JeffCroft.com: 1&1 Internet is the devil.

Comments

001 // Michael Hessling // 02.27.2006 // 12:02 PM

That’s what I trying to get at in my comment (#9) to your last entry.

Sorry that was so painful.

PS: Very courteous letter. Much nicer than I would have done.
002 // Justin Perkins // 02.27.2006 // 12:08 PM

I have many of my domains registered with them, because they are cheap. But there services are terrible. Their customer server is indeed, the worst I have ever experienced.

I am slowly moving my domain names to dreamhost, but it’s a pain in the arse because 1and1 auto-renews your domain names and I’m trying not to double up on charges.

I have had a an affiliate generated credit sitting in my account unpaid for over 8 months. I’ve sent numerous emails (including one only moments ago) asking why I haven’t received payment for this long. I agree, they suck.
003 // Brian Sweeting // 02.27.2006 // 12:13 PM

Switch to Dreamhost. I’ll hook you up with a discounted coupon code if you want.
004 // Matthew Pennell // 02.27.2006 // 12:36 PM

I’m hosted with them (*nix shared box) and I’ve never had any major downtime or problems with them, although they did screw up a .NET account we opened at work with them.

Their tech support sucks, though.
005 // Ryan Rahn // 02.27.2006 // 12:40 PM

Dreamhost is very good! I’ve been with them for just over a year, and their service and support is great. Their backend controls are quite good as well. They are almost always in the cutting edge (offering Ruby on Rails, etc) and constantly upgrade their plans for existing users.
006 // Jeff Croft // 02.27.2006 // 1:02 PM

Thanks for your responses, guys. I will consider the options you guys have mentioned.

To be fair, I should point out that it’s really only the incredibly poor technical support that has me frustrated with 1&1. The hosting service itself, when it works, is great. I’ve only had a handful of problems in several years — so I can’t complain too much about that. I understand that things will break down once in a while.

What I’m upset about is that it took me over 24 hours to get it fixed. That is a problem.
007 // AJP // 02.27.2006 // 1:05 PM

Dreamhost is nice. 2 years after a coupon to around $4 a month for more features and space than I know what to do with.
008 // Lance E. Leonard // 02.27.2006 // 1:08 PM

I would suggest that another problem would be FIVE faulty IDE cables. Can you say “canned response?” Heh, I knew you could. Seriously, these days, support is all that differentiates hosting companies. While some do offer newer technologies than others, the basic packages are all the same. Who really needs 3 petabytes of bandwidth for $8/mo. That’s all marketing hype. Companies HAVE to have top-notch support. Why put up with it when there are so many other options? (I’ve had good results with mediatemple, crytaltech and am now hosting one site with dreamhost - which has yet to knock my socks off).
009 // Tony Summerville // 02.27.2006 // 1:41 PM

That sucks dude, but I’d like to say for the record that I’ve used 1&1 for my hosting for the past few years and have never had any sort of problem. Their prices are awesome and the customer support has been satisfactory the couple of times I’ve had problems or questions.
010 // James // 02.27.2006 // 2:31 PM

FWIW, Dreamhost has sucked the last few months. I don’t know if I would start up a new site there or move an existing one there, either.
011 // Jason Beaird // 02.27.2006 // 2:40 PM

I’m going to include myself here in the Dreamhost praising for a couple reasons. They Rock! - Pricing, Service, and Support are all dead on, and I’m glad I switched to them. Google Juices = Free/Discounted Hosting - There are a lot of people singing the praises of Dreamhost because, well, they offer $97 per referral! So far, my next year of hosting is already paid for and I still periodically get random search engine visitors who click through the link in my footer and signup. So, do yourself a favor and signup for a dreamhost account. Give it a month or so, write up an honest review, and link in your referral id. Plenty of people read your blog so I’m sure there are a few out there as pissed off with their hosting company as you are right now. ;)
012 // Isaack // 02.27.2006 // 4:39 PM

If you can find a product that suit your needs within JVDS, then I have excellent experience with their service. They seem to have grown bigger lately and they aren’t always as snappy as they used to be. But that was also very impressive, it was like their CEO never slept.

I had weird problems with Rackforce, now I’m with EV1 Servers which has been very nice so far. Quick response on support calls and quick fixes. But then, I haven’t had 4 faulty IDE cables… sounds more to me like it was never fixed to begin with! Sigh

These days I’m considering, http://synssans.nl/ Since we are both based in Europe, latency will be lower for my own uses.
013 // Jim // 02.27.2006 // 5:24 PM

If you’ve got UNIX admin skills, then I highly recommend johncompanies.com. We’ve been with them for years, and every single time I’ve talked to them, I’ve had top notch support. You only get root on a virtual server though, so if you don’t want to set everything up yourself, don’t bother - but on the other hand, you get everything set up how you want it :).
014 // Nathan Smith // 02.27.2006 // 11:03 PM

Jeff: I feel your pain. I was with 1and1.com for awhile, on their Pro Preview plan. However, I just decided to leave ‘ even with a year left, because I was so dissatisfied with their service. Yet, even though I canceled a few of my free dot-info domains well before the billing start date, I was charged anyway. When I talked to a tech support guy on the phone about it, he sounded indifferent. That, along with the inconsistencies in uptime, as well as limitations on MySQL databases, was enough to justify leaving. I’d rather pay for good hosting, than get bad hosting for free. To me, it seems like a preview should make you want to purchase something, not drive you away early. I second what others have said about Dreamhost. I switched last summer, and haven’t looked back since.
015 // JBagley // 02.28.2006 // 12:24 AM

In the hosting game, the only thing I see that sets hosts apart (except occasionally their specs) is support and service. What would a webhost be without support? Dead in the water. And don’t believe that bullsh*t that “an IDE cable was faulty”. I’ve only changed 1 IDE cable in my whole life, and that was because it had been abused for years (in and out of many different IDE drives..) So the uptime on your server is less than 90%? In the hosting game that is pathetic. Anyway, good luck with either switching or sticking it out with them.
016 // Sebastian // 02.28.2006 // 9:02 AM

Exactly the same with me… 1&1 was my ISP too. They kicked me cause of exceeding the volume of my dsl flatrate. I spend a lot of money for web hosting during the years. So now I quit all my contracts with them.
017 // Kai Dolata // 02.28.2006 // 1:11 PM

Jeff, I had the same probs with them, adding some pricely expensice I didnt want to bear anymore, so I now use hosteurope.de as Host. Quick support, good service and prices.
018 // Jared // 03.02.2006 // 9:05 AM

Jumpline is also a very good host. They even work on a Mac.
019 // Phil // 03.02.2006 // 9:23 AM

how can you use 1&1 as a serious blogger? ahhrk…

I worked as a callcenter-agent and the answer “IDE cable” sounds like a give-this-answer-to-the-customer-when-you-don’t-know-what-to-say.

I don’t want to place advertisements, but
- - 8< - - advertisement = ON
I changed from a german webhoster (huynh.de) to asmallorange.com (ASO), since my old provider had lot’s of restrictions and was unable to solve a problem to setup mail-to-blog-posting. After some investigation I moved to asmallorange.com 7 month ago and they’re the best hosting-company I know.

Check them out - you’ll be amazed about their response times. It seems they have adopt some borg-like-technology since you can always reach someone and get a response within minutes.

You can also check their forum to see what other people think of them.
- - 8< - - advertisement = OFF
Thanks for posting this and keep us informed - by the way Nice heading. Maybe in some more weeks a google-search for internet devil points to 1und1.de :-)
020 // Boy George // 03.02.2006 // 4:45 PM

Yo son, You be spreaded that bullshit around me and my boys at 1 & 1 will get to clappin and you and your crew be taking the long dirt nap. Brace yo’self fool cause beef be real son.
021 // Chet // 03.03.2006 // 6:27 AM

I’ll add a few thoughts on dreamhost. They’re support is nothing amazing as far as my experience has gone. They’ve given me a few canned responses that show they never actually read my email. I ended up getting answers I already knew. That said, all downtime problems have been addressed before I notice it.
022 // Natalie // 03.03.2006 // 2:57 PM

Justing - I host elsewhere but register my domains with them too. You know I re-read the affiliate agreement the other day and they actually say in there that “payments are distributed at our descretion.” That must mean any time they feel like it.

Jeff - I’ve had similar emails… I get the same responses back no matter what the issue happens to be. I sometimes wonder if anyone there really types any email or if they hit a check box and it sends a standard reply. There’s also something to be said for a company that doesn’t have a datacenter clear across the country.
023 // Nathan clayton // 03.04.2006 // 3:32 PM

Just to add to the Dreamhost comments. I’ve been using them for a while now and have only had one real issue, which was solved as quickly as could be expected (they wer upgrading their DNS servers and I was moving a .DE domain over to them, which checks the validity of the DNS servers before it authorizes the switch).

On that note, they did have quite a backlog of support queries earlier (when they first introduced their 1TB bandwidth/$9.99 a month deal), but they seem to have expanded their support staff and everything seems to be up to snuff again.
024 // web // 03.07.2006 // 4:43 PM

So in other words — it took about 27 hours to have someone walk over to the machine and hit the “reset” button.

That would be good service if the support associate you spoke to flew from India to the co-location facility himself and reset it. Otherwise it’s simply awful.

Never underestimate a scorn blogger with some SEO knowledge.
025 // PaulM // 03.16.2006 // 11:56 AM

I have not as yet had any dealings with these folks, although I am coming into contact with acquantances that are currently dealing with them. Another web host to veermantly avoid is webwaystudio.com
026 // Clifton Labrum // 03.16.2006 // 7:23 PM

Sorry you had such a bad experience. I’ve been nothing but pleased with ICDSoft. Shared server environment, never down, tech support responds within 5 minutes. Pretty nice.
027 // Kevin Pearson // 03.17.2006 // 2:35 AM

Hi,

I have used 1 and 1 (1&1)www.1and1-uk.com for my art websites for the pass year and a half I have never had a problem with the hosting or email, my only problem being is that the 1st line customer support is India based and they can sometimes struggle to understand your issues or requests and visca versa we struggle to understand them. On the whole I’ve got to say they are far better than the other UK companies we have hosted with Legend coms VERY POOR - Business Serve POOR - Pipex AVERAGE - Fasthosts (UK) POOR.

Many Thanks,

Kevin
028 // Lux // 03.17.2006 // 2:57 PM

yes.. 1and1 is the worst company I have ever purchased anything from. I’m glad I’m not the only one that feels this way. I’ve called them on the phone and the techs there say that they don’t do anything over the phone. So I email, and similar to your experience, I find that the people that respond do not seem to read the emails I sent. They also send emails back full of spelling mistakes and redirections without actually solving the problem. Cancelling is also a great hassle. If you google for 1and1 cancel, you will find many people who had problems with their extortionistic tactics.
029 // Tester // 03.18.2006 // 3:54 PM

I just typed out my entire experience with trying to cancel 1&1 at http://tester.dreamhosters.com

I hope that you do not have to go through this when you cancel their services.
030 // 1and1.com hater // 03.18.2006 // 11:32 PM

HOW FUNNY IS THIS: domain: ihate1and1.com created: 11-Aug-2004 last-changed: 19-Aug-2005 registration-expiration: 11-Aug-2006

nserver: ns27.1and1.com 217.160.224.3 nserver: ns28.1and1.com 217.160.228.3

status: CLIENT-TRANSFER-PROHIBITED

registrant-firstname: Thomas registrant-lastname: Vollrath registrant-organization: 1&1 Internet, Inc. Online Marketing Dept. registrant-street1: 701 Leedom RD registrant-street2: Suite 300 registrant-pcode: 19083 registrant-state: PA registrant-city: Havertown registrant-ccode: US registrant-phone: +1.6105601535 registrant-fax: +1.6105601505 registrant-email: Whois Privacy and Spam Prevention by Whois Source

admin-c-firstname: Andreas admin-c-lastname: Gauger admin-c-organization: 1&1 Internet Inc. admin-c-street1: 701 Lee Rd. admin-c-street2: Suite 300 admin-c-pcode: 19087 admin-c-state: PA admin-c-city: Chesterbrook admin-c-ccode: US admin-c-phone: +1.8774612631 admin-c-fax: +49.72191374215 admin-c-email: Whois Privacy and Spam Prevention by Whois Source

tech-c-firstname: Andreas tech-c-lastname: Gauger tech-c-organization: 1&1 Internet Inc. tech-c-street1: 701 Lee Rd. tech-c-street2: Suite 300 tech-c-pcode: 19087 tech-c-state: PA tech-c-city: Chesterbrook tech-c-ccode: US tech-c-phone: +1.8774612631 tech-c-fax: +49.72191374215 tech-c-email: Whois Privacy and Spam Prevention by Whois Source

bill-c-firstname: Andreas bill-c-lastname: Gauger bill-c-organization: 1&1 Internet Inc. bill-c-street1: 701 Lee Rd. bill-c-street2: Suite 300 bill-c-pcode: 19087 bill-c-state: PA bill-c-city: Chesterbrook bill-c-ccode: US bill-c-phone: +1.8774612631 bill-c-fax: +49.72191374215 bill-c-email: Whois Privacy and Spam Prevention by Whois Source
031 // Shane // 03.26.2006 // 2:04 PM

Were all of your communications via e-mail? Or did you phone them directly?
032 // Jeff Croft // 03.26.2006 // 2:44 PM

Shane-

Did you read the e-mail messages? I called them at least 7 or 8 times that night, before I started e-mailing. i didn’t start e-mailing until one guy on the phone told me I should e-mail their complaints address.
033 // Tim // 04.08.2006 // 1:05 AM

That sounds bad, but not the worst. Check out http://www.thebishop.net/geodog/archives/2006/03/29/myspecialhostingplanwithwebhostplusformerly_netbunch.html for a funny story about REALLY bad hosting.
034 // Dean Clatworthy // 04.30.2006 // 1:38 AM

Jeff, I share your frustrations with 1&1. I got a visit from the debt collectors when they renewed one of my domains (without my permission) and I refused to pay. In the end after some advice from friends, I paid the fee and tried to transfer the domain (which in itself took about 10 phone calls and several complaint emails). You’re spot on with the phone support. I have never spoken to such a bunch of incompetent monkeys in the whole of my life. It seems they have hired any old foreigner off the street and put them on the phone (excuse me if i’m sounding the slightest bit racist, because that is not my intention). Not only could I barely understand the phone operators but they weren’t in the least bit helpful either. And as far as the whole “supervisor” thing goes, they refused to let me speak to theirs on all 10 occasions that I called which leads me to think they are not even supervised. This company needs to be exposed for what they trully are!
035 // Terry Polevoy, MD // 05.06.2006 // 6:42 PM

My e-mail to their director of Investor Relations

Marcus Bauer United Internet AG Elgendorfer StraÃe 57 56410 Montabaur Tel: 02602/96-1631 Fax: 02602/96-1013 E-Mail: investor-relations@united-internet.de

6 May 2006

Dear Mr. Bauer:

Dr Terry Polevoy’s HealthWatcher.net family of health information web sites were shut down by the abusive action of a division of your company that operates in Pennsylvania, USA.

We are currently in the process of moving all of our files to our new ISP.

http://70.103.140.117/~healthwa/

Terry Polevoy, MD HealthWatcher.net

519-725-2263 office 519-725-4953 fax
036 // J. Stockton // 05.08.2006 // 11:14 PM

ANDREAS GAUGER - 1&1 Chairman of the Board - looks like the name fits the company! (not that I want to make fun of names… but it was to uncanny!)
037 // Walid // 05.10.2006 // 2:47 PM

This is an amazing reading. I have been with 1&1 for the past 3 years with no problems.

HOWEVER, since February of this year I had endless problems with their incompetent, impersonal and bloody arrogant attitude to customers.

They have cancelled domains without my permission, charged me for domains even though I asked for it to be cancelled and finally which made me snap, they failed to pass me curtail documents to register my company’s domain (which resulted in 2 months delay).

I spend hours on the phone with their HELPLESS desk and every time after I speak to one of their twats (which by the way cannot fix a dam thing), I put the phone with so much anger that if I see one of their employees I will shove a PC up their arse.

The only way for these suckers to learn the value of their customers is to move our business away from them. I have introduced many of my family and their businesses to them and will work in the next few months to move them all away from 1&1 internet.
038 // jakob // 05.12.2006 // 3:19 AM

The only thing one can be sure about with 1&1 is that you’re not alone ‘ plenty of others have problems with them. Here’s another for German readers:

http://www.qxm.de/leben/20050517-135122/
039 // A.E. // 05.19.2006 // 1:12 PM

My company has problems with 1and1 as well (hence me searching for sites like this.)

We need to change our domain cname and their ccontrol panel interface makes it impossible. They have imposed an arbitrary 32 character limit on their cname field (the result of code-crazy web designer) that makes it impossible for us to enter our proper alias via the web.

I called their Tech support, and the first agent simply could not understand that I needed to change the cname on two sub-domains. They said they were (ha ha ha) forwarding me to tier two. I asked to speak to the tier two technician, to make sure they knew exactly which subdomains I needed aliased. I was transfered, and after 20 minutes it came out that I was STILL talkin to tier one.

I told the person I needed to talk to the person who was actually going to do the work (after two weeks of this runaround, I was now 24-hours from my deadline). I was told they did not have that ability. I asked to talk to their manager (this was at noon on a Wednesday). I was told they have no manager.

So then I asked if they were hiring, because a job without a manager is the best job in the world. Particularly if you can simply do nothing, as these people seem to do all day.

I was promised it would be resolved overnight. It’s been 48 hours since that conversation. We still have no resolution.

Thanks for letting me share. With 95 BBB complaints in 12 months, I will definitely make my company’s CFO aware of the need to change hosts.

-A.
040 // A.E. // 05.19.2006 // 1:15 PM

I also wanted to mention that if anyone is having trouble getting a phone number for 1and1.com that is not their 800 number, I’ve had good luck calling Neil Simpkins.

His number is 610-560-1538

He is actually in a position (or so he told me) to go over and stand over the technician until the guy does what needs to get done.

(although he can’t transfer to the technician’s phone. Odd…)

-A.
041 // Mish // 05.21.2006 // 8:53 AM

Cant agree more! They are a bunch of litigious bullies that I cant seem to get rid of. I luckily only had domian registrations with them.. After cancelling my account, hoping that the domains would just expire and I would be able to just get them again from a more competent provider, they started sending threatening letters. I eventually paid for another year, and even after being FULLY PAID, i cannot do anything with the domains! The battle continues…

My advice is the same: Avoid them at all costs, and warn anyone who is looking for any services they provide to steer well clear.
042 // Jon Lusky // 05.31.2006 // 11:30 PM

Wow, I’ve had the exact same failure twice on my 1and1 server. The drive disappears from /proc/ide, doesn’t show up after a pxe boot into the rescue shell, and about 24 hrs later the server is magically back up with all data intact. In my cases, they have refused to provide any explanation—I didn’t get the bullshit IDE cable story. A bad IDE cable would be throwing errors all over the place, both from the controller side and on the drive side, which would get logged to the SMART Error log on the drive and typically increment the UDMACRCError_Count SMART counter in the Hitachi DeathStar they used in this box.
043 // John Shin // 06.02.2006 // 11:49 AM

I work for 1 & 1 Internet, Inc., and they are fine. No need to argue.
044 // Andy Marsh // 06.27.2006 // 1:56 AM

John Shin works at 1and1 so he thinks life is fine? Right. Their support is complete BS. All USA calls are going to Asia on VoIP so they do not have to pay real money to their support staff. And the staff who support this stuff have shit for brains when it comes to any sort of technical understanding on things like DNS and how it really works. Run don’t walk from these guys.
045 // Elizabeth // 06.29.2006 // 1:10 PM

1and1.com is BY FAR some of the worst service I have ever received. They are akin to the PayPal of webhosting.

I have about a dozen domain names with 1and1. I also decided to try out their WebsiteBuilder package because the site listed a 60 day money-back guarantee if you are unhappy with the program. No loss to me, so I decide to try it out. After less than 2 days, I really disliked the program, so I tried to cancel it. For some reason, I wasn’t able to, and after a good 5 or so emails back and forth with their so-called “support” team, they apologized for giving me the wrong url to go to for cancellation as I am based in Canada. In any case, I finally managed to cancel the package.

This week (a month later) I get a charge on my credit card from them for over $30 for 3 months of WebsiteBuilder.

I email them to find out why and am told the package was never cancelled in the first place. Frustrated, I email back saying I will cancel it asap but want assurance that the charge will be reimbursed as per their guarantee.

I receive an email back telling me WebsiteBuilder is non-refundable, and that the site lists that only hosting is refundable, and that I was confused. No refund, in other words.

I email AGAIN saying I will be transfering my domain names (a dozen of so) when they are up for renewal next year and that they will no longer be getting any of my business. I also tell them I work for a company that is a VERY large affiliate of theirs that brings them a lot of business, and that I am really unhappy with their service. I let them know I’ll be cancelling my own personal affiliate account, and will be calling my credit card company to get the WebsiteBuilder charge charged back.

Unbelievably, I get this snarky email back from the billing department telling me how to go about cancelling my entire package with them…

Dear __, (Cust: XXXXXXXXX)

Thank you for contacting us.

Your account has not been cancelled. We have received 2 previous cancellation requests , one for Norton AntiVirus, and one for WebSiteBuilder Plus, but to this date have not received a cancellation request for your entire package. To cancel your packge, please go to http://cancel.1and1.com, and cancel your services.

If you have any further questions do not hesitate to contact us.

— Sincerely Ian Morris Billing Department

I will never give them another DIME. As soon as my domains are up for renewal, I will be transfering them to another host. Steer clear. The service here is beyond horrible!
046 // 1and1.com scam victim // 06.29.2006 // 2:13 PM

1and1.com,

You have lured us to transfer our domain with advertised price of $5.99. Even though we had our credit card profile set up in November 2005, you had authorized that amount immedately, you now claim that the $5.99 payment has not been made. Again, without any notifications - either in email or writing, you have locked our domain and transferred our account to your collectoin agency for additional $18.95. The agent named Andy (agent no. 525), I spoke with on June 26, 2006, self-claimed the supervisor himself, was extremely rude, and claimed there were notifications for the payment. But he cannot point to nowhere, not even in my account panel on your own servers. His words and actions exemplify the very image and impression of 1and1.com: imcompent, hostage taking, bandit, and evil. My advice to you: please unlock my domain within 3 days. Otherwise I will take every means available to enforce my rights, starting with FTC, and other regulatory agencies, and take it to Clark Howard to give more exposure to your well-deserved evil and bandit business practices.

Steak
047 // KillTerry // 07.01.2006 // 6:42 AM

1and1 did us all a favour when they shut down Polevoy’s web-heaps. Polevoy is a known liar, fraud, charlatan and molester. He shouldn’t be allowed to ave access to the internet.
048 // Chris Beach // 08.10.2006 // 9:28 AM

Jeff, I sympathise. I’ve also had a terrible experience with 1&1 Internet in the UK.

It seems their various support departments simply don’t talk to each other, favouring the “hot potato” approach to account management. They are absolutely dire when dealing with billing problems, having debited my account one month after cancellation of my contract, and then giving me an incomplete refund some days later. They still owe me compensation money promised a couple of weeks ago.
049 // shanyi shen // 08.11.2006 // 3:42 PM

I had terrible experience with 1and1’s service too. Their webmail service is awful. It lost my data several times and the worst time was after I completed a very long email and sent it, the webmail asked me to re-login. But the email I sent just disappeared completely, not in any folder any more. I tried to call their customer service. As soon as the rep heard me complaining on the data loss, he immediately put me on hold without any explantion and holding time is endless. I thus decided to switch to a different company. I did not know how they got those testimony they have on their website. It’s not true at all from my experience.
050 // admin // 08.11.2006 // 4:13 PM

Crooks, Liars and Theives… still doing the same thing as in the past.

Terrible support.

After failing to help with a managed server, they forced us to move a root server for 1 setting in the php files… ok… so we gratiously moved….

Too bad they can’t stop double and triple billing… go to attorney general.
051 // Vlad // 08.21.2006 // 11:06 AM

1&1 is by far the worst web hosting company I’ve ever dealt with - I had a dedicated Unix package with them and I’ve gone through numerous lengthy downtimes and spent hours on the phone with their clueless, always lying and rude support - STAY AWAY! Yes, the infamous ‘IDE cable’ excuse was given to me too. I cancelled the contract and for a good measure put a hold on the credit card that was on file - just to make sure. It’s all just a bad bad memory now but I still can’t stand any of the tracks that are played on their support lines - so many negative emotions are associated with them…
052 // Brian Chappell // 08.23.2006 // 4:38 PM

These guys did me wrong like so many others it seem with the auto renewal after cancelation, then sending your info straight to the collection agency.

Not much you can do but pay it.

Alas unless you type in “1 and 1.com” into google and click on there Google AD, thus costing them the click. Its the least I can do… I start my day off by doing this, and so should you :)
053 // Doug McGown // 08.27.2006 // 4:01 PM

Jeff, 1 & 1 Internet, inc. is a nightmare! I have been involved with Web development, etc. since Web all started. I have never experienced such a piss poor company as 1 and 1. They are worse than Dell when it comes to customer care. I say Dell because when a problem occurs, instead of taking responsibility, they route you to another country. Dell’s country is India and 1 and 1 is Filipian Islands. - how convienient! My Web site has been down over 48 hours. I called 6 times. Twice I requested they move my site to another server. Nothing was done. I did get a hold of a supervior in Germany named Liza. She promised me 2-3 hours for my site to be changed to another server. NOTHING was done (naturally). What is amazing is that all these support people say they have no idea what is going on until they get an update from Germany. Evidently, this company is too big and the little man gets squashed. There is no care or support. I would be so strong to say… they are border-line fraud. They guarantee 99.9% uptime. I know it takes 5 minutes to move a Web site to another server. These people when it comes to a shared server really don’t care about their customers. This company is horrible! - People be aware! Stay away from 1 & 1 Internet, inc. There is absolutly no communication at all between their techs and support. 1 and 1 Internet keeps their support people in the dark! Never have I experienced such ridiculous support and service from a company who says they are all this! It is much worse than your blog emphasizes!
054 // healthynerd // 09.01.2006 // 8:06 PM

Hi, may I solicit your advice because I’m still stuck with 1and1 and I’m wanting to transfer my registry to goDaddy. Assuming I have successfully sent a fax, what if they play ignorant and pretend that they never received anything?

I appreciate your input thanks and more power.
055 // Art Parducho // 09.05.2006 // 11:32 AM

I was about to subscribe to the services of 1and1 and decided to check for comments from bloggers. My decision could not be swayed until I went through all the comments about 1and1. Where on earth did those ratings come from? Thank you for posting your comments. Let us not give 1and1 Internet any business.
056 // Jeff // 09.06.2006 // 6:20 PM

hi, Have been with 1&1 and not a problem but I am at on one of the upper packages and I am not on a root server I am with there hosting side so…I think you might of just ran into some retared support people that don’t know a thing about us computer people. I haven’t had problems with them. I have there business package so Maybe it is with there server support group
057 // Jeff Croft // 09.06.2006 // 8:51 PM

Did you read the comments? There are over 55 comments on this thread and most of them are from people on shared hosting, not root servers.
058 // charles sterling // 09.08.2006 // 11:35 AM

I thought it would be a good deal going with 1&1 but found that the simplest of human error can create a disaster.

After getting a slow start (little done in first 3+months) I began trying to setup several domains and get some simple websites together. It was awkward getting started as it was like once a month that I had to pay any attention to start.

Once with some time and the need to add a domain and an exchange account I made a terrible mistake. I responded to a 25% discount add of which somehow got me switched from MS to Linux hosting.

Did I mis-select something - it would appear so. Did they give me straight and consistent instructions on resolving the issue - NO. Matter of fact - one email said that after I issued a special request they would fix it so that I could make the adjustiments. Well, once I started following those instructions the server informs me that I have to wait 30-DAYS before making this change.

So far, they have not put forth an effort to resolve this issue. So far, I am exploring another hosting service.

BTW, due to the above unintentional switch to Linux my Exchange account stopped working and reportedly was to start working again after I simply followed their afore mentioned instructions.

Whatever happened to CUSTOMER SERVICE where someone would take control of an account and fix it for the customer.

For my months of time/money/confusion - 1&1 is not worth the effort.
059 // Spacyt // 09.12.2006 // 10:37 AM

This is happening to me now. They sent my information to a credit company saying I owe them 29.98 after I canceled services and have their confirmation cancelation email.

Now the credit company is saying I owe a mysterious extra 40 bucks and they have no clue what is going on.

I just emailed 1&1 about this and now that I “googled” issues with 1&1 cancelation issues I’m now aware that I’m going to be getting now where fast. My credit is going to be ruined over this crap.

This is absurd. Have any suggestions?
060 // MikeR // 09.14.2006 // 11:32 AM

So much has been said, not much to add, but I completely agree!!! We don’t host one or two sites, we host hundreds with 1 and 1. Let me tell you, support doesn’t get any better at this level either. We have paid them thousands of dollars in a very short time. By the time our contract expires we will have thousands of domains hosted and you can bet they won’t be at 1 and 1, unless I see some damn quick improvement in support. I can tell you this much, if Ralph Dommermuth doesn’t get his ass off that damn boat and back into the board room there’ll be hell to pay.

Here’s to lookin at ya Domm..

Mike
061 // Dawn Matthews // 09.17.2006 // 6:12 AM

I was considering giving my business to 1&1 (not now). I am about to start my own ecommerce business, retailing goods (some best before 3 months). I will be relying on the internet for most of my business. I need to get a marketing page up ASAP, and want it on line by November. I am so thankful for people like yourself Jeff, steering me away form the wolves! Though I am still none the wiser about whom to do my web site, hosting and serving. It’s a mine field!
062 // Eric // 09.28.2006 // 3:11 PM

Down for 7 days now with 1and1. Still getting the run around from tech support. The devil still in business.
063 // AJ // 09.29.2006 // 3:18 PM

I was just considering to upgrade my 1&1 domain registration package to the hosting package when I decided to do so more research on this company. Thank you Jeff for your blog. Blogs like this are great cause you get credible information about bad companies and so on.

I just closed my upgrade package browser window with 1&1 after reading these comments. I’m going to stay away from them. I guess http://webhostingjury.com/reviews/1and1 had accurate info on 1&1 all along.
064 // Paul // 10.13.2006 // 5:44 AM

Our 1and1 hosted website has been down/ when it is available too slow to be useable for four days now. This is the third time in two months! Their Technical support is appalling and uncaring. We are re-hosting our site as I speak.

Avoid 1and1 like the plague.
065 // Tony // 10.18.2006 // 9:05 PM

I started a transfer from 1&1 to godaddy.com today. I wish I had seen this page before I signed up for their service. It has been spotty on a SHARED HOSTING server ever since I started.

The real pisser is their customer support. Emails don’t get answered with in 24 hours despite what they say and the phone support usually resulted in “we are having some problem.” I also got hung up on during my first call when the Indian on the other end clearly didn’t understand the question I was asking.

Today, I was able to access my site about half the day. This is not the worst downtime I have had (that was 2 weeks ago when I couldn’t access it the entire weekend). I am so tired of having to call them every other day because they misconficgured something which caused my site to stop working.

So, hopefully godaddy will be better. It’s hard to imagine they could be as bad or worse.
066 // J.H. // 11.02.2006 // 8:59 AM

Just called Neil Simpkins, thanks to A.E. He said that someone would call me within the next 2 hours. My problem is that none of my domain email is being forwarded to my personal email account. This has been going on for several days now. I have not heard back via email, either through their website or directly through my personal email account.
067 // J.H. // 11.02.2006 // 9:39 AM

Well, a guy named “Tim” called within about 20 minutes of my call to Neil. Apparently, Earthlink and SBC have “blocked” 1&1 email as “spam”, and is automatically deleted. GREEEAAATTT! But just as a reality check, I contacted Earthlink. This is apparently true! They said this should be resolved in 24-48 hours. As my mother always said, “Your words into God’s ear”. GREEEAAATTT!
068 // H.C. // 11.15.2006 // 4:11 PM

1&1 support is totally uncaring and terrible. In October I paid their collection agency, NCO Financial, $29.94 only to find out that I haven’t paid the “late fee”. I called 1&1 support (for the 2nd time in a month) and found out that my payment was for service from September to next February ‘07. Funny thing is I explicitly told them to stop my service in October. Their idiotic support person wanted me to pay for the late fee, still have my service stopped, and not refund the number of unused months remaining on my contract. I don’t know how they can stay in business.
069 // junpol3 // 11.17.2006 // 3:21 AM

1&1 support is great. I never encountered any kind of problem with. I have been a customer for almost 2 years. The one who are comlaining are those idiots that think that 1&1 tech support will help them with everything. IF you don’t know what you are doing, hire a developer or system administrator to do the dirty work for you.
070 // Brett // 12.19.2006 // 1:28 PM

Down for 3 days now with 1&1. They finally got the server back up without emailing me or anything…then I find out they “lost” my entire site! They said I should have backed it up on my own…which I did do but never needed it till this company. Bad, horrible, disconnected, read off the monitor only type of tech/customer support. Do NOT entrust your site with 1&1. The previous posters no longer seem like idiot complainers but honest people trying to warn the public. 1and1’s company is just too disconnected and spread out to offer any great customer service or even basic Tech support…even when they erase your ENTIRE site! And just FYI, I do not have my own hosting company or any other other reason to post this message but to say “DON’T USE 1&1!” The only reason they are the biggest in the world is not because of customer satisfaction. It can’t be…they must just be buying up companies is my guess.
071 // boob barker // 12.20.2006 // 3:59 PM

I have seen this disgraceful, low, heinous, debauched, and morally reprehensible article written by an unprincipled and shameless man. Should any askew or counterfactual ideas, ideals, or unsound fact be expressed in my correspondance to Mr. Croft, then I alone am responsible for them. Mr. Croft has further articulated his attacks on not only 1and1 Internet, but Joseph Quinn as well. Readers and critics can distinguish that Joseph Quinn and others had offered prudent and tactical resolutions to Mr. Croft while emanating consummate pacification. Mr. Croft assumed the encumbrance to distort, mislead, and deviate from actuality and integrity. Not only do slant and bias encompass Mr. Croft’s article, they feign warrent, and do so with pride. Mr. Croft is content and sublime with consciously deteriorating fact and digressing his own morality to assert his desponance with determinations established by acknowledged and astute professionals. Mr. Croft’s license to censure and slander Joseph Quinn and his colleagues for performing an unparalleled effort, is truly his own prerogative and his own will. I doubt they will be discouraged or downcast by the cheap and defective maneuver executed by Mr. Croft. Opinion and conjecture are essential towards safekeeping in citizen practice and governmental and bureaucratic decency. However, misuse of facts for podium value is deplorable and self-serving. I am not distraught by the defamatory and disparaging discourse broadcasted by an unsuccessful, antagonistic, embittered, sardonic, and alienated individual. I am sure that they are not aghast by Mr. Croft’s arbitrary and narrow monologue, but rather overwhelmed by the comfort and sustenance supplied in order to exert futherance and more outreach in their services. 1and1 Internet, and the assemblage that follows, have bought into Joseph Quinn’s brand of support. I am sure he is grateful for this and humbled by it in the same light. I am sure that 1and1 Internet will not torment and vex in the words of an embryonicly trifling and petulant man. Mr. Croft’s exhaustive absence of decency and respectability will not hinder their dedication and devotedness towards their work. I wish Mr. Croft could say the same. He will endure on in meaningless obscurity with a small cloud of falsified and blind followers. He will not socialize or commiserate with his own words, but rather hide from them in darkness and continue to spin reality into a lighter fashion that makes his life slightly more tolerable. I will take no such course. I’m positive that Joseph Quinn’s core character and sentiments will not shift with popular opinion. His morality will not be compromised. If my discourse here was anything less than appropriate or responsible, only I am to blame for it. I thank you for your candor, Mr. Croft. Joseph Quinn and his colleagues are not going anywhere. Thank you.
072 // Anne Chism // 01.05.2007 // 11:43 AM

Reading this stuff scares me to death! After months of great service from 1&1, we’ve now experienced the worst customer service and technical support we’ve ever come across! We have a mobile dj business and our site has been down for three days. The only “technical support” person we can reach is in an overseas call center and they can’t tell us anything except that it will be fixed “in a few hours” (that was two days ago). In the meantime, we are paying 1&1 to host our site and none of our customers can access it. I can understand server glitches, but three days??? You’d think they’d be prepared for this kind of thing and could move the affected websites to different servers. To make matters worse, I was on hold for 30 minutes both times when trying to reach someone and this morning, after asking to talk to a supervisor or administrator, I was given a phone number that requires a password! (No…my customer # didn’t work). I’ve had it! They advertise as being the best and most reliable. What a joke!
073 // Steve Hards // 01.12.2007 // 4:49 PM

And it goes on - here’s my tale of woe with 1&1 (UK), and all I wanted was to transfer a domain name to my host Clook (who do GREAT support, BTW) so I could use a private nameserver there. I only found this site after my experience and have been prompted to post this because 1&1 sent me a survey today asking how satisfied I was. So I told them!

Here’s my email correspondence. I’ve tidied it up and changed the order to top down to make it easy to read. All I had after the first two replies were auto responses ‘We’ll get back to you within 24 hours’.
- Initial email: 27 Dec 2006
I’ve been trying, within the Contract section, to change my briarwood1000.co.uk registrar from 1&1 to the webhost ‘Clook’. Their IPSTAG is CLOOK but your system says it is not recognised.

Please initiate the transfer as soon as possible and let me know progress via [one of my email addresses]
- Reply: 28 December 2006 17:06
Dear Steve Hards,

Thank you for contacting us.

Please make sure that the IPS tag is spelled correctly or is in the correct case. Please try placing the IPS tag in all capital letters.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely, Rosalie Parnes, Technical Support, 1&1 Internet
- My reply, a few minutes later.
Hi Rosalie,

I did that (see attached screenshot). Your system has a problem identifying the tag.

Please initiate the transfer as requested or fix your system.

BTW, Rosalie, I am trying to make this transfer because 1&1 does not allow private nameservers. Please escalate this information to a manager.
- Second, and last human reply: 28 December 2006 17:44
Dear Steve Hards,

Thank you for contacting us.

I understand your frustration regarding this matter. Let me escalate your case to our transfer department so that we can have this issue sorted out as soon as possible.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely, Rosalie Parnes
- My next email: 29 December 2006 14:04
Hi Rosalie, Any progress? How will I know when the transfer has happened?

I’ve just tried the automated system again, BTW, and it still doesn’t recognise CLOOK.
- And my next, also copied to 1&1’s Transfer Dept: 30 December 2006 18:30
Please escalate this for management attention and explanation for the delay. All I have had since my last email is the automated reply.

I understand that .co.uk transfers can happen within an hour. Days of delay are holding up the work I need to do on my websites.
- The next: 01 January 2007 22:19
Subject: C61538613 - AGAIN - Please escalate

Hmm… another 24+ hours wasted with only another automated response to show for it. It is shameful that a big company like 1&1 cannot provide support over weekends and holidays!

…continued in next post…
074 // Steve Hards // 01.12.2007 // 4:53 PM

… rest of previous …
- Next day, another email: 02 January 2007 17:10
Subject: C61538613 - And another day bites the dust - AGAIN - Please escalate

I have been trying to get this briarwood1000.co.uk registration transfer resolved for SIX days.

Why have I not had a response from a person since 28 December? Why hasn’t your IPS tag database been updated so that I can make the transfer automatically? Why, in response to my request to escalate this, hasn’t a manager contacted me with an explanation?
- Final email: 07 January 2007 20.23
Ok, I give up! It is now ELEVEN days since I had a reply from anyone at 1and1. Your total lack of response to my emails means that you clearly have no intention of helping me, so I’ve made arrangements for my domains to use Clook’s anonymous nameservers. Please note that this means that I NO LONGER WISH TO TRANSFER MY DOMAIN REGISTRATION to Clook so that I can use my private nameservers.

So that’s how you can claim so many customers - by making it damn difficult to move anything away from you! Your claim of 24 hour support 7 days a week ought to be investigated by trading standards or Watchdog.

Steve Hards
075 // Steve Hards // 01.14.2007 // 6:24 AM
- Next day, another email: 02 January 2007 17:10
Subject: C61538613 - And another day bites the dust - AGAIN - Please escalate

I have been trying to get this briarwood1000.co.uk registration transfer resolved for SIX days.

Why have I not had a response from a person since 28 December? Why hasn’t your IPS tag database been updated so that I can make the transfer automatically? Why, in response to my request to escalate this, hasn’t a manager contacted me with an explanation?
- Final email: 07 January 2007 20.23
Ok, I give up! It is now ELEVEN days since I had a reply from anyone at 1and1. Your total lack of response to my emails means that you clearly have no intention of helping me, so I’ve made arrangements for my domains to use Clook’s anonymous nameservers. Please note that this means that I NO LONGER WISH TO TRANSFER MY DOMAIN REGISTRATION to Clook so that I can use my private nameservers.

So that’s how you can claim so many customers - by making it damn difficult to move anything away from you! Your claim of 24 hour support 7 days a week ought to be investigated by trading standards or Watchdog.

Steve Hards
076 // Andy // 01.14.2007 // 9:37 PM

I use 1and1 and their customer service like their other services suckkkkkk!!!. Once I called their tech support and the person answering the phone happened to be a senior manager, as I asked the question he started spelling the words for my domain as if I didn’t know how to spell it right. Instead of answering my question this fellow tried to make me look stupid, which he was himself, I asked him if he had a rough day………….He hangged up the phone.

I called back and asked who had my earlier call…the lady said that it was a senior staff and wouldn’t give his name, anyways I didn’t even bother with resolving the tech. problem.

I have some domains and hosting accounts with them at the time and don’t know what is involved and how much will it cost me extra if I were to cut off with them.

I wrote this quick, there might be some errors :)

Regards,

One more point. Those who are not happy with their service and or need tech support should always call them at their 1800 number and tie up their lines and maybe cost them some $s
077 // Akilah // 01.19.2007 // 2:28 PM

1and1 is the WORST. They extort money form their customers when you try to cancel and their reps wouldn’t know the meaning of service if it was poking them in the eyeballs. PLEASE DO NOT do business with this bunch of theives.
078 // H. Thomas // 02.08.2007 // 8:59 AM

It is 8:52 Central Time on Feb 8, 2007. 1and1.com is currently DOWN! My design portfolio site is DOWN! All of my client sites that are on 1&1 are DOWN! The funny thing about it is that I’m not mad. I’ve experienced enough crap with them to not be too shocked. I have my own dedicated server with another company and will just plan on spending the next week or so migrating everyone away from 1&1. If your site matters to you, don’t use 1&1!
079 // Dino Delides // 03.04.2007 // 4:16 PM

I was trawling the web looking for coverage of issues that 1and1 had experienced recently to find out if this problem was widespread, and came across your blog. We have about 30 odd customers running sites and mail through 1and1 servers and have decided to take out a new dedicated server as we were supposed to launch a new site this weekend. Needless to say, our client is fuming.

We purchased our server last week Thursday 22nd February, and were told that it would take 7 days to set the server up. Shortly after purchase the status of the server showed that it was ‘installing’ the operating system. On Thursday the 1st, it was still installing. I contacted 1and1 support and quite apart from the usual language barrier issues I was up against a wall. The representative said that there was a problem with the automated server setup system with no eta on resolution and no other course of action I could take. Begging, pleading, cajoling got me no where fast.

9 emails later to server247@1and1.com and complaints@1and1.co.uk and support@1and1.co.uk with no response and about 10 calls to 08702411247 the same single level of support with the same answers (installation issue, no sir cannot escalate you, no sir we are in the Philippines and can only contact the admins by email etc etc) I was told that everybody who has ordered a dedicated server recently has the same problem as me. There is batch of faulty motherboards in and it would take ‘a few days’ to sort out. My question is - surely the operating system is the first thing you install? Then the problem should have been noted over a week ago…

The maddening thing is how resolutely the call center operatives refuse to help you any further, or simply tells you what you already know.They are completely impotent, simply apologising over and over again. I have recieved two emails which are very short and only the result of me forcing the representative to send them to me whilst I was on the phone, describing their thoughts on the problem. Their 24 hour email response ‘promise’ is clearly rubbish.

I now have two choices – stick it out or move. Both of which cost my company time and money and maybe even a customer. How on earth can a service company build its reputation on this? It is quite unbelievable.

Looking forward to seeing if there are others with a similar issue.
080 // Matthew Millett // 03.13.2007 // 5:07 PM

I’ve been hosted by 1and1 for almost 3 years as well and I have been thinking of switching. This post has only validated my thoughts and I will now be switching to HostGator.
081 // Cathy // 03.13.2007 // 7:45 PM

This will top all of these entries. On 3/3/2007, we received an email telling us that they were upgrading to MSSQL 2005. The important part of this message was:

… The switch will take place on March 13, 2007 beginning at 3am EST. During this upgrade your database can be offline for up to 6 hours….

This, in itself, is unacceptable, but it gets worse…

It is 3/13/2007 and 5:30 pm PST and all of our websites hosted on 1&1 are still down. I have called technical support 3 times today and asked to talk to a manager each time - without success. I have sent 4 emails to the email listed in the informational email (server247@1and1.com - what a joke) - all unanswered.

Each and every time that I have called 1&1 technical support I get someone in the Phillipines that can NOT help and upon my insistence, usually escalates the case to someone else. Typically, if I get the courtesy of an email, it is days and days later and this starts a chain of emails trying to help the tech guy that ended up with the “escalated case” try to understand the problem.

If anyone out there is thinking of hosting on 1&1 - DO NOT !!!!

They unargueably have the worst technical support I have ever encountered in my years and years of consulting.

It’s comical to read about the bad IDE cables (sorry to Jeff Croft), but it’s similar to our frequent problems with “bad files”. We are always uploading files to the servers where we keep our websites and very often we can’t open, read, upload, download or delete a file. You get an error message that says the file is corrupt. When it is reported, it has never been less than 2-3 days before the problem is fixed! If the file is crucial to your website functioning properly, you can quite possibly be down for several days! You should hear the explanations for how and why a file gets “corrupt”!

OK - I could go on for pages and pages! Their technical support personnel are bumbling idiots who don’t even know the basics of how the web operates or how to provide rudimentary guidance. I have never spoken to a tech support person who knows what a “global.asa” file is!!! When you ask for help because your DB connection does NOT work (a connection that has worked flawlessly for the previous xx months), they give the “canned” response that they don’t provide programming support!!!

DO NOT CHOOSE 1&1 for your webhosting needs!!!! BEWARE!!!
082 // Jamez // 03.22.2007 // 11:27 AM

Glad I found this thread! Was about to sign up for a test account to evaluate 1and1 to eventually outsource part of our hosting business. Also checked the BBB site with hundreds of complaints. They had a 5 page spread in Entrepreneur magazine that was impressive, but if their support isn’t located in the data center, then stay away! If they don’t own the data center, stay away! If their new data center is in tornado alley, stay away!
083 // ibm cell // 03.25.2007 // 6:41 PM

Is 1&1 on the rocky road to ruin? I recall Registerfly really reduced its prices before it went to the wall – is there a trend in the demise of domain registration companies who shamelessly reduce their prices in an attempt to lure the unwitting and rape their credit cards? Mmm?!

“Penny wise pound stupid” - That is what it all boils down to when customers end up getting rear ended.

Hazarding a guess, for the UK at least, one could suspect 1&1 to be in breach of the trades descriptions act, falsely claiming to be and do something they are not and do not commit to doing, respectively.

I consider it standard practice of any seller on the net to acknowledge by email, at the very least, that a transaction has been undertaken, successful or not, especially where credit card details have been provided.

Surely it’s the consumers right to receive confirmation – it’s a reasonable expectation, isn’t it? That is what confidence is built on, isn’t it?

But no, not 1&1, they appear to be exempt from ‘Standard Practices’.

It is generally considered that there is enough doubt and uncertainty in this world, let alone on the net, without 1&1 adding to it, leaving you wondering if indeed you’ve done the right thing by even considering them. ‘Customer support’ advise they will ‘escalate your concern within 48 hours’, not action your concern within 48 hours – the devil is in the gibberish [sic].

Not even an email to say ‘thanks for your order’ - even ‘get stuffed’ would have been a better response than nothing at all.

If 1&1 think that by doing nothing is going to achieve anything, they can only begin to go down hill from here on in.

Another ‘Registerfly’ looming perhaps?!

So, once again, I sought Go Daddy to bail me out of what could have been a disaster with the prospect of losing a potentially valuable domain name and suffix for an extended business planned later in the year. Smooooooth as silk! Instant registration!! [Total DNS control and MX records – Available]

What on earth possessed me to even think about 1&1 in the first place, I just don’t know. Well, yes I do actually – ‘penny wise, pound stupid’, that’s me, and I’m proud to admit it – after all, realizing it prevented me from the rear ending referred to earlier.

‘One and one’ reason alone caused this message to be drafted, and that was to raise awareness of the uncertainties surrounding just the attempt to buy a simple domain name from 1&1 – if they can’t perform on that front and at that level, how can anyone expect consistent reliable behaviour from them with greater, potentially mission critical and dependable aspects of hosting (large or small) at all levels, and for all people? HOW? The answer is, you can’t – So don’t.

“A principle isn’t a principle, until it costs you money”.

You have been warned! Whose reputation is more important to you, yours, or what they’ve got left of theirs?
084 // John Sinclair // 03.28.2007 // 2:38 AM

1&1 Don’t want new customers

Nine days ago I ordered a 1&1 hosting package with two domains in the name of a Ltd Company.

1&1 wanted a faxed proof of address which we sent immediately. But as a Ltd. Company, the address is already on the Companies House Register (which I can’t fake). I can easily fake a utilities bill - just scan it in, change the name and address and send it to 1&1!

I have emailed several times, and spent a few pounds on their premium rate helpline.

In the last 9 days they have:
- not registered the .com domain (leaving it for someone else to register)
- not registered the .co.uk domain (leaving it for someone else to register)
- not set up an account
In short, if they treat a new customer like this, how will they treat an existing customer?

I’m outa here!

The problem is, where do I go? Godaddy?
085 // ibm cell // 03.28.2007 // 4:55 AM

John: 1&1 potentially compromised domains for my (UK based) Limited company domain registration as described in a previous post - that equates to unreliable behaviour, and if they can’t perform at domain registration level, 1&1 cannot be trusted with ever more important facets of any form service they provide.

A 9 day delay by 1&1 for a simple domain name registration in any language is unacceptable - secure your IP quickly under any circumstances.

John Sinclair said “The problem is, where do I go? Godaddy?”

If you go with Go Daddy that would not be a “problem”, but that decision remains your choice for the good of your company. Go Daddy’s ease of use, professional interface attention to detail and reliability are all quality areas for consideration of any bona fide business.

Their Customer Support is IMO second to none, and on a commercial level customer satisfaction is their pivotal consideration - Believe me when I say Warren Adelman has his finger firmly on the pulse, as do the teams which support him! To that I can absolutely attest.

I have the vast majority of my company IP stored with Go Daddy - I’ve never felt so confident and comfortable with a registrar and hosting provider before - There will come a time where I will consider shifting it all over to them.

DreamHost would also be another good consideration.

You choose - but make an informed choice from the link provided below, coupled with talking to friends, work colleagues, and forum opinion on the net, all perhaps with more experience than you have on the subject - it’s not as time consuming as might be thought - do your homework, make your decision, then stick with it!

http://www.web-hosting-top.com/

It’s like getting a car servicing quote: High, mid-range, low quotes - which one do we go for? Finally, by that time, and after price acceptability, it then comes down to personal preference bolstered by an ‘informed’ opinion of your own.

Good luck John!

“Happiness, Wealth, and Long Life”
086 // Farheen // 04.07.2007 // 4:36 AM

I would have loved to blog about the way EAS Design handled my case, closed my account and stole my domain name, but they closed my account, refused to hand over my data and stole my domain name.

Never, ever, ever go with easdesign.com!!!
087 // Fern Dumas // 04.13.2007 // 4:13 PM

If you search “inv -investigate1and1” you will discover http://investigate1and1.blogspot.com
088 // Trevor // 04.17.2007 // 1:52 PM

A NOTE OF CAUTION ABOUT DOMAIN NAME TRANSFERS TO 1AND1.COM

my experience with 1and1 thus far is limited. i initiated a transfer of my domain name from another registrar to 1and1 (actually they apparently contract domain registrations out to “Schlund+Partner”) for a website that is hosted elsewhere.

i’ve done a handful of new domain name registrations and domain name transfers before. so my mistake may seem silly to those with more experience, i don’t know, but there are probably some people who could end up in the same proverbial boat.

long story short: when the transfer of my domain name to 1and1 went through, they had changed my nameservers to point to their own webhosting and mail servers, thus temporarily KILLING MY WEBSITE AND EMAIL for a day or two (until i waded through their control panel to input the correct nameservers and until they propagated…) i had not purchased or requested any such services, and they had not mentioned that they would use those nameservers.

(i did manage—using the 1and1 control panel—to immediately forward my domain to a “preview” version of my actual site, so that any link to any page of my site led to my entry page.)

in filling out the online forms with 1and1 to initiate the domain transfer, they never requested information about nameservers, so i just assumed they would keep the nameservers that were already on register. this seems plausible and logical and i thought some previous transfers i had made were done that way. and after i hit submit and the transfer was underway, they (Schlund) emailed me a copy of the existing whois info for my domain name, including the correct nameservers.

i will say they have responded to my emails in a fairly timely and somewhat relevant fashion so far. and i could have figured things out if i had looked into it harder and sooner. still, it was annoying that they assumed that i would assume that along with my registation transfer they would also relocate my hosting to their servers. clearly they’re just more hosting-oriented than registrar-oriented.

and i second the comment that the control panel is lousy. partly it’s that it’s oriented around their own hosting services.
089 // Ambrand Dot Com // 05.02.2007 // 6:23 AM

1and1 never registered my domain
090 // Sean Woodward // 05.18.2007 // 2:18 PM

1and1.com is the devil incarnate. I have been a ‘loyal’ customer for 3 years also. My story is massive and very troubled. Frequently my in column forms would be dead, needing a 1and1 jumpstart. After a while they used the excuse ‘we need to apply this custom patch, just call us and we will do it’. Great. All I need is to watch my site daily, and call them just to hang on the phone an hour until a tech answered. After the first year of that crap the techs started wondering what I was talking about, ‘patch the server?’.. Apparently it is just a usual excuse. After have my site go down for 2 weeks with the usual tech BS of “we can’t do anything and we can’t move your site to another server either” (I ftp’d into my site and took all the html easily) We started shopping around for another hosting company. I chose Dot5.com in California. Well, we attempted to cancel our subscription to 1and1.com on their cancellation page. We went through the motions, responding to the “are you sure” emails and low and behold got charged 3 months later again..! So, this time I made damned sure I cancelled my subscription except this time 1and1 REMOVED my domain names I had registered with them ! Can you believe that? Who in their right mind would CANCEL their domain name registrations????? So, off we went to billing and they said to send my compaint to you know where, complaints@1and1.com. That was 2 weeks ago and after 6 emails with all of my contact numbers and other data I still have NO response whatsoever.. So I called billing today and got into a shouting match with the lady their who kept giving me the company BS of you have to contact complaints.. There was tons more and I don’t have the time to go into it, but rest assured, 1and1.com is a blatantly fake company. If your site runs it is god’s blessing and not 1and1.com’s fault…..
091 // glitter // 05.21.2007 // 9:30 PM

hmmmmmmmmm….somehow before they really are difficult to deal with… but they’re kind of improving right now…at least!
092 // sander // 05.26.2007 // 5:12 PM

I am trying to find a webhost for my newly developed website, and are browsing most of my time looking for feedbacks from different hosting company, and guess what, everyone or most of the feedbacks from everyhost has a complaint

come to think of it, 1and1 host a number of clients, and those who are not satisfied with the service are those who really talks a lot, how acount hearing the other side of it, just to weigh the scale a little…… anyone wanna share something out
093 // Jeff Croft // 05.26.2007 // 8:40 PM

@sander: There are tons of positive reviews out there for good hosts. If you want a host that is web-developer friendly, affordable, and of high quality, I’d suggest looking at WebFaction, TextDrive, and Media Temple. These hosts consistently get positive reviews from web professionals.
094 // Tony Wilson // 06.07.2007 // 7:08 PM

I am too having lots of problems with 1 and 1. Have you seen the guarantee they offer at their website 99.99 per cent uptime! I have never yet getting this uptime in any month i have been with them. I rang their support number and asked how they backed this up, they just ignored the question and kept telling me they are doing everything they can to get it working - thats not a guarantee!

It’s bad enough having all your websites go down, but they then put a page up directing your visitors to competitors websites! I dont know how they have been able to get away with this for so long!
095 // Nigel Jones // 06.09.2007 // 6:57 PM

I’ve just suffered from a 1and1 cutoff after a bounced payment (not that I knew anything about it or the reason why until a letter arrived on Friday - opened after billing had shut, leading me to my account being cut off!)

Arrrggh
096 // JHS // 07.05.2007 // 3:55 AM

I have never had the misfortune of dealing with a company as incompetent, bumbling and RUDE as 1 & 1. They are, as I write this, holding my domain name hostage. I began the process of repointing my domain servers more than three days ago and am still waiting for them to complete the process, during which time I cannot access or work on my site. I have called THREE times and their employees are like robots, repeating the same rehearsed lines over and over … and calling me “Ma’am” ad nauseum even though I told them several times that my name is not “Ma’am” and I am not to be referred to as such. The last representative, Fernando, laughed at me repeatedly when I told him that his responses to my demand for service were unacceptable and claimed, even though it was 4:45 p.m. in the Philippines, that there were no managers available to speak to me.

Arrogant, rude and completely disinterested in customer service sums up the attitudes of the three employees to whom I have now complained about this situation.

And still I wait.

I am livvid. 1 & 1 SUCKS and I advise all bloggers and webmasters to NEVER, EVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES do business with them.
097 // Jason // 07.07.2007 // 8:18 AM

eek I think my 1&1 nightmare is just beginning… had a dedicated server with them for two months now, and already it’s crashed twice.

After waiting on their Philippine support line for 20-30 mins, I always get assurances that an admin will look into it and a case number. OK so the first time they rebooted it within 1hr, but this time it’s over 3 hours and still down.

After reading all this discussion, I’m moving before I add any more sites to this server. Perhaps I’ll try one of the recommended US hosts… just as cheap as 1&1…

Jason
098 // Claude Gelinas // 07.24.2007 // 12:30 PM

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences here, it’s quite interesting.

The 1&1 server hosting my http://beep.name/ blog is down, today, Tuesday, July 24th, 2007. I have a business hosting account and even though I’m losing money (and visitors) because of this “outage”, I’m confident I won’t be compensated, at all.

But I did call up 1&1’s customer support…

The well-intended support agent I spoke with was based in the Philippines and had no clue what was going on with “my” server but he assured me that it was looked after.

Well, in fact, he couldn’t “confirm” it…

Although he couldn’t know for sure if “someone was repairing the problem”, he gave me a hint that the call volume was sky high at that moment and in general, that’s what gets (the US-based) 1&1 tech personel moving (a lot) faster.

In all fairness, the Philippines-based 1&1 support agent was polite, clearly quite intelligent and straightforward. It just seemed like he had access to very limited information about what was happening (at 1&1, back in the US). Oh, and his English was A1.

Allthewhile, my “admin panel” has been fully functional but perhaps 1&1 should take a note of this (easy to implement) suggestion: tell me, the customer, what’s going on with the server I’m hosted on within my “admin panel” so I don’t have to call customer support to know what’s going on.

Overall, when their servers are working, which is most of the time (over 99%), 1&1 has provided me with a hosting service I appreciate and will likely continue to use.
099 // Ryan Chapman // 08.15.2007 // 12:31 PM

This confirms exactly what I was feeling when came across them because a client had domains registered with them. Personally, I don’t mind my clients ‘using’ these big companies that are crap for hosting, to register their domains. It seems like they offer the cheaper registration ploy to lure in unsuspecting noobs to host with them. I figure it’s right to take advantage of their cheap registration (their loss leader) and then shine them on all their other services just because they hose so many people by ignoring the whole point their in business. Personally, I’ve been more than happy with my current host. I won’t put their name here since I don’t know that it’s consistent with the point of the post, but any one can find out. Again. Sweet post.
100 // David // 08.15.2007 // 3:59 PM

Jeff, their service and attitude have been so appalling that after being with them for seven years (and they used to be great) I have decided to start moving 100 sites from them to another provider. A laborious, expensive job but I have completely had it with them and I am busy keeping a blog now which they are kindly filling up with their ineptitude. If there is a hosting provider that deserves to go out of business. They are it!
101 // Alex Howell // 08.23.2007 // 9:55 AM

27 Hours? Is that all? How about two servers in one week, and one of them now totalling 120 hours My boss is on the phone right now… he’s hoping third time lucky as he’s been cut off by customer support twice already in the last hour.
102 // Alex Howell // 08.23.2007 // 9:57 AM

P.S. Please can you give us a row of digg, stumble, furl… buttons so we can make sure the rest of the internet community is forewarned?
103 // Jeff Croft // 08.23.2007 // 10:41 AM

Please can you give us a row of digg, stumble, furl… buttons…

Sorry, Adam, I don’t really roll that way. I don’t like the way it clutters up my blog. I had them once, and no one ever clicked them. People who use these sites are well aware of how to submit content to them — they don’t really need me to give them a button. :)
104 // Neville Lynch // 09.10.2007 // 10:45 AM

Hi, just looking back to Alex’ comment 104. A total of 120 hours ? Well I guess I may have a bit of waiting still, my dedicated server has only been off-line for over 48 hours and my International clients are walking out the door……

12 emails to the server support address and repeated phone calls to be told that the issue has been escalated multiple times and that is the only way the Level 1 helpdesk people can communicate to the server team. Not even an email to say that they received my request. Oh and by the way, I found some cross-site scripting happening on the server, isolated the cause and cleaned the vulnerable application away within about 15 minutes of logging via the networked serial console. I even have the source IPs and kiddy script URLs recorded. (Likely some poor soul that had bigger issues than an unsanitized input script and was hacked completely. )

Anyhow, on rebooting, the network system threw a message that there was an issue and mentioned (standard error) that the cable should be checked. Most likely the port on the network switch just has to be enabled again and it would be back in action. (Most likely it was disabled due to the hacker traffic) But what do I know? I’ve only been doing this for 30 years…….

On the brighter side, if it wasn’t for this, I wouldn’t have found this Blog…

:)
105 // D Defries // 10.06.2007 // 4:31 AM

Although I haven’t had any specific problems with my 1and1 hosting package (yet) I have found that their customer ‘service’ is appalling, indifferent and a little insulting at best. They neither know nor care when their interface changes and appear to enjoy keeping customers on the phone. Perhaps this is because their offer only the more expensive 0870 options. Thank goodness for saynoto0870.com which has saved me a fortune in calling 1and1 to ask for explanations (never provided) for interface changes which eradicated information. I’m lucky in that I was only on the phone for 45 minutes. I will be moving everything away from 1and1 having read the horror stories here. Don’t want to risk further incompetence from them. Thank you for offering this page to a largely unsuspecting and overly trusting public at large. I now know that my experience of 1and1’s lame excuses and pathetic inability to provide support is just the tip of the iceberg.
106 // Jerod Poore // 10.31.2007 // 3:44 PM

Thanks to 1 & 1, devil incarnate, my domain has been off since 19 October.

Granted, this has nothing to do with their being a shared host. They used to be my hosts, but I moved to another host some time ago. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to change registrars for one messed up reason after another.

Now my registration has expired. Why? Because no matter how many times I tried, in how many places, with how many different people, regardless of how many different assurances to the contrary, all e-mail from 1 & 1 was sent to the address I used when I originally registered the domain. An address I haven’t used for four years now. An address that doesn’t exist. You know, one where they’d get a bounced mail message.

This is the telling point though:

–— Original Message –— From: “Jerod Poore” To: Cc: ; Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 1:01 PM Subject: Re: Cxxx - 1&1 Internet Inc. Billing Re: Cxxx Re: crazymeds.org Domain Registration

Dear Jerod Poore, (Customer ID: xxx)

Thank you for contacting us.

Yes that is the email address on file. I don’t see any notes on your account regarding your email address.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

— Sincerely, Joy Longenberger Transfers Department 1&1 Internet

You don’t see any notes on file about another e-mail address?

So you don’t take notes on what you, yourself, claim to have done?

My, my, my.

Take a look at this e-mail you sent to me around that 60 day period. Funny how an important change, I’ve been repeated told has been implemented, is once again not made around such an important date. Funnier still how 1&1, DomCollect, Schlund AG and Sedo are all the same company.

Care to tell me why you people are trying to hijack my domain?

–— Original Message –— From: To: Sent: Friday, August 10, 2007 7:00 AM Subject: Re: Cxxx Re: crazymeds.org Domain Registration

Dear Jerod Poore, (Customer ID: xxx)

Thank you for contacting us.

The email address associated with crazymeds.org has been changed.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

— Sincerely, Joy Longenberger Technical Support 1&1 Internet
107 // Dave Parker // 11.18.2007 // 8:55 AM

I am currently experiencing problems with 1and1. My site is currently off and has been for approximately 12 hours. OK not a lot, but this is the third weekend this month and the second time this weekend that the site has been down. So far I have logged nearly 60 hours of downtime in 4 weeks. As if this isn’t bad enough I have regular long periods where I can neither FTP into the account nor use the control panel.

I have had various excuses given, mostly blaming my scripts, but none of them hold water. The latest claim is that a script i have recently implemented to email me when the site throws an error is actually causing the error. Its a bit like the chicken and the egg: I am causing the fault that I have written a script to identify????

Those of you who have had replies from the complaints email address are very fortunate as I have emailed several times, placing a priority on the email, and have as yet to receive a reply from anyone.

When the service works it is good, but the support as has already been stated, absolutely stinks. I am fed up of talking to someone in Cebu City who is only using a dial-up connection (yes they only use dial-up) who cannot even tell me what is happening.
108 // sharron testo // 11.29.2007 // 12:03 PM

1&1 are behaving like underhand thieves. On an upcoming renewal notice with plenty of time given for notice to cancel, I rang this poor excuse for a company. They confirmed my account was cancelled. Later on they contact me telling me they had tried to take payment from my account but they couldnt.(new cards) I rang them and asked them why they had tried to take a payment when I had already cancelled the account? They said the account had not been cancelled. This was hotly disputed over the phone and they appologised,agreed they would credit the account and also gave me full instructions how to cancel online which was done as we spoke. That was the las I heard from this company until I get a letter from a debt collection agency!! I had had no further cause to go into the account which i had closed and did not realise they had only given a partial refund,unbeknown to me, the small balance they then passed on to thes agency who slapped another £15 on top!

I have sent three emails to 1&1, spoke to James (again) who can never put me through to accounts. Does “accounts” exist??

Have had no response, finally spoke to the debt collection agency who insist emails of invoice were sent and it was my job to make sure accounts were cancelled. If i ring up, and also go through the closing process with them online what else am i supposed to do? Especially when i finally find their email in my junk mail because it seems 1&1 dont want people reading their mail as it is not addressed from 1& 1 but from “your support team” no wonder it ends up in the junk mail! on reading it, all it told me was that they had credited me with an amount, BUT NO MENTION OF AN OUTSTANDING BALANCE!!!!

What is the matter with this company????? I have never owed anyone a penny in my life and I have asked them for their solicitors name and address to take them to court for harrassment and a whole days loss of earnings not to mention the huge cost of phone calls yesterday.
109 // Alley // 12.12.2007 // 7:45 AM

so far so good. No comment since we are all different concerns and its just the way how we optimize you account. Use it wisely. Me im getting into success with them..
110 // Andi Martin // 12.30.2007 // 9:21 AM

I signed up for a dedicated server with 1&1. One month after this, 1&1 decided to introduce payment by Paypal. I promptly changed my billing prefs as most of my customers pay by paypal and most of my services are paid for by paypal.

First invoice: 1xAutomated email from 1&1 saying that payment had not been taken as their was no money in my paypal account (despite me having banking services setup with paypal with plenty in the bank account).

Billing’s response: “there had been a problem taking the payment, would retry and everything will go through fine.”

Second Invoice: this time for the previous month and this month. Billing: “there is a problem across the board since introducing the paypal payments, it’s now been rectified, have reapplied for the money and it’s gone through fine.” This time I made sure the money was physically sitting in my paypal account to cover and not my bank just to be on the safe side.

A few weeks later I received a call from a client on a Saturday morning asking me why his site was down. Several phone calls to tech support advised me to call billing (who were closed until Monday), 8 hours solid waiting in queues on the phone, I managed to get through to their phillipines call center as opposed to India.

The lady actually listened to my problem instead of just telling me to call billing and hanging up, she spoke to her supervisor, account reactivated, I called the billing team first thing on the Monday. Only to be told “there was a problem with the paypal payments, had retried and the payment had gone through fine.”

A couple hours later, I received a letter from their debt collection agency attempting to collect the payments due. Needless to say, I changed my billing options back to credit card.

I wrote to their complaints department and was given a reply by Mr Quinn along the lines that it was my fault and not 1&1’s. He did tell me as a good will gesture he would not charge me the £10 late payment fee.

After several months, bouncing emails back and forth to complaints, with most of mine going unanswered; hell, I even emailed the CEO from his personal blog page and got no response whatsoever, eventually I Mr Quinn came to the conclusion that he would be happy to cancel the package and not hold me to term on my original 2 year contract.

The package was cancelled and I was told I had 30 days in which to move the domain names to another provider.

1&1 are still billing me to date on my credit card.

I cannot migrate my domains as to change the IPS tags, I need access to their system, my account is now deleted so I can’t access.

I will NEVER use 1&1 Internet ever again, I will NEVER recommend them to anyone.
111 // Andi Martin // 12.31.2007 // 2:41 AM

Update.

I called tech again last night to find out what the deal was with the change of the IPS tags. The first agent, Joe, had told me that morning that he had escalated to 2nd line support.

I spoke to Michelle, 11 hours later, giving 2nd line plenty of time to pick it up.

Lo and behold, they had picked it up then binned the request without even emailing me to let me know they weren’t going to bother.

Michelle escalated again and funnily enough my domains now point to nowhere.

Just waiting on Nominet to open now to get this rectified, should they be closed today, I’m completely **ed.

Worst thing is, i’m acting on behalf of my clients here, these are not my domains.

1&1, way to go to destroy my business. Someone has to do something about this company. I’m going to speak to the OFT come the new year as this is absolutely unacceptable behaviour.
112 // Mike Rhyne // 01.03.2008 // 4:27 PM

I have been a 1&1 customer for over one year. Someone other than myself choose them to host my companies web site. The hosting has been fine, but the customer service has been fair to frustrating. I am a social entrepreneur and wear many hats in my business endeavors. One hat I wear is the novice web master hat. I will have to say that, to me, there online FAQs are pretty darn good. Easy to navigate, reasonably complete with “for dummies” instructions and explanations.

The small problems I have had with 1&1 should have been resolved in short order, but with poor follow up (no email as promised). Since the 1&1 tech support is not based in the US my ability to communicate my problems has been difficult, but doable, but frustrating. I get tired of saying, “I did not understand you.” Then you have this feeling like they may not really understand you.

Before finding this blog I had been considering changing hosts. I am a little more motivated now. One company that I stumbled on is SiteSell.com or Site Build it! or SBI. They seem to be singing my song but I know nothing about them. Can anyone tell me if this a legit company with an effective system? It would be nice to here from someone that has experience with these guys. Thanks for the blog Jeff!

Mike Rhyne
113 // Webmaster // 01.18.2008 // 5:10 AM

Guys, http://www.web-hosting-top.com/ is a web hosting community of customers where they share reviews about web hosting companies from over 5 years!

You can also find there: big list of web hosting coupons, a huge hosting directory (over 6000 hosting companies worldwide), ability to add for free any web hosting company, comprehensive list of hosting control panels, ssl certificates companies, hosting news and articles and a lot more!

Look before taking wrong decision.
114 // Stephen James // 01.21.2008 // 6:39 AM

Oops - I’ve just signed up with 1&1. Wish I had read this first. Although it’s just for a domain name, not hosting, so how bad can the problems get?

Well, after they took my money, the message on-screen said I would get an “email shortly” about my account details and be able to log into the admin area “within the hour”. Two hours later I have received neither email nor can I log into the admin area.

Less to stupid self: research companies before signing up with them.
115 // elvisonvelvet // 01.24.2008 // 6:22 PM

dude, it was the weekend. Instead of taking off and DOING something after your initial call for support, you stayed ON THE PHONE for the weekend.

Sad.

Trust me; you can leave your blog alone for a couple of days.
116 // Xavierv // 02.01.2008 // 4:22 PM

It’s a good thing your article shows as the 4th result of Google’s natural search. 1&1 is a real rip off. I’m stuck with it right now, but will switch as soon as I have time for it.
117 // Peter Reynolds // 02.04.2008 // 11:47 AM

Every word in this thread confirms my own experience with 1&1 in the UK.

These people range from stupid to incompetent to lazy. What is absolutely certain though is that at the top level they are fraudsters, thieves and crooks. Far, far too many internet companies get away with promising the moon and delivering nothing.

It really is about time that some fat chief executive was given a short, sharp month in jail for these sort of business practices
118 // Jim Perry // 02.08.2008 // 8:22 AM

Worst customer service I’ve ever encountered. I signed up for a trial of their MS hosting package but they put us into a LINUX package. I couldn’t get the site to work and tech support led me to believe that the problem was with the LINUX environment. We “switched” packages to MS and found that PHP wasn’t supported. No biggie, I thought, we can switch back to LINUX… NOPE. Can’t do it - the “switch” locked us into a year long contract that will not allow us to change. So here I am… two weeks away from deadline and the site will not work and 1&1 will not budge.

NEVER WORK WITH THESE PEOPLE.

BTW: Tech support is like trying to communicate with someone on another planet: the language is different and the quality of the phone line is the worst. It actually sounds like there’s an idling WWII bomber parked next to the support tech. They can’t understand you and they don’t seem willing to actually look for an answer to your problems. Each time I called or even sent detailed email, the reply had honestly nothing to do with my problem. They didn’t read or comprehend what I was having problems with. A total joke. I spent about an hour on hold over a two week period. What was funny/sad was that their on-hold musak kept playing “Fly Like an Eagle” and repeating the line, “time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’… into the future…”

At least they got that right.
119 // Pete // 02.08.2008 // 2:25 PM

Hey jeff… don’t you think their Customer Service Support are outsourced? Most of the time they are only interested in listening rather than fixing your problem… Killing time… this is really bad!
120 // Stuart // 02.12.2008 // 9:34 AM

I spend more time on hold with this bunch than I do talking to their CS reps (in Germerican!) and they NEVER solve ANYTHING. The worst customer service run around BS I have ever experienced. I hoe they go down in flames.

I have been on the phone with them daily for two weeks and they still can’t tell me why my website won’t appear online. They keep telling me they’ve applied the tool, the tool! (Think Herve Villechez from Fantasy Island). The tell me that they have elevated my call to second level. I think that must mean that first level is next to no help and second level is none. I never received any kind of response from “:second level.” I just spoke to someone (Elmo) who asked me “would you like to speak to someone in second level. I told him how about giving me someone on the top level that can actually do something, then I spent 5 minute son hold only to be cut off. I hate this company and I seriously recommend that NO ONE use them. they are horrible. Their poor service is NOT worth any savings you might gain going with their service.

OH! And yes. Their phone system sounds horrible.
121 // gowner // 02.23.2008 // 4:29 AM

Hey jeff… don’t you think their Customer Service Support are outsourced? Most of the time they are only interested in listening rather than fixing your problem… Killing time… this is really bad!
122 // Adam // 03.22.2008 // 8:16 AM

2 years since this blog entry was posted and it seems nothing has changed. I read every comment and now have a quick one of my own. I have had a dedicated root server for a year now and thought things were fine until the server hung during a reboot. It has been down for 8 hours now and repeated calls and emails are getitng me nowhwere.

The sad thing is that I bought this server with the intention of using it to host a large consumer website that I have been developing for 3 years. I was to officially launch it after the reboot and I’m glad this happened before I went live. There’s no way I could survive downtime like this with the new website. Now I have to try and find a new host that can offer a similar root server, but with technical and customer support that actually care.

Stay away from 1and1 or potentially suffer a fate like this.
123 // Hope // 03.28.2008 // 1:01 PM

1&1 is a joke!

Terrible service..Bad website.. Bad customer service..Even BAD Collection agency!

I registered a domain with 1&1 for a year. I let the domain expire..However 1&1 auto-renewed it..One day I got two mails from their collection agency - NCO Financial.

I talked to 1&1 to let them know that I didn’t want to renew the domain, but apparently their policy is to auto-renew the domains. This was not at all apparent in the sign-up process. Customer service was not at all helpful..

So, I got stuck with two bills to pay - $29.99 for the auto-renewal (that I didn’t want) and $18.95 as a collection fee! I called the collection agency number and it took me 4 tries over a matter of few hours to have finally someone pick up the phone! Then they wanted $7.95 as extra fee if I used a credit card!! I downright refused..The only way to not have the $7.95 fee is to use a check, which is what I am doing now.

ABSOLUTELY AVOID 1&1.
124 // Morgan // 03.31.2008 // 7 PM

Glad I read this I was going to sign-up with 1and1 this week. I liked the idea of building my own website, being able to make changes by not having to wait and ask someone to do it (In that situation now). I liked the fact that they sent software to assist you in building your own site. Now that I’ve read yours and everyone’s complaints I have no idea where I can go to to build my own site & host it for a good price! In need of suggestions. Thank You
125 // KC // 04.06.2008 // 4:04 PM

1&1 should not allowed to operate they are so bad. The are no technical capabilities to run or fix their servers. DO NOT USE 1&1 we are moving off asap
126 // schandra // 04.06.2008 // 7:38 PM

I had similiar bad experience with 1and1: I opened web hosting with 1and1 for personal use and I never even hosted any page. This Feb 08, I got a bill for $23 from billing department. I called the billing department they told that there was a mistake and they will credit me the overcharge and my account is closed. I got a email with credit information. Two weeks I got a collection letter from NCO financial stating that I have to pay $2.0 and since it was due for month a late fee of $18.00 also to be paid. I did not get any information about balance due from 1and1 prior to this and infact they told me that my account is settled. Even if there is a balance due 1and1 would have taken from my credit balance.

So I called the billing department asking about it. They were unco-operative and very arrogant. One of the worst billing department person I ever talked. Issue is still not resolved.
127 // Jacob // 04.09.2008 // 5:09 AM

… well i have had 1&1 for 3 years, and i love it… though when my site was down for 3 days last year…, they kept putting me on “the list”- but i still like them… my site i made with them is Sirtopeia.com
128 // Joe Miller // 04.16.2008 // 11:34 PM

I wouldnt use 1&1 Internet ever again, i closed my account with them and recieved a debt letter from a agency adding an extra £15 to a bill of £10 for closing…… Rip off merchants avoid with a bargepole
129 // Ryan // 04.17.2008 // 5:01 AM

This was one of the most interesting things I’ve ever read, concerning 1and1. Tis a good thing 2006 was the humiliating past of 1and1.
130 // Aaron // 04.17.2008 // 9:58 PM

Below are some complaints I sent to 1&1 after a very frustrating and trying experience with their company over the past week in 2008. As soon as my accounts are unlocked, I will be moving all hosted domains to another company. I have never had such poor customer service nor have I ever felt so helpless and frustrated. I have recommended numerous people to 1&1 and now am forwarding this to them as well. 1&1 has been a wonderful company to me up until this last week when I had to deal with their customer service. This is the letter I will also be sending to the US main office as well as United Internet in Germany. Hopefully they’ll take this information and change their system so this never happens again. Read below:

To Whom It May Concern,

Friday, April 11, 2008, I was baffled to learn three of my domains were not only delinquent but 1&1 had sent me to collections and locked my account. My credit card had been stolen in 2007 and I had forgotten to update the card on the account. I am a web designer and currently hold over 70 domains with 1&1 and my business also has a business server.

I have never worked with a domain and Internet provider that didn’t try an alternative method of contact about upcoming payment or delinquency. I think sending me to collection over $16 was a bit unnecessary. Even more troubling is I have over $400 in charges coming up in May that would have been billed to the same incorrect card had this incident not occurred. I have a client rolling out a City website that is one of the sites delinquent. They want to launch at their board a week from today as well as go live to the public. The web designer working on this site was trying to get in to the account today and that’s the ONLY reason I had found out there was an issue.

After calling 1&1 and explained my predicament, I was given a code to call a collections agency to take care of the $16 late fee plus charges for being late. I immediately called the collections agency to pay the bill and she promptly gave me a confirmation number and told me to call 1&1 back and give them the confirmation code.

Upon calling 1&1, I explained my situation again to the service rep which said he could not help. I was told I would have to wait 3-4 business days before the account would be unlocked. I asked for a manager and I was rudely greeted when he got on the phone. Actually, no greeting was given at all. “Is this about the 4 day business day policy?” he barked. Later I realized the service rep (Josh) had not honored my request to speak with a manager.

I told Josh I had no idea why I had never received 1&1’s emails regarding the three default accounts but I asked Josh if he could update my email account online because I was afraid the other large amount of domains I held was already behind as well. Very curtly he let me know not only would he not change my email, he would also not change my credit card information to ensure it was updated. I was traveling in Sacramento and did not have all the 1&1 account information with me. I would not be able to change any of my information until I returned from my trip.

I had the great pleasure of telling my client they’d be locked out until next week possibly ONE day before their release. The 1&1 staff had absolutely no sympathy for the situation and was no help. 1&1 also informed me that they were no longer “required” to take the confirmation numbers from the credit agency and would not assist me in getting the account unlocked. I took this to mean that Josh could have helped me, but he didn’t feel like it and I deserved what I got for going delinquent. He also told me he couldn’t give me his last name because it wasn’t “policy.”

Shortly after we ended our conversation, an email survey was sent to me regarding my experience with customer service and Josh’s entire name was listed in the email. I gave the service poor ratings and pasted the above in the email survey.

I’ve been a big advocate of 1&1 for some time now and have referred several clients. I was about to move over another 50+ domains from IPowerWeb. I will now start looking for a new home for all of my accounts and I will never refer your company again. Furthermore, this letter will be sent to all of my clients that I have referred to you to warn them of your customer service.

I’ve been in the service industry for some time and the way I was treated today was unacceptable. I’m sure you deal with a lot of dead beats in your business that just are lazy and don’t pay their bills. I have never been one of those people and I don’t appreciate being treated like one over an honest oversight. Especially from a company that didn’t do all it could have done to avoid this situation.

I’ve been on the phone twice with your staff today as well as the credit agency. Now I will spend further time sending this via mail to several people on the 1&1 staff as well as United Internet AG including Andreas Gauger, Ann Marie Tropiano, Ralph Dommermuth, and Norbert Lang in hopes this never happens to another customer. I had been very impressed with your company until today. I’d hate for another consumer to have the same experience.

A simple letter or a phone call from 1&1 would have saved us all time and money. Both my mailing address and phone number, by the way, were correct on my account. Now I have the issue of restoring my perfect credit thanks to 1&1 which will require AMEX verifying the stolen card with the credit agency.

For your future customers, I hope 1&1 reconsiders its policies and considers sending out a late notice via standard mail or a phone call if someone goes delinquent. For us in the web industry who handle multiple domains and several clients, it’s not always easy and this seems like a simple courtesy that saves everyone grief, time and money. If email is the only way 1&1 plans on contacting customers, please allow a second alternative email address so it has two chances to reach a customer should one go bad or change. This could very possibly save this from ever happening again. And please consider changing your three to four day restart policy. This practice seems unnecessary, unproductive, and frustrating. It’s done nothing but make sure I never want to work with 1&1 again.

Update: Monday, April 14, 2008

Today I called the credit agency again and wanted to make sure the charge went through and to check and make sure this didn’t go on my credit report. I’m extremely anal about my credit and looking to buy a house this year.

The gentleman confirmed that my account had been billed and everything should be set to go. I wish someone would have let me know it was not a reporting agency. I stressed a lot over the weekend.

When I got back into town from Sacramento, I had a letter from the credit agency telling me of the delinquent account. I wish I would have got one from 1&1 a few months prior letting me know to update my account before sending me to the collection agency.

Update: Thursday, April 17, 2008

Thursday, April 17th I was still nervous because the account had yet to be unlocked and my client was sending me emails asking the status. I called 1&1 to see what was happening. While I was on hold waiting for a manager, I looked at my bank statement to be sure it had charged my account.

Sure enough my account had been charged April 14th for around $46 and it showed an origination date of the charge at April 11th. I told the rep the situation and she passed me on immediately to a manager. The manager (Ian) informed me that the account had still not been paid and he said he even logged in to the NCOF’s (credit agency) system and it showed it hadn’t been paid. That would have been nice if they would have checked that when I called them Friday after I paid and wanted them to check with the confirmation code.

As you can imagine I was again baffled and upset. I told him I had even called 1&1 back Monday to confirm with the confirmation number that 1&1 refused to take it down. I had discarded the envelope I wrote the confirmation number on while I was in the car.

Once again I was told I had to call NCOF with the code given by 1&1. I asked if I could have his direct extension and if he could help me have this fixed so my client could have access by tomorrow morning. He said he could get it turned on in the morning as Germany would get the request early as long as I could get this fixed with NCOF. He feared that NCOF had charged the wrong account!

Off I go to NCOF once again. I give NCOF the number 1&1 gave me and sure enough it shows I had not paid. I told the woman I had my online statement in front of me and even a number attached to the charge. There was no record that I had ever called and she couldn’t find the charge. I was given another number at another department at NCOF to call.

Now I arrive at a separate department and speak with Mr. Williams. He is as baffled as I am and we start digging into the system. Come to find out, either 1&1 had given me the wrong number or I had written the number down incorrectly. My payment went to another delinquent account!

I found this extremely upsetting since she asked to verify my name and I believe my address before we even started. How could my bank debit card get charged under a completely different name? How could my address mismatch not be caught? I don’t know who to be upset with here about the charge. I dare not call Citibank as they would freeze the account and cause even more problems.

I explained to Mr. Williams my predicament with my client and I need his help. He tells me to fax my bank statement over along with a note stating what we had discussed on the phone. I did and the fax was sent 2:50 PST. I figured I would call Ian and tell him it was in the works and perhaps have him speak to Mr. Williams so he knew what was going on.

I wait for the fax to go through and print out the fax receipt and started trying to call Mr. Williams back to ensure the fax had gone through. I keep getting a voice message saying they’d call me back and to leave a message. The third time I finally left a message and wanted to tell Ian so he could set things straight in their system and set things up for the unlock Friday morning.

I dial the 1&1 number and enter Ian’s extension.

“The billing department is now closed. Normal business hours are from 8-5 EST.”

As you can imagine my stomach dropped. Ian had not informed me about the time difference and I am not sure I he had set up for the unlock to go through.

I called NCOF again only this time I call the original number and ask them what happened to the other department. She informed me they too are on EST and would not be until morning!

1&1 nor NCOF had told me we were on a time crunch. Ian made it sound like he would set up the unlock if I got back to him with the info from NCOF. I had sent Mr. Williams a personal bank statement and was now unable to verify if he even received the fax. I was under the impression that both were available and willing to finally help. They were not. I had even asked for Ian’s extension and I couldn’t even reach his voice mail.

I am so flustered and angry that my card was charged to someone else’s account and that 1&1’s staff couldn’t take the time to help me out when it was obviously important. I only spend $2,000 with 1&1 per year which I know is not much. But I have never been treated so poorly as a customer. Just once in my whole experience, I wish I were treated the same way the people I was dealing with would like to be treated (especially from management).

As soon as I can get my accounts cleared I will be moving my entire portfolio elsewhere before you can charge me for the other 70 domains I have with your company. Even after I sent the past review, I received zero contact from 1&1 regarding this matter.

The last note I sent had a few suggestions as I hate people who just complain and never offer any solutions. I think I’ve run out of constructive ideas and I don’t feel anyone on the other side would listen anyway. 1&1 is an excellent company to work with unless you really need their help.

I am completely helpless at this point and I have let me client down. I feel horrible. They’re upset but not nearly as upset as I am. I have spent numerous hours dealing with this issue and now I will spend a few more taking the time to move all my accounts.

For all you readers, make sure you keep numbers handy for any domain accounts you may have and keep your credit card current. You have absolutely no control of your experience if you go delinquent. I realize that going delinquent was my fault. I’ve been in school and working full time. I never expected to have the truly horrific experience I had with these two companies over $16 and a stolen credit card.
131 // Amy Alkon // 04.28.2008 // 8:21 PM

I am a girl who not only pays her bills, but pays her bills in advance, and pays not only her full car payment every month, but 30 percent on top of what’s owed so I’ll have good credit.

These scumbags contend that I owe them money. I do not. I closed my account, and it was paid in full when I did. Meanwhile, I got two letters from NCO collections today saying I owe them a little over $20 for 1and1 bills. Hog turds!

But, I now have some hideous process to begin to clear up my credit.

If you’re looking for a server company, do anything you can to avoid 1and1.

I’m now with Nexcess.net, these very nice guys in Ann Arbor Michigan, and they’ve been great. They’re a company recommended by Movable Type, by the way.

Any suggestions on deadling with this (as I have newspaper column deadlines, a complex life, and a book due August 1, and at the publisher, not the library) would be much appreciated. I can be reached at adviceamy AT aol dot com

So upset about this. Life-sucking cretins!
132 // Pat R // 05.02.2008 // 11:06 AM

RIP-OFF CHARGES!

I did not update the expiration date of my credit card I used for registration of a domain name since I was not going to keep that domain thinking that the account will be canceled.

Without telling me and instead of cancel the account, they sent my account to a collection agency NOC financial system. I have to pay extra fee $30 on top of the renewal fee.

It will be OK if they inform me before they sent the account to collecting agency.

Your credit score can be ruined without knowing it. No more 1and1.
133 // Ellie K. // 05.04.2008 // 4:52 PM

Same sentiment as above - AVOID, AVOID, AVOID. You may save a couple of bucks a year, but they will get it back from you in either your downtime, your personal time dealing with “customer” service or bogus charges that don’t go away until after you pay because they have been threatening you with wrecking your credit report.

If the few negative postings on this page don’t sway you, go check out the thousands of complaints on the Better Business Bureau page. I don’t know how this company is allowed to operate in the U.S. or how there hasn’t been a class action lawsuit yet. Any lawyers out there want to make some easy money by suing 1&1 on behalf of past customers?

I don’t get their business model. Why would a company go out of their way to infuriate customers over $29.97 worth of charges knowing the customer will take their domains and hosting packages worth thousands a year and go elsewhere? I had been with 1&1 for 4 years with no issues. The first time there was a misunderstanding with an account, they took the opportunity to stick it to me instead of working with me. Now I have not only left, but I’ve convinced 2 friends and 2 companies to switch and I will continue to warn people of 1&1.

Damien Christopher in Billing doesn’t work with customers, he merely mechanically recites the terms and conditions without considering the bigger picture. Who does that these days? Mostly companies that want to make a quick buck and don’t care about customer retention. Bravo, 1&1, bravo; you’ve acted according to your twisted mission statement.
134 // Dave // 05.16.2008 // 11:40 AM

We have been using 1 and 1 for both domain hosting and exchange hosting for about 2 years. In that time, while we have had zero problems with the domain hosting, we have had at least 15 different exchange outages. In every one of these I’ve contacted their “technical” support department and have been given one of three predictable answers:

1) We will reset your account - this never fixes the problem. 2) Our “admins” are working on it. I’m never allowed to talk to the “admins” nor have I ever been given an explanation as to what they were doing to fix the problem. 3) We don’t have any issues reported so the problem must be on your end.

This last explanation was what finally broke it for us. My office has 7 users and all 7 of us have been unable to use the 1 and 1 exchange service for over a month. Not at the office, not at home. Several different connection methods, several clients, at least 13 different computers. In that month, i’ve talked to their service department at least 5 times and each of those times the only answer I could get was that they had no issues reported. I asked them if the fact that I was calling constituted a “reported issue” and was told No. I don’t know what their process is for reporting an issue but their total lack of customer support so infuriated us that we are now in the process of moving out service to a different provider.

Added to that, they offer no SLA for their service so any downtime we have had is treated as “oh well, your problem” by their support staff. Why would anyone want to deal with that?
135 // Fred // 05.21.2008 // 11:08 PM

I have 12 domains with 1and1. After talking to a 1and1 rep over the phone, I got an email asking me to fill out a survey.

Here’s what I wrote:

An expired credit card, lands my account in collections. Within a few weeks, a $27 invoice becomes $53. I can’t access my control panel for 3-4 days(!!!) even after paying the “collections” company?? WTF?

I have spent $1200 on an offline event, driving customers to a domain. I have customers seeing an error page on that domain, and I can’t fix it for 3-4 days!!!

Come on, 3-4 days! I pay your “collections” people. They gave me a confirmation number, and I send it your support team. They tell me they have to wait 3-4 days until the “collections” company will give them the record of the payment.

Why does this take 3-4 days?

Do you not have an internet connection?

Do you communicate via snail mail? Pony Express?

Smoke signals?

Are you guys smoking crack!?!?!

You have lost me as a customer. Sorry. Your higher ups are some really, really crass assh*s, who run 1and1 like a bloodsucking credit card company.

You deserve to lose all your customers.

Warm Regards, -Fred

P.S.: The rep told me he couldn’t do anything to unlock the account, because that’s the way the system is set up I think your company is designed to “kick ‘em when they’re down,” your customers that is.
136 // Ed Crowley // 05.26.2008 // 11:08 AM

I have not been able to update my site for one week due to Front Page extension problems, and now my site is down completely. These guys are jerks. They say they will respond and then they don’t. A complete lack of customer support. Surprising for a german company. A real slap in the face to german effeciency!!!!
137 // Ed Crowley // 05.26.2008 // 11:08 AM

I have not been able to update my site for one week due to Front Page extension problems, and now my site is down completely. These guys are jerks. They say they will respond and then they don’t. A complete lack of customer support. Surprising for a german company. A real slap in the face to german effeciency!!!!
138 // George Boyles // 06.10.2008 // 4:30 PM

Our company had a need for a web site and chose 1and1 for no particular reason. Our engineer setup the account and terminated it the same day because he did not receive account login information in a timely manner.

He further contacted the company, by email, to ensure that the account was terminated, he received a response that it was.

Today we received 2 letters from NCO Financial Services, months after the fact, for the one account that was established. Total money under question is $36.00, a small amount, but the intent to falsefy and cause due injury is real.

I contacted the collection agency NCO Financial and registered a dispute after being hung up on several times.

I kinda smell a class action suit here against 1and1 for false misrepresentation of services promised/ services rendered to it’s customers and also for dishonest and misleading practices.

Our company does not intent to pursue legal action against 1and1 at this time but we do keep all options open. The principle of the matter is what is in question here.
139 // Pissed off Marketer // 06.13.2008 // 12:36 PM

My server is slow/down… 95% of the time it’s timing out and the other 5% it’s insanely slow. I phoned tech support 4 times today.

First e-mail @ 6:40 AM EST and I get a reply telling me they’ll apply a fix and it should be fine in an hour, this was at 8:31 AM EST. I wait until 10 AM EST and it’s still not working so I phone.

First phone call @ 10 AM EST: I explain the situation, get put on hold and listen to some techno, get told “I just applied a fix so try back in an hour, maximum”.

12 PM EST: nothing… still not loading and it’s still timing out. So naturally I phone again. Explain the situation yet again, put on hold and this time I get to listen to some funk music, then I get told “I’ve passed it on to our backend admins and you should check back in 3 hours.”

3 PM EST: Still not working (it’s actually 3:33 PM EST while I’m typing this!) so I phone yet again. Explain the situation with a lot more effin’ frustration and mention how I’m losing money because I’m an Internet marketer. They tell me to send a complaint to ‘complaints@1and1.com’.

That’s where I currently stand; I’m getting very frustrated and pissed off about this. I’m hosting 5 websites with this company and not one loads. Their “About 1&1” page says “unshakeable reliablity”… my balls chief.
140 // MJH // 06.26.2008 // 7:24 PM

Over 10 days ago I lost the ability to see the traffic to my site hosted on a Windows server. It’s a simple thing, really. A process runs every hour or so, pulls from the live Web log files and copies to an FTP directory. I need this information for reasons that web designers fully understand, right? Surely 1&1 support can handle this. In 11 days I’ve spoken with three support reps by phone who refer me to email, and two level 1 support reps by email who refer me to the admin group. Three different “admin group” support reps tell me something different, and for a week I have had no update except a confirmation that they finally realize the server has log files and there is a problem somewhere. Yes, it took four days and six people to determine a web server keeps logs.

“Incompetent” doesn’t begin to describe it. Today Saul gave me the complaints@1and1.com email address, and I used it. Politely, I asked for an update as I have had none in a week. Sure, I only pay 10 bucks a month today, but I will need a VPS or dedicated system in a few months… I know what company will not get that order. My next hosting provider will get a test order from me, as did 1and1 (Web.com by the way is worse), and I will test their support system before committing 20 domains.

Based on what I’ve read, I believe 1and1, the “largest provider in the world,” is crashing fast. They expanded too fast, can’t support their own customer base and I fully expect one day that they’ll just pull the plug and leave everyone without service, files, or even domains.
141 // dan // 07.04.2008 // 11:01 AM

to George Boyles I had a similar issue happen to me just recently as well with their fradulent billing practices. 1and1 is a joke and should not be in business.
142 // Michael // 07.11.2008 // 11:19 AM

I am dealing with their awful billing department now, who sent me to collections after sending a bill to an email address I no longer have. Since I never received the bill I couldn’t pay it and they didn’t bother to call or send a letter. Avoid this company at all costs.

On top of that, I never even used the domains! There was no hosting associated with them.
143 // Brandy // 07.18.2008 // 12:16 PM

Today I found out that 1&1 sent my account to a collections agency after they say my credit card was “declined” and after I confirmed my billing information TWICE. I am wondering how a card with no limit gets decined? My credit card company informed me that the company 1&1 Internet did not try to process my credit card on the day 1&1 claims to have tried to process it. The credit card company can tell within seconds whether your card has been hit with a charge or declined. I asked the 1&1 billing supervisor to have a conference call with my credit card company and he flat out said no. I asked to speak to his boss and he said NO. After three hours I still did not have a resolution to this problem. I think it is a little strange that this company can charge me an $18.95 late fee on a quarterly charge of $23.95. Seems a little extreme and am wondering how many people they are doing this to.

After a few hours one of the billing reps said they could do an investigation of the so-called declined credit card(by the way-the reps did not once believe me and blamed me for the entire incident, unbelievable!). So, I filed a complaint with the BBB and called the PA Attorney General. Apparenty there is an investigation going on.

I would strongy advise against working with this company. The customer service is absolutey awful!
144 // PH // 07.29.2008 // 7:45 PM

Is there a class action beginning with this company?

I just got burned by them and I am going through a lot.

My account info was valid and the payment didn’t go through so they terminated the account and sent it to NCO Financial.

I sent both 1 and 1 and NCO letters along with a pro rated payment for the month I did use.

They sent me an email saying that they tore the cashier’s check up.

They terminated my contract in July - the beginning of this month. It was due for renewal in June.

They want me to pay for July, August, and September of 2008.
145 // Ian Smith // 08.07.2008 // 11:11 AM

Wow, they are terrible. I’ve tried to transfer a domain to them using a transfer auth code that is clearly correct and valid and been told the code is invalid (the code has been confirmed with the current registrar twice. I’ve worked with tech support by both email and phone. Now that the third attempt has failed, they say:

“The transfer of your domain to 1&1 Internet Team was declined for the third time due to an incorrect authorization code.

Therefore, we are not able to carry out the transfer as requested. We cannot make any further attempts to transfer the domain to us”

I guess they want me to go away, and I couldn’t be happier to oblige.
146 // SEAN // 08.15.2008 // 9:28 AM

Wow, I feel so welcome here! You really aren’t alone when 1&1 screws you.

My story is almost the same, perpetual down-time, calling the Philippines, being told they’re sorry and it should be up soon, then waiting many more hours before service is restored. The complaints email trying to give me a free month when they owe me at least two. Hearing from clients that their web site isn’t working. Just makes me look bad.

Web hosting is best done at a smaller, more committed company, where you speak directly to someone who can walk over to your server and fix it.

You can now get a VPS for little more than shared hosting, and I have done this, at a small, enthusiastic customer-oriented firm. A proper VPS is more secure and unlikely to get you suddenly banned for CPU usage or some nonsense. No worries about other people slowing your site down or getting you blacklisted (shared IP) from their spamming activities. Even the smallest sites should use a VPS. I’ve just been screwed by these shared hosting places too many times. If you don’t get a VPS, at least go with a smaller, quality operation.

I’m cancelling 1&1 soon and praying they don’t screw me in the process. I’ll let them keep my credit card number as not to involve collection agencies.
147 // LISA COLLOMB // 09.27.2008 // 12:57 PM

I & 1.COM JUST CRASHED MY ENTIRE WEB SITE BY SOME STUPID TECHNICIAN IN THE PHILLIPPINES WHO I GOT WHEN I CALL THERE 1-800 NUMBER AND HE UPGRADED MY PLAN FOR MORE ROOM ON MY SERVER FOR A PHOTO BASED LOCATION SERVICE WEB SITE I HAVE FOR THE FILM INDUSTRY. WHAT THE STUPID JERK DID NOT TELL ME THAT I HAD A LINUX SERVER AND HE UPGRADED ME TO A WINDOWS BASED SERVER AND NOW MY ENTIRE WEB SITE WIPED OUT AND OFF THE INTERNET!! JUST WHEN I HAD 5 OF THE MAJOR RETAIL OUTLETS IN AMERICA, ONE BEING TALBOTS AND ANOTHER WALMART, NUMEROUS CATALOG COMPANIES AND A REALITY BASED SHOW TO VIEW MY SITE FOR POTENTIAL PICKS TO COME TO FLORIDA TO SHOOT NEXT MONTH.

RIGHT NOW I AM GETTING THE RUN AROUND AND PROMISES THAT THEY WILL TRY TO REPLACE MY “OLD PLAN” WITH THE ORIGINAL PACKAGE I HAD WITH THE LINUX SERVER BUT MY IMAGES ARE OUT IN CYBERSPACE AND CAN NOT BE RETRIEVED.

SO MY 1,000 PLUS LOCATIONS WILL HAVE TO BE MANUALLY PUT BACK ON LINE WHEN THE SITE IS UP AGAIN BY MY STAFF WHICH WILL BE AN ADDED BUSINESS HOURS AND EXPENSE. I AM IN A WAIT AND SEE MODE UNTIL MONDAY AND IF I DO NOT GET RESULTS FROM 1 AND 1 THEN MY ENTERTAINMENT ATTORNEY WILL BE CONTACTING THEIR CEO Ralph Dommermuth WITH HOPEFULLY SOME RESULTS.

BEWARE OF TECH SERVICES AND I AM CONTACTING DIANE SAWYER AND OTHER NEWS MEDIA ABOUT THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF HAVING TO DEAL WITH A HUMAN IN A FOREIGN COMPANY TO ASSIST YOU ON TECHNICAL ISSUES AND THEY DON’T EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH CORRECTLY OR KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING. THEY JUST READ FROM A SCRIPT AND RUIN YOUR ENTIRE LIFE IF THEY MISS A PARAGRAPH!!

WE ARE SO DEPENDENT ON THE INTERNET FOR OUR ADVERTISING AND WHEN SOMETHING LIKES THIS HAPPENS AND YOU ARE BASICLY SHUT DOWN FROM WORKING AND JUST SIT AND BALL YOUR EYES OUT YOU REALIZE THE REST OF THE WORLD NEEDS TO BE INFORMED.. WATCH 20 20 ON T.V. AND MAYBE THEY WILL DO AN EXPOSE ON THIS!!

SPREAD THE WORD AND THANKS FOR HAVING THIS BLOG PAGE TO COMPLAIN!

SINCERELY,

LISA COLLOMB BOCA RATON, FL www.all-starlocations.com
148 // MZ // 10.09.2008 // 2:49 AM

They really screw people up, they are teamed with NCO Financial company to screw people up, they are the devil itself I agree! Please if you have an account I strongly recommend to CANCEL IT RIGHT THE WAY!!!!! They will overcharge the crap out of you!!! THEY WILL REALLY F$$#% U UP! Im not kidding, just cancel it NOW!!! I mean RIGHT NOW!!!!! TRUST ME ON THIS ONE!
149 // John // 10.23.2008 // 7:45 PM

WOW> DO I AGREE.

I have been trying to get them to unlock my domains so I can transfer them out of their domain control but they refuse b/c I won’t update a new credit card number. I paid them their money when my cc failed through the collection agency. Now I am frozen in 1&1 Hell unless I give them a credit card which I don’t plan on doing. So i am going on a letter writing campaign

They are terrible and kept bouncing me around over and over..
150 // Manzoor Gondal // 11.05.2008 // 1:18 PM

I signed with 1&1 and in 3 months I decided to change the Service Provider. I spoke with customer service and they advised me to logon to Control Center and do it from ther. I did complete successful transfer but after one year I was billed again $67.00 I was surprised and when I called they said I have to give them a cancellatin number. I refused to pay and they given to collection company. I don’t think this is the right way of doing business. I don’t suggest 1&1 to any body.
151 // Tom // 11.19.2008 // 9:44 AM

I have two domains with 1&1, but I have no plans on using them as my webhost–especially after reading all these horror stories! (Thanks to everyone for sharing them.) I was thinking of using either Blue Host or Globat, both of which I’ve read good reviews about. Has anyone had any experience with either of these two or any of the other ones that are supposedly “top rated” at the site below?

http://web-hosting-review.toptenreviews.com/
152 // 1 and 1 hater // 01.23.2009 // 5:18 AM

sharron testo, shut up moaning. Is there anything other you can say without having to threaten people with harrassment charges and loss of earnings as well? it wouldnt be so bad if you was a good teacher in the first place, so god only knows what youve had as a loss when no one goes to you anyway. Face up to it, you cant depend on the courts all the time to help you out, use your backbone and stick up for yourself. Stop moaning and whingeing, and please dont bore me with details of harrassing you on this post, its an opinion board, try again.
153 // nicholas // 01.25.2009 // 8:02 AM

Stay away—no, run away!!! I lost my domain to fraudlent activities by former emplyee despite my immediate alret to 1and1. I spent hours on the e-mail and phone with them. When one department (legal) managed to help and restore my ownership, another department still proceeded with fradulent cancelation and transfer. I lost my domain, my e-mail, my business is hurt. And no help from them—it is kind of ghost company. Bunch of unprofessionals!
154 // Hillary // 01.29.2009 // 3:29 AM

Things obviously have not changed since the original post in 2006 — three years ago. Shameful. I bought webhosting with 1and1.fr, canceled it within 3 days, got confirmation from the telephone service that I would not be billed, and switched over to 1and1.com.

Then I received a bill, 1 year later, for 31.50 euros, from 1and1.fr. My emails asking for an explanation were answered by automated messages. It went to the collection agency. I paid it off to end the hassle. But I just received another bill, for 31.50 euros, for the rest of my contract. I wrote a complaint to complaints@1and1.com, on January 14th, I am still waiting for a response.

The advertisement with 1and1.fr was misleading. It stated everywhere on their website that I had a 3 month trial period, without commitment. But I had missed the fine-print and had misinterpreted the sentence at the end of the Terms & Conditions which basically states that I am bound to a two year contract.

Be very careful.
155 // warthpublishinginc // 04.06.2009 // 5:29 PM

“SirTKC says: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 • 02:42 AM Hi, it’s me again, I’m here today as amazed as I have ever been before… A month and + later, our 1&1 Internet hosting service still haven’t fully recover from their crash of last October. OK lets recap… they went down for more then a week. They have lost all the content of our web shell including the database. We ran out of this server by purchasing another package with them (why? read below). Another of our package was also involve in this crash… We completely lost the SSL attached to one of our domain. I will spare you the zillion emails I’ve exchange with the asian branch of their technical support. As I am writing this right now, we did not cash in one single transaction on our website since mid October… On top, now we are experiencing lag time (10 to 20 sec.) on every single server request we do to our packages (on all protocols) Today, we took the decision to bail out ALL our websites (approx 20) from 1&1 Internet as per the fact that 1&1 Internet services & support simply turned into pure madness… From now on, what I have to say is - STAY AWAY FROM 1AND1 INTERNET !! And I am sad about this, because I brought them a lot of customers and now I have to move them all out and it will take me hours, days to do this… No need to tell how mad I am when I read en interview like this one… (I’ve took the decision to move to another server inside 1&1 to avoid registrar or DNS changes that would have rendered the transfer too long to process. it took only 3-5 hours instead of 1-5 days in a normal server transfer from one hosting company to another).”
156 // Alexandra // 05.19.2009 // 3:29 PM

I came across this in a web search while trying to find corporate information on the company with reference to possible Fraud in trying to insist customers who discontinue/ cancel service not be allowed to transwer their domain name without first signing a contract to say that they will continue registering through 1&1.com. HOwever, I originally registered my domain name through another company I use, trnaswered it for hosting purposes and now 1&1 is trying to lock me in. They have several practices in their hosting service which should be labeled CONSUMER BEWARE in bright bold letters and I am saying now…STAY WELL AWAY! I have been researching this company and I am finding some very shady hidden things. I am now throwing this out to my journalist friends to investigate even more.
157 // John Wesley // 05.22.2009 // 10:26 AM

On 4-23-09 we started the process of changing our name server IP address to the new IP from moving to a different office. Here it is 5-22-09 and 1&1 Internet has done EVERYTHING in their power to make EVERY step difficult. Their technical support is NOT technical at ALL. You e-mail and call them and ALL of their call center agents give a general answer when you ask a very, very specific question. After over 45 hours on the phone with them we are no closer to getting the matter resolved than when we first started. I am on my third time trying to transfer just ONE domain and they are all flippin’ idiots! They are continually playing games!!!! I filed legal action against them on Monday, May 18th, 2009. By the way their “legal@1and1.com” is not even going anywhere it is just an e-mail account that does not get responded to.
158 // Dean // 06.02.2009 // 8:27 AM

I have to agree with you, 1&1 Suck! My dads business website is hosted on one of their shared hosting packages. I tried to order two .com domains with them, now I wish I didnt! They have been sending emails saying that the card has been declined. They then locked the account. :| So, I changed the payment method to PayPal. That wasn’t a success either :( I then got an email (and now a letter) saying that the PayPal ‘merchant agreement limit is not sufficient’… even though I don’t have a PayPal merchant account. I am now SSHing into the hosting and zipping all the files ready to be moved. Now to attempt to transfer the domains… Fun!
159 // Rev. Stephen B. Henry, PhD. // 06.09.2009 // 8:07 PM

Having been around the Internet since before it was public, going back to the days of ArpaNET and NSFnet, having worked for ISPs, owned my own ISPs (plural), designed and managed thousands of websites, handled tech support, and done most of the other techie things that go with web hosting, I usually know when I’m getting a raw deal on technical and customer service.

Today I closed my 1&1 account and I will not recommend them to anyone. Not only do they offer the worst customer service I think I have ever received, their operational procedures and terms of service remind me of plaid-jacketed used car salesmen and finance company contracts. The fine print and shady practices that I encountered personally are enough to scare away the most seasoned trial attorney.

My personal choice: Stay away from 1&1!

JeffCroft.com

02.27.2006 // 159 Comments // News Center 1&1 Internet is the devil.

Comments

Links in this entry

This entry’s tags

AuthenticJobs.com

Comments

001 // Michael Hessling // 02.27.2006 // 12:02 PM

002 // Justin Perkins // 02.27.2006 // 12:08 PM

003 // Brian Sweeting // 02.27.2006 // 12:13 PM

004 // Matthew Pennell // 02.27.2006 // 12:36 PM

005 // Ryan Rahn // 02.27.2006 // 12:40 PM

006 // Jeff Croft // 02.27.2006 // 1:02 PM

007 // AJP // 02.27.2006 // 1:05 PM

008 // Lance E. Leonard // 02.27.2006 // 1:08 PM

009 // Tony Summerville // 02.27.2006 // 1:41 PM

010 // James // 02.27.2006 // 2:31 PM

011 // Jason Beaird // 02.27.2006 // 2:40 PM

012 // Isaack // 02.27.2006 // 4:39 PM

013 // Jim // 02.27.2006 // 5:24 PM

014 // Nathan Smith // 02.27.2006 // 11:03 PM

015 // JBagley // 02.28.2006 // 12:24 AM

016 // Sebastian // 02.28.2006 // 9:02 AM

017 // Kai Dolata // 02.28.2006 // 1:11 PM

018 // Jared // 03.02.2006 // 9:05 AM

019 // Phil // 03.02.2006 // 9:23 AM

020 // Boy George // 03.02.2006 // 4:45 PM

021 // Chet // 03.03.2006 // 6:27 AM

022 // Natalie // 03.03.2006 // 2:57 PM

023 // Nathan clayton // 03.04.2006 // 3:32 PM

024 // web // 03.07.2006 // 4:43 PM

025 // PaulM // 03.16.2006 // 11:56 AM

026 // Clifton Labrum // 03.16.2006 // 7:23 PM

027 // Kevin Pearson // 03.17.2006 // 2:35 AM

028 // Lux // 03.17.2006 // 2:57 PM

029 // Tester // 03.18.2006 // 3:54 PM

030 // 1and1.com hater // 03.18.2006 // 11:32 PM

031 // Shane // 03.26.2006 // 2:04 PM

032 // Jeff Croft // 03.26.2006 // 2:44 PM

033 // Tim // 04.08.2006 // 1:05 AM

034 // Dean Clatworthy // 04.30.2006 // 1:38 AM

035 // Terry Polevoy, MD // 05.06.2006 // 6:42 PM

036 // J. Stockton // 05.08.2006 // 11:14 PM

037 // Walid // 05.10.2006 // 2:47 PM

038 // jakob // 05.12.2006 // 3:19 AM

039 // A.E. // 05.19.2006 // 1:12 PM

040 // A.E. // 05.19.2006 // 1:15 PM

041 // Mish // 05.21.2006 // 8:53 AM

042 // Jon Lusky // 05.31.2006 // 11:30 PM

043 // John Shin // 06.02.2006 // 11:49 AM

044 // Andy Marsh // 06.27.2006 // 1:56 AM

045 // Elizabeth // 06.29.2006 // 1:10 PM

046 // 1and1.com scam victim // 06.29.2006 // 2:13 PM

047 // KillTerry // 07.01.2006 // 6:42 AM

048 // Chris Beach // 08.10.2006 // 9:28 AM

049 // shanyi shen // 08.11.2006 // 3:42 PM

050 // admin // 08.11.2006 // 4:13 PM

051 // Vlad // 08.21.2006 // 11:06 AM

052 // Brian Chappell // 08.23.2006 // 4:38 PM

053 // Doug McGown // 08.27.2006 // 4:01 PM

054 // healthynerd // 09.01.2006 // 8:06 PM

055 // Art Parducho // 09.05.2006 // 11:32 AM

056 // Jeff // 09.06.2006 // 6:20 PM

057 // Jeff Croft // 09.06.2006 // 8:51 PM

058 // charles sterling // 09.08.2006 // 11:35 AM

059 // Spacyt // 09.12.2006 // 10:37 AM

060 // MikeR // 09.14.2006 // 11:32 AM

061 // Dawn Matthews // 09.17.2006 // 6:12 AM

062 // Eric // 09.28.2006 // 3:11 PM

063 // AJ // 09.29.2006 // 3:18 PM

064 // Paul // 10.13.2006 // 5:44 AM

065 // Tony // 10.18.2006 // 9:05 PM

066 // J.H. // 11.02.2006 // 8:59 AM

067 // J.H. // 11.02.2006 // 9:39 AM

068 // H.C. // 11.15.2006 // 4:11 PM

069 // junpol3 // 11.17.2006 // 3:21 AM

070 // Brett // 12.19.2006 // 1:28 PM

071 // boob barker // 12.20.2006 // 3:59 PM

072 // Anne Chism // 01.05.2007 // 11:43 AM

073 // Steve Hards // 01.12.2007 // 4:49 PM