2 Sides To Every Coin!

[Sleepy]

Name : Alan


Comments / Suggestions:
Today I found my website down, which is obviously not good to anyone! I was nowhere near a PC so had to ask for help using my IPhone! Peter M got on the case and together we worked out my domain name with webhosting UK had been closed down due to the invoice not being paid today! I immediately paid, and Peter M got to work on repointing the domain back to the server and checking other settings for me. This was all hard on the Iphone which really did not like the Java Chat Screen and at the end I could not see my own typing until I pressed SEND so it all got a bit confusing - but Peter M put up with me and the website is back up and running.

Unfortunately when I contacted Billing the response was not so fantastic.. Basically I was told it was my fault as I had not paid the bill (which I accept totally), but I wanted to point out no reminder was sent to me! I have all my e-mails from the Sunday the last reminder was sent - and there is no reminder e-mail! I was repeatedly told that the e-mail must have gone as it was in my client area and there had been no failure message. Of course I there was an e-mail in my client area from this morning to tell me the invoice was overdue, but this was sent to an e-mail address that web hosting had suspended the domain too! At one point I was asked if I checked my e-mails in the client area! I did reply that I already had a good e-mail server, provided by webhosting, so why would you expect me to check that everyday! It took me over 5 minutes, and lots of arguing with the billingguy copying and pasting the same replies back to me, to get the postal address so I could send a complaint by post!!

Technical Department - 10/10

Billing Department - mmmm, nearly lost a customer!

[Laura]

Hello Alan,

I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused.

While I can understand your frustration, please take into account the following:

18/06/2010 01:03Customer Invoice

18/06/2010 01:03Upcoming Domain Renewal Notice

20/06/2010 01:03Upcoming Domain Renewal Notice

23/06/2010 01:04Upcoming Domain Renewal Notice

25/06/2010 01:04Upcoming Domain Renewal Notice

26/06/2010 01:04Invoice Payment Reminder

27/06/2010 01:04Upcoming Domain Renewal Notice

29/06/2010 01:03First Invoice Overdue Notice

You received the initial invoice on 18/06/2010. The first domain renewal notice was sent on 18/06/2010 and total 5 domain renewal notices were sent to your registered email address. I do feel the automated system did give you enough time to make an arrangement to pay.

No suspension was made from our end. Your domain expired on 28th June 2010 and so your website went offline. We received your payment on 29/06/2010 17:51 and the domain was renewed immediately.

[Sleepy]

Laura,

Many thanks for your reply : But I think the crux of the matter may have been mis-understood as none of the automated e-mails were received by myself.

I have looked further into this and it appears the 'catch-all' setting on my e-mails were not being diverted to my primary address. I was unable to use my primary address "admin" for my contact details as the billing contact system already had 1 "admin" in its database : therefore I had to choose "admin2".

Therefore when the automated e-mails were sent you would have received a failure message : no address here. When talking to billing the other day I was told "We never received failure notification" - where from the way my settings are you would have received 8 failure notification.

Whilst I totally accept the invoice was not paid, and the contact e-mail address was not working correctly, WebHosting UK could have done a little more to ensure I was aware of a domain renewal. You received failure notifications (may be a problem with your automated system as apparently none were reported?) and you also have my home address and telephone number on file. We have been with you guys a few years now, and you know payments have never been an issue, so would it not have been courteous to have dropped the invoice in the post or even a quick telephone call BEFORE the domain expired and our website failed.

Now I know this issue exists I have an entry in my calender to tell me to pay!

Alan

[Laura]

Hello,

I truly agree with you. All your payments are up to date till date and in my personal opinion, I would have liked someone to consider calling you before domain expiration took place.

It's not practical to call every client before suspension or domain expiration, perhaps a policy can be made for invoices over a certain amount.

Also, I can see that you have 2 different accounts with us. Now, I have set auto renewal for your domains to avoid any such downtime in future.

[craveo]

Really no offense here, and I do see the frustration but it was your fault. Any host that has a software made for billing, well its not their job to check your email and make sure its up to date. Its your responsibility. If they sent the email out originally ask for a copy of it, its not that hard to pull logs, right?

Also, on a personal note (because honestly things like this I just can not stay out of), if you have two accounts, point them both to the same reliable email, not specifically one that is for the domain you have an account for. When you leave yourself in a place that could end up being a hole, you have no one to blame but yourself.

Support - awesome reply, I just do not agree with it.