Streamline.net - the home of appalling web hosting

[Conniff]

That can't find a company called 'Streamline.net' ?

[Logi]

That's because streamline.net is Dollamore

[Logi]

Look for Dollamore Limited. And then select the Gloucester entry

[Conniff]

With cash in the bank in excess of £2.3million after tax, I can't see a problem there.

[Logi]

They don't have 2.3m cash at the bank. As you can see below, each company has debts in excess of their cash / book values

 

1&1 current status:

 

• 6.4M cash
  
• 142.6k book value
  
• 13.3M liabilities
  

Fasthosts current status:

 

• 3.8M cash
  
• 6.6M book value
  
• 17M liabilities
  

Dollamore / Streamline.net

 

• 1.3M cash
  
• 545k book value
  
• 2.3M liabilities
  

Edited September 19, 2013 by Logi

[Logi]

I should also mention that each company is flagged as "possible adverse information". Which means they are financially unstable and will possibly fold.

[Graciee]

I still think this info is important to everyone!

[zarathustra2014]

I've been with streamline.net for a good decade now with a single domain. Last year I took out a second domain/hosting for a friend's photography site, but soon discovered their home package doesn't allow for email addresses based on their domain, so only ever intended to stay with them for a year.

After a week I still couldn't use their services, and the domain didn't seem to be registered to me, so I contacted streamline.net and after several messages was given an apology and they eventually registered it with Tucows, so it was a good 10 days before I could even upload and start the website.

 

It was getting close the expiration date, and I saw they'd tried to take payment automatically but my card expired slightly earlier this year. That was handy I thought, as I do not wish to renew. A week ago I unlocked the domain and set about transferring it to another hosting company, a couple of days later they suspended my account, which didn't really matter to me.

 

I sent them an email saying I did not wish to renew for another year, and like other people I'm now being told tough luck! They've suspended my other account too which is already paid for, and still has another year or so to run. I've been threatened with admin costs and debt collectors in my very first reply from them, but they did say as a courtesy they would pay for my domain for a year if I renew the hosting with them (how nice!).

 

I explained my discontent for a company I have used for ten years, and as I live in France have told them they can come and chase me over here, so that I might happily counterclaim. Perhaps I can charge them an admin fee for the 10 days my account was unusable due to their incompetence. My only concern, is not being taken to court (as that's never going to happen), but in having a bad credit rating. I'm not a UK resident (as of six years ago) but I did use a UK credit card.

 

On another side note to demonstrate the incompetence of streamline.net I received an email from their social media team saying they wanted to showcase customer websites and if I was interested then to send them a confirmation email. Free promotion I thought, nothing to lose in that, so I responded and gave them my domains, only to get this reply : 'That is a system fault that email shouln't be sent to our customers. Once again we do apologize for the inconvenience. '

 

What a joke!

[renegadeimp]

AFAIK these companies do not mark your credit file as their charges and business practices are very questionable and they know it.

[zarathustra2014]

Hopefully you're right renegadeimp, though I've never needed credit or a loan, so it wouldn't be the end of the world for me. I just don't like being threatened by such an unscrupulous company. I joined them in 2003 - you'd think they'd want to keep their customers on side. Instead of renewing my original domain with them for another decade, I'm taking it away from them (can they prevent you from having an unlock code for a domain if they suspend your account over another domain?)

Coupled with that I would never recommend them to anybody else, ever. Their mentality just ends up hurting themselves in the end.

[renegadeimp]

sadly small companies that increased in size think they can do whatever they like lately, and sadly there is little repurcussion to what they do as if they are about to get caught out, they use the old "gesture of goodwill " trick.

[zarathustra2014]

I don't know if they reply at weekends, but can't wait to see their response.

 

They will not get a penny from me.

I've also given them more than a year's notice that I will be cancelling my 2003 domain with them too

- they've lost an 11 year old client now.

 

I cannot access my domain anymore from my control panel,

but I presume they are legally obliged to release my domain should I wish to transfer it.

If they hold that against me I will go after them.

 

From reading other forums,

they expect customers to give notice of cancellation 7 days before the account expires.

 

That in itself speaks volumes about their shady practices

- obviously hoping people forget about it,

so they can try and nail them with their dubious, buried, terms and conditions.

 

I suspect they make more money from their threatening letters than they do from the hosting itself.

 

Complaints go back years - why hasn't trading standards made these people accountable?

[Psychra]

If you do not pay a web host then you risk losing your service. This is the way I have always understood it. I was therefore surprised to receive a debt collection letter from Streamline saying I owed them £90.

 

I have since dug up lots of threads like this with many people complaining of the same problem. But, what to do?

 

I have just emailed my local trading standards and tweeted the question posed in the last post to @tsi_uk - We will see what happens.

[zarathustra2014]

I explained that I made a phone call (just over a year ago)

where I told them I only wanted the domain/hosting for a year as I couldn't have a personal email address

based on the domain without paying a lot for the privileged.

 

They told me I would need to give them the date, the time and the minute at which I called

as they do not keep accurate records (as though my photographic memory stretches back to over a year!).

 

I've told them if they pursue me and try to give me a bad credit rating I will be after them.

 

I expect to hear nothing more from them

- there's absolutely nothing they can do legally.

I'd actually relish the prospect to see them try and fight it in court,

it's about time somebody threw the book at this company.

 

My last email was an automated one that reads as follows:

 

You have a limited time in which to clear your outstanding balance.

Unless payment is received within the next 7 days we will have no alternative than to pass your details to a debt collection agency

for recovery of your arrears, in addition to the full value of your remaining contract.

 

You will also be liable for any additional charges incurred as a result of this recovery,

and you should note this may affect your credit rating.

You must make this payment within 7 days.

[Psychra]

So nobody has had any real action taken against them for not paying? It is all just threats and harassment? I would love it, LOVE IT, if Anonymous took them apart.

[zarathustra2014]

I ready plenty at the time, doing many searches Psychra, and I haven't come across a single person they have pursued with the courts. They just straddle the fine line of legality and try to intimidate people into paying up. I imagine they make more money with their phoney admin charges and debt collecting scare tactics than they do in hosting and selling domains that they take out with Tucows (and that's if they even remember to register them on the paying client's behalf!).

[renegadeimp]

So nobody has had any real action taken against them for not paying? It is all just threats and harassment? I would love it, LOVE IT, if Anonymous took them apart.

 

Umm anonymouse? You mean the group of kids off another website who dont really do anything?

[Psychra]

I checked back through my emails. I paid for hosting in 2008 and my payment was declined in 2010 with the following warning;

 

"Please note that if your billing details are not updated your website may be discontinued"

 

No problem, I am happy for it to be discontinued.

 

Then in 2014 I get a threatening letter!?!

 

I have just completed the citizens advice form but I don't have permission to post the link.

[slick132]

Hi Psychra,

 

No need to post the link here.

 

Before the letter you have just rec'd from them, when did you last get any demands for this matter.

 

[Psychra]

The last contact regarding this domain was in 2010.

[slick132]

Hi Psychra,

 

The last contact regarding this domain was in 2010.

 

Definitely ignore then !!

 

[lozzhipkiss]

Hello,

 

I paid for the StreamlineNet web hosting package in 2005 to carry a weekly podcast.

To be fair I had very few problems with Streamline during the 4 years that I produced the podcast

and my yearly payment was by a direct debit arrangement.

 

 

In 2009 I decided to stop podcasting and therefore web hosting was no longer required for that project,

however I decided to keep the hosting and email address open just in case I changed my mind.

 

 

By 2013 I had not used the website facility for 4 years and

I decided I was unlikely to produce more podcasts.

 

 

At that point I decided to make a clean break.

I notified my contact list of my decision to cease using my associated email address

and about 6 months before renewal with Streamline I set up a fresh email package with a new address and a new provider.

 

 

Rather than cancel with Streamline there and then,

I decided to allow my Streamline hosting package to run its full course for the 12 months that I had paid for

and I just wouldn't renew at the end of the 2013-2014 period.

 

 

I now regret this course of action and wished I had contacted them beforehand to warn them that I would not be renewing with them.

If I had done so I would be feeling easier about subsequent events.

 

As part of the story I should also mention that in the early part of this summer, I lost and had to replace my bank debit card.

This was the card that I had used in 2005 to purchase my Streamline Net hosting.

Therefore, when they tried to take the direct debit payment my bank refused to pay them.

 

 

Streamline then contacted me to tell me they could not take the payment

and I told them we no longer used their hosting and therefore would not be renewing.

They replied that I would have to pay the full renewal amount before they would discuss my cancelation.

 

 

Though I was happy to pay a small administrative cancellation fee

I was certainly not prepared to pay over £100 for something I didn't want.

 

 

I told them that and a few weeks later I received a Final Notice letter to me home address.

 

 

By this time I couldn't contact them through my site control panel which has been closed and is unavailable.

 

 

Having read many posts re Streamline I chose to see the Final Notice letter as bluster and decided to ignore it.

 

I arrived back from holiday on the 21st September to find a letter from the DCA in North Wales

saying they are working on Streamline Nets behalf and require me to pay before a certain date or face further charges incurred by legal costs.

 

 

I have decided to speak to Trading Standards in Glouceste but besides that I am now wondering what course of action to take.

 

Has anyone out there got any further advice regarding this company?

 

All help appreciated.

 

Thanks

Edited September 22, 2014 by lozzhipkiss
confusing sentence...

[renegadeimp]

Ignore them AND their DCA. They wont do anything. Read everything in this thread about them. They know they will never get their T&C's to stand up under scrutiny, so harass then run off after someone else.

[lozzhipkiss]

Thanks renegadeimp...

 

I visited my local CAB this afternoon and they seem to think paying up is the only answer

because they are in the right and other letters will incur further costs.

 

They said that having paid for the service for 9 years I should have realised they took the money without notice.

 

 

To be honest I agree with this,

but I expected an email asking me what was happening when the tried to take the money

and were knocked back by my bank.

 

 

At that point I would have expected a reasonable firm to have made me some kind of offer.

For example...they could have allowed me to cancel but charge a small admin fee for doing so.

 

 

I would have been quite happy with that.

What they did is sent me a final notice,

closed my site down and then passed it on to CCI.

 

The CAB tell me that I should have kept a copy of my original contract to refer to?

I dare say they are right and I am feeling incredibly stupid regards the way I have handled this whole thing

BUT I am reluctant to pay for something I don't want.

 

 

CCI have given me until 24th Sept to contact them or "further recovery action will be taken"

 

I would really like to know if anyone has been taken to court by these people?

No one is really coming forward with outcomes as far as I can see.

...I would love to know what has happened to those that have ignored the threats?

 

Is what they are doing legal and am I breaking the law by not paying?

 

Should I contact them again to say I'm not paying because I am in dispute?

 

Lozz

[lozzhipkiss]

Update...

 

I have just contacted CCI legal and spoken to a rep. I told them I am placing the matter with OFT and Gloucester Trading Standards.

 

They reduced my outstanding bill from £156.58 to £132.58.

 

They had pointed out to me that the call was being recorded...I pointed out to them that as I own a recording studio most of my calls are recorded also.

 

Lozz