1and1 Steals Your Money.

[Louis11]

I don't feel like retyping my story, so here is a letter sent to 1and1 moments ago:

To whom it may concern,
My name is Louis (Account #13******). I have been hosted with you for over two years (mostly against my will). In the (end) of the summer of 2007 I purchased hosting from your company for a 6 month period for a website a friend and I wanted to setup. Unfortunately this website did not make it the full 6 months and by the end of this period, our site was no longer active. In error, I neglected to cancel the account and as a result the account was renewed for another 6 months. Understanding that this was my personal error, I paid for the hosting and decided to use it for the next 6 months as a development environment. At this point I made sure that I put in a cancellation request at http://cancel.1and1.com. I completed the process and verified my cancellation request by email; I requested the account be canceled by the next renew date. Thinking everything was taken care of, I forgot about the matter.

On January 22, 2008 I received another bill for your services. I thought, perhaps there was some sort of mix up and a simple call would rectify the problem. I called billing that evening and requested that my account be canceled. I was informed that I had to do it online, at which point I sated I had already done that (6 months ago). He asked a few questions about my account, and after some time told me explicitly that he had canceled my account and that I would be receiving a prorated refund for the charge I had just incurred that day. Somewhat naively, I again thought the matter had been resolved and forgot about it.

Yesterday (July 23, 200 I received yet another charge for your services. I called yesterday to see what was going on, and after being forwarded back and forth between your billing and cancellation departments I finally reached a representative (I did not catch her name) who discussed my cancellation. She stated that cancellation needed to be done online, I told her that I had already done that and she told me very condescendingly that "Yea, well you probably didn't do it right". I informed her that I had called and requested to be canceled and she told me "yea, well we don't do that". After some time, she wouldn't even let me get a word in without cutting me off and raised her voice to the point where I asked to speak with her supervisor.

I was on hold for approximately 20 minutes before I finally spoke with the supervisor. Again, I did not catch his name (I was very frustrated, and wanted this resolved immediately . . . He worked July 22, 2008 at your US offices at 3:30 PM in the billing department). I started to explain things to him and he cut me off stating "I already know the story". I tried to reason with him, but he too would not let me get a word in. Finally he stated that "He would not be canceling my account and would not be giving me a refund." He then informed me that he would not be continuing this conversation and hung up on me.

I am not upset with the initial charge as it was my error, and quite frankly I am not upset about the second charge. I am however extremely upset about the third and final charge incurred on my account yesterday. I have requested this account be canceled numerous times, without success. I am also very angry with your extremely poor customer service and the way that I was treated by your supervisor. Hanging up on a customer (whose credit card you are now charging without their consent) is simply unacceptable and is downright theft. Regardless of how you look at it, blatantly refusing to remove my credit card is absurd.

I have again filed for cancellation through your website, and took screen shots of the entire process and have printed all emails associated with the cancellation this time.

I have filed a complaint with the better Better Business Bureau (where you have an unsatisfactory rating), The Federal Trades Commission and have sent a letter to the Attorney General. I have also filed a credit dispute with your company, and changed my credit card number (just so you will stop billing me!). I will take this as far as necessary to get it resolved. I am a web developer, and have many connections and clients who are familiar with your service. I will ensure they hear my story. I am expecting a full refund for the months of January - July amounting to $59.00 and a formal letter apologizing for the actions of your supervisor/customer service.

I will also be physically mailing this letter.