I suppose it was only a matter of time

[John Hall]

I've just received an email from Gradwell saying that they "have decided
to sell our web hosting assets to Pickaweb Limited (“Pickaweb”), a
hosting specialist. As a result, with effect from today, your account
and billing records will be transferred to Pickaweb. You will shortly
receive a welcome email from Pickaweb, containing new contact and login
details."

It's a slight surprise that they've done this only a year or so
expending considerable effort on totally revamping their services to
make them "cloud-based". Fingers crossed that the hosting of my domain
and my email forwarding don't get screwed up during the transfer. A
search on the web indicates that Pickaweb's reputation is pretty high,
which is some comfort.
--
John Hall
"Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history
that man can never learn anything from history."
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

[Alan Woodford]

On Mon, 11 Jun 2018 16:38:43 +0100, John Hall
<john_...@jhall.co.uk> wrote:

>I've just received an email from Gradwell saying that they "have decided
>to sell our web hosting assets to Pickaweb Limited (“Pickaweb”), a
>hosting specialist. As a result, with effect from today, your account
>and billing records will be transferred to Pickaweb. You will shortly
>receive a welcome email from Pickaweb, containing new contact and login
>details."
>

Possibly unsurprisingly, I got one too..

>It's a slight surprise that they've done this only a year or so
>expending considerable effort on totally revamping their services to
>make them "cloud-based". Fingers crossed that the hosting of my domain
>and my email forwarding don't get screwed up during the transfer. A
>search on the web indicates that Pickaweb's reputation is pretty high,
>which is some comfort.

Yep, that's what I found as well. So long as it is a smooth
changeover, I'll be happy enough, although it is fair to say a little
more warning might have been nice - the email was a bit of a surprise!

Mind you, all I use it for is email on a couple of domains, so I'm
probably not their most financially rewarding customer :-)

Alan Woodford

The Greying Lensman

[richard news]

Likewise - just use Gradwell for email hosting but with the email saying
migrations start from 12/06 (ie tomorrow) I'd have like a bit more
warning. Hopefully Pickaweb (rotten name BTW) give us a bit more warning
before moving individual accounts. With people enjoying summer holidays
etc there is the opportunity to p*ss off a lot of folk.



---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

[Andy]

In message <gdfhSDCDepHbFw7v@jhall_nospamxx.co.uk>, John Hall
<john_...@jhall.co.uk> wrote

>I've just received an email from Gradwell saying that they "have
>decided to sell our web hosting assets to Pickaweb Limited
>(“Pickaweb”), a hosting specialist. As a result, with effect from
>today, your account and billing records will be transferred to
>Pickaweb. You will shortly receive a welcome email from Pickaweb,
>containing new contact and login details."
>

(and me) Does this mean that our names, addresses, banking details etc
have been sold by Gradwell to another company without our knowledge or
consent? If so, is that legal under the new Data Protection rules?
--
Andy Taylor [Editor & Treasurer, Austrian Philatelic Society].
Visit www dot austrianphilately dot com

[DaveG]

On Mon, 11 Jun 2018 21:13:56 +0100, Andy wrote:

> In message <gdfhSDCDepHbFw7v@jhall_nospamxx.co.uk>, John Hall
> <john_...@jhall.co.uk> wrote
>>I've just received an email from Gradwell saying that they "have
>>decided to sell our web hosting assets to Pickaweb Limited
>>(“Pickaweb”), a hosting specialist. As a result, with effect from
>>today, your account and billing records will be transferred to
>>Pickaweb. You will shortly receive a welcome email from Pickaweb,
>>containing new contact and login details."
>>
> (and me) Does this mean that our names, addresses, banking details etc
> have been sold by Gradwell to another company without our knowledge or
> consent? If so, is that legal under the new Data Protection rules?

Probably not since it's required data for purposes of
fulfilling the contract.

I just had a look at their prices and the way I use
my Gradwell account, I could quite easily drop from
the current £12/mo to Pickawebs Starter or even Budget
accounts for a lot less than I'm paying now.

I'm less than happy at the zero days notice of this
change though!

--
ad astra tabernamque

[Tim Sharrock]

On Mon, 11 Jun 2018 18:25:38 +0100, richard news
<richard...@rmsgrange.co.uk> wrote:

>Likewise - just use Gradwell for email hosting but with the email saying
>migrations start from 12/06 (ie tomorrow) I'd have like a bit more
>warning. Hopefully Pickaweb (rotten name BTW) give us a bit more warning
>before moving individual accounts. With people enjoying summer holidays
>etc there is the opportunity to p*ss off a lot of folk.

me too - I never quite got my remnants of old web sites running
properly after the last transition.

From the FAQ "There will be a requirement to update some details on
your email client on your computer and/or mobile device." this could
be awkward with short notice over the summer. (I will need to
arrange to visit my mother to change her email settings)

Tim


--
Tim Sharrock (t...@sharrock.org.uk)

[Charles Lindsey]

On Mon, 11 Jun 2018 21:13:56 +0100, Andy wrote:

> In message <gdfhSDCDepHbFw7v@jhall_nospamxx.co.uk>, John Hall
> <john_...@jhall.co.uk> wrote
>>I've just received an email from Gradwell saying that they "have decided
>>to sell our web hosting assets to Pickaweb Limited (“Pickaweb”), a
>>hosting specialist. As a result, with effect from today, your account
>>and billing records will be transferred to Pickaweb. You will shortly
>>receive a welcome email from Pickaweb, containing new contact and login
>>details."
>>
> (and me) Does this mean that our names, addresses, banking details etc
> have been sold by Gradwell to another company without our knowledge or
> consent? If so, is that legal under the new Data Protection rules?

Well I just have an email from PickaWeb to say that a direct debit has
been set up to my bank account. Can they do that without my consent?

Hasn't appeared on my online banking yet, but it is still Sunday today.
Shall check tomorrow, and probably cancel it.

I also have an invoice from them for the first month, whereas my Gradwell
account shows I am paid up to the end of December.

And I didn't receive that email, though I did know from other channels
that it was about to happen.

I shall start examining other options in the morning.

--
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At my New Home, still doing my own thing------
Tel: +44 161 488 1845 Web: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~chl
Email: c...@clerew.man.ac.uk Snail: 40 SK8 5BF, U.K.
PGP: 2C15F1A9 Fingerprint: 73 6D C2 51 93 A0 01 E7 65 E8 64 7E 14 A4 AB A5

[John Hall]

In message <foo2vm...@mid.individual.net>, Charles Lindsey
<c...@clerew.man.ac.uk> writes

>Well I just have an email from PickaWeb to say that a direct debit has
>been set up to my bank account. Can they do that without my consent?
>
>Hasn't appeared on my online banking yet, but it is still Sunday today.
>Shall check tomorrow, and probably cancel it.
>
>I also have an invoice from them for the first month, whereas my
>Gradwell account shows I am paid up to the end of December.

I had an invoice from them yesterday for £2.03, which I assume must be
for a part-month rather than for a whole month though it wasn't clear
what period it covered. I assume that I will receive a rebate from
Gradwell for any unused time on my account with them.

I'd been paying Gradwell via a credit/debit card arrangement, and
perhaps because of that I don't think Pickaweb offered me direct debit
as an option. They handle their credit/debit card payments through an
outfit called Worldpay, and in paying the invoice I had to set up a user
with Worldpay and also apparently authorised Pickweb to take payments of
any amount at any frequency. As it's a credit card, if there's any abuse
of that then the credit card issuer I believe would have to reimburse
me, but hopefully there won't be. Nevertheless I am far less impressed
by the way Pickaweb seem to handle the financial aspects than I am by
their techical side.

[Richard]

On 11/06/2018 21:13, Andy wrote:
> In message <gdfhSDCDepHbFw7v@jhall_nospamxx.co.uk>, John Hall
> <john_...@jhall.co.uk> wrote
>> I've just received an email from Gradwell saying that they "have
>> decided to sell our web hosting assets to Pickaweb Limited
>> (“Pickaweb”), a hosting specialist. As a result, with effect from
>> today, your account and billing records will be transferred to
>> Pickaweb. You will shortly receive a welcome email from Pickaweb,
>> containing new contact and login details."
>>
> (and me) Does this mean that our names, addresses, banking details etc
> have been sold by Gradwell to another company without our knowledge or
> consent? If so, is that legal under the new Data Protection rules?

The Data Protection thing put me right off Pickaweb.

Legal? I am not a lawyer but I see that Gradwell recently changed their
Ts&Cs to say that they can pass on your details and assign their
contracts. That is presumably what they are relying on.

Consent is defined as: “any freely given, specific, informed and
unambiguous indication of the data subject’s wishes by which he or she,
by a statement or by a clear affirmative action, signifies agreement to
the processing of personal data relating to him or her”.

I have not given that agreement nor was my agreement sought in any way.

The ICO has some great statements on their web site eg:

"The GDPR is clear that consent should not be bundled up as a condition
of service unless it is necessary for that service"

"It must be obvious that the individual has consented, and what they
have consented to. This requires more than just a confirmation that they
have read terms and conditions – there must be a clear signal that they
agree. If there is any room for doubt, it is not valid consent."

Pickaweb then compound the whole thing by passing my banking details to
a third party without asking for consent.

Can I be bothered to complain? I have two tough days ahead of me then I
am going boating round Birmingham. So no, I will settle for writing to
ask that my details are deleted and not passed to anyone. If I don't get
a response then time to complain to the ICO.