1and1 a big scam?

[PrimoTurbo]

A while ago I got the 1and1 6 month free deal and now they sent me an invoice by email and they want me to pay for the last several months with a credit card. I don’t even own a credit card and I had no idea you had to cancel the account after the 6 months. I went to the cancel form (which was hard to find) and they require me to mail or fax some form, which is a big hassle for me because I don’t feel like paying money to mail or fax something to them. I don’t even have a fax machine, and I have to do this in seven days or the account doesn’t cancel. Why would they need this anyway? Looks like they are making it as hard as possible and I never needed to sign anything in order to sign up, I did however receive some automated call.

I’ve heard they forward it to a collection agency, can they really force me to pay? The fee is under $30 USD. They have my name and phone number and part of my address, but other details like my postal code are incorrect and part of my address is not full.

Can they really do anything besides contact me? What would a collection agency do, they don’t even know my full identity…

Any suggestions or help? Can I just ignore them and tell them to leave me alone if they call?

[PrimoTurbo]

Hasn't anyone had the same issue with 1and1? The offer was posted here, what did you guys do? I really need some help.

[ainsane]

did you read the contract before agreeing to it? and maybe wait more than 16 minutes before expecting a reply...........

[PrimoTurbo]

No I didn't read it, I know I should have.

[ainsane]

No I didn't read it, I know I should have.

well then pay them the money, its most likely in the contract. just like if you dont cancel AOL after the free trial... they start billing u.

[HowEver]

No I didn't read it, I know I should have.

And have you read it now!?

[gon9925]

I can't belive you bumped your thread within 16mins.
There should be an auto ban for that.

Pay up, it's your own fault for not reading the contract.

[KennethToronto]

You get what you pay for? In this case, it was supposedly free. But I've had enough bad experiences with these companies.

Blah...I get my hosting from a small company. Decent price, decent package. I don't think they've had any downtime for the past year.

[PrimoTurbo]

I still haven't read it because I can't find it. I figured they will cancel the account after 6 months because I didn't enter any credit card details. How can they just charge me if they don't have my billing info? I've had a lot of hosts before this and none of them did something this stupid.

Also they sent me an email after the 6 months which said.

"To ensure a smooth upgrade, you will need to enter your credit card
details before the expiration date listed above. Just log in to your 1&1
Control Panel, access the 'My Account' page, then click 'User
Settings' > 'Credit Card Details'."

So wtf, they don't have my credit card details they can't just upgrade me to some $9.99 and expect me to pay after 3 months. It's such a hassle to cancel with them, they are a bunch of crooks.

[PrimoTurbo]

I can't belive you bumped your thread within 16mins.
There should be an auto ban for that.

Pay up, it's your own fault for not reading the contract.

And how exactly can I pay if I have no credit card, what the hell do they expect.

[ainsane]

And how exactly can I pay if I have no credit card, what the hell do they expect.

You can mail them a cheque or send an EMT. Read the contract next time before coming on here and crying about it. No one's to blame but yourself.

And how about instead of replying more than once in different messages... reply all in the same message.

[PrimoTurbo]

ainsane: My bad, I don't post here much. Sorry.

I just realized they want me to pay in the next 7 days for the next 3 months. Which basicly means I don't own them any money because I haven't used the service.

I've emailed them and used the online form and told them to cancel my account, I realize they can't do much at this point. They purposley made it hard for people to cancel an account so they can try to force them to pay, even if they forward this somewhere I doubt they will have much luck making me pay a head of time for a service I haven't yet used.

The site I had up was some crappy phpbb forum with like 3 people, using less then 25mb of bandwith a month, why would I pay to keep something like that up? I have deleted all the content from the site and just waiting what they have to say.

Also you can't send them any cheques, you need a credit card.

"Double click on the attached file to view the invoice and print out a hard-copy for your records. The amount shown will be debited from your credit card on file in the next 7 days. Please do NOT send us a check."

[P__S__2]

well then pay them the money, its most likely in the contract. just like if you dont cancel AOL after the free trial... they start billing u.

Ya i remember that a long time ago. I started to get billed for it. I didnt even use it.

[PrimoTurbo]

Ya i remember that a long time ago. I started to get billed for it. I didnt even use it.

Exactly my problem here, so what ended up happening in your case? Did you follow the stupid cancel fax/mail/pay them or did you just ignore them?

[MtX]

Crap.. I did that one or three free year thing too.. I hope I dont get billed.. when and how do I cancel?