Heart Internet - threatening with debt collection & credit agency-for not renewing a domain name! AVOID them!

[joko]

For a grand sum of £5.99...i have been threatened and harrassed by this terrible company - because i have chosen not to renew my domain name!!

i have just decided i didnt want it but they have sent me email after email reminding me...

then they became demanding and warning me - and threatening to pass this 'debt' to a collection agency and pass my details on to a credit reference agency!

I am disgusted by this bullying and threatening tactic...

anyone got any ideas of how i can deal with this?

thanks

[factor-fiction]

Were you required to pay it under the terms of the contract regarding notice period?

[joko]

no i wasn't.

they just wanted me to renew...

i have emailed them and told them what i think of them...i guess that will have to do...i actually cant be bothered wasting any more energy on them.

[Postdog]

Wish I was being chased for a "debt" of 5.99. For that money I'd pay first and then sort it out. I know there is a principle involved (boy, do I know!) but is it really worth the aggro?

[mike11111]

If what you say is true then you don't have a 'debt'; you have merely declined their offer of further service. There must be some regulatory body who would be interested in this kind of tactic.

[factor-fiction]

Did you pay by direct debit or in some other way?

[joko]

exactly mike...there is no debt...but they are threatening me like i am obliged to pay them

no i payed with a card and they just wanted to renew it - but by now the card has expired so they couldnt...

i certainly didnt give them permission to renew -they did not even ask me

its no aggro postdog - i have told them straight they are out of order and will not be getting a penny more from me and i will be ignoring them...and good luck with hiring a debt collector

[venator]

isn't Cisco the authority for domain names? They might be interested, possibly?

[joko]

this email was sent last month and i didnt open it...because i thought it was just another reminder to renew...(they sent about 20)
i only spotted it when i did a search for another word and this came up and i noticed the words debt collection

just seen this message that was sent a week later

If you no longer need the domain name, please ignore this notice and any further
reminders and the domain name will be cancelled. Alternatively, if you wish to
cancel the domain name immediately, please log in to your account at
http://www.nominet.org.uk and request that we cancel it.

i have just replied and told them to consider this email a cancellation and n ot to contact me again

what company can complain to?

[rojash]

"isn't Cisco the authority for domain names?"
Nope - Cisco is a manufacturer of routers, network switches, and the like.

[boxtops]

Let them take you to court then, you can prove you told them to cancel it. You need to contact Heart and make sure they have cancelled. They are the only people who can call off the debt collection agency. Once that's done, get a credit check done just to make sure they haven't done as they threaten and given your credit rating a black mark.

[I.Don No]

if they want to persue this just sit back and let them. no debt, no case. and it will cost them financially to carry on, so let them spend.

[factor-fiction]

I think you may have signed up to Continuous Credit Agreement on your card, which means the renewal is automatic unless you cancel give the agreed notice. If that's the case they would have been entitled to try to collect the money if you didn't give appropriate notice. If they couldn't collect because the card was no longer valid then they will be able to claim you have failed to pay what you owe.
Could this be the scenario?

[joko]

probably that is technically it factor...but to start threatening me as though i am in debt is ridiculous.

at no point was i asked or agreed to allow them to renew when they ran out...it was probably small print...

they also said to me if i didnt want the domain anymore to just ignore the notices ( as copied below), so why start threatening?

any other company would just freeze the account and then cancel it if no payment is made - not threaten and send endless messages.

[factor-fiction]

it does seem odd but they are trying to make a profit and a continuous credit card agreement is what it is -I'm not sure whether there was small print or not

[ladybirder]

Those Continuous Credit Agreements are a nightmare and you don't even know, and are not told that you are signing up to one. There have been lots of complaints about them.

[ubasses]

If you are 100% you do not owe anything Email back and advise that you are going to report them to the police for harrassment. There is a law that covers this kind of thing. I know the telegraph advises people to do that when these parking firms keep sending threatening letters for people slightly overstaying on supermarket etc carparks

[factor-fiction]

I don't understand your logic, ubasses. The police would not be at all interested, I'm sure. It seems to me the company is asking for what it feels it is entitled to under the CCA agreement

[joko]

i dont think its a cca, its more an automatic renewal...i have nothing in my emails from them that mentions any of this though...i was not asked if i wanted to renew each year because if i was id have said no...

i dont mind them trying to renew...but as soon as they realise i havent renewed, they should not start threatening me with debt collection and to destroy my credit...

[joko]

just found this on an old message

Unless you choose for the domain to expire we will automatically renew the product using your payment details on the day before the expiry date. Domains cannot be cancelled after the renewal date.

If you do not have valid payment details at the date of renewal then your domain will expire, and will be made available for other people to register.

Please note that valid credit/debit card details are needed to pay for domain names as these cannot be paid by Direct Debit.