My Bad Experience with UK2 Web Hosting
by Arthur
Posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 5:27 pm CET
Over one year ago, at the beginning of 2008, I signed up for a web hosting package at UK2. I needed an SSL certificate which they offered with a special package, so I ordered that too. I had lots of issues with their service and the SSL never worked. After dozens of emails with the UK2 support desk I decided to get my money back and I canceled the service. I thought that that was it. Fast forward to this year. In January 2009 I suddenly received an invoice from UK2 of £54 for a website I never heard of, a co.uk real estate site. I sent UK2 an email about the mistake but never got a reply. Several days later the amount was taken off my credit card. I did a whois on the domain and found an address in London with my email address! Obviously UK2 had mixed up my details with another customer.
I gave UK2 a call and spoke with one of their representatives. The guy insisted that I owned the domain and that if I no longer wanted it anymore that I should cancel it. I said that I never saw the website before, that it was owned by someone else and that they must have mixed up my details with another customer. He said that that was impossible and that the only explanation was that someone must have stolen my name and credit card details! Riiiiight … why would someone steal my credit card and then use it to register a website in their name? That doesn’t make any sense. Still, the UK2 representative insisted that that is what happened. There was nothing that he could do for me but advise me to cancel the website so that I would not invoice me again. He would not be able to give me my money back.
This was unbelievable. There was no way that I believed that someone got a hold of my credit card number and used it to register and host a website in their name. That would be the dumbest crime ever. Nonetheless I decided to contact my credit card company and informed them about it. I also visited the real estate website, which I supposedly owned, and used their contact form to inform the owner of the mix up. I informed him that UK2 had made me owner of his account, invoiced me for his costs and that UK2 had accused him of stealing my credit card details. I instantly got a reply from the owner (let’s call him Bob) who was most helpful and copied the UK2 helpdesk explaining that he was in fact the owner of the website and not me. Several days passed without a reply from the helpdesk. In the meantime I was invoiced another £54, also for the real estate website that wasn’t mine. They had now charged me over one hundred pounds or $150 by mistake. This was really getting annoying.
Bob and I emailed and called UK2 several times over the course of two weeks and finally got them to change the account into Bob’s name. Unfortunately they wouldn’t be able to refund me the money. Now they claimed that I had been invoiced for my original website from last year and I had supposedly not canceled my subscription properly. What kind of lame excuse was that? The invoices I received clearly stated Bob’s website. Now UK2 suddenly claimed that it was for my website anyway, which I canceled a year ago, and the whole mix up with Bob’s account was just a coincidence? This was preposterous! I obviously didn’t let them steal my money like this and sent them a nasty email.
Eventually UK2 decided to refund my money. So what did they do? They sent Bob an email in reply to my ticket informing him that I would get my money back. Bob forwarded me the email.
I never received an apology from UK2. They mixed up two accounts, accused their loyal customer of stealing credit card details from me, lied about me not canceling my account properly and sent a reply to a support ticket to the wrong person. These guys are really incompetent!
If you are thinking of signing up for UK2 web hosting then my advice is: don’t and find someone else. You have been warned.
Over one year ago, at the beginning of 2008, I signed up for a web hosting package at UK2. I needed an SSL certificate which they offered with a special package, so I ordered that too. I had lots of issues with their service and the SSL never worked. After dozens of emails with the UK2 support desk I decided to get my money back and I canceled the service. I thought that that was it. Fast forward to this year. In January 2009 I suddenly received an invoice from UK2 of £54 for a website I never heard of, a co.uk real estate site. I sent UK2 an email about the mistake but never got a reply. Several days later the amount was taken off my credit card. I did a whois on the domain and found an address in London with my email address! Obviously UK2 had mixed up my details with another customer.
I gave UK2 a call and spoke with one of their representatives. The guy insisted that I owned the domain and that if I no longer wanted it anymore that I should cancel it. I said that I never saw the website before, that it was owned by someone else and that they must have mixed up my details with another customer. He said that that was impossible and that the only explanation was that someone must have stolen my name and credit card details! Riiiiight … why would someone steal my credit card and then use it to register a website in their name? That doesn’t make any sense. Still, the UK2 representative insisted that that is what happened. There was nothing that he could do for me but advise me to cancel the website so that I would not invoice me again. He would not be able to give me my money back.
This was unbelievable. There was no way that I believed that someone got a hold of my credit card number and used it to register and host a website in their name. That would be the dumbest crime ever. Nonetheless I decided to contact my credit card company and informed them about it. I also visited the real estate website, which I supposedly owned, and used their contact form to inform the owner of the mix up. I informed him that UK2 had made me owner of his account, invoiced me for his costs and that UK2 had accused him of stealing my credit card details. I instantly got a reply from the owner (let’s call him Bob) who was most helpful and copied the UK2 helpdesk explaining that he was in fact the owner of the website and not me. Several days passed without a reply from the helpdesk. In the meantime I was invoiced another £54, also for the real estate website that wasn’t mine. They had now charged me over one hundred pounds or $150 by mistake. This was really getting annoying.
Bob and I emailed and called UK2 several times over the course of two weeks and finally got them to change the account into Bob’s name. Unfortunately they wouldn’t be able to refund me the money. Now they claimed that I had been invoiced for my original website from last year and I had supposedly not canceled my subscription properly. What kind of lame excuse was that? The invoices I received clearly stated Bob’s website. Now UK2 suddenly claimed that it was for my website anyway, which I canceled a year ago, and the whole mix up with Bob’s account was just a coincidence? This was preposterous! I obviously didn’t let them steal my money like this and sent them a nasty email.
Eventually UK2 decided to refund my money. So what did they do? They sent Bob an email in reply to my ticket informing him that I would get my money back. Bob forwarded me the email.
I never received an apology from UK2. They mixed up two accounts, accused their loyal customer of stealing credit card details from me, lied about me not canceling my account properly and sent a reply to a support ticket to the wrong person. These guys are really incompetent!
If you are thinking of signing up for UK2 web hosting then my advice is: don’t and find someone else. You have been warned.