Winner and my 1and1 Experience

Well the winner of my Blogiversary draw which DH picked out of the hat last night is Knitnana. Congratulations, Knitnana! Please take a look at my Jewellery and Stitchmarkers Gallery here and email me to let me know which item you'd like and your address. My contact details are in my Blogger Profile.

As regards my eShop, I'm not having such a good time. On a recommendation I signed up with 1and1. I signed up for a year's contract and paid the first six months up front on the understanding (or so I thought) that a 60 day money back guarantee applied in case of non-satisfaction. That was on 22nd July (ten days ago). It wasn't until yesterday evening that I really got a chance to sit down and look at it to find that it was absolutely no use to me as a website at all. It turns out, according to the person I spoke to on Technical Help, that the £9.99 a month package doesn't even allow you to do the most basic customisation of your template such as having your company name on your website. Doh! Even if I paid a website designer, I was told, they wouldn't be able to add a logo or anything to the site but, if I paid an extra £30 a month, this would be possible! I certainly couldn't afford to pay out £39.99 a month for a tiny little enterprise such as mine so that's out.

To add insult to injury, I was then told I wasn't able to claim back any refund whatsoever as I had apparently clicked on the box that stated I would like to have the free Photo Book and the terms and conditions to that state that opting for the "free" photo book negates the 60 day money back guarantee (I didn't notice this) which meant that I had only seven days cooling off period to claim any refund. As ten days have gone by, I'm now left with paying £9.99 a month plus VAT for a site which is worse than useless and which I will never use. I haven't taken advantage of the "free" photo book either as I don't even really know what it is but I thought as it said it was free, I might as well go for it. So, it's back to the drawing board with the eShop and goodbye to the £79.21 I've already paid 1and1 and also the next six months' payment. I feel really annoyed with myself that I was caught out like this! I also found the person I spoke to at 1and1 quite rude and thought their statement that "it's your own fault if you couldn't be bothered to read the terms and conditions" was slightly less than diplomatic. So, poo to 1and1 is what I say!

Quite a few Rowan members have been discussing the new Rowan magazine and I couldn't comment as I hadn't had mine but, on a more positive note, it finally arrived today.


It must be one of those weeks . . . . .