CI Host/cancellation
In order to cancel services with CI Host, you first visit their cancellation page. So far so good; the only caveats here are that the form asks for your account password (which had stopped working for me, so I'm not at all sure that I had it right), and you have to agree to their "terms of service" (3 separate pages which I didn't actually bother reading, because... terms of service for a cancellation??) and of course their weird idea of a "digital signature".
Otherwise, though, it's reassuring that they asked for my account number (so that they wouldn't accidentally cancel my dedicated server account instead, which would be Bad) and the process did not take long to complete.
But then I received this:
| We have received your notice to CANCEL your account with C I Host
Please print this. You must submit this form to cancel your account. If we do not receive this form via fax you will continue to be billed and you will be responsible for the charges. You also need to submit either a credit card or a online check to pay for your final bill. We will not cancel your account and release your domain if your account has an unpaid balance. If you are making payment by check please mail the check to:
You may fax us a copy of the check completely filled out and this can be accepted as payment. See fax numbers below. Fax Numbers:
I authorize C I Host to deduct from the credit card above my final bill for my service as outlined in my original order form for the above domain. In the event that this charge is contested by myself or charged back to C I Host, I agree that I am responsible for any charges incurred by C I Host in defending authorization. I also agree to pay the 5% fee associated with the chargeback should it occur. I also understand that if I am cancelling within the first 30 days of my contract, the startups are still non-refundable, but no hosting fees will be charged to me for service rendered in the first 30 days of my contract. If I am cancelling after the first 30 days, I am responsible for all charges incurred.
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My response:
| Nonono. You will cancel my account *now*. I do not owe you anything; payment was in advance. If you attempt to debit my card again, I will have the charge reversed.
You last debited my card for $69.00 on 5/24; this should have covered three months beginning 5/19. (I did not actually receive an invoice for that date, so I don't know the ending date.) According to my calculations, you owe me $28.05 for the unused portion of my quarterly hosting: Hosting Used:
Please refund this to my credit card or credit it to my dedicated server account (ci52482046) immediately, and send me confirmation that you have done so. Thank you,
|
4 hours later, an email confirming cancellation arrived. Nothing about a refund; probably they have some clause in their terms of service about not refunding unused portions of prepaid hosting. Ok, that's fine, though it would have been nice if they'd explained that, with a link to the document in question for future reference.
Overall, I was very put off by this apparent insistance that I needed to fax something in or they would continue charging my account, though they partly redeemed themselves by cancelling quickly when I insisted. It just struck me as rather weird; do their cancellation forms and their sign-up forms share a lot of code or template-text or something?
