Cancelling contract with 1&1

chaos1976

OK Basically last August I signed up for for a web hosting package with the 1&1 ISP. I signed up on there website via an offer that gave me the first 3 months free if I signed up for a 12 month contract.

Back in MarchI found out I no longer needed the package so I went through there cancellation process and told them to cancel the contract at the end of my current contract, which is August of this year. This is all fine so far as I signed up for a 12 month contract.

Now how billing goes at 1&1 is they bill you in 6 month blocks, so my contract went like this -

3 months free - invoice for 6 months - and the last invoice in May was for another 6 months. This to me would indicate I had a 15 month contract which I didn't sign up for.

I have contacted there billing department explaining all this and finally got them to understand and was promised a refund. A month later and the refund hasn't been paid so I got in touch again. To get the following reply -

"Thank you for your call.

I know it seems confusing to you but you have to settle an invoice and
then you will refunded after your cancellation date as the system only
calculates a refund after the account has closed this is how 1 And 1 run
their payments on every account. Whether it is on minmum term or not."

So I will be getting the money back eventually but in the mean time there last invoice put me over my small credit card limit as I was expecting to to pay for 3 months instead of the 6 they charged me.

Any advice would be welcome.

Brian