1&1 and Arvato

moobsuk

Hi there,

I'm looking for advice really as to what to do.

I have been reading various other 1&1/Arvato threads on here, and some are similar to mine.

I had a domain with 1&1 of which I used for approx 3-4 months, but the venture I was using it for didn't take off so I collapsed and deleted the site.

FFWD 10 months and I recieved a letter through my door saying I now owe Arvato £74

I had no idea who Arvato was so rather than ring them and let them know who I am, I searched online and found the threads from this forum with complaints about Arvato.

So using previous peoples tactics with 1&1 and Arvato I have sent them various emails asking for proof of debt and so far all I have been sent is the following :-

Dear Alan Parsons,

I will forward you the invoice this account is referring too.

In regards to the Terms and Conditions you put forward, this is in reference to Nominet.

1&1 Internets General Terms and Conditions state upon entry to a contract:

“4.4
Once we fulfil your domain order we shall notify you of the successful registration of the domain name(s).
We will host your domain name(s) for the initial pre-paid registration/billing period and for all future registration/billing periods. Unless terminated, at the end of each registration period your domain name will automatically renew for an additional registration period and you further authorise 1&1 to debit your account for the renewal fee associated with such renewal registration period and any related fees or charges. Your account will be automatically charged at the beginning of each registration/billing cycle, for the entire cycle.”
If you have cancelled your contract with 1&1 Internet Ltd please forward any relevant details surrounding this.

Please contact us on 0870 15 8809 to arrange payment for the outstanding.

Regards,

The above was sent to me on the 27th October and I have not received any invoice or proof.

so I replied with the following of which I found using google:-

Thank you for your email dated 27th October,

Please note the following, the following is taken from ICANN :-

3.7.5 At the conclusion of the registration period, failure by or on behalf of the Registered Name Holder to consent that the registration be renewed within the time specified in a second notice or reminder shall, in the absence of extenuating circumstances, result in cancellation of the registration by the end of the auto-renew grace period (although Registrar may choose to cancel the name earlier).

3.7.5.1 Extenuating circumstances are defined as: UDRP action, valid court order, failure of a Registrar's renewal process (which does not include failure of a registrant to respond), the domain name is used by a nameserver that provides DNS service to third-parties (additional time may be required to migrate the records managed by the nameserver), the registrant is subject to bankruptcy proceedings, payment dispute (where a registrant claims to have paid for a renewal, or a discrepancy in the amount paid), billing dispute (where a registrant disputes the amount on a bill), domain name subject to litigation in a court of competent jurisdiction, or other circumstance as approved specifically by ICANN.

3.7.5.2 Where Registrar chooses, under extenuating circumstances, to renew a domain name without the explicit consent of the registrant, the registrar must maintain a record of the extenuating circumstances associated with renewing that specific domain name for inspection by ICANN consistent with clauses 3.4.2 and 3.4.3 of this registrar accreditation agreement.

3.7.5.3 In the absence of extenuating circumstances (as defined in Section 3.7.5.1 above), a domain name must be deleted within 45 days of either the registrar or the registrant terminating a registration agreement.


As stated in 3.7.5 above, and as excluded in 3.7.5.1,, my account should have been closed automatically upon you not receiving permission to renew. Furthermore, as my credit card (used to register this account) was no longer valid, you could not expect to receive this payment, and the fact that I never furnished you with updated information on this card (because I wished to cancel the account, not renew it) means that you should not have attempted to renew. In any event, as a matter of course, the account should have been terminated within 45 days of the expiry date of the previous contract, as I had attempted to contact 1&1 to cancel the account, unless you can supply details of the extenuating circumstances that apply to this situation as in 3.7.5.1 above.

Regards

3 days later I then recieve this from Arvato:-

Dear Mr Parsons

Thank you for your email.

In regards to your email; if you are in dispute with 1&1 Internet Ltd’s terms and conditions, we would advise that you contact them directly.

1&1 are contactable on telephone number 0870 8503305.

Kind regards

Arvato Ltd

I then sent this to 1&1 :-

I never had any intentions of renewing my domains, in fact I have not used them for some time! from your records you can see when I last accessed them.

I was never made aware at any time that they had been renewed! I no longer use the email account that was associated with this 1&1 account, the 1st I knew of this was when I got a letter from
Arvato demanding money!

I had on made several previous attempts to cancel my account with you but I never received a response.

Of which in no less than 10 minutes I had this response from 1&1

Thank you for contacting us.

I am sorry for any confusion caused here.

However, you would be able to cancel any of the domains within
your Customer ID accounts at any time.

You can go to http://cancel.1and1.co.uk with your Customer ID and
password. Here, you can cancel any individual aspect of your account or
cancel your entire account. This process is all laid out within our FAQ
pages. As well, our Support Teams can assist you with this cancellation
process upon request.

As you are the administrator and owner of the account, it would be your
responsibility to cancel any unwanted aspect of it prior to the renewal
dates.

Unfortunately, domain names are non-refundable, as explained during
sign-up and listed within our Terms & Conditions.

In the future, please give yourself ample time to complete this
cancellation process prior to the renewal of any unwanted domains.

I am sorry for this inconvenience, however, we had tried to contact you numerous times regarding these billing issues. We had sent a number of e-mails to the e-mail address on file and tried to freeze the account to get your attention. Unfortunately, the issue persisted for long enough to the point that we had sent the account to AFS, the collection agency. Please note that before the account entered collections, we had a far broader authority to assist you. Once an account is in collections, we are not allowed by our systems to access your invoices in any administrative way. We similarly cannot remove an account from collections unless it is proven that it is wholly the fault of 1and1 that the package was continued. Please resolve the issue with the collection agency and they will remove you from any list that they have. Thank you.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

--
Sincerely,
Dana
Customer Service
1&1 Internet Limited

SO all in all I am confused! any help would be most appreciated.

texranger

as said on may threads the domain would be on auto renew so it would renew automatically and as they could not debit your card this unpaid invoice will still be on your account

cjabingham

I cancelled a 1&1 contract and keep getting automated emails sent from Arvato collections always sent at midday! They are not signed my any person but are from the collections team asking me to reply to the email and phone them. I just delete them!

jonboyp

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but what was the outcome of this?

Regards
Jon

Jinks

I would be interested to know also. I have also had issues with 1&1. All their legalese is extremely confusing and unfortunately it seems to be difficult to cancel their services once they are set up - they conveniently miss processing the cancellation requests, apparently hoping the customers won't notice - it took me four tries to eventually get them to cancel my contract, during which time they took two unauthorised payments from my bank account. They also have an unfortunate habit of replying to emails with scripted responses and the effect is like trying to talk to a robot!

When I sent enough emails to finally get passed on to a human, it took them a week to reply, but they were apologetic and last week assured me that they had refunded the most recent of the two unauthorised payments. The refund has yet to arrive in my bank account, though they did say it would take 3-5 working days. They also made no mention of refunding the other payment, and I will be taking that up with them once I have made sure the first one is complete!

Hope anyone else having difficulties with them gets it sorted out.