Where does he stand...?

RobertFoster

Hi,

My friend has a bit of trouble with his webhosting company - thus my reason for posting here, I couldn't find a "legal" forum - apologies if it's not the right place for it...

A year ago he got hosting form a company for £19.99 (the host is UKhost4u). When it came to renewal this year, they've upped the price to ~£58 and they've already taken this from his debit card. They didn't tell him that they've upped the price, or that they were going to take the money from his debit card. He only found this out when he got his bank statement.

The Terms of use state that they will take the money automatically. That's fine with my friend, his problem is that they upped the price without telling him. The terms also state that they can change the price whenever they like. Surely this change should be communicated? Since it wasn't, my friend didn't get a chance to give the 14 days notice required to cancel his account, which he would have if he'd know of the price changes.

With my limited knowledge of business law: his offer to purchase hosting with the inital consideration of £19.99 was accepted by UKHost4u. They have subsequently changed the amount of the consideration. Therefore, isn't this deemed as a counter-offer, one which he has not accepted as he were unaware of it. Acceptance must be communicated, which he has not done, therefore the new contract with the price change isn't valid?

Does their T&Cs (i.e. the right to change the price) mean that he hasn't a leg to stand on?

He emailed them about it and got this reply:

Thank you for your email.

if you read the terms and conditions it is explained that all accounts are renewed automatically if funds are available

unless you have cancelled your order

to cancelyour order you should have done this at least 14 days before it expired

Anybody got any ideas what his next step should be?

impr0v

I have no legal background, but my reading of it would be that unfortunately the terms and conditions mean that he has very little recourse. His only alternative would be to pursue legal action on the basis that their terms and conditions are unfair which, needless to say, could require significant outlay on his behalf and the outcome is not guaranteed to be satisfactory to him.

Despite the fact that it's in the terms and conditions it's a low act by the hosting company and a course of action he might consider, is to draw publicity to this fact and warn others who might potentially get stung by them.

maxheadroom

RobertFoster wrote:

Anybody got any ideas what his next step should be?

He should contact the European Consumer Centre (http://www.ecic.ie/) who can advise him on the best way to pursue his case in the UK.

impr0v

I contacted the above in a previous dispute with a UK company, in this case about a gaming server, and found them slow to respond and very unhelpful when they eventually did. The dispute was also, co-incidentally, about unfair terms and conditions, though ostensibly a much stronger case than the OP's one, and the consumer centre backed up the UK company.

RobertFoster

Thanks for your replies.