Philip

Hello,

I had bought some domains with Heart Internet (Reseller Hosting, Web Hosting & Domain Names | Web Hosting Heart Internet) about a year ago and started getting e-mails from HI saying that they were about to expire and as did not want to pay for a further year, thought that was fine.

Whilst checking my bank account today, I was surprised that HI had charged me about £240 - I rang them up and they said that the transactions were done/non-refundable and after saying that I had been receiving expiry warnings, they said that although it might be confusing, that it was in the terms and conditions for them to automatically charge and that it was normal for domain hosting companies to automatically renew - not for Siteground.com I would point out, as have just had a similar situation there with expiries and no problem. Furthermore, they appeared to indicate in some way, that they only way to stop renewing is to wait 11 months and once I get a renew notice to login and say that I do not want to renew. Needless to say...

After phoning my bank, they told me, that they were going to try and get the money back for me, which whilst I do not want to make a problem, can't help feeling that HI almost seemed to be doing everything possible to get people to renew, even if they do not want to - perhaps I am just totally wrong on this and if so, sorry to Heart Internet and unfortunately, I had deleted the e-mail reminders from HI, so guess that I might have trouble getting the money back in any case.

Anyone else with a similar experience?

Thank you.

Philip.

fish

HI whilst not my favourite host at the moment (for different reasons than yours) do provide you with straight forward options not to renew. You have to be proactive though else they will automatically renew them (like many firms - and who wouldn't as a business model?).

first off is the email you get from them telling you it's up for renewal then, and this is where you have to interact, you have to go to your account, click on the 'renew services' button and change the status to what you want (renew or cancel).

If you look at it from another perspective in that you weren't aware of one of your (prime) domains was expiring and they did not renew it for you - you'd be pissed for just the opposite reasons you are now.

So it imo is pilot error on your behalf

Fish

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Fishing Reel | Angler

devolution

At least HI has services that were actually renewed.
Thousands at the other Beast have had non-existant services charged & 'renewed'.

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fish

It won't be long b4 Hi sell it on and then the fun starts ... more competition for the other 'beast'

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Fishing Reel | Angler

Philip

Hello,

My understanding was that the e-mails might have been saying explicitly or strongly indicated that the domain names were going to "expire" etc.. Therefore, I assumed that I would not continue paying unless I took action - I guess that one could say that it is a matter of opinion, but as I teach English as my work, had felt that was what I should think - of course, as mentioned, I had deleted the e-mails, so will stand corrected if I had just misinterpreted the information, but thought that to me it seemed fairly straightforward what conclusion I should reasonably come to - does anyone happen to have a copy of a renewal e-mail from HI to clarify - no, I won't eat my hat thank you ?

Best wishes,

Philip.

fish

pretty sure they say in T&C it's auto renewal unless you intervene. you have of course provided them with your payment details (cc / switch etc) however if your card details were incorrect then ........

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Fishing Reel | Angler

devolution

Here's an email:

Philip

I don't remember getting an e-mail like that exactly, but as I presumably did, then it would be reasonably clear than I had recalled.

Nigel

In my opinion Heart is one of the best renewal procedures. They make it easy to cancel a domain at renewal and they don't renew it until the due date. They're competitive and you get very good discounts for buying 50 credits in advance. So no complaints here.

suzi

Hi Philip

I have most of my domains with HI and one of the reasons is their easy to use interface and that they auto renew!

I get lots of renewal emails and can confirm that they are all in the same/similar format to the one quoted by devolution.

So sadly (for you), I don't think they've been unreasonable.

But, on the positive side, you're now active on these forums - why not list your domains or provide a link and see if you can sell some of them to recover some of your costs?

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