Why Webhosting.uk.com Sucks–Part 2

This is a continuation from Why Webhosting.uk.com Sucks – Part 1

In this post I will be discussing and reviewing my biggest grievance with Webhosting UK Com Ltd.

When it came to cancelling my services with them I put in a request to cancel it and expected to have the remaining time (25 days out of 30 which had been pre-paid) to be refunded on a prorated basis. As per their terms of service.

Their terms state:

Refund requests after 30 days will be refunded on a prorated basis of any unused time.

 

I thoroughly checked terms and there is NO limitation on VPS services or any other clause. So I expected that I would have been able to get the remaining time refunded with no problem, particularly considering I was leaving due to their poor service.

However this ended up turning into a lengthy dispute with the company, directly with Jenna Strong (Company Sectary) and John Strong (Managing Director).

They argue that they only provide refunds on a monthly basis, and because I didn’t have a full month remaining I couldn’t get it refunded. This seemed very unfair and a break of the terms which I agreed to, and which was a key reason to why I initially signed up.

After numerous tickets back and forth with Jenna, I emailed John Strong the MD in an attempt for someone to recognise the error in judgement on their part, his response:

Hello Dan,
Thank you for your e-mail.
I was already aware of this matter and it was me who informed Jenna when this was brought up.
Our packages are sold on a monthly, semi-annually and annual basis. We don’t sell packages on a daily or weekly basis and we therefore don’t issue refunds for unused weeks or days. We don’t classify weeks or days as an unused period and we never have done. We apply the same policy to all customers and I’m unaware of any other previous complaints. Webhosting UK COM Ltd is one of the most flexible webhosting companies when it comes to terms and conditions, particularly refunds. We offer an unconditional 30 day money back guarantee within the first 30 days of purchase on all plans other than Dedicated Servers. If a customer has paid on an annual basis for any hosting plan, we will always refund the remaining months should a customer request to cancel.
To be perfectly honest, I think you are being very unreasonable. However, should you wish to forward your complaint and our subsequent communication to Trading Standards, you may feel free to do so. I’m very satisfied that our Terms & Conditions are amongst the fairest in the industry and I don’t feel the need to change our policy or make a special exception for you.
Kind Regards,
John Strong
Managing Director
Webhosting UK COM Ltd

I naturally responded to this pointing out the issues with the stance, such as the fact that there is NO limitations mentioned on the website or Terms of the monthly clause, and that the recognised business & legal definition of pro-rated is normally by day, not month unless otherwise stated (which is wasn’t).

It is also worth noting that the Bodhost Terms state VERY clearly the monthly limitation which they are also applying to Webhosting UK – which kind of disputes the fact the webhosting uk terms are satisfactory don’t you think? Why make it clear on one but not the other?

I also made an enquiry with Consumer Direct (Part of the Office of Fair Trading) who after reviewing my complaint & webhosting UK Com Ltd’s terms of service concluded:

Having viewed the companies website it does appear that they should offer a refund for any unused time according to section 8.1 of their terms of service.

The complaint was also forwarded to Trading Standards for their own information & investigative purposes. It should also be noted that it was advised if direct communication with them was unsuccessful in reaching a resolution (which it obviously wasn’t) I can take the issue to court, where I would likely win.

Unfortunately as satisfying it would be to take a dishonest company such as Webhosting UK Com Ltd to court, it is currently not worth the time and costs. After all, I do have a honest business to run…

Please take this as a warning, anyone looking to use Webhosting UK Ltd should be aware of the dishonest ways they do business. A company which cannot honour their terms of service, provide decent, honest support is not someone worth spending your hard earned time and money on.