I am soliciting opinions....the story: I was renting website space from a company. I had been paying 1 year in advance for the rental (it's only $24.95/month). The renewal time came up and I decided to cancel it. However, unknown to me, you have 10 days to cancel from the time of the renewal or you will be charged the full year's fee. Well, I never received notification of the policy or the renewal, and I cancelled it 7 days late. They are insisting on my paying the full $249.95 for the 6 months worth of service for which I have received about 2 weeks worth. They have just sent me a collection letter and I am steaming. I called the attorney general in the state they do business in (Florida), and they turned me over to the consumer protection agency. The Florida consumer protection agency is sending me a complaint form for me to fill out. I am also planning on notifying the FTC about this, which I feel violates the FDCPA, since I never received the goods and services and are being charged for them. What should I do now, debt validation, sue them in small claims court for violation of the FDCPA, hire a lawyer for damages????
Being that part of the company which I own is internet based, and I've had direct dealings on hosting, I don't think they have a snowballs chance in hell to charge you the full amount regardless of what their terms are. If I had a hosting company, which I did at one time, and changed the terms without notifying you, that COULD constitute unfair and unethical business practice, not just billing. That could mean that as soon as you signed up, I could've changed the terms to say, "... if you don't cancel 6 months before expiration, you will be charged $1,000 per month extra,...blah, blah, blah." If anything, your charges should be prorated to the actual charges you incurred for those two months. If they think the $249, for which they're actually charging you as a service they have YET to give you, is worth the court battle, they have a problem. Just my .02
definite strongarm tactics. However, if you signed a contract that agreed to those terms, you may have to pay it. I'd suggest finding some loopholes in their system to get you kicked off (hence voiding the contract on their side). If you need some ideas, drop me an email. I could write you some VERY inefficient cgi or scripts to load on their server that would have them begging you to leave. Web hosting by nature is overselling a product. Typically 0.1% of the user base will use 99% of the allocated resources, they'll sacrifice that 0.1% customer to maintain the performance for the other 99%. Read your contract, see where you stand. I'd be glad to donate my services to make you their #1 annoying customer to get out of your obligation
