I make no secret of the fact that I’ve moved my website hosting from one server to another over the years. Some hosts are too restrictive, others are too expensive. Right now, I host all of my sites through 1and1 Internet, and until last week I was happy with the service.
Some months ago, I cancelled a domain that I was no longer using and unable to sell. It was an easy enough process, at least compared to the process I’ve had to endure through other hosts. For some reason, though, I was still billed for the domain and had to contact customer support to get a refund. I didn’t care so much about the refund process at the time because I’d cancelled so close to the renewal date – I just assumed it was my fault.
Last week, though, I received a bill for two more domains that I cancelled three months ago! I even held on to the confirmation emails that said everything was cancelled and in order. I immediately contacted customer support (an extra $20 charge isn’t something I really want to handle these days). Their response? ”You must not have completed the cancellation process. There’s nothing we can do.”
I logged back in to my account to double check.
Sure enough, the confirmation emails were still there stating everything was cancelled in December. The domains were no longer listed on my administrative dashboard. A quick Whois search showed that they were no longer registered to me.
I emailed them back once again and explained that, yes I did everything right and, no I no longer owned the domains, and yes I wanted an immediate refund.
Their response: “We’ve received authority to offer you a one-time refund for these domains. Please fill out the attached form and return to us.” I printed it out, signed the form, and faxed it in … last week.
This morning I receive confirmation that they got the form, with a note explaining that I can expect a refund in 7-10 days.
From a customer service standpoint, this is horrendous! I was billed for something I didn’t have, I contacted customer support to rectify the problem, and I was blamed for the mistake. Not only that, but now it takes more than 2 weeks to correct a problem I didn’t even create in the first place!
This is exactly the kind of poor service that prompted my exodus from previous web hosts. I’m willing to give 1and1 a second (third?) chance in this case, but if and only if they step up the customer focused side in their customer service department.
Do you ever blame the customer for problems legitimately caused by your own internal operations? Do you own your mistakes? If you were in this situation (mistakenly charging a long-standing customer for services he didn’t have), what steps would you take to resolve the problem?
