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“Deceptive use of subscriptions on average web hosting”

written by timpwbaker on 31/07/2015

An average hosting service. Regular short downtime and only one SQL database can be annoying, but support is ok and it's simple to use. However be aware of their deceptive use of subscriptions. I thought I was purchasing 12 months web hosting from one.com, and when I no longer needed it ignored their renewal notices. Little did I know one.com had signed me up to a subscription service (something they tuck away in the Ts and Cs).

So you can imagine my shock when I received a notice from a debt collection agency, I mean, I thought that kind of action was limited to payday lenders.

I got in touch with customer services and expected them to say 'sorry you didn't realise it was a subscription, we think our messaging is clear but we can see you haven't used your account in 4 months, of course we'll waive the charges." But no. Only after an extensive conversation with complaints where I was made to feel an idiot for not reading the terms and conditions I managed to get the debt collection case closed but still had to pay the renewal fee for a subscription service I didn't think I'd signed up to.

To show that they are not clear, here is the itemised invoice for my initial purchase. Prize for anyone who can see the word subscription:

Order details:

Date: Apr 1, 2014

You have ordered the following:

Discount - Web Space Small (5 GB) for first 12 months - 10.80

Discount - Domain transfer (.co.uk) -2.00

Domain transfer (.co.uk) 2.00

Setup fee 9.00

+VAT 20% 1.80

Total in GBP: 10.80