uk2.net scam

tripled

Over the years I have reistered three domains with uk2. However, I only actively use one, and as uk2 don't offer the services I want and I couldn't transfer it I decided to let them all expire, then buy the one I wanted to keep back from a different company.

July last year - one domain expired. No problem. October I got an newsletter, which among other things said they had a new service and could offer auto renewal. I ignored it as I planned for all my services to expire, so didn't need it.

The second domain was due to expire in January and the third - the one I want to keep, but with someone else - this week. So I logged in and noticed they had taken money from my card to renew the domain! Checked my credit card statement and they did the same in January too! Both the domains have been renewed!

I've phoned egg and complained, and they are sending me some forms to sign to dispute the transactions. However, it will cause me a major headache as now the domain has been renewed, I can't buy it from a different company and I can't transfer it. So, any ideas as to how I can make life as difficult as possible for them in return? They don't answer emails and there is no phone number for them, so I'm specifically thinking have they comitted fraud or theft? Would I be better off instead of getting the money back through egg threatening them with the small claims court and put a condition on they remove the lock on my domain so it can be transferred? Ideas on a postcard please!

tripled

Well, much to my amazement their live support was online! That has never happened before, so I can only assume they only operate like vampires in the middle of the night. They weren't exactly a lot of use though...

Chris:
I never agreed to autorenewal, yet I have had money taken off my credit card and my domains renewed. Why?

Welcome Chris! Your request has been directed to the Sales department. Please wait for our operator to answer your call.


Call accepted by operator Online Support 2. Currently in room: Online Support 2, Chris.

Online Support 2:
Hi, how may I help you?
Chris:
I never agreed to autorenewal for my domains, yet payments have been taken from my card anyway. Why is this?
Online Support 2:
it automatically sets up to auto renew you would need to deactivate it if you didn't want to renew
Chris:
when I originally purchased the domains I never gave you continuous authority to debit my card. Therefore you cannot automaticcaly set me to autorenew.
Chris:
You cannot arbitrarily decide to start debiting peoples' cards, whether you notify them in advance or not, unless a continuous authority agreement is in place
Online Support 2:
you will need to contact billing@uk2.net
Chris:
I tried emaiing once before with a different issue several months ago and never got a response
Chris:
I have already reported the fraudulant transaction to my credit card company, I would suggest that you pass the details on to someone to contact me tomorrow otherwise I will be reporting the matter to the police as theft.
Chris:
Ok I assume as you have not replied that you won't be doing that, so I shall visit the local police station in the morning. Thank you for your help (or lack of).

Ditlev

Hi Chris,
My name is Ditlev Bredahl, I am the CEO of UK2.net.

A collegue of mine showed me your post, and I was naturally not pleased to hear that you are not happy with our renewal policy. Let me address your points below - but start by asking you to contact me directly (ditlev-at-uk2.net), for a refund.

1) Our renewal policy is not new, it has been in our T&C's since 1998, when we started. It has not always been enforced, which was why we sent out a mail telling all clients that they would have to turn off auto-renew (very easy thing to do) if they did not wish that their services were renewed.

2) We have sent out 3 mails to all clients regarding this, to make sure that everyone would get the message

3) We send out several mails before renewing any specific services letting you know (a) that your service is up for renewal (b) that we will do this automatically unless (c) you turn off autorenewal, which can be done with a single click in the admin.

4) We have had a few complaints about this procedure, but nothing close to the complaints we had BEFORE implementing the autorenewal. When we did not renew domains automatically, we literally had daily complaints from clients that did not react to the renewal mails sent out, and let the domain ellapse, for 3rd parties to buy it. They blamed us, and expected us to make sure that their domain was not "stolen".

All this being said, we have a "leave all clients happy or refunded" policy at UK2.net, so again - so please feel free to contact me for a full refund (that is, if we can not make you happy )

Best regards,

Ditlev Bredahl
CEO, UK2.net

About UK2: With more than one million domains sold, UK2 is one of the biggest webhosts in the UK and a major shareholder of the merged Redbus Interhouse and Telecity group.

vetfred

Hopefully, with the CEO's intervention, you'll get sorted now and best wishes with your change (if you do indeed change).

When you said there's no phone number, there's an 0800 number on the top right of their website. Did you mean they don't answer or is that number a recent addition?

About you thinking you needed to let your domain expire to renew it again with another company - don't most companies offer domain transfer as standard so you can transfer it without having to let it expire and buy it through another company (in which time, it might have been reserved by someone else)? I've never thought you had to let it expire to move companies.

If anyone reading doesn't want to renew their domain (whether an auto-renew is in place or not), the best thing to do is to contact the company (billing) to advise them that the domain shouldn't be renewed and that you therefore expect to receive no further billing in regards to that domain. I did this (not with uk2) and was still renewed but because I had advised them in advance and they had my e-mail and I had their reply confirming I wouldn't be renewed, I was re-imbursed without any further problem.

I would think many domain registration companies automatically renew domains on behalf of their clients to stop complaints that the domain expired accidentally through whatever misunderstanding or lack of the client's ability to keep on top of renewal dates etc. In fact, I would find it poor practice for a company not to auto-renew nowadays to be honest. Of course, customers should know what the practice is for any given company (although it appears the CEO says that is the case here with their e-mails).

I also think that the longer one can remain calm about a situation and not be seeking any sort of revenge or mentioning the involvement of police to what are probably "low level" staff, the more chance everything can be resolved amicably no matter who is at fault. Of course, I can understand the frustration of not being responded to though.

Good luck!

Markyt

I won't touch any company that forces you to use an ongoing renewal. That sort of thing should be on an 'opt-in' basis as promotional mail is, rather than an 'opt out' basis.

What you can do is instruct your bank to refuse any ongoing charge to your account. I've done it with the RAC, who insisted I agreed to a continuous charge in order to get a reduced rate.

richt71

tripled wrote: »

Over the years I have reistered three domains with uk2. However, I only actively use one, and as uk2 don't offer the services I want and I couldn't transfer it I decided to let them all expire, then buy the one I wanted to keep back from a different company.

July last year - one domain expired. No problem. October I got an newsletter, which among other things said they had a new service and could offer auto renewal. I ignored it as I planned for all my services to expire, so didn't need it.

The second domain was due to expire in January and the third - the one I want to keep, but with someone else - this week. So I logged in and noticed they had taken money from my card to renew the domain! Checked my credit card statement and they did the same in January too! Both the domains have been renewed!

I've phoned egg and complained, and they are sending me some forms to sign to dispute the transactions. However, it will cause me a major headache as now the domain has been renewed, I can't buy it from a different company and I can't transfer it. So, any ideas as to how I can make life as difficult as possible for them in return? They don't answer emails and there is no phone number for them, so I'm specifically thinking have they comitted fraud or theft? Would I be better off instead of getting the money back through egg threatening them with the small claims court and put a condition on they remove the lock on my domain so it can be transferred? Ideas on a postcard please!

You can transfer to godaddy.com for $6.95 which includes a year and any time left with your current domain host. Just another option for you.

tripled

I haven't checked this thread for a couple of days, so I was surprised (and pleased!) to see the resposnes.

In fairness aside from my unhappinnes with the autorenewal system, their customer service has improved from my memory - I'm sure they never used to have a telephone number, working live support or answered their emails. You still don't get a response if you contact "support@" but emailing "billing@" does.

They have refunded my renewal charges, and I have received them on my credit card (although one of their advisors emailed me to say I shouldn't have been refunded). However they are still saying I need to pay to transfer my domain. When I originally tried to transfer, my emails to their CS were to unlock my domain were completely ignored, which is why in the end I decided to let it expire and then renew it with a new provider. Risking losing the domain isn't a major issue as it's only used for email.

Thanks for your suggestion richt71, but I already have a website and another domain name registered with 4uhosting, and I want everything in the same place.

I shall email Ditlev tomorrow and hopefully everything will soon finish being sorted

Paul_Herring

I find it a bit suspicious that the CEO of a company joins MSE just to post two posts to two different threads regarding their company. Other thread here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=426974

It must be a very small company, and they're reselling packages.

dangeroussports

Slightly off topic but you should pay using your tesco clubcard you'll get points

Ditlev

Paul_Herring wrote: »

I find it a bit suspicious that the CEO of a company joins MSE just to post two posts to two different threads regarding their company. Other thread here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=426974

While you might find that "suspicious" - most of our clients tend to like it. I actually care about whats being said about us out there. In these web2.0 days, forums like these are important.

It must be a very small company, and they're reselling packages.

UK2 has been around since 1998, we have sold more than 1 million domains, and we have more than 3000 servers under management. I have 40 people working for me. We are major shareholders of Redbus Telecity, which operates 35 datacenters throughout Europe.

We are not reselling anything, but we have 100's of webhosting companies reselling our services.

Just because I am the CEO of a company I can still care, why shouldn't I? And I do think many of my competitors are loosing out from not joining in at this level. Most companies of UK2's size leave this stuff to their PR agencies or marketing assistants.


Ditlev