £35.
The increase in VAT is no excuse to increases prices as well. I have been told I can have it at £29.99 + VAT if I pay yearly. Why should I ? I never had to before.
Bad move HI I have 12 client reseller referrals to you which will all be switching hosts including myself if you do not resort to the original price.
Listen to your customers and take note BAD MOVE.
Not a happy HI customer :mad:

AGTC_2

jennikitten wrote: »

I got the email a while back, so I'd check your junk. I received mine on 12th October, if that helps.

You seriously can't expect them to charge £29.99 for life?! The price increase is only the same as inflation over the past 6 years anyway, and like you said you can pay for a year in advance & get it for £29.99 anyway. I think it's reasonable.

Find it strange the way that both people complaining only have 1 post.

This is a money saving forum, what are you doing on here anyway if your happy with a huge price hike ? Maybe you can afford to pay yearly?, fortunate of you, some companies are struggling in this financial climate and need every penny they can keep. I also have only one post, So what ? Am I not allowed to complain unless I have hundreds of post to qualify me, get a life :mad: