As some of you are aware I moved my blog’s host and platform a month or so ago. I also moved my other blog (safarisuit.com) to the same host so I could consolidate everything. One of the reasons I moved the other blog was because I was running out of room to post stuff there and the hosting I’ve got now lets me have more than one website and I’ve got stacks of room.
So my year’s hosting was nearly up for the safari suit website and I’d been sent reminder notices about renewing the hosting and the domain. I pretty much ignored them because I didn’t plan to renew so I was pretty surprised when I received an email telling me that I’d paid for the domain and the hosting for another year.
I emailed them saying I didn’t want to update thank you very much and I would appreciate a refund. I got an email back saying that they don’t do this because of the terms under the automatic renewal policy. I promptly went in and cancelled my subscription but it obviously wasn’t quick enough.
When I first joined this web host I had to pay manually each year and I’d been doing this for three years. The automatic renewal policy came in within the last year and it wasn’t the sort of thing that I’d remembered. Why would I pay for hosting when I had it elsewhere.
This is part of what I wrote back:
“The email received from you notifying me of my renewal did not clearly specify that automatic renewal might be an option
- Your subscription safarisuit.com #nnnnnn period expires 30-Oct-2007. To renew your subscription please pay the renewal order. To view this order or subscription (if renewal order has not been generated yet) go to this address: (web address here)
To me ‘please pay the renewal order’ means that I would have to go in and manually pay it, which I have done in the past which is why I didn’t check my account. The words ‘(if renewal order has not been generated yet)’ are ambiguous and did not suggest to me that the process is automatic.”
I didn’t hear anything for a couple of weeks and I tried ringing them but got a voicemail box full message. What the f*&$*$? Meanwhile I’d been refunded the domain cost because that didn’t come under the automatic renewal policy.
With no response from the person I’d been dealing with and no way of ringing, I emailed support whose reply clearly showed they had not read the email I wrote to them. I replied to them saying I’d like the person I’d been dealing with to please contact me because the money I’d paid wasn’t a trivial amount to me and I wanted a response.
I finally got a response from them this week saying that upper management had agreed to refund the money. Thank goodness for that. I fired off a quick thank you email but the whole experience has soured me toward them and where I’ve recommended them in the past I won’t be in the future.
Lesson learned. If I want to cancel something I’ll make sure that it’s actually done, not just assume that it’s done because that’s how I think it’s done. Another lesson learned – don’t trust that emails received are clear and concise in spelling out exactly what needs to be done on my part. I wonder if my old web host has now changed its renewal email.
Along a similar vein, just after my move with this blog to different host my Typepad account was due for renewal. I did cancel it but because of the time difference my next montly payment went through. Typepad were really good, and quick, about it and refunded my monthly fee.
