I’m not normally an angry person (well I can be a bit grumpy sometimes), but having to deal with British Internet Service Provider Easyspace has got my goat this week.
It started with a couple of mystery payments on my credit card, which after having rung my credit card and Easyspace turned out to be for a website I built 11 months ago, that had been automatically renewed a month ahead of its due date.
Fair enough you might think. Unusual (not to mention cheeky) I thought, but that’s the way they work. It was also annoying as it was a site I was going to cancel anyway. The anger came when I tried to cancel the hosting.
The response, in a nutshell, was no way José.
You didn’t realised it renewed automatically? Tough cheese.
You didn’t get a reminder it was about to be renewed? Nah,we don’t send those.
You want to call some one to discuss? Nope, we only talk via emails chump.
So there it is – £60 pounds for a year’s hosting I didn’t want. But it’s all in the terms and conditions, so it’s basically legal theft.
The final irony? That’s significantly more expensive that most other hosting companies and, if you believe what you read online, their hosting that isn’t even that reliable.
Here’s the email exchange with Colin McGregor, Customer Services Manager at Easyspace. It won’t get me my money back but it might prevent one more sucker handing over their cash, and it makes me feel better.
28 January 2011 09:00Mr Catterfeld,
Customer Number: xxxxxxxxx
We have been asked to look into your account by our Support Team. I was sorry to hear that you are unhappy that we renewed your service automatically.
Our AutoRenew feature was implemented in January 2008 to safeguard customers’ valuable domain names and hosting packages. Prior to this, we received a lot of negative feedback from customers who had lost domains, websites and email services due to failed or late payments. Now, feedback is very positive as customers like the fact that they don’t have to worry about remembering to renew as it is happens automatically.
While I am sure you can now appreciate the benefits of our Auto Renew service, the choice to opt in or out of the Auto Renew scheme is open to you at all times. All you need do is login to your control panel (https://controlpanel.easyspace.com) then select ‘Services and Auto Renew’ from the menu on the left hand side of the control panel.
Full details of auto renew can be found in Section 3.10 of our Terms and Conditions: http://www.easyspace.com/about_easyspace/terms_conditions
Easyspace attempts to take Auto Renew payments 30 days in advance of the renewal date. This allows us to ensure timely registration and continuation of services when payments are successfully received. Prior to this, when payments failed (expired cards, insufficient funds etc), services were lapsing as we did not have enough time to make contact with the customer and arrange an alternative payment method.
As Easyspace have now incurred costs I regret we cannot offer a refund for the services that have auto renewed. We suggest you log into the control panel and remove services from Auto Renewal that you do not wish to renew automatically in the future.
As mentioned we get many comments from customers thanking us for safeguarding their services. We hope you understand our stance in this particular instance and thank you for your continued service.
Kind Regards,
Alyson Lamond
Customer Escalations
Easyspace Ltd
28 January 2011 09:15
Dear Alyson, thank you for your email.
Unfortunately your policy of automatic renewal a month in advance – which was set by default on my account – was not something I noticed when signing up for the account, and not something I would have accepted. I was well aware that my account was expiring next month and would have be contacting you in the next 30 days once I’d decided whether to renew.
Moreover I did not receive any communication from you warning me that the account was due to automatically renew.
I have a lot of experience with internet service providers and yours is the only company I have dealt with that automatically renews an account so far in advance.
I do not now wish to extend this hosting for a further year and insist my account be refunded. I am happy to discuss the costs you have incurred and come to an arrangement to compensate you for this if you cannot or will not give me a full refund.
I look forward to receiving your speedy response.
Regards, John Catterfeld
28 January 2011 09:43Hi
I am sorry to hear of the issues you are having with your account with Easyspace
Looking into your account in full I can see the information Alyson has provided is correct
I must point out we have 100,000s of customers and a large majority of them are on auto renew and are extremely happy with the service.
You did agree to the terms of service which clearly state the autorenew policy
We have had no indication that you wished to cancel these services and we have incurred costs, If services are on autorenewal we assume customers are aware of this so do not issue renewal notices
Unfortunately you are not entitled to a refund in this instance
Kind Regards,
Colin McGregor
Customer Services Manager
Easyspace Ltd
Tel : 44(0) 141 931 6400
28 January 2011 10:07
Colin, thank you for your response.
I have no doubt you have thousands of customer that are happy with your service, but this information is irrelevant to me. I am not happy with your service.
Furthermore your assumption was incorrect that I was aware of the auto-renewal, hence you had no indication that I wanted to cancel.
As mentioned in my previous email I am prepared to discuss the costs you may incur in providing a refund, but I consider this an offer I would not have to make to a professional, customer-focused company.
In addition can you please clarify what the “renewal period” is of which I read about on your website?
I am a successful, freelance web developer with many new clients asking for advice on the best hosting companies, and the effort I have already expended in this situation makes it difficult for me to give any positive feedback on easyspace. Hopefully we can resolve this situation to the satisfaction of both parties and I will be able pass a positive message about your brand to my clients.
Regards, John Catterfeld
28 January 2011 15:06HI
To confirm the renewal period for your domain package is 3 years and the renewal for your hosting package is 1 year
As I have explained we cannot issue a refund as you agreed to the renewal
If you plan to use other services with us please let me know what and I will arrange a discounted price for you
No refund will be issued
Kind Regards,
Colin McGregor
28 January 2011 15:35
Colin, I have never before encountered a company with such a gross disregard for customer satisfaction.
The correspondence received from your company has been matter-of-fact and dismissive in a situation where a professional company would be conciliatory. If held your position I would be embarrassed.
I only wish I’d done a simple search of your company before entering into any sort of contract with you; Google’s first page of result links to a damning review site of which I know you’re aware. You should be embarrassed with 1.2 out of five average rating.
I am certain easyspace has been in this situation before and your terms and conditions will likely be well tested legally. I will however be assessing my options in this situation and as promised will be doing all I can to highlight your company’s failings within the wider internet community, and to a situation I consider nothing more than legal theft.
Hi,
I don’t mean to be cheeky. I found your ‘blog the other day. I stumbled across the firefox refresh page.
But….
I use Easyspace for a domain name (only – no hosting) and I’ve never had a problem with them. They renew my domain each year until I tell them otherwise. When I had hosting with them it was the same. It’s the same with my phone and electricity bills. If I fail to tell BT or EON that I want out of my contract then they continue it.
I don’t know about your phone contract but mine has a sixty day period of notice (as, I believ does my Easyspace contract). I used to have hosting with them – moved because it was cheaper elsewhere – but understood that if I didn’t specifically cancel it then it would be ‘auto’ renewed. It is in the terms I agreed to. I might be a weirdo for actually reading those terms and conditions before ticking the box but in the end it is worthwhile.
Again – don’t want to sound cheeky, but if you never cancelled the service then I can’t see what you actually expect.
I also have a web design business and have used Easyspace personally, but not professionally. I know from my work that 1 and 1 also have an autorenew policy (I think it is also 30 days in advance like the Easyspace one).
I’m quite surprised that they even offered you a discounted future service. I wouldn’t have.
I hope you can reach a resolution with them, I just thought I would give my experience and expectations.
Hi,
I find it very strange that you have not encountered any problems from Easy Space. If this is truly the case, then you must either a) represent a very small minority, b) work for Easy Space in the PR department or c) Have yet to be a victim like the rest of us.
Easy Space have a good presentation that can entice you to part with your hard earned cash. Their level of customer service is lousy, they lie, and they only time they chase up issues is when they can get more money from you.
Please do not use their servers or web design services. Make note, that Easy Space don’t have Youtube, Twitter or Facebook links, as this will accelerate the rapid decline of their business!
Like Michael I have never had a problem with Easyspace, and no I don’t work in PR. Your post on the other hand sounds like a load of nonsense, I broke my server once (unlike some on this page I can admit I make mistakes) by upgrading the kernel and they built me a whole new server and restored everything to it from the broken one for me free of charge. So I won’t hear a bad word about them, they saved my ass. But what I really found funny and caused me to respond was, “this will accelerate the rapid decline of their business”, since I only just finished my copy of the Sunday Times at lunch today and it recommends buying stock in this rapidly declining business. Your like a disgruntled ex hoping (and believing against evidence if required) their former partner is miserable without them. So thanks for the giggle.
Easyspace stole my money!
This company are absolute thieves, I got a paid invoice for a domain renewal a whole month before it was due, the cost was at least 3 times more expensive than UK cheapest and so I immediately called them to stop the payment.
They said it was too late as the payment had already been made, I complained and said that there was still a full month to go before the renewal but they would not give back my money.
I have now cancelled all my renewals and are moving them all over to UK cheapest.
I have also found out that Easyspace will charge me £18.00 each for transferring my own 13 domain names away after all these years of being with them.
So now I have to start a bank charge back and would like to warn other people from using Easyspace.
They could start to repair customer relations by at least not charging me to get my own paid for domains back, but reading all the other complaints on the web about this company, Hell would freeze over first!
I intend to post my comments on as many Easyspace review pages as possible to warn other people from dealing with Easyspace and maybe they might just realise what they are doing to their business by treating customers simply as a cash cow.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! – STAY AWAY!!
For anyone who is going through moving their domains over to a new host. you do not have to pay Easypace £18 for the privilege. All you do is ask nominet to help you for around £2 a domain. Fill in a few forms etc al. After all that is all they are doing and you do not need to be a host provider to do it. They are not an ISP! They are a host provider with a bunch of servers.
Quite frankly in my opinion Easyspace are the worst hosting service I have ever come across. I thought Servage had taken that crown, but no! I am working with a client to build a new wordpress site. The issues have been endless. I’ve carried out all the usual checks one would to make sure it is not WordPress, the theme and so on.
It is simply a server side time out and memory issue. Will they admit it – no. Will they help and fix it – 15 days and still waiting. Today my client called up and ripped an ear off them. Next we’re moving everything over to a new host provider. And when the contract runs out goodbye Easy Space.
Interestingly my client could approach Easypspace for a refund of the remaining contract, break of clause – because they have broken their contract and not provided the support they say they should.
Thanks for your reply Michael – it’s not cheeky at all!
I’m pleased you’ve had good experiences with Easyspace, but have you ever had cause to deal with their customer service?
Of course I’m not surprised by their auto-renewal – as you say, it’s a common feature of most subscriptions, and my own fault for not paying attention to the Ts and Cs. But I was surprised (and angered) but their communication (and I’m sure this comes across in the blog as I wrote it straight after finishing speaking to them).
I found them unapologetic and dismissive and unwilling to even consider the idea of a refund – full or partial. Alienating customers like this cannot be a viable long term business strategy?!
Anyway, I appreciate you taking the time to respond, but there’ll be no resolution – they’ve wiped their hands of me and taken the money and run.
John
I have just had exactly the same issue with easyspace. and exactly the same responses. Colin McGregor who professes to be a “Customer Services Manager” doesn’t know the meaning of any of thise three words. I am so angered that I am now seeking legal redress. Everyone has an option to cancel and seek a refund.
Even worse, I tried to transfer my domains to find they charge £15 per domain to transfer out.
No wonder their turnover has increased 618% last year!
If you would like, I would be happy to include you in our legal action?
Hiya,
I noticed you following me on Twitter. Easyspace are an awul company to deal with in my experience – you have my sympathy.
I would suggest you contact your credit card company and issue a chargeback. As you didn’t enter the card details for the transaction, this will be easy for them to action. I have done it several times with other hosts who, like Easyspace, operate stealth renewal methods. I’ve never been refused. If your CC do refuse then kick up a fuss and threaten to go to the Financial Ombudsman.
If it’s a debit card do not think all is lost. I would still ring the bank and tell them it’s an unauthorised transaction. You may wish to take advice from the Money Saving Expert website or the Consumer Action Group re debit charge backs.
I have a chargeback going through for Easyspace at the moment following some iffy domain transfer charges. I shall be blogging about that today hopefully, time permitting.
Good luck!
Abbie
Mate – you want to be careful saying “legal theft” – these guys could come after you!
I completely agree with the term legal theft. There is nothing illegal they are doing but I have also had a very similar experience with the original poster as well as others I know. ‘auto renew’ was very subtly added to my account even after specifically saying I didn’t want the service. I brought a new domain at some point and boom everything renewed. I noticed just a day or two after renewal that they had charged my *new debit card
I agree with Abbie and John, easyspace are a horrible company to deal with and their customer service is none existent.
That Colin McGregor has been working their for a while now, I remember having a full scale argument with that toss pot on the phone a couple of years ago. I don’t know who died and made him a Customer Services Manager as he is the most useless, ignorant, inconsiderate ass going.
My experience of easyspace is this; their service and services aren’t all that great; there are loads of other companies out there on par with them and way ahead of them in both customer service relations, charges and hosting performance.
easyspace are just a bunch of money grabbing sneaky conniving shit bags and the only reason they probably still have any customer base is due to fact that they have that extortionate charge they hit you with when you try to leave them and transfer away, which is just at that price that makes you think….
…”Oh shit that’s so expensive, perhaps I’ll just stay with them and get screwed again next year, the year after that and the year after that too”
I’m currently transferring two sites away from them greedy bastards..
If you’re looking for hosting definitely look elsewhere, I wouldn’t recommend anyone to use easyspace especially friends or family.
Another thing to note if you’re looking for hosting, DO NOT get drawn in to that easyspace free hosting bollocks if you transfer over to them; yeah you will get free hosting for a year but all through that year you will experience the slowest server ever which makes the browsing of your site a very painful experience.
Come the end of that year you will feel like me and want to transfer away and then get hit with a stupid ass extortionate transfer fee, that YES they did mention in their T’s & C’s but unfortunately didn’t advertise as boldly and clear on the home page amongst all the goodies; in fact that didn’t mention that anywhere on the main page, why’s that then?
Because they’re in it to win it….
You’ve been warned.
I agree with you most wholeheartedly what a horrible incompetent bunch of people easyspace are. (I was going so say tossers, but that would be impolite on a public website)
We’ve had no end of problems with them with mail forwarding settings being lost with subsequent lost and irretrievable mail. Whatever, the problem, it’s never their fault, despite the fact that all the things that go wrong happen without any action on our part.
We unfortunately ended up with easyspace when the company we originally registered our domains with, nicnames, were taken over by them.
When my webspace comes up for renewal, I will be moving to WebhostUK, who I have used for another site I’m involved with and with whom, I’m happy to say, things just work as they should.
Andy
I just fell into the same trap. 🙁
Paid 31 pounds for the first year and was hit with an automatic renewel fee of 61. To be honest, same thing happened to me with the AA.
I do agree that it is pretty much robbery though and I think people should be made aware of charges before they take payment. i.e. When they take first payment, you should be asked if they can use these details for subsequent payments.
Anyway, I can also agree that name easyspace now leaves a very bad taste in my mouth and as with the AA, I have not and will not ever recommend their service to anyone.
Still I am going to write my complaints to easyspace too. They only took payment today…
Good luck Thilo with getting any sort of polite, customer-friendly response from them! Let us know if, by some miracle, you have a positive outcome.
I’ve had similar problems with Easyspace. I manually bought a domain name and renewed it twice – each time for 2 years. I did not intend to renew at the end of January 2011 and was surprised to see money come out of my credit card 1 month before the renewal date. I had no idea that my account had any kind of auto renewal on it.
Having been a customer for 6 years I thought this would be a simple issue for them to cancel the domain and make a refund. Unfortunately after contacting Easyspace I received the same standard emails from the same people as you did and refusal to make any refund.
My credit card company’s disputes department would only go by Easyspace’s terms and conditions. However, after making a formal complaint to my credit card company I received a full refund plus significant compensation. This is because I was able to demonstrate that the agreement I had with Easyspace included statements on its purchase screen and invoices (below) indicating renewal is a manual process. In additioncontinuous payment authorities (a term I had not previously heard of) are typically used for monthly payments and the payments would not normally be two years apart. Further, I had not received notification from Easyspace regarding the change in its terms and conditions, which, when copied to MS Word in full, totalled 47 pages.
The purchase screen I used contained the sentence “You will be sent renewal notices to renew” and did not mention auto renewal. At the bottom of all of my invoices was the statement “You can renew via your control panel or by contacting our renewals team. We accept no responsibility for your failure to renew”.
I asked Easyspace to make auto renewal more prominent on the purchase screens, to get a clear indication from customers that they want to sign up to auto renewal and to send an email reminder before the auto renewal occurs. These suggestions would ensure that the company followed the Data Protection Automatic Renewals Good Practise Note. As I am not satisfied that Easyspace will follow the good practise note I have made a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office. My hope is this will ensure no other customers endure the stress I have been through over the last 4 months.
I got exactly the same standard letters just now after web hosting was renewed (without prior notice). I had actually cancelled the autorenew as I knew I was going to change providers at the end of the year. Unbelievable way to treat a customer of many years. Why cause so much damage to one’s business name? When I started looking on the web Easyspace seem to have created a lot of unhappy bunnies. I was fairly neutral about them before this – now I would never use them again.
I completely agree – my experience with Easyspace has been far worse. I renewed and paid for a .net domain and THEY REGISTERED it to someone else!! It took weeks for me to find this out and then further days to prove it to Easyspace. In response they offered me a free domain name – hardly a compensation. However, the kicker is: they never gave me the free domain. I’ve given up dealing with them.
They are rated very low on all independent reviews. 1 star out of 5. http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews8672.html
Typical charge for new domain: less than £10.
Charge for renewal: £40
Charge for trying to transfer to another provider: £45.
Please don’t get taken in, they are not a customer-focused company.
Eric
Hey,
I just found this on google after a frustrating morning with Easyspace.
Have you noticed that you are now unable to turn off auto-renew via their website!
I received an e-mail from them saying that they had auto-renewed an old domain name so I logged on to my account to cancel the rest and you can no longer do it!
What a bunch of ***************************
Imagine that with anyother service, ‘nope you’ve signed to this gas / electric service and now you’re stuck with it for life’. This does seem very improper ~ they obviously don’t care about their customers are are just interested in screwing as much money out of you as possible!
Hi,
The problem with Easy Space aka Waste Of Space as they are commonly known, is that they are jack of all trades and cowboys in every single one of them!!
As a domainer, in the past I registered with the likes of Virtual Internet now Active 24, Namesco, Simply Names, 123-Reg amongst many others.
The best company I have found, for both pricing, customer services, ease of use on the control panel, transferring domain names in and out (With no fee), and managing domains is at http://www.domainmonster.com.
You will have no complaints from them as all they do is Domain Registrars, they don’t no anything else about web designs, servers/hostings!
I have only been with Easyspace for one month and what a hassle. They keep blocking my paypal emails. As I am deaf, dealing with them on the TTY was such an issue as the customer services put the phone down on me after keeping me waiting for twenty minutes. I am disgusted with their service and they sure are a waste of space. I am closing my account with them and going to WebhostUk. My website is still being designed so that goodness for this. As I know that they don’t refund the money, they can keep it but I am going to report them to Watchdog. Please, don’t use them or recommend them to anyone.
Make sure that you close your account properly so that they don’t take any money from your bank account.
I cannot begin to express how much you should avoid this company. They lie, they cheat and they steal your money.
My problems began 6 weeks ago. I am a professional web designer and my clients had an existing website hosted with Easyspace. They could not remember their details to allow me to log in and change their website so I contacted Easyspace on their behalf with proof of who I was and proof of who my clients were. I also included proof they were the legal owners of their domain for good measure.
Easyspace told us we didnt own anything and locked us out. Furthermore they told us that it was owned by the previous web designers (a company that had long since gone out of business).
After 5 weeks of threatening and rude phonecalls and emails we managed to get access but were forced to buy a new hosting package. It took easyspace over a week to give us access to this package and allow us to upload a website. This should have taken no more than 24 hours from the time we purchased the new hosting package.
Once access was granted we discovered they had failed to match the domain to the hosting package and the name on the whois records was completely wrong.
We decided we had had enough. We were still within our rights to cancel the service under the Distance Selling Regulations as 7 complete days had not elapsed. I contacted Easyspace and told them to cancel everything immediately and refund my money for the hosting. I told them why we were not happy and informed them I would be moving to a new host.
The customer service reps response was “well good luck getting any money out of us. We never refund idiots like you”.
Furthermore, I have read in MANY other reviews that once they have your card details they will continue to charge you whether you have chosen auto renew or not. They will ignore requests to remove your card details from their systems and in their terms and conditions it states they have the right to charge you for services without notice and also the right to remove that service without notice or refund.
AVOID THIS COMPANY LIKE THE PLAGUE.
Easyspace are in my experience very slippery people to deal with and as has been mentioned above, their customer service is very very poor indeed.
Their initial pricing structure appears very competitive, but much like a lot of other service companies, you do tend to get what you pay for. If costs are ridiculously low, it stands to reason that the infrastructure is probably not in place to deal with clients in a professional manner. Of course if you don’t need customer service, then prices are cheap as, but if the proverbial hits the fan and you need to talk with someone, don’t expect it to be Easy, infact it’s downright Difficult!
I unfortunately have several domains registered through them, mainly though after my first domain registration through a company called Network Solutions back in 1999 which subsequently got transferred to Easyspace when it set up shortly afterwards (I don’t know why this occurred but I ran with it).
Service renewal costs vary with no rhyme or reason as to why you pay the stipulated amount, obviously VAT is added afterwards, but the fee structure doesn’t appear to have just that, a structure!
I then became fully aware of their fairly newish auto-renew system after one of my own domain renewal fees appeared on my credit card bill not one but TWO months ahead of the renewal date! I emailed to complain (as they have no telephone manner to speak of) and got no response. I immediately deselected auto-renew from all of my other services and monitor them myself (I am a grown-up, and know how to do this after all).
Ironically, one of my main email systems suddenly closed a few months back and when I called to find out why and how I was going to receive missing mail from important clients, it materialised that “DifficultSpace” had cocked up and had been providing me with free email accounts on one domain for 10 years, and in revamping their systems discovered this and switched me off! I was then essentially held over a barrel and asked to part with more cash to “upgrade” and “backcharge” my services to rectify THEIR mistake – I refused, set up mail forwarding to another domain and as each one comes up for renewal will be transferring them out to another provider.
I service boilers for a living, and I wouldn’t dream of servicing someone’s boiler for ten years, and then all of a sudden saying “oh by the way, I’ve been doing this job for ten years and you now owe me all this money!”
Easyspace I’m afraid are not to be recommended, and a few web designers I know don’t use them because they want their clients to have value for money not problems when things go wrong!
Sorry Easyspace, thumbs down.
they’ve just stolen my money too by sneakily adding a free trial onto my web service…ofcourse the free trial turns into a payment the month later….didn’t notice the money coming out of my account for several months…i never even used the service….
anyone want to join me in reporting them on actionfraud and watch dog. maybe we can even sue them…
Similar experiences. Autorenewed a service i didn’t want after I stupidly updated my card details to renew a service I did want. I asked for my money back and was met with similar emails from Colin McGregor.
I went in and set all my card details so that they expired and were unusable. I then got contacts every day for a service that I no longer wanted emails and calls to my mobile. This included emails telling me that my account was now overdue!
Does anyone know if these renewals come under the distance selling regs?
easyspace = terrible customer care
easyspace = terrible sevice
Moving to a new suuplier as soon as I can if they had treated me properly they would have got more “approved” renewals.
Watch dog sounds interesting.
i’ve had bad dealings with easyspace in the past. sold me domains for a good price for the first year, then basically locked me in to renewing with them for terrible prices after that. if i wanted to change, i had to pay them 60 quid or something ridiculous just to transfer.
would avoid like the plague, considering how cheaply and easily almost *everybody* else offers domains these days.
I’ve been with them since 2003 but have started to transfer elsewhere. Not had any renewal issues but I just checked very carefully to see that the remaining services are not on auto renew. I also updated my credit card details to rubbish to be on the safe side.
My issue with them is saying that a mySQL database I was using no longer exists. Now tell me how a normal user (without ‘DROP DATABASE’ priviledges) could achieve that. Their cretinous support droids are being unbelievably obtuse. I’ve just asked for my www logs (which other hosting companies make easily accessible through your control panel) as they claim a hacker could do it.
They show all the desperate money grabbing and incompetent signs of a company on the way down the pan.
Avoid, avoid, avoid!
Having a dingdong with them about this at the moment. They seem to have breached their own terms of service with me though… Sent me an email saying renewal has failed. Retried one day later and succeeded. Not, as they outline in their T&Cs,14days before expiration, and again at 7 days and 1 day. After the initial renewal failed, I assumed I’d have 14 days to cancel.
After all that’s what their terms are!
Apparently not.
Hi All,
Looks like I am not alone in this! massive auto renewal fee from Easyspace appeared on my debit card this morning £540 pounds. These services are not due to expire for another month and I was going to let them lapse.
I tried to call them over the weekend to cancel the auto renew when I discovered that I could not remove it from the control panel but they do not work over the weekend
Quick call to easyspace got the standard no refund wait 24 hrs for an email etc
So I have gone straight to my bank with an unauthorised transfer complaint after reading the many many complaints felt that this was the only option given the amounts involved.
That’s a heck of a bill – good luck! In the end I got my money back from my credit card company who contacted Easyspace for details of the transaction and were ignored. It was a good result to get my money back, but I’d rather Easyspace had been out of pocket than my bank.
Hi.
AdamL and john. I have also had this recent problem and dealing with Easyspace is like dealing with children no word of a lie. I’ve been caught out in this scam too.
AdamL – how did you get on with your unauthorised transfer complaint and how long did it take to resolve…IF it got resolved.
John, glad you got your money back. They have no right to do this, it’s just unfair. Anyone reading this please take note. Easyspace are far from the professional company that they portray themsleves as.
I will be visiting my bank tomorrow to register an unauthorised transfer complaint against them. I actually feel sick to have ever trusted them in the first place.
When visiting Easyspace’s website it has the look of a professional and even respectable company. Oh how looks can be deceiving.
Hi Mark
The answer is complicated as I actually needed to retain some of the services but not others, essentially I threatened legal action but with the sweetener that I retain the sevcies that I required.
I obtained a refund for the unneeded services and I hope played a part in the fact that you can now unselect auto renew in your control panel
Still terrible customer service which ever way you look at it
Adam L
I’ve used Easyspace for a while and never let them use automatic renewal. I get charged £3 per domain per renewal for that privilege. Manual renewal doesn’t increase their work, it just increases their clawback, but I think it is worth paying that to avoid their automatic renewal procedures.
I have noted Easyspace are becoming increasingly expensive for .com and .org domains, so I’ve moved the bulk of my business away from them. They seem to picking up too many 1 & 1 type of habits.
Hi
This post saved me from going to easyspace. Interestingly I received advice to go to easyspace from a person who works for UKFast as he said they are cheap and reliable. Does not seem so now.
Thanks
i have used easyspace for years, have multiple websites registered and hosted with them and many more domains without hosting (yet). I have always found their call center guys very helpful. i have never had a problem with ‘auto renew’, maybe because i can easily turn it off, its really not that difficult people. It takes only a few minutes to scan thru the links related to your account and its very easy to deselect auto renew.
In fact i find auto renew helpfull, i have built up alot of domains which i use to promote my business online – cheap advertising, no way do i want them to expire and as a heating engineer im not at a desk all day, if its busy i might not get to my pc for weeks!
I just think people are over reacting over something easily turned off and which im glad they have.
Dan
You’re missing the point- they autorenew and take the money without even a cursory email to inform the customer their about to be charged. They act stealthily because they realise a significant number of people would cancel the service before it was renewed and they want to trap them in another years unwanted contract.
You also CAN’T turn off auto renew from the control panel- you have to phone up and speak to them about it, in their office hours.
Dan – I’d recommend that you shop around and compare prices. I guarantee you are being over-charged by an order of magnitude.
Just realised I’ve been screwed by Easyspace twice. Am contacting my credit card company now after sending them emails which according to the above posts will have little affect…
I agree with you. I suffered same faith with Easyspace. It scammed me through terms & conditions fine print by autorenew services 30 days in advance and charged me double what I could have got.
I intend to move my services somewhere else on next renewal.
Easyspace sucks!
Readers please avoid it as much as you can.
While I do think that the autorenew feature is beneficial the fact you now have to phone and contact support rather than click a button is not excusable. I have a client recently billed for three domain names with hosting and whois privacy that they didn’t want.
Easyspace have become like a shop that rather than let you decide what you want to buy lets you get through the checkout and then demands payment for all the other stuff you’ve got it your bag that the teller sneaked in.
I’m now being required to pay for my transfer code so that I can move and pay 15% of what easyspace expects for a foreign domain name.
I have been with easyspace for over 5 years. I do not recall agreeing on any transfer out fees. That’s a rip off. I fond their customer service very unprofessional. Same applies to their policies. I paid 1 day after the deadline and they ahve already deleted all my mailboxes!!!
Now I am moving all my domains gradually to http://www.youritspace.com
and I am very pleased with them. Fast response ticket system with online chat. Free hosting option and super user friendly control panel with many features. I am very happy that I wont have to deal with easyspace anymore.
Hi John,
I have exactly the same situation.
Easyspace took my renewal via autorenew on 22nd December 2011.
My anniversary to renew is not until 20th January 2012.
No renewal reminder was received.
My company has ceased and I had no intention to renew the website.
But no refund.
They have got my money and intend keeping it.
As you say its LEGAL THEFT covered by their T&C’s.
Daylight robbery I say !!!!!
Don’t complain about things in your contract that are legal, complain about their out of date hosting packages which seem to date from around 1995. Now I like antiques as much as the next guy but when it comes to technology you kind need something a little newer than php4! not to mention no databases without paying a ridiculous monthly fee, an ftp host name that doesn’t resolve and 24 hours just to create a new sub domain! Seriously! All for about 5 times the price of any other modern hosting package. They must aim their products at the super naive, it’s the equivalent of buying a nokia 3310 for twice the price of an iphone.
I too am annoyed with the lousy service from Easyspace
Phoned them Friday to say when people try to look at my website all they get is a page from Easyspace to say its hosted with them. When they finally answeredmy call I got cut off after less than one sentance. Phoned again waited forever ….The guy I spoke to was lets say”off hand”. Hang on 2 mins…. OK its fixed now…. it will be working OK in a couple of hours. Well now 40 hours later its still not working. So more phone calls and holding on or shall I raise a ticket? Advice from you lot who seem to know how to deal with this far from customer orientated company.
But I did hear from them this morning !! An email to say we have taken £43.45 from your credit card. So checked my Control panel and see the same charge last year was £35.99
Can anyone explain how providing 512 MB of storage space jumps by 20.7% in one year when we are in a recession?
I have found easyspace to be one of the most dubious companies I have ever dealt with. I started hosting my personal site with them over 10 years ago, but I believe since then they have changed management. A few years back, I noticed their prices going up steeply – about the same time they stared pushing their auto-renew (surprise, surprise). Eventually, I got round to migrating off their packages. Like others here, I felt their fees for migrating away shameful, but gladly paid it to be rid of them.
However, what I amazed by is that they are *still* attempting to renew services that I have migrated away and that they no longer provide! I suspect that they rely on a proportion of their customers not keeping track and paying the renewal fees in a panic, not realising they’re no longer hosted with them. I have called, emailed, written and complained several times, but they continue to do it. My last service with them lapses in a couple of months, at which point I look forward to never dealing with them again.
At the peak, I had five sites with them, and it was over £250 a year for very basic hosting. I’m now with another provider and pay less than a fifth of that, and get much, much, better service. Yesterday I registered a domain and had a site up in no time. I would very much recommend if you with them, cut your losses and migrate away now. I’d even be tempted to help others migrate away – easyspace disgust me that much.
Question
Can anyone explain how providing 512 MB of storage space jumps by 20.7% in one year when we are in a recession?
Answer.
Their answer was ………… ” Our prices increase by plus £1.50 plus 15% each year
This is as per section 3.1 of our terms and conditions available at http://www.easyspace.com/terms. And when you click the link is says…………
Unfortunately the page you were looking for could not be found on our servers.
Splendid service !!!
The link to terms in post above now works.
Maybe they follow this thread
It doesn’t say anywhere their prices go up 20.7 % per year. Instead it says………
==============================================
Easyspace reserves the right to establish and review renewal prices at its own discretion.
==============================================
I wish I could treat my customers the same way. Bang up my prices by 20.7% each year without any explanation or justification. If I did I would fast find myself without any customers.
Hi John,
I have known for a long time about EASYSPACE and their legalised theft due to first hand experience too. I was asked to set up some things on our non profit website hosted by EASYSPACE and whilst logged into the control panel I noticed a lot of things that were not right. We were being charged around £30 per MySQL database. Our plan was old with limited features, however we were being charged a lot for it. We would have been better of on their most basic Easy starter plan and have got more webspace, bandwidth and email too! And to make things even worse I had noticed over the years that we were charged TWICE during the years for the hosting package! When I looked at transferring the domain elsewhere the fee was also expensive. Looking on the internet I have read that my case is not an isolated incident, and being charged twice for the same product is a common theme. As I was an IT professional, looking at the site for our non profit organisation, I reported my findings and recommendations. Thank you John for letting people know about your experience. We can only relate our experiences with a view to warning people and perhaps making EASYSPACE look at some of their unacceptable methods of operating.
I didn’t realise that my website was available , just by clicking on my name. Think better if that had been made clear when signing up. You say “your email will not be published ” – but dont say ” if you tell us your website it will be available to all and sundry. !!”
I’ve commented earlier about Easyspace’s £3 manual renewal fee, which I feel worthwhile to avoid getting trapped in their auto-renewal system. Their domain parking renewal fees are getting excessive nowadays and I use verio.co.uk and verio.com whose service is good, prices reasonable and they send out advance warning of renewal. Verio are owned by NTT the Japanese telecommunications giant.
Easyspace used to be good, but a few years ago they were taken over by a company called IOMART since then their business focus has been increasing fees for long term customers. Their customer services management is now customer hostile. Whether that qualifies as “price gouging” I’m not sure, but I no longer recommend them, nor their parent company to my clients.
I should comment on the £3 manual renewal fee. This should never be necessary. I you have a service that you wish to renew always, ALWAYS have autorenew switched off. As soon as you switch it back on – as long as it is within the one month period it will autorenew with no charge and you can raise a support ticket to have autorenew switched off again.
I was forced into doing this for a domain over a year ago as I could not transfer it away within a certain time frame.
They are theives.
The only company I have ever known who refuse to send an invoice via email for a service renewal. Or for anything for that matter.
My website went down once the SAME DAY they invoiced me for services but then they didn’t even send me the invoice and the control panel stated the services were paid up for another year. Amazing!
I have sucessfully argued that their T&C’s are unfair by meaning of the Unfair Terms in Contracts Act 1977 and won my money back off them.
So the contracts are unenforceable because they are unlawful. You can fight back and please please never use this company. The more of us report them to trading standards the better.
Hello,
I am not going to go into any long winded rant about Easysapce because I am fed up to the back teeth with them – anymore time wasted is not worth it!
I am not a person who generally rants about companies etc.
However my dealings with Easyspace have been shocking !! Full Stop ! I can fully understand all the complaints listed on this blog !
I toally agree with John because I have had this issue before.
Also
Many occasions website hosting fails
Many occasions emails dont work or bouce back
Many occasions their SSL pages dont work
There customer service is the WORST you have ever come by – I dont think anyone there has a clue – the last few times I have had to tell them what is wrong.
The excuses they come up with – UNBELIEVABLE !!
You have been warned !! Steer clear of EASYSPACE if you want anything near a reliable service.
And once you are in , they wont let you out !!!
Easyspace have done a lot worse to me I no longer have a domain with them and they are still charging me for the site. On my original call to support the operator saw the problem, told me I would get a refund and gave me a phone number to phone. Unfortunately, after spending hours in phone queues and finally geting to talk to someone they totaly refuse to refund my money for services I have not recived. I have begged and pleaded with them for a refund and they won’t, they imply its my fault. They have chaeged me £72.00 for renewing nothing and I don’t know what to do.
My earlier issue with easyspace was resolved in that I told them in plain and simple terms that I was not going to pay them for the transfer of my domain name as I already owned it and they were effectively holding my domain name hostage unless I paid the ransom fee.
They then provided me with the necessary codes in order to transfer my domain without charges. Hopefully this will be a lesson for others: DO NOT PAY EASYSPACE FOR A DOMAIN TRANSFER OUT.
After this experience however I have myself fallen into their trap of not allowing for the deactivation of autorenew and a service related to the domain I moved from them was renewed, despite my having already paid for it and effectively paying for it twice.
This company is clearly in trouble if they have to rifle the pockets of their ‘customers’ in this manner. Every time I deal with them I feel the need to shower.
I have used their services once and I’ve got the same situation here – obsessive and secretive auto-renewal charge without refund.
I’m going to inform my credit card service provider about this fraud – I didn’t have a credit card assigned for auto-renewal in a control panel and they still charged me.
Don’t tolerate fraud.
NEVER, USE. EASYSPACE.
I have been a customer for exactly 13 years. I have had a few “technical issues” which they dealt with very well and had no cause to complain, WHEN they sent renewal reminders or better still a friendly person called & reminded me to renew and I always did.
However, a few years ago, in order to save costs/increase profits this stopped and their infamous (sic) AUTORENEW was put into place. In response to some of the comments here, no wonder the business is doing so well, and thriving, because they take the money 1 month ahead of their invoice date, similar to if you purchase a holiday, you pay up-front, ahead of your holiday. With Easyspace you pay 1 month ahead of the renewal date.
That’s the fact… not sure if I like it, but according to them, the majority of users do.
So, what if you wish to cancel your domain hosting, as I did for just one of my domains with them. Simple? Go to the control panel and cancel the renewal. Simple? Either I AM or it isn’t or dare I suggest deliberately difficult to do so!!!
Some days later i received an email: Your AutoRenew Payment Card has expired. So they wouldn;t take the money then? I checked their website again. It certainly seemed to suggest that the renewl was cancelled.
Guess what? Today an email advised they had taken the money, for the invoice dated 29th March 2012. P.S. 2011 cost: £ 57.46. 2012 cost: £ 71.11 (20%+ increase in cost)>
Unhappy with this I tried communicating with my ISP, just after 9am today, because they had been very good in the past. After being held online for over 10mins. I spoek with “Customer Support” described the issue and requested that they refund the money taken, because the service had been cancelled on their website, and they had taken money from an expired credit card as well. It was then that I was surprised with the response. Mainly “no. It’s in our terms and conditions…” I interrupted to say that anyone who starts quoting “it’s in our terms and conditions” usually has something to hide or things that are not transparent.
Dissatisfied, I found that I am not alone in havign “issues” with Easyspace’s “nice little earner” in autorenewing everything.
I spoke with their Customer Services Manager, who was polite, but did not get my money refunded, although they have extended the time on another domain, so at least I have not lost money and they have retained me as a customer… for now.
Also, I have checked and they have removed the autorenew & my credit card details from their website.
I checked with my credit card company (MBNA) they confirmed that a Company can take subscriptions from expired credit cards.
Glasgow Trading Standards were helpful and I am of no doubt that Easypace are being scrutinized.
So, to summarise – EASYSPACE – in my experience technically good. Costs – rise every year almost unnoticed, because they use AUTORENEW. My advice is to use your own diary/calendar/electronic device to note when services are due for renewal. TELEPHONE SUPPORT & insist they delete AUTORENEW & any credit card details which they hold for you (which they are legally obliged to do). TELEPHONE because their website cannot be trusted.
If many people do this they will be forced to change their “terms & conditions” which work entirely financially in their favour…. that’s if you still want to do business with them.
Shame they are not a “transparent” company. Their Finance Director is RICHARD LOGAN. Apparently we are unable to contact him by telephone or e-mail. Is he the man responsible for their AUTORENEWALS SUCCESS & a lot of customer dissatisfaction with taking payments and not giving them back, because it is “legal” and in their “terms & conditions”.
I cannot tell you how much i hate this company – however it costs too much to leave. DO NOT BUY A DOMAIN NAME AND SERVER PACKAGE FROM THEM – i have forewarned you!!!!!! I would not be surprised if all positive remarks are from people working in their PR. They are so sneaky.
My email services stopped yesterday. When I finally got through to them I was told that th free service I had been enjoying since 2004 was by mistake. They’re solution to this appears to have been to simply delete my email services. They have tried to say that their system “should” have sent me an email warning me last week. I’ve sifted through all the emails I’ve had from them over the last couple of months, nearly all of which are domain registration promotions and have no evidence of this. They are not prepared to even talk to me any further unless I pay for an email service! The representative I was speaking to refused to put me through to a manager and refused to give me their name or employee reference. Unprofessional bordering on incompetent. I am withdrawing any of my services from them, for which I am going to have to pay 15 pounds, just to add injury to insult! Do not go anywhere near these people is all I can recommend.
My partner has just suffered the same indignity as David Jones has just described. It seems that this company has recently discovered that a large number of mailboxes hosted by them have not been charged – as a result they have been disabled with the inconvenience and loss of business incurred. To state that users have been advised of this impending change a week prior to it happening is firstly incorrect – my partner has received no such mail (and as also confirmed by David above); and secondly if they renew your annual payment 30 days in advance to give themselves time to complete, surely it is reasoinable to give users the same sort of notice for any significant change to their account.
As a final point didn’t the original hosting package include 5 free e-mail addresses? what happened to them? When did they suddenly become chargable?
I am currently having these problems with this company and they have now introduced you have to call them to cancel “Auto-Renew”.
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY….
Agreed. Easyspace have an annoying habit of offering free trials for their services for 30. At the end of that period they start billing you for the service without even sending a confirmation email. When I asked for the money back they said no as I should have cancelled at the end of the trial period.
I have been with Easyspace since October 2000 and I must say that the service during that time has gone from very good to downright awful. I think Easyspace and other hosting companies rely on their terms and conditions which basically mean that no customer can hold them liable for any consequential losses as a result of their inability to provide the service for which they have been paid. Easyspace seem to think this gives them carte blanche to continue taking their clients’ money while providing a truly dire service. Two examples: our business relies on a SQL server hosted by Easyspace. Without it our customers are unable to buy from us or access their online accounts. So when Easyspace randomly withdraws access to the SQL server this causes a major problem for our business. Their response? ‘We promise to look into it within 24 hours’. Then, when the service is restored (24 hours later) ‘We can’t find the problem you’re talking about. Can you provide more details?’ Even though I’ve spoken with various tech support people in the meantime who all agreed there was a problem. Talk about covering their backs. A second example (apart from the fact that the SQL server went down again 24 hours later…). Easyspace took payment from us for a ‘Premium Backup’ service. When – many months later – I went to use the backup it didn’t work. Easyspace’s explanation? Your site is hosted on a very old server that doesn’t permit backups. Now don’t you think they might have told me that before they took my money? And given that I’ve been with them for over 10 years, don’t you think they might have told us that the server hosting our web site was inadequate? It’s not easy to move services once they are set up. I will certainly be moving from Easyspace, however hard this is, as I am totally disillusioned with them. I advise others not to start with them.
I’m moving away from easyspace after 7 years with them, their practices are getting steadily shaper and I’m ditching them over unauthorised, unwanted addons being added on a hard to cancel ‘free trial’ that switches to a ‘premium auto renew’ that seem to be impossible to cancel from my control panel. The latest debarcle is their “Gomobi” being added to a site name I parked with no intention of building a site with anytime soon. On logging on to my control panel, then gomobi management tab, it show no site linked to Gomobi, but they have managed to invoice and auto charge two monthly invoices. They also routinely take money for an invoice a month before the tax point. They were good, but no just seem to be hungry for your money and little more.
@ Andy, I’ve just gone to guns with easyspace and they eventually rolled over and offered a refund. Take them to task and they wlll roll over. They must be getting hit over the head by their own sharp practice over and over again.
Keep at it!!
There are many companies of all sorts that rely on the fact that customers will not read all the terms and conditions thoroughly, and take the opportunity to incorporate clauses that will ultimately reap more revenue. Easyspace are masters of this. Whilst legal, it is of course an underhand practise. I’m looking for someone who could help migrate all my services and domains from them to a more ethical provider for a reasonable cost since Easyspace want to charge unfair fees to leave them. I just don’t have time (or patience) to work it all out for myself.
I just received a mail from these pleasant sounding folk, thanks for the postings, very informative..
Jeff
Easyspace Managed Services now offer a unqiue 100% uptime on all our SLA’s. Question we always ask with regards to your current provider is “What are you actually paying for?”.
I’ve noticed doing my “digging around” you’re the contact on ***********.com which is on a server over at ***** internet. I’m sure I could put together a solution for you which gives you more for your money (better spec, lower price, 24×7 support, proactive monitoring etc)..
Could I ask you at least consider us for future requirements?
Happy to talk if can be of help.
Regards,
Brian
—
Brian McLaughlin
Account Manager
Managed Services
Easyspace Ltd
Incorporating: Internetters | Titan Internet
Global Gold | Switch Media | Virtual Servers.com
Tel : 0370 0502 525
http://www.easyspace.com/maximumuptime
Better quality, more service . for less
Try hostgator, service, support is great, and free migrations
I have had problems with easyspace for sometime, purchased a VPS, site kept crashing I was told I have too many products, was told to upgrade to dedicated, again the problems continued, again I am told the recommended dedicated is not good enough I need a higher spec? so I said lets go for it, again same problems, this company is really full of shit, they tell you whatever to get a few more bucks in, the customer service and support is the rude and pathetic, I suggest any person looking for any form of hosting avoid this company.
easyspace = easytheft.com you have been warned
I am VERY unhappy with Easyspace right now.
Multiple domains were sitting in my account and I hadn’t yet decided whether to renew.
I had had an email from Easyspace notifying me that my card had expired and I would need to update my details for auto-renew to happen.
I definitely didn’t do this, but the auto-renewal has happened. I am assuming they have just guessed my new card’s new expiry date and, after a few attempts maybe, have been successful.
I’m sure this is probably illegal and will be looking to find out. Not happy.
I just had an extremely frustrating call with Easyspace. I explicitly removed my AutoRenew card details from 3 services several months ago. Apparently, this isn’t the same as switching autorenew off and they claim that their terms allow them to use any card registered on the system, even if you have clicked a button to explicitly de-assign it from a particular service. If you are unlucky enough to be stuck in the middle of a contract with them, phone them up and make sure that they have properly switched off AutoRenew for all of your services, then get away from these cheats as soon as you possibly can.
Really bad customer service. Ripped me off. Whats all this renewal thing about?
Hope they get what they deserve!!!
I finally got round to reporting these guys to watchdog…..lets hope they do something
i am also seriously about taking these guys to the small claims court. If any one would like to join me in this i think we could do a joint claim. I am thinking of splitting the claim into 2 based on the genral comlaints here
1) for the auto-renew
2) for the free trial scams
so if you email me the details of what your owed. i.e which category, amount and invoice number i will start compiling a list. Email james.cotterell at crg.es
Thanks-a-mundo for the article.
I got ripped off for 3 sites I wanted to cancel, (domain and hosting). I also hold another 3 with them which I now plan to move. I’ve been a trouble-free customer with them for 5 years and they treated me like the enemy. Why, I asked, would you want to drive away a customer? Answer: “It’s only the ones who don’t read the terms and conditions that we drive away.”
I did actually know that I was coming up for autorenew, but having received an email telling me that my autorenew card had expired, I thought I had some extra time to cancel. No, they just used a different card on file – completely misleading!
Seems like a shared experience of awfulness with Easyspace, just wanted to add my own sad, and disgusted ‘Yup…’ to it.
Speaking to customer support (HA! Should be done under trade descriptions act for calling it THAT) was downright unpleasant, treated more like a pest than a long time customer. Still trying to transfer domains, vps etc away from them without being stiched up for transfer fees, Just DO NOT USE EASYSPACE.
Patronising, disloyal, expensive, unreliable, buggy, slow…they deserve to vanish.
*sigh*
Spent a number of unhappy, stressful years with Easyspace. Expensive, technically incompetent, and terrible customer service.
Getting free of them felt so good.
Always, always, use a webhosting company that does telephone and email support 24×7. I recommend LiquidWeb or Hostgator.
I have just been stung for hostings renewal. It is only for around £40 but it does not expire for another 3 or 4 weeks. I contacted Easyspace who tell me that I needed to cancel 60 days before, and it is too late now.
Surely distance selling regulations still applies what ever arbitrary period they dream up
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2000/2334/regulation/12/made
Not impressed with these guys, and will be moving all my services soon.
I agree with you that they are expert in taking money in a tricky way. I have experienced nearly the same experience with them about the auto renew. I was not aware about this automatic practice.
Today I have discoverd they have took money from my account for a service that I have not asked for. I purchased a domain name from them http://www.weekfortheweak.co.uk. I paid the asked price at that time. (£11.40). After one month they deducted £21.46 for something that they invented and I didn’t asked for and it was billed £0.00. I wrote to them and still waiting for their reply. I will wait and see.
At the time of purchasing the domain. http://www.weekfortheweak.org.uk, I paid the asked price of £11.40 one month later they charged me £21.46 for something they called Professional mail yearly (that I didn’t use or what they meant with). Initially it came with £0.00 cost but after on month they took from my the £21.46 without even sending me an invoice. I discovered this when I looked at my bank statment. They are not authorized to take my money without my approval. I am waiting for their reply.
EASYSPACE ARE PIRATES. You can rely on the hosting service being UNRELIABLE. Auto renew services are a total SCAM. ‘FREE TRAIL’ Services like online shop are bundled in with your hosting package – there’s no option to remove them. And then without warning they upgrade themselves to auto renewing services that you are charged for. And they will not refund these costs – trust me. The best I got was 6 months free hosting after many phonecalls and talking with their ‘big heads’. FUCK THAT. I’m outta here. I have since migrated my domain and hosting away from easyspace for which they want to charge you £15 +vat – DAYLIGHT ROBBERY. You do not have to pay this though. Read this and do not pay them a penny to transfer out. http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=06d4dcc702548bcb33e4803fe3759d8e&t=717461&page=2
I’ve also suffered from ALL of the above Easyspace Failures!!
Anyone above who speaks in their favour has either not dealt with a legitimate hosting company or has too much money lying around!
Although I did do a search for ‘Easyspace problems’ before I signed up with them, I didn’t find anything to warn me then. Hopefully this page will help spread the word and save lots of people time and money, especially if we all share the link on as many social networking sites as possible!!
DO NOT USE EASYSPACE!
For those claiming not to have any problems….your time WILL come.
Well, I’ve been ‘dipped’ by these scam artists too. Won’t bore you all with the details. Interesting how folk from Easyspace pop up on this blog . Would they be bothering if they didn’t know what games they are playing?? I doubt it. It will be worth risking a few quid to try out their T&Cs in the small claims court. I’m definitely going to have a go. I wouldn’t be surprised if the people on here, not obviously from Easyspace, who are singing their praises, are actually from that shambles of a crooks’ nest. I’m going for the unfair terms and conditions attack. As I’m not a company, I’ll add on distance selling law for good measure. Hopefully Glasgow Trading Standards will sort them out as well.
Hi,
I have been with Easyspace about 11 years – a few small hiccups but otherwise OK.
However, yesterday all PHP-based components failed to load and the site is now more than 90 per cent inaccessible.
On phoning them they say that the site is on a ‘legacy server’ and will have to be relocated.
I upgraded the package several years ago and it is now unlimited bandwidth.
Below is an email I have sent to them:
Mohammad
As this issue does not seem to have been afforded the urgency it requires and I still have a dysfunctional website, I must make myself clear.
Several years ago the website was moved from another server as the site was performing sluggishly. The new locatoion (the present server for the site) afforded unlimited bandwidth.
However after the site was transferred to the new server I found I had to spend hours trawling through the site and resetting permissions on cgi and other scripts.
I am not prepared to do that again as I consider it unnecessary.
I have now seen no activity on ANY php pages throughout the site and frankly this is not acceptable for the service package I have.
Kindly ensure that this issue is resolved without any further delay.
I had the problem, like others have reported, of purchasing domain and then being given and subsequently charged for an unwanted mail facility.
This occurred with me on domains that I purchased. After contacting Trading Standards and Easy Space saying that they take all reasonable steps to make their customers aware of charges on their services. This statement was easily dis-proven by simply sending them a screen shot of page where the Free offer was added to the order. There was no link in close proximity taking the customer to the terms and conditions that apply to free offers.
I logged a case with trading standards and managed to penetrate the first line on customer support and get to the Complaints Director – only then did I make progress and get the matter rectified to my satisfaction.
So I suggest you log a complaint with trading standards:
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/consumer_e/reporting_a_problem_to_trading_standards
Good luck
Hello John,
First of all thank you for making this page. Just want to let you know that because of this page I have already moved one of my easy space hosted websites to another server and will not be re-newing my other one when the current hosting expires. I will also never use them again in the future!
I had some charges being taken from my account £3 here and there for “add ons”??? Due to being very busy I did not have the time to sit down and check what these were for exactly nor go about getting the money back so I sent a quick email to Easy Space requesting them to stop taking money for “add ons!” I do not remember at any point requesting them to take £3’s our of my account at any time for add ons or anything else apart for auto renew. When I went to turn off my auto renew on my account I noticed that the option is not there! I have sent Easy Space an email requesting them to turn this off for me.
So there you go, as a direct result of Easy Space treating you in this way I am in the process of moving my 2 sites elsewhere. I was not that impressed by them anyway but again was to busy (until recently) to check on the charges etc. After reading this page I made time to make the changes and post this comment.
What I do not get is that for the most part anyone who is buying web site space is probably a web designer. Web designers are really not the people that any company want to rip off for the simple reason that we are able to build a page like this warning other designers about them! So although they may be thinking they are being clever in making money by ripping people off they will actually be loosing in the long run!
Just had this exactly same issue. Furious with them. Hope that they go out of business incredibly soon.
This ignorant company needs to be forced out of business asap. I am seeking to take action against them for breach of contract failure to provde services that are paid for, loss of ratings due to dysfunctional website cuased by their own inferior service provision etc etc.
Anyone wishing to join me on this please contact me at newsmedia at eircom dot net.
Thank you..
It’s 2pm New Years eve and they are closed, I am unable to renew a customers domain that has expired,
Their Customers Control panel is not working, there is a fault on their Server (as indicated on the Domain renewal link).
I used to have a personal domain hosted with them and found that their prices were over £30 more than else where I soon left them.
I would never use this company again or recommend them in anyway.
Peter.
I’ve had exactly the same problem with the auto renew- having moved all my domains to another provider 6 months + ago, I’ve just been charged £60.00 to renew services which they don’t even host.
“Legal theft” really is the correct term for activity of this company.
Alexander
I’ve just experienced exactly the same ‘theft’ I posted onto their facebook page the following…
Auto renew service BEWARE! It’s automatically on your account – it should be a service you opt in to, rather then a service you have to opt out, which it currently is. It completely takes advantage of the customer. I wonder how many complaints Easyspace have of this nature? Having to check your entire account to delete hidden services is not good business practice…
Faine
Same here – and I distinctly said (when taking out the original contract) to remove all card details etc and that I did not wish to auto-renew. But, it seems they’ve billed me (a month in advance) of the contract running out.
It’s gotten worse. I just went to renew some services, that have renew disabled, and each service has an added surcharge of £3 “Non Autorenew Charge”.
For instance if you have their one click installs as part of your package, at £2approx, it will cost you more than the package itself in charges.
I was only seeking to register my domain, nothing more, nothing less and foolishly took the advice of a colleague. Just encountered the auto-renew fiasco despite being certain I turned any auto-renew setting off, a matter which I am very particular about. I have encountered a similar reaction from their customer services to that stated by the others who have posted here. No queries seemed to be answered.
One query I raised was that I received the invoice and contacted my bank and EasySpace immediately. I was told by EasySpace all payments are final. My bank had no record of any payment request until the following day. Despite this customer services at EasySpace have only responded with “all payments are final”. The payment has still not registered on my account, the response is at the least disingenuous.
I have raised queries regarding my lack of authorisation for the card payment as there is a section in the console to assign a payment method to the auto-renew. This was never activated, I never gave authorisation for my card to be used for this transaction and I am pursuing this angle with my bank.
My plan is to also raise the distance selling regulations and the ‘Unfair terms in contacts act 1977’ in my next correspondence. In this case, I feel so mislead, angry and frustrated with EasySpace that I will not rest until every avenue has been pursued and every rating website has received my opinion. I might even have to join Twitter to post on their feed.
I’ll update with my progress if successful. It would be great to know if others have had success and how this was achieved.
We have used Easyspace for many years. In the beginning they were good, and competitive on price. Now they are extremely expensive, their customer support is shocking and incredibly slow and their invoicing and package renewal system is nothing short of scandalous. We are gradually moving everything over to Heart Internet who I can thoroughly recommend. Easyspace are seriously bad, and worst of all, they dont give a s**t.
You may be able to challenge under Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Similar issue with insurance providers was challenged via OFT!
Hi John, just saw this and wanted to say I WISH I HAD READ THIS BEFORE I USED THEM.
Advice to all out there, dont use Easyspace!
They have really bad customer service, they not helpful and i am still having problems with my control panel a year later, even though i have sent email after email about the problems.
I have also just had the problem with the auto-renewal and as polite as I can be they are just so rude in return.
Advice to any one that has this problem, some Banks can dispute this for you and try recall payments.
If you looking for a good, usefull solution and you dont necessarily need your own control panel try Magento Go, its user friendly and they have a user manual for every single section.
I’ve had all of the above problems with easyspace so I wont repeat what others have already said.
Ive cancelled all my auto renews and changed my credit card details to garbage (wouldn’t let me delete it!) so hopefully they shouldn’t get any more money out of me.
I’m now looking at moving all of my domains away from them. They want £15!
OK I havn’t found it for free but all .UK domains (ie .co.uk .org.uk) are registered with nominet
They will move all of your domains for a one of fee of £12 (not each domain all of them)
Hope this helps.
You may be well advised to cancel the recurring payment arrangement. This will remove fully the payment arrangement between your account (card used for payment) and EasySpace.
Details on doing this are here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/recurring-payments
Certainly something I will be doing and avoiding similar practices in the future.
Hope this helps some people on here.
Easyspace = TERRIBLE: AVOID, AVOID, AVOID!!!
Sarah Haran (CEO and Executive Director) & Easyspace should collectively hang their heads in shame: AVOID, AVOID, AVOID!!!
Easyspace is a horrible company. Avoid doing business with them. I have had most the problem highlighted in the comments above
I’m considering launching small claims court proceedings on the basis of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 and a selection of other consumer regulations which I believe EasySpace are operating in breach of. Clearly this is only me view and needs to be proved.
I am just waiting on responses from the CAB and Trading Standards on this point among others before proceeding.
In the mean time I am contenting myself with spreading as far and wide as possible the word on my personal experiences of my dealings with EasySpace. According to EasySpace this may result in the suspension of my service, but seeing as this was a service I never wanted I can’t see any problems with warning as many people as possible.
I had a similar experience to most here last year when i was hit with a £900.00 GBP bill due this auto renewal for dedicated server 2 months before the billing cycle end…(i never recall turning it on or being informed about its evil workings…)
a year later finding this blog at the top of related search results and reading this blog it is sad to see it has grown in length, but quite amusing to read the fake comments obviously from easyspace PR near the top of the page….
anyway i may be about to be bitten again; after last year i turned off auto renew and deleted the card…hoping it would be ok this year….and having had a quick scan of the t&c and looking through the knowledge base I didn’t see any issues with cancelling on the last day before the renewal was due, in fact all it says is to use the cancel button within the 60 day expiry period.
all i saw was this in the T&C
“If you do not agree to such price changes, please cancel your services in accordance with our standard procedure.”
but there was nothing in the t&c, in the knowledge base or in the cancellation auto renewal area regarding the standard procedure of cancellation….
however i wanted to check the exact date i would need to cancel without incur any additional charges and got a reply today that i need to give them 30 days notice prior to cancelling….
to my surprise after getting their customer service reply today i only now see this one sentence (that i didn’t see when i searched the word ‘cancel’ a couple of days ago): in the suspension secion near the bottom of the page
—————-
4. Suspension
4.3 You may cancel the services at any time with 30 days notice if you have elected a monthly payment plan or 12 months notice or if you have elected a 12 month term plan. If you wish to cancel your server with us, please process the request via your control panel or alternatively call 0370 757 4243 and one of our agents will be in touch with our cancellation procedure. No refund will be made on the service.
—————-
To me the first sentence doesn’t even make grammatical sense…
i have now asked them when i give 30 days notice to cancel, will my server be immediately taken down, or will i be able to still access it for the 30 days? and how much will i get charged for the 30 days?!!
Here are some more snippets that can either make you laugh, cry or shed a tear in disbelief:
I do not belief that these T&C can be upheld in court…
Forgive me if this has been pasted before.
Most importanly please let me know how you got on with Trading standards and CAB as I do not want to pay 900 gbp again or part of…
===================
As of 30.12.2013
3.6 All fees are non-refundable, in whole or in part, even if your service is suspended, cancelled or transferred prior to the end of the then-current service term. We reserve the right to change fees, surcharges, renewal fees or to institute new fees at any time, for any reason, at our sole discretion. We publish price changes on your invoice accessible through your control panel at least sixty (60) days before your package is renewed. If you do not agree to such price changes, please cancel your services in accordance with our standard procedure. If you do not cancel, you will be deemed to have accepted the new prices, and they will be charged to the credit card or other payment method registered to your account.
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Term of Service – Auto Renew
3.10 Unless otherwise specified, each service is for an annual term, and unless otherwise specified at time of commencement of service, all services will incur an annual fee. All services will renew automatically unless you opted out of the auto renew process. Auto renewal is a service offered by Easyspace to protect the customer, whereby products and services, except those subscribed to on a monthly basis, will by default be automatically renewed prior to expiration date. If you have opted out of auto renew it will be your responsibility to renew or cancel services that you no longer require at the appropriate time. A number of attempts will be made to process the automated renewal of customer products and services. Auto Renewal attempt one will take place 30 days prior to expiration date of a service. Should this attempt fail, a second attempt will take place 14 days prior to expiration. If this second attempt fails than a third attempt will take place 7 days prior to expiration. If this third attempt fails, then a final attempt will be made 1 day prior to expiration of your service. Should this attempt also fail, then the product must be renewed manually via the control panel or by calling our sales team.If your chosen payment method is not authorised by your credit card provider, bank or if you do not have a card assigned to auto renew, you hereby authorise us to seek payment from any other credit card or direct debit registered against your account at any of the uplift dates. If a service is set for automatic renewal and the default card has expired we reserve the right to attempt an uplift as the card may have been renewed.
Customers will have the option to opt out of the Auto renew service, however an additional £ 3 fee will be added to all renewals administered manually. Additional payment terms will apply to certain services.
You are solely responsible for ensuring that your services are renewed and you are solely responsible for ensuring there is adequate funding for the services to be renewed. Easyspace reserve the right to charge a renewal price different to the price at registration. For all packages purchased for a monthly term there is a minimum contract length of 3 months from date of purchase.
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3.26 Suspension, Cancellation, Transfer or modification of service(s)
3.26.1 You acknowledge and agree that we may suspend, cancel, transfer or modify your use of the Services at any time, for any reason, in our sole discretion and without notice to you. You also acknowledge and agree that we shall not be liable to you or to any third party for any such modification, suspension or discontinuance of the Services. Without limiting the foregoing, we may, in our sole discretion, suspend, cancel, transfer or modify a domain name registration (a) to correct mistakes made by us, another registrar, or the applicable registry administrator, (b) to resolve a dispute related to that domain name, (c) if you materially breach this Agreement (including any applicable additional rule or policy) and do not cure such breach within five (5) calendar days of notice by us, (d) if you use the domain name registered to you to send unsolicited commercial advertisements in contradiction to either applicable laws or customary acceptable usage policies of the Internet, or (e) if you use a domain name in connection with unlawful activity.
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5. Escalated Complaint Handling Process
We realise that sometimes things don’t go according to plan, despite training all our staff to ensure things run smoothly. So while we always aim to provide top quality service, we recognise that there may be times when things go wrong. All members of our staff will always do their very best to help, but there may be times when our customers need extra assistance to sort out certain issues.
We want to make this process as easy as possible for you and are committed to doing everything we can to resolve customer complaints. If you feel you need extra assistance, please email us at ‘customerescalations at easyspace.com’, our Customer Escalations Manager will then investigate and propose a solution.
Hi Matthew
I am considering doing the same.
I’ve been charged for a shopping cart and email filtering, neither of which i asked for.
How did you get on??
Kind Regards
Andy
I have just found on my bank account a debit for £88,35 in the name of EASYSPACE; I have never been in touch with this company and my site is hosted by another group. How come they debit me ? Have received no invoice and no explanation,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Ditto to 99.8% of the above!
Their Auto Renew feature is a shocker (have to say I don’t recall ever having elected to have it turned on!) and especially the fact that they don’t alert us that a Renewal is about to happen.
It’s clear why they don’t alert us though, because if they did we would all check out other suppliers only to find that the rates they charge are way above the average.
I cancelled Auto Renew (no doubt it will turn itself back on again?) and I tried to delete my credit card and oddly enough the ‘Delete’ button does not work! That said Alan in Customer “Service” (?!?!) has now done this for me.
What a shocking organisation and whilst I’m sure they are doing nothing illegal with their Auto Renwal setup, it still feels like I have been robbed and then add to this the fact that they really don’t appear to care!
Next stop for me http://www.nominet.org.uk/disputes
I have given up with them, my domain name stopped forwarding and each time i logged in and reset it i had a technical problem and it didnt resolve. They rang up to ask how i wanted to pay my 16.95 renewal fee. What for? I asked them to resolve it and they said you will need to ring back technical support first. So see you later Easyspace what a waste of money!
Hello Martin,
I would like to say that our technical support team are always here to help and you can either call us or raise a ticket via your control panel and we will resolve any issue as quickly as possible.
Hello Support at Easyspace – as quickly as possible? We have been reporting faults with out website for more than a year – after more than a year you did eventually admit the problem was with your server and you moved our site to another – which left us without a working site for more than a week. You either have a very strange idea as to what “as quickly as possible means” or you have a very long nose.
I think they provide a terrible service and extremely unhelpful when things go wrong, I would avoid them at all costs
It was good to hear about your experiences, I was thinking of paying for a hosting service from EasySpace but having read of the bad customer service tales of woe here I will keep looking. I am currently with KTHosting who have doubled my web hosting charge to £123! They also employ an automatic renew and give short notice that the renew is due
Unfortunately these guys are not into a long term relationship with there customers.
They seem to be stuck in an adversarial mind set where the the small customer is seen as an entity from which cash can be extract at the detriment of the future loyalty.
I have just been stung a second time by these “nowists” I would advise everyone to reduce their exposure to easy space. Either move to another provider or let your unwanted domains lapse and ensure that auto-renewal is switch off.
Secondly I would advise, where possible, to make use of the superior free services provided by Google and similar.
Easyspace are a shady ass company!
I fell into the same trap the first site I hosted there so made SURE in future I cancelled all auto renews only to find them mysteriously re-tick themselves to auto renew.
Unfortunately I have a lot of sites hosted with these bastards which I will now be moving elsewhere.
Don’t bother complaining they don’t give two shits.
Easyspace SCAM!
Easyspace Review
Easyspace are a group of crooks!
One word:
AUTORENEW!
What are they playing at switching it on automatically and then denying it.
Im now searching for the cheapest way to remove all my sites from their grasp.
Easyspace scammers!
2p’s worth.
I have no end of problems with easyspace, having spoken to one of their senior customer service managers Im exhausted with frustration and cant face going thru them all.
So just want to add – Easyspace are just awful.
2p’s worth.
I have no end of problems with easyspace, having spoken to one of their senior customer service managers Im exhausted with frustration and cant face going thru them all.
So just want to add – Easyspace are just awful.
Yet another victim of @Easyspace here.
Google had blocked all websites on the shared hosting supplied by easyspace, from showing up in any search results, I tried to cancel the package but the auto renewal had already gone from my account a month in advance, so now I have had to move it away just to get it visible on google again, I am stuck with useless hosting space for another two years, at a ridiculous price at that.
The only consolation to my story is that this was the last of many domain names I had with easyspace, this one had slipped the net due to being under a customers own account, I will be so very glad to see the back of them.
I must say I just don’t know where to start, cos I have had so many problems with this ‘cow poo’ company.
Yesterday, I contacted Easyspace to transfer a domain name away from them. I asked them to change the IPS TAG for me, just as simple as that. The support team got back to me to say I would need to log on to my account to use ‘Domain Transfer Management’ to complete the process. On top of that I was told there would be £15 + VAT to move the domain away. I wasn’t happy about the fee, but I thought it was a standard service fee or something.
So I went ahead, logged on to my account and did the transfer on the ‘Domain Transfer Management’. The process was rather simple and all I needed to do was to choose a new IPS TAG on a drop down menu, that’s all. The most difficult bit of the whole process was probably ‘the section’ to type in my credit card details. So in other words, Easyspace did not need to do a single thing for me to transfer the domain away from them. Oh, sorry I lie, I forgot they needed to ‘take’ the £15 + VAT out from my credit card, that’s all they did for my domain transfer.
I was absolutely furious!
The worst part to come… I had a search on Google about domain transfer this morning. Apparently Nominet only charges £10 + VAT to do domain transfer. This charge allows any number of domain names to be transferred to a single new registrar in one go! So really I could have moved 3 domain names from Easyspace to GoDaddy for £12. What a daytime robbery!
I was also tricked by their default auto-renew few years back. They sent me an email one early morning to say a hosting package was just renewed (30 days in advance). I contacted them as soon as I saw the email to say I did not want to renew the package. They responded to say once the payment was taken, it would not be refunded. But I argued the service/package wasn’t even started yet as the money was taken 30 days before the service was expired. They still would not refund me the money. In the end, after a few battles, I was given some ‘credits’ to use but these credits were limited to certain services. In the end, I managed to use most of the credits, leaving £10 worth of credits I just cannot see how and where I can be able to spend on at all.
I really do wish this company goes burst and all its staff become unemployed!
This company are absolute thieves, I got a paid invoice for a domain renewal a whole month before it was due, the cost was at least 3 times more expensive than UK cheapest and so I immediately called them to stop the payment.
They said it was too late as the payment had already been made, I complained and said that there was still a full month to go before the renewal but the would not give back my money.
I have now cancelled all my renewals and are moving them over to UK cheapest.
This bunch of crooks should not be in business!
Folow Up….
So now I have to start a bank charge back on the money they took from me without warning and a month too soon.
I intend to post my comments on as many Easyspace review pages as possible to warn other people from dealing with Easyspace and maybe they might just realise what they are doing to their business by treating customers simply as a cash cow.
I have also found out that Easyspace will charge me £15.00 each for transferring my 13 domain names away from you after all these years of being with them.
They could start to repair customer relations by at least not charging me to get my own paid for domains back, but reading all the other complaints on the web about this company, Hell would freeze over first!
Same thing just happened to me- renewal of hosting 30 days in advance that I didn’t want. They even billed a card that, on their own website, states isn’t assigned for auto renewal! Luckily I even have a screenshot of their site saying it (though I doubt it’ll help me at all trying to get a refund as they don’t care about their customers).
They are scum-bags, pure and simple.
I also have been caught out with their “legal” thievery.
I registered a domain name and hosting package.
Then i notice on my bank statements i’d been charged for a shopping add-on and email filtering.
I’d never asked for either, but because i didn’t ‘opt out’, when their free trial ended, they charged me.
I am disgusted by their practices and wonder if they’re even legal.
Anyone else experienced this and did you get your money back?
Andy
Sorry to hear, I been with easyspace/easynic even before they were named so, well over 14 years, I had my issues but in all instances they have been professional and helpful to the extreme.
I host all my services with them including my servers etc.. yes they charge a little more but if i have an issue they really try and sort it out without exception, that it worth the difference I assure you.
Gosh, so much bile here! Reading through this litany of horror stories seems to indicate only one thing really. You neither read nor understood the Terms and Conditions.
Why you would agree to have services provided by this (or any other company) without reading what you’re agreeing to, I do not know. I’ve just read through them myself and just about every issue mentioned here (apart from what may or may not be a few genuine errors, I wouldn’t know, I have no services with them) COULD have been avoided if you’d read them.
If a company is going against its own Ts+Cs then most of you would have had at least a point, if not a case, but you don’t, specifically because you didn’t read the Ts+Cs which cover just about every eventuality on this spiteful little blog.
It’s disingenuous to turn your own incomprehension against Easyspace, even if they are a little rigid, because they TOLD you they were and you STILL agreed to take services with them. Why hold them responsible for your own inability to read?
With most companies that would be true and a casual observer can draw that conclusion. The problem is not just the T&Cs it is that the T&Cs change over time, you are not informed as a customer of any changes but you are still held responsible for adhering to the ever changing terms. EasySpace when you complain cannot even advise what changes have been made to the T&Cs or on which dates changes were made. Needless to say you are not provided with a copy of the T&Cs when you sign up and the real kicker, you’ll have seen this relatively recent addition, EasySpace retain the right to update their T&Cs at any time and it is the customers responsibility to be aware of these changes (presumably through daily checking!)
So although you say “Reading through this litany of horror stories seems to indicate only one thing really. You neither read nor understood the Terms and Conditions.” in fact it is not the case. Hopefully you and others can use the example of EasySpace and their dubious approach to keeping customers informed of changes to terms and conditions and review those T&Cs a little more carefully or as I do with any company now, take a copy of the T&Cs at the time of signing up for a company’s services.
The auto-renewal which is the point of most of the complaints. It was something I turned off, but crucially I failed to take a screen shot of this or alter my card details. It was mysteriously re-enabled. My mistake in trusting this specific company. To add to this the way you are treated as a customer with a complaint is utterly unacceptable and contributes much to the ‘bile’ as you refer to it here.
So Jason, while you raise valid points which I would agree to in relation to my contractual relationships with most companies, for EasySpace, these do not hold and the many people who have encountered the same issues are testament to that.
Remember take a copy of the T&Cs when you sign-up. You are not provided with one but it is the basis for your subsequent complaint to Trading Standards, Nominet and potentially the small claims court.
You should check carefully the renewal price. I’ve just been charged £18.60+VAT for auto-renewal, but the online renewal price (hidden inside http://www.easyspace.com/pricelist) is £16.45+VAT. That looks like systematic overcharging (or inaccurate data) to me.
I have just let one of my “.tel” domains lapse, and I’ve been inundated with emails and telephone calls offering me discounts. So I’ve now turned off “auto renew” so I can get these for other domains. It’s clear that transferring to GoDaddy will save me more than the exorbitant £18 transfer-out fees, so I will give them a chance to reduce the difference.
Bascially, they seem to follow the “car insurance” model of hiking prices for people who renew too easily, and offering discounts to people who complain more than a month in advance.
Same problem with me. £60 to auto-renew 3 domains which I did NOT select auto-renew for when I purchase. When was this auto-renew introduced? How can they legally add it + apply it to previous purchases without first sending a notification that the terms and conditions have changed?
Easyspace seem to be blatantly disregarding the law – apparently with no consequences because no-one with the power is willing to do anything about it.
This is the OFT’s guidance on rollover contracts:
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140402142426/http://www.oft.gov.uk/business-advice/treating-customers-fairly/cpa-principles/
“Consumer consent to a CPA should not be assumed – such as through the use of opt-out provisions.” This is exactly what Easyspace are doing.
“All relevant terms of the CPA agreement should be set out clearly and in plain, intelligible language, and brought prominently to the consumer’s attention. They should not just be contained in ‘terms and conditions’. ”
“The customer should be given reasonable prior notice of renewal of the contract. If a contract is being renewed for an additional fixed period this should be treated as a new contract for the purposes of disclosure and information regarding cancellation rights.”
“If a consumer cancels the CPA, the business should stop attempting to take money from the consumer’s account. No fee or penalty should be charged for the act of terminating a CPA itself (and any underlying contractual liability will be subject to the UTCCRs).
“Under the PSRs, consumers can cancel any future transaction at any time up to close of business on the preceding day. The transaction can be cancelled either with the trader or the payment service provider (the customer’s bank or card issuer). It is good practice to notify the trader, particularly where there may be an underlying contractual liability, but this is not a pre-condition for cancellation. ”
Easyspace are certainly not following these guidelines.
I’m not even a customer of theirs but I’m so fed up of people I know being ripped off by them. Maybe we should crowdfund a legal challenge!
I feel conned by Easyspace.
Having been with them for many years and have them host multiple domains they have signed me up for a “trial product” and then billed me for it each month.
I had not wanted the product, never used it and had no intention of using it.
No refund was offered, I am out of pocket by £130 and they offered me one month free. Value = about £3. Rubbish.
Was stonewalled by customer service and they would not allow me to escalate my complaint. This product was mis-sold to me and I want my money back.
I will be leaving Easyspace at renewal.
The worst internet domain and hosting provider I know of. It’s amazing that they still continue to trade. Auto-renewal was the last straw as they renewed & charged me for services way before they had lapsed. The other issue was the sneaky additional services that were unwanted but also charged for when registering a new domain or hosting.
Be afraid, be very afraid!
Taking these cowboys to court for letting domain name go into redemtion then charging a rip off fee of £100 to get it back.
1. County court to get my money back (in progress)
2. Legal action to finish these cowboys off
Worst company ever to deal with, scam artists don’t ever move your domain name to them or buy hosting its 100% rip off
Thanks for this blog. I was looking at Easyspace dedicated servers earlier then came across this write-up of them and have decided not to go with them. Thanks for saving me a lot of money 🙂
Their customer service responses are so condescending.
To Easyspace – google search has a long history!
Never ever again easyspace, easyripoff. a variety of ‘Free’ pre-ticked opt ins, I missed 1 and they helped themselves to £40 14-days later. I had only been with them 1-week, site down 8hrs on the first Sunday…no reply to phone call, then a week later they nab £40…anyhow i’ve moved already…just used a redirect for now….I expect moving the domain will be difficult and another rip off…Be warned
Got a free trial (of 1 year) never mentioned it would renew, but that was a total price free of £59 for a years trial, I did notice that they auto subscribed me to about 3 other services, that I turned off, along with anything else I could.
There hosting was not used, nor was the account imagine my surprise that I get billed (£95) for the renewal, and not even advised in advance, now contact there customer services and basically get told tough shit its in the T&C’s but they don’t date there terms and conditions so which were valid when I signed up, can they provide them nope…
Its in the banks hands at present as nothing on the invoice says its auto renew, they have hiked the prices up massively, they are what makes the internet bad, basically modern day thieves.
Would I recommend them, never they can access your bank account even when the card has expired.
EasySpace bought out my regular provider Titan Internet. Before they where bought out, they where, reliable, helpful, responsive and considerate. My site was up all the time and I had no issues.
EasySpace takes over and it’s been support incident after support incident where I have had to tell them they have messed up. At first it was just basic issues I can put down to ‘bad luck’ for them. Then it was issues I could put down to ‘bad luck’ for me. Now, however…
A couple of months ago, they took down all my sites and reverted my site data to data over 1 year old!!!!
My site was down for multiple days in a row, and it took them several days to fix. When they finally got my site back, the data up to date, they had taken down several of my sub-domains. After much chasing they got everything working and I thought, good, it will be ok now. 1 month later and my sub-domains are not working again. A couple of days of calls and they get everything working once more.
A few weeks later, everything is down again.
Every day we go down, we lose credibility and search ranking ratings. Take my advice, never-ever use EasySpace. I am currently seeking a reliable provider and looking to re-set, though I doubt I will ever recover completely from the damage done by many days of site downtime.
I bought my hosting in a rush – not spotting an opt out selection of products which had been added to my cart (they were free to begin with so didn’t change the subtotal, hence me not spotting they had been added to my purchase).
After a few months EasySpace started charging me for them, I’d never used them or realised they were there.
EasySpace took a total of £137.94 from my account before I spotted the transactions and phoned them to find out what the payments were for. I’d assumed they were a mistake but was informed I was paying for a shopping cart (I didn’t purchase a database so could not have ‘trialled’ it) and an email spam filter (I did not purchase any email accounts so could not have trialled that either).
They would not refund the money.
Very un-ethical business practice – disappointing. Seeing as it’s owned by one of the biggest companies in the sector, you would expect better!
I’ve worked as a web developer and online manager for over 15 years now so it’s not easy to pull the wool over my eyes but this company managed it. Dreadful behaviour.
They are absolutely ghastly. They have auto-renewed although I stopped using the service last January. I have now asked my credit card company for a refund.
That’s me done with them after over a year worth of cancelling service.
The key is to read your T&C and set reminders on your phone as you can only cancel a service a month before the service. Ah, and do untick the autorenewals on your services before that.
I mainly used them in the past for email communication and domain registrar. Their “catch all” service was great for me, but I noticed ever creeping bills and decided enough is enough.
All the best to you all
I am yet another person involved in a ding dong with their customer services. As someone who has been a Customer Services Manager for 10 years, I honestly feel sorry for the CSAs who have to deal with the fallout from Easyspace’s unethical practices. I too have been caught by autorenewal with no warning, raising prices with no warning, taking money 30 days before invoice date with no warning. I have never, ever come across such hideous practice – and to my mind their Ts and Cs are over complex and unfair, which means that I will be reporting them to every single ombudsman I can find.
I am currently trying to help a non-techie client transfer her domain away from EasySpace (she has nicknamed them ‘SleazySpace’).
She received an auth code (eventually) and after paying £18 at which point they went quiet and unresponsive. The transfer timed out and was cancelled. Shockingly, they have charged her another £18 to transfer out and she felt she had no choice but to pay. Rinse and repeat – they’ve gone quiet again …..
I have just had the same issue. Auto-renew kicked in, £136 for services I didn’t want, I have just spoken to them to cancel, I was well within 28 days to cancel the services, the customer service representative stated “we do not offer refunds as these are services, not goods, I can offer you £70”. I argued the toss with them, got nowhere and have been stung for £66.
DO NOT USE THESE THIEVES.
The auto renew domain are sneaky, plus the .uk domains they were trying to push you to have if you already had a .co.uk with them.
In 2008 I paid £27.03 for 2 years renewal, 2018 I paid £51.70. I hate to think the cost of renewal in 2020, hopefully I will transfer away from Easyspace by then.
Email fowarding from my domain has become very hit and miss now,
Easyspace say there is no problem with email forwarding.