I took out a hosting agreement with JustHost.com on 18th August 2009. I paid 47.52 by PayPal for two years webhosting which was renewable every two years thenceforth at the same rate. The confirmtion e-mail I received states: You have successfully signed up for a subscription to Just Host Hosting / Domain Package using PayPal. Your first subscription payment, for 47.52 GBP, has already been sent to Just Host Ltd.. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subscription Details ---------------------------------------------------------------- Date of Sign Up: 18 Aug. 2009 Subscription Name: Just Host Hosting / Domain Package Subscription Number: S-8EY290936******** (my asterisks) Subscription Terms: £47.52 GBP for the first 2 years Then £47.52 GBP for each 2 years On 1st August 2011, I closed my PayPal account. On 11th August, one week before the renewal was due, I received an invoice for £174.75 for the next two years and that the amount was automatically deducted from my debit card. I checked with my bank, and sure enough, the amount had been charged to my account, seven days before the invoice date, the difference between my balance and available balance was the amount of the invoice). There are so many problems here that it is difficult to know where to begin. The agreement I took out was for £47.52 per two years renewable at the same price. It is unacceptable to increase the amount without consulting the customer, especially when the increase is by a factor of almost four. The agreement was via my PayPal account which had been closed. The amount invoiced was charged to my debit card without authority. The charge to my debit card was one week before the date of the invoice. I have tried to contact JustHost to find out what they are playing at but the staff on their 'live chat' refused to discuss billing or account issues, nobody answers the telephone, instead all billing and account enquiries are instructed to be submitted by e-mail and all e-mails receive automated garbage responses which show that no human has ever cast their eyes on them. Don't let the young woman with her hand to her ear in a listening gesture fool you, JustHost.com don't want to hear your problems, especially when it comes to getting the money back which they have xxxxx from you. And to be clear, JustHost.com, if you or your lawyers are reading this (which is highly unlikely, admittedly), you had no right to take £174.75 from my account and you did not have my permission. You did so secretly, in that by the time that you informed me that you were going to take it, you had already done so. And given that I was not given any option to refuse payment, it was done so by force. It was xxxxx. How can any of this be legal? To take four times the agreed amount out of somebody's account a week before they are invoiced and by a means which was not part of the agreement? The domain they host, incidentally, was bought many years ago and had a ten year 'lease' prior to transferring it to JustHost.com, so the charges are purely for hosting. My bank, LloydsTSB were initially very reassuring. I explained the whole story to two people - once on 11th August and again on the 12th. On the 12th I was told that I should phone back once the money had left my account. The next day, the 13th, it had. I phoned back and was told that because I had already had dealings with JustHost.com, there was nothing that the bank could or would do to help - even though I had explained all this previously. I have attempted to cancel my account but I am still unable to get any response from them. JustHost.com are an American company with an office in the UK: Unit A2 Segenworth Business Centre Segenworth Road Fareham Hampshire PO15 5RQ But it seems impossible to actually discuss this issue with anybody. If it wasn't for having just found myself unemployed I would take this at a leisurely pace but £174.75 is the equivalent of two weeks rent. What can I do?

A short account of my abysmal experience as a BT customer. I became a BT customer in mid-May. Phone and internet services worked. Despite 19 phone calls taking up hours and hours BT could not get my Vision service working. The services were bought as a package so I cancelled them as a package, as per OfCom’s advice. What followed then were another 20ish calls (I’ve now phoned BT in excess of 40 times) and approximately 20 hours on the phone. Assurances of “full refunds” and “cancellation fees waived” were granted only to be retracted on subsequent phone calls. I asked for explicit notes to be kept on my account. These were apparently made (even read out to me), only for me to find that they hadn’t. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve fought the same battle over and over again. I asked for written confirmation (email), of my discussions with customer “service” operators, but was told it wasn’t possible. I asked for the address of the complaints department but was told there wasn’t a dedicated complaints department. I’m 35 and have just endured the most shocking customer experience in my life. BT are plagued by a pathetic customer service ethos, total ineffectiveness and are, most shockingly, devoid of any will to respect or honour its customers’ rights. I’ve emailed the CEO with a lengthy complaint communicating my disgust at my treatment and seeking assurances that my credit history will not be adversely affected as a result of BT’s billing and account inefficiencies (I am still receiving bills by email and post despite cancelling the account and returning the equipment to them months ago). To date they still owe me £265.46. I have been promised this several times only to have to fight for it again on the next phone call. I should’ve known better. I was warned not to go with BT but was lured by the high speed internet. Hopefully it’s nearly over now. Advice for anyone considering using BT… ask yourself if you value being treated with fairness and respect. I’m not prone to complaining or writing snotty letters, but I’ve been really disgusted by them. I’m ashamed they’re British and can’t wait to sever ties with them. I will never again knowingly pay BT for a service where an alternative exists. I’ve now moved to Sky, of whom I can’t speak highly enough so far (I know they have their detractors too). They’ve been in a whole different league to BT in terms of their customer care. Had a slight issue with broadband, but one 10 minute phone call and it was resolved. Turned out the BT Outreach engineer connected up the microfilter in the wrong place… (sigh). I will update this post with BT’s response, should I even get one…

MY friend signed up for a 24 month contract with 3 Network. He pays £30 a month, £15 for internet [15GB] and £15 for a Laptop add-on. Now, he was paying for the contract, but he was using the internet, so he gave me the Dongle and i now pay him the monthly £15 for it's usage while he is paying off the internet. Device Name: Huawei E122 Since then he has had a phone line put in and 'proper' internet into his home. He no longer needs the Dongle. Now i am going to be moving abroad to France in the relatively near future, and the roaming charges are extortionate, it is something like £1.50/Mb to use it in France. I can't take the Dongle with me, I cant afford it. So... Is there a way we could cancel his contract without incurring the cancellation fee, when he still has 15 months left on the contract? Is it possible to transfer the contract to me, then when i move cancel the contract as i wont be able to pay them and the roaming device isnt currently active on the device. The main problem is the laptop. If we cancel the contract, will he have to return the laptop, if we manage to cancel the contract without the fees? Any help on the matter would be appreciated Megan

Hi, I hope that someone can offer me some advice. I am facing dismissal from work for viewing pornographic material in works time. I am currently suspended, and have not yet been disciplined. Although I have been informed verbally that a letter will be dispatch soon starting formal disciplinary proceedings. It started when a workmate was witnessed watching porn during works time on his company issued laptop. He was working alone on the day in question and no one else from the department was present. As part of the investigation the company suspended all 4 members of our department, leaving just the supervisor, and took all 4 laptops for investigation. The workmate was dealt with very swiftly, within the first week, and agreed to resign. After three weeks of investigations the company has informed me of its findings. These are; · Excess internet use · Having inappropriate images · Searching for porn using Google images. My explanations are as follows · Most of the systems used in our department are web based and my internet connection is running virtually all day. I often leave my laptop unattended whilst attending shop floor callouts, from anywhere between 10 minutes to an hour. During this time other people may have access to the laptop. My logon is sometimes used be others on different machines to allow them to use web based software. · On 20/12/10 I received a personnel email via Gmail to my private online email account which contained a PowerPoint presentation from a friend outside of the company. I opened the mail not aware of its contents as the email was headed, “Seasons Greetings Just click on the numbers”. The first slide in the presentation was an advent calendar which showed a cartoon of Father Christmas crashing his sledge. I assumed that the rest of the calendar would follow a similar content, i.e. funny Christmas cartoons. However, when I clicked on a date an inappropriate picture was revealed. I immediately deleted the presentation from the hard drive of the computer. I assumed that by deleting the presentation that I had removed all traces of it, as I had no wish to view, retain or distribute it further. · This is the one that I’m not sure about. They claim that they can tell that I was deliberately searching for pornographic images. I am certain that I didn’t but how can I prove it? They claim that by using Google images and running a mouse over an image that that image will be stored on my hard drive. I have used Google image search, but not for porn. Sorry for the long post. Having read some of the others posted here I believe someone will have some positive replies. Thanks for reading this and I look forward to your response.

Hello I hope ive posted in the right place, really need some advice. I went to Australia last month & stayed with my sister. Having heard the horror stories of people spending hundreds on using their phones abroad i made sure i was very careful. I've got an iphone & turned off the roaming. I only called my emails & did internet searches when using my sisters wi fi at her home. I did use the internet a couple of times & got messages from orange saying i had used 10mb. This made me use it less. In the last few days of our holiday Orange says i connected 9 times. This was a day when we were at my sisters house all day & her wi fi was on. I was also double checking that the wi fi signal at the top of the iphone was on before using. I've just spoken to Orange who were quite nice but told me i had spent £639 in internet charges!!! I had calculated this to be around the £35 mark so i am completely shocked & have no idea of what to do next. They are definately trying to charge me where i thought i was connected to wi fi (im good with phones, so i would have known if it was just the mobile internet connecting. Any advice on what to do next most appreciated, i think im being taken for a ride