Webfusion/Pipex Hosting – Bullying Tactic

Last year, as a gift I purchased a domain name and some hosting for my my sister, as she promised to go on a Dreamweaver course and populate the site.

After a years hosting which I paid up front, I let the contract lapse because she had done nothing.

Previous Experience
As is usual with a web hosting, if you don’t want it, just leave it, and when you don’t pay, your site is deleted from the server along with your DNS info after 1 year.

It has been like this since 1997 when I started designing websites.

Pipex/Webfusion Hosting
This being the case with all other hosting contracts. Leaving a fixed term contract to lapse, paid up-front, no problem you may think.
Well not if you’re hosting with Pipex/Webfusion.

Since the end of the hosting period of one year, I’ve received requests I pay £105.64 for another years hosting.

Clause
It turns out Webfusion have inserted a clause which says you are bound to host until you cancel.

Check
I checked their contract. This term was not highlighted or highlighted in any of the confirmation emails.

Bullying Tactic
The question is whether I’ll be bound by the Webfusion contract.
Most consumers feel that when they accept a contract, it is always binding.
In business this is true.

We’ll see what happens.