23 Jul 05

Web Central Australia

I want to comment here about a company called Web Central and their billing practices. Here’s the background to my story:

1) On March 1, 2004 I purchased and paid for a URL forwarding service from Melbourne IT for www.alpinenews.com.au. The cost was $99, which I now know to be way over the odds. With my own hosting business I offer this service for free.

2) Later that year I changed host and no longer required the URL forward. I actually forgot all about it. Even with hindsight I don’t think that’s an issue, because it was an annual service and I should have expected a renewal notice.

3) I believe that a renewal notice arrived in the form of an invoice in March. I don’t have the copy of that still, unfortunately. I thought it was fraudulent, because it claimed to come from Melbourne IT, but showed Queensland contact details. I know Melbourne IT to be based in Melbourne.

4) I think I received a second invoice. I rang Melbourne IT, who claimed to know nothing about it. I sent them a copy of the email and suggested they investigate a fraud. They replied belatedly to say it was for the URL forwarding. I now assume that Web Central is a reseller for Melbourne IT, or an affiliate of some kind. Confusing isn’t it?

5) Shortly after clarifying this, on May 13 I received another invoice for $99. This is where my written documentation trail begins. The email included a threat to refer me to an outside collection agency. No email address was given for contact, just a Fortitude Valley address, phone and fax.

6) I sent a fax the same day (May 13) explaining the situation and challenging the account. I stated the obvious and said the account should be closed. They never responded and I thought that was the end of the matter, until …

7) Yesterday (July 22) I received another invoice and threat. It asked me to respond by phone or email within seven days, but no email address was provided!

I wrote and sent another fax today (July 23). I also decided to track this company down. A search for WebHosting, Fortitude Valley, led me to WebCentral. The fax number and address are the same as what appears on the nasty emails to me. I sent them an email again describing the above and asking them to respond.

This raises some warnings and issues. Although the amount is small, as their threat states, any referral to a collection agency would appear on my credit rating. You hear horror stories about people being rejected from utility connections and all sorts of things because of billing errors.

WebHosting Services clearly isn’t Melbourne IT, who I bought the service from. Shame on both of them.

Web Central’s billing practice is unethical. If someone chooses not to renew a subscription-based service you can’t, or shouldn’t charge them for it.

In my latest fax, I’ve told them I’ll refer this to the Department of Fair Trading if it isn’t satisfactorily resolved.

These articles might be of interest:

• Spam Gourmet eats junk
• Account closure?
• Bigpond and Gmail

Tags: Australia, business, email, Melbourne, news, PR, Queensland, war

Leave a comment

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail