Hello All, I am a noob and I am so happy that this forum exists. Thank all of you for sharing your stories and advice! My situation is this: For the past 2 years I have had a webshop and a website through 1&1 internet. Their payments are done through subscription billing. The webshop is 3 months in advance and the website is six months in advance. My last billing date was June 15, which would cover July-September of 2008 for the shop and June - December 2008 for the website. For whatever reason my card didn't go through. I checked my payment information and everything was the same. They said they would try again and again the card didn't go through so they sent the account to NCO Financial systems earlier this month (July) and locked my websites and took them down. I called the bank and everything is fine. The money is still there. I checked my account information with them and everything is still the same. I wrote a letter to NCO asking them to validate the debt and asking them to cease and desist. They are still calling me every day after receiving the letter. They sent me a bill for the full service amount with no validation information. They also said that I need to take care of this before it affects my credit. I wrote 1&1 and told them that since they terminated my account and sent it to a collection agency that I am not going to pay for moths of service that I won't receive - instead I was willing to pay for the pro rated service I received in June and I enclosed a cashier's check drawn on my bank. They emailed me back and told me that the tore up the cashier's check because they don't accept that as a form of payment. I looked at their terms of service and they didn't specify that they don't accept alternate forms of payment. They then told me that they never terminated my account and that the debt is a valid debt because I signed up for their recurring billing and that it was my responsibility to cancel my account. So I canceled the account and I am very concerned. They sent me an email stating that my account would be canceled according to the date I selected when I went through their cancellation wizard. There was no date option. The only choices were "as soon as possible" and "end of domain/renewal term". I googled both these companies and discovered that they engage in a lot of aggressive and deceptive billing tactics. They make it hard for people to cancel and even after you cancel they will still try to bill you for services. This has occurred in the US, Canada, and Europe. In a fit of fear and rage, I wrote letters to the BBB, AG's Office in the state they and I reside and the FTC. Perhaps it was a bit much, but I am so stressed over this. I am at a loss to settle this matter and of course preserve my credit rating. I am a student and I rely on student loans to secure a portion of my financial aid and the time for me to apply is near. Any comments and suggestions are welcome.
I also wanted to add that I currently have Trans Union and Experian credit reports and they appear ok except that some info needs to be updated. I am still waiting to get my report from Equifax.
I just wanted to clarify my point. I reread that and it sounds rambling. My point is: I haven't received a good or service as this is all payment in advance for a service and yet I have been turned over to a collection agency. Is that legal? And what can I do about it?
