I would like to bring attention to the unfair business practices of a Chesterbrook based internet company called 1and1. It is a web hosting company which advertises very heavily all over the place.
I have an account where I have reserved a domain for future use and have my credit card setup for automated payment, so I hardly visit their site to check on my account or status. There is zero communication from them except for too much advertising crap which I ignore.

Earlier in the year, there was a fraud alert on my American express card, so the card number was changed. I updated my Credit card info from wherever I received a notification about the change. I never received any updates from 1and1 about my credit card and that some invoice is due for payment, although they claim that they have send it already. Last week I received a letter from a collection agency for an amount owed to 1and1 for $29.94 along with a late fee of $18.95.
Remember this is an invoice for the period of 05/08/2009-11/08/2009 and it is advanced payment and they already sold of the debt to a collection agency (NCO Financials) by jacking up an additional late fee on it.
I tried to settle with 1and1 but they would not deal with me anymore and redirected me to NCO.

http://www.complaintsboard.com/byurl/1and1.com.html

http://www.webhostingtestimonials.com/hosts_name.php?id=1and1-reviews-ratings

http://elliottback.com/wp/1and1-sucks/

I went on the web and found many instances of such cases where 1and1 did not notify their customer and the customer comes to know about the loan from letter from the collection agency. NCO financials based in Horsham, has a bad reputation of trying to collect debts which don’t even exist.

1and1 does not care about retaining customers and focus on getting new customers by heavily spending on advertising. It is a setup business between 1and1 and NCO Financials. I suspect there is a connection between these two companies for ripping off their customers.

I have an excellent credit rating and this whole mess up between 1and1 and NCO, and this has created a risk of affecting my credit rating for a mere $29.94 which I could have paid in 30 seconds, had I received the call about wrong credit card number.

I called up NCO today and made the payment out of fear, as they did promise me that it will not be reported to credit bureaus as it is within 30 days of receiving the debt.