Chargeback options over credit note?

dukeybabes

I have been a long-term customer of a web hosting firm that is now TSO Host.

Recently, due to price changes and an impending renewal date where these prices would kick in, I tried to downgrade my packages from web hosting to email only. I was told that they could not downgrade. I would need to buy new packages and transfer across the domain (e.g. the user-friendly name like moneysavingexpert.co.uk), they said. I was advised to do that, and only once the new email accounts were up and running, would it be safe to cancel the old hosting accounts. This conversation was initiated on 18th May ahead of a 23rd May renewal, albeit it took TSO customer service agents 48 hours to reply to messages.

I bought the new email accounts on the day before renewal (22nd May). The setup process claimed that the new email accounts would be up and running in 90 minutes. It actually took 60 hours. This meant that the auto-renewal of the hosting accounts kicked in. Once the email accounts became active and I had ensured that everything was good (28th May), I cancelled the hosting accounts and asked for a full refund (about £120 inc. VAT). It's maybe worth noting that the hosting accounts were unusable at this stage anyway because the associated domains were now pointed towards the email accounts.

Since then, TSO Host has refused a refund. Their customer representatives have told me:

1) a refund is not possible

2) a refund is possible, but maybe not the full amount

2) a refund is not possible per the T&Cs, but I could get a credit note

In all honesty, a credit note is useless to me. I've no real desire to continue using TSO Host after the faff of the past two weeks and will likely move my business elsewhere this time next year when the email packages are up for renewal. Additionally, it does look like the T&Cs do say no refunds on renewals, but my argument would be that I tried to downgrade packages five days prior to renewal and a combination of lengthy customer service reply times and an automated process that took 60 hours instead of 90 minutes and the renewal should never have gotten to the stage where it became active.

Is a chargeback on my debit card appropriate here? And is it likely to be successful?

[Deleted User]

Any chargeback would be reversed, based on what you've said about the terms.

dukeybabes

Even though I tried to downgrade the packages prior to the renewal date, the hosting package became useless before the renewal kicked in and there's a line of communication with TSO staff around this? That seems awfully draconian.

visidigi

To be assumed this is a B2B transaction given the mention of plus VAT move my business elsewhere etc?

dukeybabes

No, this is a personal thing. The cost of services is about £95 without VAT. Moving my business elsewhere means that I'll look elsewhere for email-only hosting plans and not give TSO further money.

born_again

dukeybabes said:

I have been a long-term customer of a web hosting firm that is now TSO Host.

Recently, due to price changes and an impending renewal date where these prices would kick in, I tried to downgrade my packages from web hosting to email only. I was told that they could not downgrade. I would need to buy new packages and transfer across the domain (e.g. the user-friendly name like moneysavingexpert.co.uk), they said. I was advised to do that, and only once the new email accounts were up and running, would it be safe to cancel the old hosting accounts. This conversation was initiated on 18th May ahead of a 23rd May renewal, albeit it took TSO customer service agents 48 hours to reply to messages.

I bought the new email accounts on the day before renewal (22nd May). The setup process claimed that the new email accounts would be up and running in 90 minutes. It actually took 60 hours. This meant that the auto-renewal of the hosting accounts kicked in. Once the email accounts became active and I had ensured that everything was good (28th May), I cancelled the hosting accounts and asked for a full refund (about £120 inc. VAT). It's maybe worth noting that the hosting accounts were unusable at this stage anyway because the associated domains were now pointed towards the email accounts.

Since then, TSO Host has refused a refund. Their customer representatives have told me:

1) a refund is not possible

2) a refund is possible, but maybe not the full amount

2) a refund is not possible per the T&Cs, but I could get a credit note

In all honesty, a credit note is useless to me. I've no real desire to continue using TSO Host after the faff of the past two weeks and will likely move my business elsewhere this time next year when the email packages are up for renewal. Additionally, it does look like the T&Cs do say no refunds on renewals, but my argument would be that I tried to downgrade packages five days prior to renewal and a combination of lengthy customer service reply times and an automated process that took 60 hours instead of 90 minutes and the renewal should never have gotten to the stage where it became active.

Is a chargeback on my debit card appropriate here? And is it likely to be successful?

As you did not cancel before renewal, there is not a chargeback option.

Sadly you should have started the changeover process sooner than the day before renewal.

dukeybabes

This is frustrating. In my opinion, the process started on May 18th when I asked for my hosting packages to be downgraded and had a prolonged conversation (that took several days of back and forth) with the customer service dept. about how to achieve this. I think that's a reasonable amount of time to make those changes on systems that are normally automated. I acted as quickly as possible to enact those changes once the information was made available to me.

powerful_Rogue

They sound reasonable enough. Regarding the 90 minutes vs 60 hours  - propergation can take different amounts of time to go through. Also the hosting account would still be useable as you could have added another domain to it. No use to you, but to say it was completely useless is not correct.