There are not many times that I feel the need to publicly demonstrate my dissatisfaction at someone or something, however with 1&1 in this instance I am making a massive exception. The culprit is 1&1 Internet and they are a disgrace to the web hosting and domain name industry. I have been a customer with 1&1 Internet for quite a few years now and never have I been treated so badly, not just by 1 and 1 but by any company I have ever dealt with. Yes they are THE WORST.
So what has happened?
It started on the 17th of January when I transferred the domain name Rottweilers.co.uk to them and since then it has just been a complete sham. I am waiting to report on this officially once the issue is resolved by 1&1 Internet but to give you a brief overview I have over 100 domains currently with registration errors against them which I cannot use. My website Rottweilers.co.uk does not resolve and has dropped out the SERPs meaning I am losing daily revenue. 1&1 Internet have continued to bill me for over £200 of renewals when I asked them to stop until the matter was resolved. After more than 10 telephone conversations total several hours worth of my time, 17 emails back and forth to their technical support team, complaints team and even their legal team – from which I have yet to get a response after almost a week. Yes from their Legal team of all departments! This simply demonstrates that 1 and 1 Internet are not concerned in the slightest about their customers.
What else is being said about 1&1 Internet
You only have search for 1&1 on Google to find a barrage of people complaining about their service. I am not the first and I am sure, unless they undergo a significant shift in their management, I will not be the last.
What Next?
Today I have written 1&1 Internet a Letter Before Action giving them 7 days to resolve my matter before I begin legal proceedings against them to recover my costs and loss of income. I will be making public every email and record of my conversations with 1and1 Internet since this matter started on the 17th January 2011 for everyone to see exactly how this company operates towards its customers.
How can you help me get 1 and 1 to listen?
It is time that 1&1 Internet were held accountable for their customer service failings and that their UK management realise they cannot hide behind overseas call centres when people wish to complain about their services.
If you have experienced the poor levels of service that I am experiencing at the moment with 1&1 Internet please add your comments below and link back to this page.
16th Feb 2011 – 1 and 1 Update
Well it has been about a week since I created this post, thank you to every one for your support so far. Here’s a brief update on 1&1′s lack of customer service:
5th of Feb I sent a “7 day before legal action” letter to the complaints and legal dept of 1&1 saying that I will be taking legal action if they do not resolve the issue and refund my domain renewals since the start of Jan 2011 – I didn’t get a response to this letter.
7th of Feb – I receive a response to a previous email, there have been many saying they will refund £43 of my £230+ worth of renewals…what?!
Since then I have contacting Nominet who in turn have contacted 1 and 1 on my behalf to see if they can resolve the issue and STILL NO RESPONSE
I have been tweeting @1and1_uk on Twitter since this whole saga began and not once have they bothered to respond so I have taken further action and that was to change my debit card details so they can no longer bill me. My first renewal got declined today and guess what? Yes, they contacted me straight away saying I needed to make payment to avoid disruption to my sevvice…funny that!
I have just emailed their social media account (socialmedia@1and1.co.uk) in a last ditch effort to get someone from their UK head office to contact me before I get my solictors involved now that I am back from New York. They ha more than the seven days to come back to me and I feel completely justified when I say that taking 4 weeks to resolve an issue which I even know the answer too is just a disgrace.
So please, please help me to raise other people awareness of 1 and 1 internet’s terrible customer service to people who may be considering using them, by linking to my post and pushing it higher up the search engines!
Once I have closure on this issue I will be publishing all correspondence regarding this episode on my blog so you can see all the intimate details.
Oh and today I have also begun transferring my domains over to Domain Monster, because unlike 1&1, they actually have a UK based contact centre that cares about its customers. Domain Monster were highly recommended by me in my “unofficial top ten” domain name registration companies.
Thank you for your support
Gary
1&1 Internet Are A Disgrace,
Hi gary, I would have to agree completely that 1and 1 are a shambles. I was in dispute with them for a few months up until recently, where surprisingly I managed to get a refund for hosting that I never used or even had! The legal dept as you state were non responsive, they DO NOT respond to the online ‘contact us’ form. I had to google ‘say no to 0870′ to get a direct number that didn’t cost fortune to call. This took me direct to customer services who transferred me to billing. Lewis
Thanks Lewis
Appreciate your comment
Best
Gary
I found them to be a right royal PITA. Not as bad as 123Reg, but not far off. Customer Service is almost non existant and whilst I have never had the misfortune of dealing with their legal dept. it doesn’t suprise me in the slightest that they are as incompetent. I really hope you get the issues resolved quickly and I think I’ve already given you a suggestion for a suitable future home on Twitter – Heart Internet.
Thanks Toby
Hope you are well pal, will you be attending Think Vis again in March?
Thanks for the recommendation of Heart too
Best
Gary
I’m with both 1&1 and 123-reg for my domains here in the UK. What are the alternatives?
Are there any domain hosts that the hivemind in general agree are decent?
Hi Bob
Thanks for your comment, what have your experiences been like with 1&1 in particular
With regards to the “hivemind” I have spoken to a lot of people and have been contacted on Twitter by many recommending DomainMonster.com. I contacted Domain Monster and have set up an account with them. So far I am impressed with their service and more importantly their UK based support team.
Best
Gary
Can’t you contact Nominet to get your domain moved to another host? Or just login to Nominet.org.uk and change hosts there for £10.
Also it looks like you are hosting Rottweilers.co.uk at Heart Internet? I would look at your Heart hosting set up first.
Hi Rob
I’m not hosting Rottweilers.co.uk with Heart. That may have been the previous owner, the reason for that is because I am unable to change the DNS Settings/ A-Record to my server since I bought it and this whole saga began.
In response to your comment about Nominet. I have spoken to Nominet who have been very helpful and yes I can get them to force change the tag to another provider. But how inclined to help me will 1&1 be after I have moved all of my domains from them… not very.
However that’s not really the point here. The point is that 1&1 have still not resolved the issue since I raised it with them 3 weeks ago…
Despite being billed almost £300 in renewals now since the start of the year (just been billed another £32 today) they offered me just £43.10 in compensation yesterday…
I have seen so much negative press about 1&1 ‘s service, I now want to show people just how poor their service is by seeing this one right through to the end with them.
It annoys me that large companies like 1&1 can just bury you in generic email responses, over enthusiastic turn around times, overseas call centres and come off unscathed… Leaving their customers with nothing but a huge phone bill, lots of renewals for domains they haven’t been able to use due to the issues and generally out of pocket and disgruntled.
@garyptaylor http://www.jemjabella.co.uk/blog/boycotting-1and1-outing-a-thief your not the only one! @jemjabella
COMMENT FROM TWITTER:
@garyptaylor I almost considered going back to @1and1_UK @1and1 until I saw your problems. What a nightmare! Get rid of them asap.
Thanks @iannuttall
COMMENT FROM TWITTER:
“(ex staff) UK headquarters in Slough. Support decision makers in DE. Doubt that account is monitored by ne1 who gives a shit.”
COMMENT FROM TWITTER:
@garyptaylor @1and1_uk its hardly acceptable – I have never been treated as poorly as a customer by any other company
Thanks @carlhendy
See Carl’s post about the issues he had with 1&1:
http://www.carlhendy.com/blog/1-and-1-review.html
COMMENT FROM TWITTER:
@garyptaylor You have seriously put me off ever considering @1and1_uk LOL You’re not the first to mention various issues…
Thanks @thegeekfairy
That’s pretty poor service. I’m have a similar issue with Streamline.net which are probably just as bad, although I can’t imagine how that’s possible. Streamline.net Customer service – a great example of an oxymoron!
I would definitely recommend 34sp.com their customer service is incredible.
1&1 are dreadful. They owe me about £35 from a few years back when I was part of their affiliate program, but because they refuse to answer my support queries I can’t get it out of them.
When I was a customer, they dropped domains, locked my control panel and didn’t cancel services when I asked them to. I quickly moved away.
I’ve also had to deal with them more than once WRT to copyright infringement and they ignore me. Ridiculous!
COMMENT FROM TWITTER:
@garyptaylor I’d say they were 2nd – webfusion ARE the worst, really. Have you tried Heart Internet – never had a problem with them
Thanks @tobydbb
Thanks Jem
I actually read your post about them just, really not good. It just goes to show why so many people are upset with their service
Hi George
Hope you are well pal
Thanks for the comment and the recommendation of 34sp.com this is what I want to get from these posts, who are the good, bad and the ugly of domain name registrars and web hosting. I know where 1&1 fit into it
Best
Gary
Here is a short review I have wrote about 1and1
Start
They are shit.
Finish
Can everyone please take the time to fire in some SEO links and get this post ranking under their domain name?
If you do need to contact them then this number can save you a few hours 01753490401
I just thought you were losing revenue on the domain Rottweilers.co.uk, and if so I would have forced a move on it ASAP.
Absolutely Rob, but the loss of revenue is now far out weighed by the bigger picture. The domain renewals, the lack of support, my time wasted so far, the fact that 1&1 are so slow at resolving the issue and the struggle I have gone through so far to get the matter resolved. Lest we forget no one should have to transfer their domains to a new provider just because their existing provider are not providing the right level of service. 1&1 should take responsibility for this and help me fix it, not force me to cut all ties with them.
“Can everyone please take the time to fire in some SEO links and get this post ranking under their domain name?”
Thanks for the support Mark. Yes it would be great if people could link to this post. Hopefully then 1&1 will take a little more notice. Perhaps even comment themselves?
COMMENT FROM TWITTER:
@garyptaylor I have to agree, received nothing but utter shoddy service from @1and1_uk, made my escape quickly! Hope it gets resolved!
Thanks @davgothic
Problems? Problems?
My main business site and all of it’s subdomains went AWOL for over 12 hours the other day.
I couldn’t access 1and1 email so contacted support via my work’s email. They refused to engage saying that I had to prove who I was by logging in to my account on 1and1.
….Which bit of 1&1 SERVERS OFFLINE and CAN’T ACCESS MY ACCOUNT didn’t they freakin’ understand !?!?!?!
My bill came through yesterday. It seemed high, and not just because of the VAT increase. On closer inspection I found they are still charging me for 4 x .co.uk domains I cancelled well over a year ago.
I also object to going to my webmail login page to be greeted by dozens of bloody adverts I have no interest in whatsoever. And they’re not even in English. Hello?
Pardon my French, but this is prime f***wittage and a waste of my hard-earned money. Finding a new, realiable, customer-friendly host will be a very high priority for me this year.
COMMENT FROM TWITTER:
@garyptaylor Just added my two cents (posted as Missy) *clenches fists & mutters something unrepeatable about #1and1 under breath*
Thanks @Diddybears
COMMENT FROM TWITTER:
@garyptaylor this makes me sick when I see examples like that. You are right they need to sort it out, how does that site offer any value!
Thanks for the comment @illiyaV
COMMENT FROM TWITTER:
@garyptaylor cheeky barstewards have just sent me a customer satisfaction survey. Did not mince my words, I can tell ya! @1and1 #fail
Thanks @DiddyBears
Cancelling a domain with 1and1 is like asking the sun not to be hot. It’s impossible. You go through the same tired process of going to their contracts sub-site, clicking the buttons and you always get the email but rarely if ever (maybe 3% of instances) receive the email with the confirmation.
But my rage is not directed to this. My UTTER RAGE points to the fact they are now no longer allowing new DNS management of external domain names – something I’ve used them for for over 5 years. No announcement, no notification – just gone. Even if they started charging I’d be less annoyed than just completely killing a core service without any warning. I now have no choice but to move my domains (also over 100) away from them. Raging!
“Cancelling a domain with 1 and 1 is like asking the sun not to be hot.”
Thanks Andrew, a great quote there. I appreciate you sharing your comments with us
Best
Gary
COMMENT FROM TWITTER:
@garyptaylor nice one Gary – keep us up to speed on @1and1_uk ‘s ineptness
are you going to @thinkvisibility in March?
Thanks @tobyDBB
Yes I will be attending Think Vis. I am speaking there about domain names http://www.thinkvisibility.com/speakers/gary-taylor/
Look forward to catching up with you again!
Best
Gary
COMMENT FROM TWITTER:
@garyptaylor loving the hate towards 1and1….
good work!
Thanks Carl appreciate it.
Please see Carl’s blog for his bad experience of 1&1
http://www.carlhendy.com/blog/1-and-1-review.html
You are not alone. Share your comments!
The following is only the tip of the iceberg so please excuse the rant but the comments above are so close to my own experiences that while I agree entirely with Mark I feel a little more detail is required. I have suffered the same lack of support and ineptness that everyone here and on other sites complains about so I have finally bitten the bullet and decided to transfer out nearly 250 domains from 1and1.
I have been billed for domains that were not due for renewal on more than one occasion. I have had my account locked because of my refusal to pay until they resolved my problems. I should have left them the first time this happened but the task of manually transferring so many domains out and the time involved put me off. They used to do bulk transfers but I expect they are now making things as hard as possible to try and keep their customers. I have have spent many unpaid hours emailing 1and1 billing, accounts etc. and have requested their general managers details without any success.
On one occasion they wouldn’t acknowledge nor investigate my complaints so I cc’d their CEO all of my mails. Surprise surprise, I finally got a response from the 1and1 uk office and eventually received 53 credit notes in one day by separate emails for domains that were on the same account. WOW! One would have been sufficient.
After looking at many registrars I finally settled on LCN as their bulk registration rates beat 1and1 hands down. I don’t host with them and their control panel is fairly simple but adequate. If you own a large domain portfolio check them out. I don’t work for them nor have any affiliation but after years of hassle from 1and1 and a complete head in the sand approach I’ve finally had enough and now I am even saving a good few hundred pounds a year in renewal fees.
1and1 may be the largest European registrar but they cant even keep their own servers working. Tried to login to my 1and1 control panel earlier today and got a 500 Internal Server Error for over 1/2 hour. Not very funny when you need access but I did laugh when I went to transfer out the first of many domains and the contract cancellation window says “Before you complete the cancellation process, please call our customer advocate team to find the best solution to your problem.” One of the Problems was Your package is too expensive so I called the FREEPHONE number 0800-917-6273, yeah really, no expensive 0871 number when they are losing your business! After asking about a discount for bulk renewals I was told “We don’t do that”. Adios 1and1, hola LCN who have been very helpful.
One tip, if you have a large portfolio, call LCN and explain to them so they can set your bulk discount before transferring in. Good luck Gary. I’ll check back to see how this progresses.
BTW I don’t use LCN as my web host, purely for domain registrations so I can’t comment good or bad on their hosting.
1and1 CEO’s personal email is andreas@gauger.de
Thank you for taking the time to contribute your experience of 1&1 Gerry, I appreciate it
It seems that this level of service from 1 and 1 is quite common. I would love to hear their comments about it at some point and why they feel that treating customers like this is acceptable as clearly they do not seem bothered what people think of them.
I will write an email to their CEO later tonight and see if that will encourage any response.
As per my update yesterday, I have yet to receive a response from their Social Media department either…it appears that 1&1 Internet simply don;t care about their customers…
Such a shame
Thanks again for your post
Gary
Damn f*cking right 1and1 are a disgrace.
I use JustHost, 1and1 and GoDaddy for my domains and hosting requirements. Out of all three, 1and1 look after many of my less important ‘water-test’ domain purchases which I will reg and then develop.
If it goes well I tend to transfer into one of my other accounts to look after properly. If the idea falls on its arse then I simply let the domain expire and move onto the next thing.
(Don’t ask me why I work like this but it is just something I have always done.)
Cancelling domains before with 1and1 had never been a problem, just head over to the contract.1and1.co.uk bit and cancel away.
NOW though I apparently have a few domains that are in the ‘process of cancelling’ which means I can no longer make changes to my account online. First time I saw this, I thought fine fair enough I will just call up and see what the problem is.
Aside from the fact that it took bloody ages to get through to anyone (how I love paying out for the 0871 number!) when I did get to speak to someone, they couldn’t have been less interested.
At first they didn’t believe me (would I really phone if I could do it through my control panel?!!)
And then rather than cancel it they said they would lift the restriction and I could go on and cancel myself.
A little frustrated but I thought OK power is back in my hands and I can go get it sorted myself.
Ha! Not a chance, the saga continues as I still can’t cancel domains.
I have yet to find the required strength to phone the useful t*ssers back.
Incredibly frustrating, all other domain providers seem to offer 1-click cancellation, why can’t 1and1 do the same?!!
Thanks for the comment James.
Another UN-satisfied 1&1 customer
Keep them coming folks!
Gary
COMMENT FROM TWITTER:
@kieronhughes @1and1_uk @garyptaylor They’ve been hated for 10 years mate. You’ll barely make a dent
Thanks @goosh
This just shows how people perceived 1&1′s attitude toward their customers…it’s clear 1&1 simply don’t care
COMMENT FROM TWITTER AND NEW ARTICLE / LINK:
New Blog Post – 1and1: The Most Hated Domain & Hosting Provider (http://goo.sh/eLQicA) (cc @Garyptaylor @1and1_uk)
More unhappy customers…when will 1&1 listen, when will they even respond to all these negative comments
http://www.goosh.co.uk/technology/1and1-the-most-hated-domain-hosting-provider
Thanks Kevin for your post on Goosh.co.uk
I’ve just registered my complaint with http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/
I suggest everyone on this thread does exactly the same. Takes a few minutes and if enough people complain Trading Standards will take a look.
These guys are shocking – unlike other domain hosts where if a domain expires, it simply goes back on the market. They have an automated billing system which sends out an invoice – there’s no come back on this, no opportunity to cancel. Its basically too late – no other hosting company does this? So now I have finance companies chasing me for the debt – and I’m not paying. Forget it so I’m in the domain transfer process moving all the domains away – I hope they go bankrupt.
I believe 1&1 simply don’t care and they have never listen the anything like “CUSTOMER SATISFACTION” into their dictionary. Feb 19, 2011 to Feb 24, 2011 suffered a huge e-mail problem for their service. I should consider myself lucky that it just happen when I’m thinking to enlarge IT service with the help of 1&1.
Just had a debt letter from them for a renewal that they did in December last year – but I didn’t receive the invoice or acknowledgement it was due(I archive all my mail) – they then had the cheek to say they couldn’t talk to me without the password (which I cannot remember as the last time I used the account verbally was 2006) The domain has been reduntant for over 2 years & I had no intention of renewing it BUT because the invoice is unpaid I can’t access the account or cancel it. This company is the worst I’ve ever come across for this – They really don’t give a s**t – they just bill you and want you to pay up NO QUESTIONS ASKED!!!!!!!!!!
I’M NOT PAYING
Hi Gary
Like similar posts here I am being chased for subscription fees + legal costs due to their automatic renewal policy. In 2009 I paid a £20 or so subscription to set up a website. Being a complete non-techie I bored with the process, had one constructed and presumed that as they were not “hosting” anything for me no relationship existed. A year later 1&1 sent me a renewal charge claiming that like my TV, and I quote, “you are billed for the service since you are able to watch TV, not for you actually watching it”. I replied that unlike 1&1, the providers of my TV licence, car insurance, internet security etc, etc all have the common courtesy to contact me to ask if I wish to continue to avail myself of their services.
It’s falling on deaf ears and I’ve just received the 7-day legal letter threatening court action. If anyone has any advice I’d be all ears!
I have just concluded a cancellation with 1 and 1. I disputed the account but settled when threatened with court action. I am asking for a proportionate refund. Cancellation was originally declined as the invoice had been raised.
I will forward the emails if they are of any interest to you.
I’ve just got ripped by them, so I thought I join the list.
I’ve been with them for over 5 years and used them to buy/store domains. Never hosted anything with them, no extra services, nothing.
A few weeks ago I’ve found two charges on my invoice for TWO Exchange Servers for a total of £59.94! The problem is, I never ordered them! I remember one of their stupid indian cold calling agents asking me about those a while back, and quite clearly rememberd telling them I was not interested it, and I mentioned the fact that I use another company for hosting/exchange etc…
So, I called their ‘billing’ department and spoke with of their indian reps, a pleasant chap who confirmed they’ve had some problem with sales agents signing people up for stuff they did not want/ordered. He told me cancellation was straightforward, just email ‘complaints@1and1.co.uk’ and they would sort it out. Well, two emails later I got the ‘supervisor and his supervisor” decision, backed up by the “this policy change and the guidelines for us to enforce it has come from our headquarters in Germany” (no less) rubbish that – in short – they won’t cancel the invoice! The only option now is to contact the office of fair trading and trading standards, but I don’t expect much and prolly this theft will go unpunished. BE VERY CAREFUL WITH 1 AND 1 and ALWAYS, ALWAYS CHECK Account Management / Next Due Date (under: Contract Data / More Features) to see what they plan to take from you!
A few years back i used 1and1 for a domain hosting. Big Mistake! All was fine until the 2 years was up and the domain was due for renewal, without any warning, the domain was auto-renewed. I immediately cancelled and figured that would be enough to not incur any charge. They couldn’t take payment as my card was no longer valid in the time since i originally bought the domain. But to my surprise, about 6 – 12 months afterwards, i recieved a letter from the debt-collecters forcing me to pay about £20 in total!! £5 for the domain, and £15 debt collecters fees!
Absolute ripoff! Will not touch anything 1and1 have to offer with a 1000ft bargepole now! Even if it was free!! I use Heart Internet for anything domain or hosting related now.
Jamie
Hi Gary,
I have over the last 6 or 8 weeks had numrous problems with 1 and 1 Internet. Each time I have contacted customer support their initial reaction is always to deny any responsibility for whatever the issue happens to be, and in most cases, not only not offer any help whatsoever in resolving the issue, but worse than that, not even understanding what the issue is!
The issues I have had are as follows;
1. POP3 connections, we operate a Windows Small Business Server 2003 Premium which has exchange server built in, we are using this function so therefore wanted to connect the 1 and 1 email accounts to our exchange users (we only have 12!)
We were struggling to make this work, so contacted 1 and 1 Customer Support, which as with all other calls, the initial reaction was to say it wasnt a 1 and 1 problem, then the representitive went on to say they didnt know what Exchange was! Clearly they offered no help whatsoever in resolving the issue, but we did manage to solve that one ourselves!
2. Ove a period of 24 hours we had no less than 5 hacks of our websites and code, somehow a piece of javascript which called a spurious function on a server somewhere in Eastern Eurpoe was being injected into any of our files which had the name of either index.html, index.htm, index.php, default.html, default.htm and default.php.
Once we realised we had a problem (Google search came up and said that our site was a potential danger to client computers!) we found the offending files and restored to a clean version from a backup. Within an hour of doing so, the infection was back. This happened a couple of times before I got fed up and conacted 1 and 1 Customer Support.
Now bearing in mind that files were being infected in folders on our shared space at 1 and 1 which actually werent even part of a website and had no web links to them. Of course once again, 1 and 1 were very quick to deny responsibility, but they did offer to send me an email with details on how to modify the php and html files to remove the infection, something we were already well versed in and had actually already done about 5 times at that point! So once again, totally useless support!
Mysteriously though, not long after the call, the infections suddenly stopped…….
3. We get a weekly report of the statistics on our 3 main websites, these show the weekly hit rate, pages views and referers etc. This worked fine for at least 3 years, then suddenly we get one week where only part of the Sunday was being reported and all the other days for that week were 0!
Once again, a call to 1 and 1 Customer Support ensued, I was told, as always by a very insistant representitive that it wasnt a 1 and 1 problem, and that it was my problem for not setting up the reports properly. I also pointed out that the online statistics were looking reasonable, so it was just the email reports that werent!
When I explained that the reports had been there for years and had always been fine up to this point, and I also pointed out that the problems with the reporting mysteriously started at the same time they did their Control Panel upgrade!
The end result of this is that their Control Panel upgrade process is flawed to the extent that any regularly emailed statistic reports simply vanish from the system. Having recreated them I now get 2, well 1 and a half sets to be precise, as one set, the new ones I recreated work ok, but then I still get emails from the original set that simply says there have been no visitors to the sites in that time period, therefore no report has been produced!
This is something that has never been fully resolved, despite at least 3 calls to 1 and 1 Customer Services…..
4. The latest one, this morning in fact, I went on to my ecommerce site to check a product, to be confronted with a screen telling me that the database server cannot be contacted because there are too many connections……
Obviously it is a 1 and 1 hosting server and a separate server used to store the MySQL database (this too is a bone of contention as there is no direct contact to the database server, this means my ecommerce and accounting systems integration process is a real nause!)
So, once again, I contacted 1 and 1 Customer Services, as ever, the inital reaction from the representitive was that there must be a problem with my php code……..
I then informed the chap that this code had been running quite happily for the last year or so and that this was the first time I had had this particular issue.
The chap then suggested I simply create a new database and used that instead, oh yeah, I said and how do you propose I migrate all the websites settings, 6,500 products, customers, orders and all the other gumph that comes with an ecommerce site to the new database?!
Within a few seconds, after having thought about it, the representitive then admitted that 1 and 1 were actually doing upgrades on their MySQL servers and I could expect them to be going up and down for at least 2 or 3 hours before the work is complete!
This, I draw the line at, they should be doing this sort of upgrade offline, why the hell should they expect their customers to be happy to find their websites going up and down constantly for several hours, so the question is, where and to whom do I send the invoice for lost revenue due to my ecommerce site being up and down…………..
I am most annoyed with 1 and 1 and wouldnt recommend anyone uses their services. Their service quality is poor and their Customer Support is as has already been said, abysmal……
Hi Peter
It sounds like you are having great difficulty with them and your level of frustration is similar to how I have felt since the problems I have had with 1 & 1 started in January. What I have found through dealing with them, in particular with their overseas technical department is that speaking to them over the telephone is a waste of time. I have found it a lot easier to communicate with them over email, and literally writing my requests in a list to them and asking them to answer each point individually. Most recently I have had better responses and faster turn around times when I have copied in their CEO Oliver Mauss (olive.mauss@1and1.com) he has never actually responded personally but it appears to make them work a bit quicker (a more diligently)
The key to any situation like this, where poor customer service and lack of ownership is at the forefront of the issue, is patience and persistence. I am currently waiting a final decision on whether 1 and 1 will pay out £380 in compensation to me. It has taken me 3 months to get to this point including 20-30 emails, hours of phone calls, numerous blog posts, twitter mentions and facebook comments not to mention two separate emails threatening legal action against them (sent to the 1&1 legal team) to get to this point.
Please feel free to read though my posts about 1&1 and see if there is anything in them that may help you move forward.
The two people I am dealing with named Joy and Dana in the transfers and complaints departments appear to be much more competent than any of the other people I have spoken to. However to be able to speak to them you will need to get a complaints reference number first through complaints@1and1.co.uk
Let me know how you get on
Best
Gary
Hi Gary,
I am glad that you have posted this here. I am also having issue with 1&1 and their lame service, but not on the scale you are.
Recently they have blocked one of my contract claiming that I did not pay them. They had all the payment details in their system but something went on their end. They have been denying it since!
I have already started transferring away from 1&1. I am on my last few domains now.
I cant comment much on what I am going to do with blocked domain but I’ll give you can update sometime soon.
Regards
Gary, I have also received a shockingly bad service from 1&1. I tried to cancel an account that was never actually used and after spending over £300 I finally managed to cancel with the aid of one of their customer advisors. i told them in no uncertain terms that i ever wanted to renew my contract nor wanted to deal with them again because of the bad service I had received however, this morning I’m greeting by a £57 bill from them. The contract had automatically renewed after me saying that I didn’t want it and now I’m hopping mad. I’m prepared to put up a huge fight. I feel for you as your issue impacts your business directly. I’ve sent their complaints team a letter and on the end I’ve posted links to the negative feedback about them all over the internet. I don’t expect to get far with them but in no uncertain terms are they getting any more money off me.
OMG!! So I am not the only one!!!! 1and1 are the biggest joke I have ever come across….except that its not that funny when your site goes down. I have never dealt with such a bunch of incompetent idiots in my life. I got so frustrated I actually transferred a domain to a new registrar. But they couldn’t even do that!!!! Eventually I realised I could do it through nominet. I am not quite sure what to do about them.I am considering going to their headquarters and cornering the directors for an explanation. They are a total disgrace
Well, well, well! I was reminded of my payment to pay for a domian hidesdetectiveagency.co.uk, and hostgaroo.co.uk. I wrote and told them clearly I did not want any further dealings with them. I did stop my card, after the letter to them, the Still sent me email, requesting payment, I went to log in, at one stage only to find that that shut me out, and was told that the creditors will be seeking me to claim the money back. They had the letter acknowledged it, and still REGISTERED THE DOMAIN NAME, AT THERE EXPENCE, AGAINST MY WILL.
I will not be recommending 1&1.co.uk. to any one. If you would like to post your disatisfaction onto my website; please feel free, with any links, I will be happy to release this on My Honest Review, (michaelchristian.ws)
Hope it all goes well for you that you get the company over a barrel!
Micah
Oh my god, where do i start?
I have had my entire companies email addressed locked out as 1&1 beleive we have not paid out bill, the reality was they never even tried to set up the necessary direct debit (as confirmed by their bank). The staff at the phillipino call center are a complete waste of time, all they say is ‘in the next hour’ and ‘i have escelated this case further’. All lies
I am beside myself knowing what to do, i honestly feel that if this isnt sorted by monday i will be driving to the UK office and kicking off in such fantastic style that it gets resolved. my business is slowly grinding to a halt with out our emails.
The E-Mail facility is totally useless,easy login that’s a joke,sometime takes four of five attampts before it operates. Cannot switch from ‘Inbox’ to any other without closing and restarting the process all over again.Yesterday the whole system crashed and was out of commission for hours.This morning unable to use ‘Reply’ for mail or to create any ‘New Mail’. Waste of time contacting the idiots at their service department,they don’t understand English let alone speak it. I suggest you do what we shall be doing,go somewhere else that provides a real service.
I honestly thought that the disgraceful customer service i received, must be a fluke,a one of a kind, a terrible set of circumstances that led to 1&1 being so appauling? I now see that this is not the case, and indeed it seems to be getting worse.
Calling them is a complete waste of time, e-mailing, just results in the standard response and raising a complaint simply gets you a case number. Then they hide behind there own systems inflexibility and pass your case onto a debt collection agency. SOUND FAMILIAR?
Thanks for the comment Lee
This is pretty similar to my whole experience…not a good company to deal with and as you can see from the rest of the comments on here, this is not uncommon either
Best
Gary
Oh no! Here we go again. My account has been locked again. This is now the forth time! This is the answer i got this time?
Dear Lee Brooks, (Cust: xxxxxxxx)
Thank you for your email.
Please note that our terms and conditions clause:5.15 state that any invoices not settled within 20 days of the due date will be passed across to the collection agency which incurs an administration fee of £15.00.
I can confirm that I am more than happy to waive the late payment charges of £15.00 on this account.
I hope this has helped.
If you have any further questions do not hesitate to contact us.
Kind regards
Evelyn Owobu
Billing Department
1&1 Internet Ltd.
What they fail to mention is the three complaints i have made without answer!
Lee
Hi Lee
Thanks for taking the time to comment on this post. You are not alone in your experience of 1&1. Not responding to complaints seems to be what 1& excel in more than anything else. It appears that they are all to quick to get their collections team onto the case without even bothering to provide even a basic level of service to find out what has actually gone on.
Simply disgusting…
Thanks for your contribution
Best
Gary
Still no joy from them. Still my website remains locked.
I have decided to start a Facebook group!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/11-wont-answer-my-complaints/226118024096186?v=wall
How do i change my web hosting company and rescue my website? It took me ages to put it together and now it in their clutches?
Hi Lee, I would recommend using DomainMonster.com they can help you transfer any domain names you have over to them. You will have full DNS control which means you will be able to reset where your web address is pointing too. You will have to download your websites files from your current hosting package and set up a new hosting package with another provider. Once you have done this, upload the website files and database to the new server and then point your domain name A-Records to that servers IP address, which you will be given when you set up the new hosting package.
Hope this helps.
Best
Gary
Hi Gary,
I was really encouraged to find at least one forum about 1&1′s business practices.
I am currently trying to avoid paying for a domain name which has been automatically charged before renewal.
As someone who seems to have been ultimately successful in arguing your case to 1&1, do you have any advice on how to proceed?
The amount is small (~£12, assuming they do not pass to debt collectors) but obviously I don’t want to give up without a fight…
Will.
Hi Will thanks for the message
Unfortunately if there was no effort made to cancel the domain name either via their customer service department or through 1&1s contract site then you may have your hands tied…
I know it about the principle of it all but their customer service is so poor you may end up getting fobbed off time and again. In my honest opinion I would let the £12 slide and just transfer any other domain names you have away from them so they lose business in that way instead.
I was arguing over £300+ which is why I put the effort I did into it and I had email and screen shot proof that I had made reasonable attempts to cancel the domain names before the cut off date. Look at the hassle I went through.
Seriously, the best way to deal with 1&1 is for people to move their business elsewhere
Best
Gary
Hi Gary,
I have been with 1 and 1 for over 10 years and have over 600 domains hosted with them. I have had cause to cancel around 200 of these over the last few months but accidentally cancelled one I wanted to keep.
It has taken me tow months to try to explain that I cannot reverse the cancellation of a single domain myself, only the whole cancellation order (which had 126 on).
As yet this has not happened and I have just spent an hour writing an email to their complaints department.
I think that there should be a law put in place to make it a legal necessity to provide a customer complaints and customer service number where we can talk to people from the UK.
A couple of years ago I spent over 20 minutes on the phone with one and one trying to set up an account for a friend. I was trying to explain “that in setting up the account I entered the post code but your system couldn’t find the address” the response every time was “our address is www. ….” I eventually got so frustrated I hung up.
I have not been dissatisfied with the continuity of service as there is very little downtime but when it comes to customer service I think I would be generous by giving them 2 out of 10.
Why do big companies put such little importance on customer service. Poor customer service can break a company whatever the size.
It is not just because they are off shore call centres, it is poor training and not employing the correct staff. Amazon.co.uk have offshore support but I have always found their customer service to be superb.
Good Luck
Colin
Well after reading all of this I’m shocked but also annoyed at myself for not doing any research. I’ve only just taken up their services and now wishing I hadn’t. Thinking I may have to cancel the direct debit with them as I was smart enough not to give them debit card details or paypal information. I had a problem registering the first domain I put in there as the message on my control panel came up with an error saying “domain registration error”.
Someone needs to report them to trading standards plain and simple and they will sort them out! No company should be allowed to get away with things like this. Oh and I too have had my emails ignored!
Hope you all get your issues resolved soon!
Hi Gary
You can add me to the list of very annoyed customers of 1&1 Internet. They have handed over a payment to be collected by a debt collection company even though (a) I did initially pay by cheque (which they lost) and (b) I have since sent a letter advising that I no longer wish to remain with them (especially as I viewed all the complaints against them on line) as they have not reply to letters, lost my cheque payment and actually this was a domain that was never hosted so should have failed on cancellation or failure of payment received at no cost or loss to 1&1.
I have advised their debt company – Arvato Ltd – that the £10.79 was paid but as they lost the cheque – its not my fault. I will not pay the extra charge now advised at £15 – they can whistle and I will take this matter forward with the correct bodies if required even though it will cost me. I have also advised them that my rate is £110 per hour for any time sent from this point forward on this matter.
Good luck to all you guys who remain customers of this company. Thi is th first time I have actioned a blog response to the poorest of companies and service.
Kind Regards
Christopher Dawson
WOW! Business Intenational Group
I have also been advised that previous customers have been verbally abused by 1&1 staff so I refuse to get into this and all exchanges are in writing.
Hi Gary. Looks like you are in the same boat as me – I have been chasing for over 2 monts as I cannot purchase domains, edit DNS and struggle to login to the control panel at the best of times. Dana offered 1 month refund – even though I have had no service for 2 months.
Sure they are in breach of their SLA’s.
Would be interested in making a group complaint to Ofcom (if thats the correct body governing in the UK) about them and their lack of activity.
I have 200+ domains with them and a dedicated server, lots of bespoke componets registered so its going to be a massive and expensive job to move away from them, that not mentioning the huge disruption it will cause customers too…
I have requested you as a friend on FB – lets start a page/group in there.
Might even commit some tim to get a doamin listing on 1st page of google for ’1and1′ and use it as a platform to SHOUT about how horrid and irreposible this company and its directors are….
I have 3 dedicated servers with 1&1 internet and whilst I’m sure the people who have been complaining about the customer service (and I too have had the odd clown on the phone to them), I have had no problems with the dedicated server service I have from them. As with anything, there is always going to be the bad restaurant rule (have a good meal tell few folk, get a bad one and you tell EVERYBODY) but as a way of some redress, I can unequivocably say that the hardware we have rented from them has been fine and the cloud servers we are using (even though they come with Plesk) are solid and robust.
I hope your other contributors get their issues resolved soon, but it does smack of a company growing too fast too soon and not recruiting the right people for the job for customer care (ask Santander for advice on offshore support….they’re bringing it all back onshore because of public outcry!)
Just my own tuppence worth
Huge amount of problems here as well, another very unhappy customer.
Hopefully a lot more people see this site before signing-up.
I recently changed my basic package to an advanced package at 1and1, a simple move – you would think.
I had to move all my domains individually (which was not mentioned when I upgraded) and after doing so our main website stopped working. It is now offline since 3 days. Not only does this cost money every day, but we probably also loose a few customers.
Calling the technical support (in the Philippines) is pointless as they either cant do anything (sorry, I forgot they are monitoring the situation) or they have to wait until the US starts its business day. I spoke to lots of people, but nobody is really looking at the problem, they rather ask you to be patient. the technical support is more a counselling service and the word technical is not justified at all.
I tried to contact several people, but so far – after 3 days without a website – I have not had any response.
complaints@1and1.co.uk
olive.mauss@1and1.com (CEO?)
socialmedia@1and1.co.uk
press@1and1.co.uk
billing@1and1.co.uk
I tried all the listed phone numbers, but always end-up at ‘technical’ support.
Huge amount of problems here as well, another very unhappy customer.
Hopefully a lot more people see this site before signing-up.
I recently changed my basic package to an advanced package at 1and1, a simple move – you would think.
I had to move all my domains individually (which was not mentioned when I upgraded) and after doing so our main website stopped working. It is now offline since 3 days. Not only does this cost money every day, but we probably also loose a few customers.
Calling the technical support (in the Philippines) is pointless as they either cant do anything (sorry, I forgot that they are monitoring the situation) or they have to wait until the US starts its business day. I spoke to lots of people, but nobody is really looking at the problem, they rather ask you to be patient. the technical support is more a counselling service and the word technical is not justified at all. The most senior person you can speak to is a supervisor and they will not connect you to anyone else. (but he/she is monitoring the situation as well.)
I tried to contact several people, but so far – after 3 days without a website – I have not had any response.
complaints@1and1.co.uk
olive.mauss@1and1.com (CEO)
socialmedia@1and1.co.uk
press@1and1.co.uk
billing@1and1.co.uk
andreas.gauger@1and1.co.uk (founder?, but retired recently)
Richard.Stevenson@1and1.co.uk (Head of Corporate Communications)
Thomas.Pluennecke@1and1.co.uk (PR Executive)
Ralph.Dommermuth@1and1.com (CMO)
Markus.Huhn@1and1.com (CFO)
Henning.Kettler@oneandone.com (CTO)
I tried all the listed phone numbers, but always end-up at ‘technical’ support.
This number will connect you to their office in the US – 0800 917 6273 – but guess where I ended up, in the ‘I can not help any further’ technical support as well.
I could get on for hours, as I am still on hold (paying 6p per minute for the privilege), but I am loosing the will to live. (I also contacted BBC Watchdog, ZDnet and if I find any other place to complain, I will). Hopefully our site will be online at one point.
Stay away from 1and1 – stay happy.
Hi Mark
Thank you for your comments, I have to admit I never had any service/ technical issues with 1&1 until it all went wrong in January. The issue with 1&1 is that once you do get a problem, like so many people have had, their customer service is dismal. It is the complete lack of understanding in their offshore “technical team” and lack off acknowledgement from their UK management that so many people find truly frustrating
Best
Gary
They didn’t meet my needs hence I didn’t use the service even though I had paid for year (2009/10) I didn’t realise that subscription was automatic and I had to cancel it until a received a demand from a debt collection agency. I paid the debt but now they are demanding payment again. I would have thought them using a debt collection agency would have automatically cancelled by subscription. Any way I cancelled last year after I paid again and they said they had no recollection of this. I’m left wonder if this is a way in which they can extort money from people.
My experience with their customer service was appalling last year when I tried talking to them.
I am not sure what I should do at this point.
Dee
After so much hassle with these guys I decided to have all of my accounts removed from the auto renew feature that all registrars offer…
Imagine my not-so-surprised face when the feature to turn off this off was not available on my account!
I wrote to them asking for them to turn it on and in responce I was asked to ‘Please update your credit/debit card details on file with us as they have expired’
WHAT?? I asked you to do something not to pay for anything! lol
I am currently awaiting their response and will keep you posted.
Dave
My domain was with UK2 and I transferred it to 1and1 on the 2nd August 2011 it is now the 14th September 2011 and it is still not working. when you do a dns check the nameservers are still UK2 ones. All I want is my e-mail and domain to work and maybe an explanation of why they don’t.
I’ve never had such trouble transferring a domain. Everytime I call 1and1 they just say be patient!!! When I ask how patient and when will this be resolved they just say another 24 hours.
I have never been treated so badly and am now looking to pull my accounts from them.
A little update. today I e-mailed them and cc’d everyone on Andre@ ominage’s list of e-mails and mentioned trading standards and the confusion for me over why my domain doesn’t work. This afternoon I discovered it suddenly now does work. I won’t have anybody mention coincidences!!
no e-mail from 1 and 1 though…. Just thought I’d update the situation.
Since 1&1 supossedly ‘upgraded’ their system the service is awful! Logging into my emails is a nightmare. They continually don’t recognise my password and when i speak with the ‘help’ they just deny there is a problem and say i must of keyed it in incorrectly??
EVERYDAY i get a stupid box telling me that there has been an error and asking me to send a report…why? they take no notice of it? If i can get on it keeps telling me i’m timed out after maybe a minute or two and if i ask for compensation, i’m just ignored. They drive me NUTS!!!!!!
Last year I was advised by premier host to use 1 & 1 (June 2010) when they stopped theirhosting service. Since then, despite several attempts to contact get help to get it up and running, this has failed to happen. The help centre is sourced in the Phillipines and the lines are so quiet it it hard to hear what is being said. only time when I did get someone. she was appologetic but completely useless. I have received no service for over a year, and I have received now, a bill for this coming year. Fortunately, my bank details have changed so it hasn’t been paid. So I received a threatening letter advisiing that if payment is not made, it would be passed to their legal department. Finally, you cannot speak to anyone in their complaints department because thet dont take calls, only emails. My next step is to support you with a legal claim to get last years money back. Not a lot, but its the principal! UTTERLY USELESS SERVICE
Best of luck in recovering your costa and loss of income etc.
Look, are these the same people whose adverts have suddenly started up on mainstream TV? Build your own website etc etc at 1&1… well out of curiosity I tried just now to have a look at their packages [as I have a website with FreeWebs] and the server just doesn’t respond!
I’ll add my 2 bits.
A year ago I received notice our account was being closed.
Turns out a customer of ours who didn’t want to pay for our work had phoned them, said he was director and actioned account closure attempting to retrieve his domain name for free, and was given just about every detail of the account possible.
More recently I’ve been asking them for a year to stop billing my wife’s foreign credit card which was used for a one off payment and resume billing my company account, every time I update the cpanel it reverts to her details.
Turns out this has been masking the “sale” of TWO exchange servers we never asked for, don’t want and don’t use. They refuse to cancel and when I told them I’d go to court and move elsewhere they replied they’d be delighted to help us move.
I am writing to the CEO today and in 14 days I expect to be petitioning the court. My £2.50 a month is now roughly £70 although the charges they make vary and actually working out the numbers in a preemptive discovery excersize was a nightmare of nonsensical data.
DO NOT BE TEMPTED BY LOW PRICES.
Maybe not the worst company I’ve dealt with (I have car insurance) but definitely a key ingredient in a pot of disreputable soup.
I can’t tell you how angry I’m with them. They are the world’s worst domain provider. I would be happy to spend my own money to take them offline. They are a disgrace to the internet ecosystem! Such companies should go out of business!!!
Thankyou and Hi mark,
One of my website name renewals was up, saw the email from 1&1 and thought ok it’s on direct debit no problem.
Next thing I knew I received a letter from a debt collecting agency for (I forget the exact amount but near enough)£5.98 plus their fees.
I paid the debt collector after calling them.
I was so angry thinking why didn’t 1&1 phone me!!! I called them they told me my debit card had failed. This was because I was sent a new card!They insisted they emailed me/contacted me on their website, i don’t look there for emails!!! Their customer service is diabolical!
Moving forward I have a number of domain names only with them how can I move them bearing in mind they all expire at differant times..I really want to do this. thankyou.Janey
I completely agree with the comments on this blog, I have 100′s of domains, on co.uk and com. net and others.
I now use 4url.biz as they not only give service, they give the best prices and hosting.
I have used them for 3 years without problems.
1&1 have dug a hole for themselves that they will never dig themselves out of, they only want your money, and services? a dirty word for 1&1
cavet let the buyer beware
phoenixeagle
These cowboys should be removed all together. I had a package with them, and they took the payment early, and then changed it to a different OS. Now with webhostgiant who seem fantastic and have a free domain whois privacy protection through their CP.
Zachary
They are the absolute pits!
I have been trying to cancel everything I have with them for 3 years but its impossible.
I have emails confirming cancellation but the next year there’s a charge.
I eventually changed credit cards to prevent them taking money.
How, when there are so many great hosting companies around does ths shower of **** survive
what a shambles they are. Found I was being billed for a defunct domain. will not refund anything but last 6 months. however credit note is all I have seen not the money.
followed their instructions to move other domain to webhosting uk and they cancelled contract and didnt transfer domain to new company. so now no website no emails nothing zippo. Gonna have to wait until I can talk to nominet monday.
Barry
Wish I’d read this and some of the other sites setup to complain about 1&1 before I registered a new domain with them.
I had a problem 2 years ago with a domain I held and no longer required. I cancelled it online clearing stating that I wanted it to end at the end of the period I had paid for.
I got an automated confirmation e-mail.
However, to my surprise several weeks later I received and invoice/receipt for a further £10 they had taken from my account. How, I fail to see was possible when they card details they had on file had already expired and I chose not to update them, thinking it would stop them from billing me just in case.. i was wrong!!
After several e-mails, they eventually agreed to refund the money after threatening to get my credit card company involved.
I since considered that perhaps it was my mistake, and I’d had no cause to contact technical support for the 2 years i held the domain.
Therfore, I recently decided to give them another chance. I’m not using their hosting, just the registration service, but now I’m having second thoughts after reading all this and other sites!
I see I’m not the only one! In July 2011 a sales guy from 1&1 phoned me telling me all about Mail Xchange. I said thanks but I won’t been needing that. Guess what? They tried to bill me for it in October. I am still not sure if it is cancelled! Then, they phoned me again last month telling me all about MyWebsite Plus and how I could have the facility for 30 days for free to see if I liked it. Well, I went through their cancellation procedure within the 30 days and, since I wasn’t convinced I had done it correctly, I emailed billing, complaints, support —- just in case. A variety of responses came back, each saying different things – not enough info on your email, go to this page and that… and THEN ..I just received an email with a PDF invoice for 3 months of this unwanted package!! They are awful! I think they fully know what they’re doing -ripping people off very very badly. What am I going to do? I can cancel my direct debit but then I’m afraid they’ll start with the debt collection agency stuff which I really don’t want. It seems so hard to move my website when I don’t really know what I’m doing. I’ve just got two domains and a small simple website with just a few pages. Any ideas?
Hi Graham
Thanks for your comments, yes 1&1 are now advertising on TV
As you can see from all the comments here, there are a lot of unhappy customers
Best
Gary
After the trouble I have had with this company I think they should lose their licence to trade.
So much hassle to get a refund and no option to disable the auto renew feature. I bet this has stung many people in the past.
On the flip side, they have recently sent me a refund for something…but cannot tell me what…I have cancelled all of my packages with them (eventually) and I am now with Bluehost & GoDaddy for hosting and domain registratin respectively.
1 and 1 are the worst company I have ever come across. I have been trying to close my account for months and there are constant problems. It has ended up costing me a fortune and they still refuse to close my account. I consider 1 and 1 to be thieves of the highest order and I sincerely hope that what I have written here will save at least one poor soul from dealing with this dreadful company. I have since had dealings with other hosting companies who have been great, really helpful. It doesn’t have to be like this! I truly hate 1 and 1 from the very pit of my soul, I have never felt rage and hatred the way I feel it for 1 and 1.
Good thread this.
I am suffering simmilar issues. One and one are great as long as you don’t deviate from what their computer system will do automatically.
If you do, be warned that their customer service is truely awful. I have spent over a week on the phone to their phillipeans call center to get a simple domain change done.
As other posters have mentioned the staff at the phillipeans tech support center are beyond useless.
You will have to try and explain your problem again every single time you call up and 9/10 times they won’t understand it.
Be prepared for endless “we are monitoring your domain”, “your patience is appreciated” statements while they send the request back to the U.K. where is dissappears into some unknown mailbox.
They appear to have no way of directly contacting anywhere outside of the phillepeans.
If you are a business user avoid at all costs at the moment.
Is anyone being persued for money from 1&1′s debt collectors, for accounts which have been cancelled. Has anyone, escaped unscathed from this situation. Is there a standard method?
please help,
Roland
Hi guys. I am sorry to have add my bad experience with these bastards. I can not be polite because i have nervous break down with the problem. They took my £43 for the domains and now because i complain for the service they cancelled everythinf and all my work in the website is lost and probably i’ll lost my 5 domains because they are not willing to transfer.
Now i’ll open my case in paypal. At least i haven’t lost more money yet but i’ll make sure paypal don’t pay more money to this company.
I hope this blog make people aware about them. I think this company should be band in internet.
Have used 1&1 in the past and been happy. But recently had two customers who have tried to transfer their domain registrations to 1&1 and complete disaster. Support totally useless, providing instructions that just do NOT work. They are a complete shambles. Will not be encouraging any more customers to go to 1&1 and will move as many as possible away just as soon as we can find a reliable company. Any suggestions.
Hi there
I am amused that when I type ’1 and 1 contact number’ into Google a) nothing comes up for them where I can actually call a HUMAN BEING to complain, and b) this blog was 4th item on the Google list. Well done.
I am HUGELY appalled by 1and1 and was on the phone (again) to them today for 15 minutes practically begging to be put through to someone in their customer complaints department. Apparently, there was no manager to help me out either. The list of problems I have had with them is truly endless and they are an embarrassment to say the least. I am the CEO and Founder of my own company and all the problems were escalated to me but apparently phoning them myself had no impact, despite me reeling off the list of issues we’ve had here.
Their website builder ‘tool’ is laughable and so is their ‘service;…I just wish I new about WordPress before I bought our URL’s with 1and1. Never ever again.
Let me know if you manage to get through to anyone decent in 1and1 that can help you.
Betty
I have to agree 1&1 are the worst company I have ever dealt with.
I agree about 1&1 I made an error when setting up my website and tried sorting out why I was billed 35.83 x 2 every 6 months wrote just got an abrupt reply back basically saying my fault. They would mot listen and thus now costing my twice as much fro my website as was originally all thay I wanted was to promote our community Centre and as a Charity we could ill afford the extra cost. There Customer service is awful and no sympathy once the 2 years is up I will create a new website wiht another service provider.
I’ve been trying for weeks to cancel my VPS with 1and1. I managed to transfer all but 2 of my domains out using their cancellation portal. When trying to transfer the remaining two, I kept getting an error message to say that they were external domains, which they weren’t. This also prevented me from cancelling my VPS.
I then spent over 3 weeks emailing and calling their ‘support’ to no avail, so logged into Nominet and forced the transfer of the two domains to a new registrar (at £12 per domain!).
Now i’m still unable to cancel my VPS, which i’ve raised numerous times, and have subsequently entered a new billing period which they’ve invoiced for.
1and1 seem to go out of their way to stop you from cancelling a service, and i’ll be taking action accordingly if they continue to bill me.
To be continued….
I tried to cancel my website by phone and email but they wouldn’t close it. They would only close it if I sent them a letter. I sent the letter and then 3 months later I got a letter from 1&1 demanding the 3 months after I sent them the letter. I told them as oper my ohone call, email and letter that the account was closed. they denies receiving the letter and sent me to debt collection so I had to pay. Sent cancellation letter by recorded delivery…my fault should have done that the first time. Horrible company and people.
Numerous web applications and e-commercs sites hosted under a .net hosting package.
!and1 decide to update their servers from 2003 to 2008, surprise, on updating everything .net stoops working! I’m now 72 hours in, customers complaining every hour or so (as expected) due to lost revenue from e-commerce sites, client perception being ruined etc etc.
Issue was raised with 1and1 immediately, simply looks like a case of re-creating the application folders on the IIS to me. Still no resolve from them.
Utter cowboys. Will be looking to take action against them to recover losses incurred.
Andy
I just want to add my voice to all the complaints about 1&1. People should be warned about their FREE TRIALS and told not to sign up and give them their credit card. I signed up for a trial, cancelled it before it expired because I didn’t like the service and they still got my money. They have not replied to any of my complaints nor returned my money, of course.
Sadly, some journalist from the Daily Telegraph wrote a highly complimentary article about them in the last 3 months. I saw it and now I can’t find it. On the comments box online there were some angry responses from people.
I am still trying to get the article. If you find it, please email it to me. That journalist needs to know that he didn’t do his research and that by talking favourably about this non-company with agents in the Philippines and the USA, he is likely to increase the number of victims of their tactics.
Thanks
1&1 are without a doubt the worst company in the world for customer service. I hope that by writing this they are closer to going out of business. We have a dedicated server with them and without warning they have closed down our servers we have thousands of users and corporate accounts on our web service. We are looking to move companies and as soon as we have another company lined up we will move.
What can i do about 1and1??? they have got their collections agency to harass me for £61 they say i owe them. I tried to cancel my services with 1and1 (only because i no longer wanted to run my site) via their website but it would not let me, i tried numerous times and i could not cancel. i even emailed all their depts telling them i want to cancel, i also could not cancel by phone! i ended up removing the paypal payments and now the are saying i owe them. there customer service is appalling. i dont think they actually read the emails i send them. i told them their website wouldn’t work and they told me… to cancel using their website!! how helpful. they did not even try helping me one bit. not i have to pay £61 to collections agency!
IF YOU ARE READING THIS BECAUSE YOU ARE THINKING OF USING 1AND1 1&1 PLEASE FORGET THAT IDEA, ERASE ALL THOUGHTS OF USING THEIR SERVICES FROM YOUR MIND THEY ARE THE WORST COMPANY ON THE PLANET! DO NOT USE!
Awful company!!!
I realised how crap this company was about 1 year ago. After crap service and numerous calls to foreign call centres I cancelled my hosting package and moved the domains I was using to another provider (Bluehost). I recently got a bill from 1and1 for a Beginner hosting package (which I cancelled aboout 1 year ago) and for 2 domains that I did not move. To be honest I wasn’t too bothered about the domains when I moved services, I assumed they would expire if I did nothing – apparently they renew on a 2 year cycle. Luckily I have changed banks recently so 1and1 have been unable to automatically charge me for the services we are arguing over. I am offering to pay for the 2 domains, they want me to pay for these and for the hosting service I cancelled around 1 year ago. They are thretening to pass my debt on to a debt collection agency – exciting times!
Thanks Richard
It appears from many of the comments and feedback that I have had on this post that 1&1′s default approach if you have a dispute is to threaten that they will pass you onto their debt collection agency.
The foreign call centres are very poor at customer service in my experience of 1&1. There have been many time I have been on the phone to them for quite some time and failed to have issues resolved as you can see from the updates on my post.
I moved most of my domains to Domain Monster after the problems I had and have not had any issues with Domain Monster at all. Their call centre is based in the UK too which is great!
Best
Gary
I certainly agree. 1 and 1 has VERY poor customer service. Wish I had never bought domains from them.
Spent about 2 days in total trying to sort things out with them – they finally agreed to let me pay half of everything they claimed I owed – which I did yesterday by bank transfer. It had got to a point where I couldn’t be bothered argueing anymore and didn’t want the hassle of debt recovery people. The staff on the phone are absolutely useless – I had to spell out my password (phonetically 6 times to one person, another one gave me an email address to contact as “1 and 1 Internet ltd”.
Just when I though everything was sorted I got a letter through the door this morning (dated 02/01) regarding another domain I have with them (obviously one I registered a few days later than the others). Have now wasted another 2 hours cancelling and paying for this one. You would have thought of the 50+ people I had spoken to in an attempt to cancel absolutely everything I had with them and pay off what I owed, someone would have the foresight to mention this other domain on their system.
Anyway….
Hopefully I have spoken to 1 and 1 for the last time and I can move on with a decent provider.
Good luck people, and STEER CLEAR OF 1 AND 1 INTERNET!!!!
Cheers
Richard
I saw 1 & 1 advert advertising a beginner package for £6 a month registered 26 Dec 2010 tried to set up a website but was too complicated for me. Beginning of January 2011 got a pre notifaction of a direct debit payment of £54 – I immediately cancelled the direct debit and 1 & 1 account and phoned them and was told that as I hadn’t cancelled within 7 days this amount was payable and they would place it in the hands of debt collectors – so I reluctantly paid. I like to think that I am pretty careful with internet sites but with 1 & 1 I feel completely conned from their misleading advertisment. I have just had another bill in for £35 which I have no intention of paying. Do not touch this company with a barge pole. I never even got as far a setting up a website – was with them for just over a week and it cost me £54!!!
We have been experiencing enormous problems with 1and1 aka Schlund AG and we advise all our customers to avoid them like the plague.
Some of the problems experienced: A number of our domains some of which are trademarked have been cancelled without our knowledge, their sister company http://www.domcollect.com based in Switzerland where the reach of the EU law can not touch, have had the domains paid in advance and registered to us transferred to themselves. DomCollect.com have then informed us they have paid for the domain names when in fact 1and1 are transferring the domain names to domcollect.com.
We have for the last 4 months been unable to upload any new webpages or websites despite the advice of the support staff we have followed their instructions but are still unable to update any webpages.
Now 1and1 just ignore our support requests or ever time we talk to someone on the phone becuase its a different individual each time we have to keep starting from the beginning every time resulting in getting no where.
We have also tried to move domain names away but 1and1 refuse to release them despite the email confirmations from their automated system. We have now engaged solicitors to deal with the matter as its costing the company money as the internet is our primary sales channel. We have complaints filed with Nominet the UK domain name register and ICANN as well.
All I can say is stay away from 1and1.co.uk!
Finally after years of aggro and run ins with Arvarto Finance I managed to make my escape from 1&1 Internet with the aid of ‘Nominet’ who were able to cancel my two Domains that I had with them. It was like pulling the rug out from undeath them…excellent!..It cost £12.00 but it was money so well spent.
Gary, I hope that you don’t mind but I would like people to see something that was posted on the ‘Moneysaving expert site from the middle of last year. It is rather upsetting but it will give people a good idea of how this company operates and the lengths they go to make money and complicate peoples lives…..Quite shocking really, unfortunately I don’t know how the situation resolves……..
My mum died in April and unbeknown to us she had a domain name registered with 1&1. A few weeks ago I went to check on her house and in the post was a letter saying her direct debit hadn’t gone through. I phoned them up and explained I didn’t know she had an account or I would have contacted them, told them she had died in April (the bill was from May) and asked if they could close the account. They asked if I could email a copy of her death cert to the billing dept. Ok no problem there.
Today I got an email saying that the death cert wasn’t enough and I would have to follow a whole list of logging on to her account and pushing this and that or the account would remain open. I wrote back saying I can’t do this because I don’t know any of her log on details.
They wrote again saying that I would then have to email again with a certified copy of mums death certificate, a copy of her ID and a copy of my ID before they would cancel. I was pretty livid by now. I wrote back and told them that the certificate I had already emailed them was a certified copy and that I had cancelled her council tax, gas, electric, water, car insurance, driving license, passport and mobile and not one of these had asked for further ID and most hadn’t even asked to see the death cert.
They have now written again saying fine I don’t need to see the death cert again but they want ID. Do they have a right to see these other things? I certainly don’t know why they should need to see my ID – I don’t even have an account with them. I have no ID of my mums and can’t bear going into her house as it has me in floods of tears. Why would they need stuff that even the goverment offices don’t ask for? I wish I had never rung them up in the first place and just let them try to get a court order against a deceased person instead. What should I do? I really don’t think it’s right that they ask for more ID – what will happen if I just ignore them?
I am just reposting on this thread because I didn’t contact 1&1 again and now I have just gone to check on mums house (it’s empty so I pop in every few weeks to check it over) and found a debt collection agency letter. I can’t believe 1&1 have instructed a debt agency after they have seen mums death certificate! I don’t even think there is a debt because she paid monthly and the charge was for the month after she died and as it is £17.96 and they know she is dead it seems pretty sick to send baliffs in. I have emailed the debt agancy saying she was dead and 1&1 had seen the certificate, and I attatched a copy to the baliff agency too – is this going to be the end of it?
I agree with you totally. The support is just useless and they give you the run around for days for the smallest issues. They are just the WORST. I am moving to other hosting company after years with 1and1. I guess they got just too big and disorganized.
Hi Guys,
Another one for the pile…
Tried to cancel my account with them in march 2010, but got no response. Several emails later, was contacted and was instructed to use their portal to cancel. The portal would only alow me to cancel in a few weeks ahead… so I thought all was done.
Shortly afterwards, I had £46 taken from my debit card, sending my bank account into the red incurring bank charges.
Several emails to 1&1 complaining, led to only one reply- you are now into the next billing cycle and must pay.
They (1&1)have cancelled my account, and my next task was to seek help from my bank.
A call to Lloyds TSB customer complaints led the bank reclaiming the money back via Visa as I was told that 1&1 should not have taken funds AFTER I requested them not to, and the funds returned to my account & all bank charges cancelled (Very helpful people at Lloyds tsb).
This week (Feb 2011) have rceived several emails and letters saying they will suspend my account, which will be interesting as they have already cancelled it, and demanding the £46 or will add £15 for debt collection agency.
I guess the war starts all over again…
Will email them shortly to remind them of previous goings on, and will now start writing to them and charge them £12 per letter (admin fee), judging by their lack of customer svc, I should be quids in, in a few months!
Absolutley disgusted at 1&1 service, someone should warn everyone about this host. I cancelled my account after refusing to pay a bill that was outstanding for a service i did not require. 12 months later i get another invoice for the account i cancelled. After speaking to them i was told i never cancelled the account despite them loggin my call and i should have checked for a cancellation e-mail they never sent, therefore i have been billed again for something personaly cancelled. im the main account holder. The whole experience is terrible, the website was always down, the customer service people do not help at all. the billing department hang up over and over agian after being on hold for 10 mins at a time. . . THANK GOD THIS NIGHTMARE IS OVER. . . or is it till i get my next bill in 12 months. BEWARE DO NOT SIGN UP!!!!
Well it is very disturbing that I am not the only person who is having problems with 1and1 since the da I built my website with there design and build software nothing has worked correctly.
I initially built an affiliate shopping mall with affiliate banners ect only one of the banners functioned correctly and I have requested cancellation of their service as I wanted to transfer my domains to another provider .
I also went for the busIness package which is £29.99p per month and addition SEO £29.99P per quarter .
There customer service is useless and outside of the UK I have spent a fortune on phone calls ect endeavouring to sort this matter out and in the end I cancelled my paypal payments and told them I would not pay any further payments until this was sorted out.
Subsequently I have letters from legal collection department I will be writting back to let them know I will see them in court .
I have 25 further domains which they will not transfer due to outstanding amount
regards
Frank
I wish I had found this site prior to purchasing 1&1 internet service last summer. They continue to screw up billing payments and then charge 12 euro on each of their failures. Then they sent their screw ups to a collection agency with huge fines on top of their 12 euro fine for payments not going through. Before you know it they will be billing you for 85 euros for collection fees. If you pay them you’ll only get charged more fees! This is a no win situation. After talking for over an hour on the phone they had no idea where the extra fees where coming from. They even hung up once by ‘accident’. They are incompetent! If anyone knows a way to deal with corrupt businesses like this in Germany please let other know.
Have any of you gone through Trading Standards? Swiss hidey-hole or not, they are still trading here and can be stopped.
If you ALL complain to Trading Standards summat will get done, especially if you co-ordinate! I takes time & effort, but the result will be worth it.
All the best with your battles, all of you.
I too am having absolute nitemare with 1and1 Customer service is total joke, I am painter and decorator after seeing an ad on u.k tv i rang to enquire about a web site telling 1and1 i am really not computer friendly so need something idiot proof, They suggested the E Shop at a cost of 29.99 per month Great so i bought it then decided to upload pictures which i just could not do after 4 telephone calls to technical support and being told ” we do not know how to upload pictures to the e.shop ” This was 21st sept in Jan i cancelled repeat billing they then got in touch to enquire just why i had cancelled billing, I explained i could not upload pictures of previous works… The chat said ” I am not surprised i have worked at 1and1 for 3 years and still do not know how to upload pictures to that package” It was then agreed they would cancel the eshop as i was mis sold it, After 3 weeks i started to receive e.mails and letters to my home requesting £79.09 for the time i had the E.Shop package and the money to cancel!! I have had numerous telephone conversations with no real satisfaction I feel they are complete shower of idiots who are only interested in money.. I wish i had taken some time out to check online about 1and1 as now its really seeming like i am not alone…. I would advise anybody seeing the television advert to look further as certainly all that glitters is not gold…………… Customer service is a long and drawn out experience where you will feel like you have done 15 rounds with Iron Mike Tyson at his best……………….
I don’t normally add comments to forums but have been relieved (in some ways ) to read some of these posts,especially the one from dave b (Dec 16th,2011, whose experience is the same as mine. When I first took over my website and hosting package in 2008, things were OK with 1 and 1. The problems started when I added another domain and then later tried to cancel some of the packages / contracts.I sent emails left, right and centre to 1 and 1, finally giving in and phoning the call centre number, against my better judgement. No help there – rude, abrupt, unhelpful people (who were very difficult to understand and so I had to keep asking them to explain clearly to me what they mean)who just “stick to the script” and make no attempt to resolve the problem. They’re now threatening me with the debt collection agency (surprise,surprise!), saying that I owe them 6 months rental. They also say they will put a “temporary freeze” in 7 days on my packages. Just wondering how they’ll manage to do that as I finally cancelled the whole package/ contract in my exasperation over a month ago and have had no further access to my account since then.
Seeing the massive advertising campaign currnetly running on TV in the UK just rubs salt into the wounds – I certainly wouldn’t recommend 1 and 1 to anyone.
I can oly back up all the comments, I have used 1 and 1 for over 10 years and since a change of server as part of their own upgrades virtually none of the services worked for 3 months!
You can imagine how happy the 100 site owners I support were.
Too many emails, calls later I got a months free package, I was getting close to desperation and life is to short to try an explain to them how bad the service they are providing is!
The last one this week was to invoice for domains without sending pre invoice reminders which is there normal proceedure which enables me to ensure in this harsh environment the customer still wants the site.
One did not as this was .co site it is £30 plus, so I requested a refund and cancellation immediatley. I sopke to the account department who advised I should contact customer services which I did, they advised me to contact accounts!!
I emailed back not really expecting a reply that their service was getting to a stage were I will have no choice but close my account and they will loose a good customer, still things are looking up, I got a reply, offering help to close my account!!!
With staff like that who needs competition!!
1and1 are the devil!!! the problem is they are just too big. it is physically impossible to manage a company that size and maintain customer service without having an army of qualified technichians available for customer support.
you can Never speak to the same person twice
you can never get anything fixed quickly
you can never understand clearly what thrye saying due to accents
our website went down, and they said it would ne 24-48 hours before it was even looked at!!!!! when you have a company with its website as the beating heart, losing said site is a nightmare. we lost thousands of pounds of revenue, and they just didnt care. howver big of a customer you are, you mean nothing to them, becuase they are just, that, big. for every company that leaves them, ten join,
what can you do??????????????
Still no movement on getting my Domain name retagged as i need to get in touch with previous provider ( 1and1.co.uk) to ask them to retag my Domain name to SHLUND For my new provider ( 1and1.co.uk) Little difficult as previous provider in mistake has sent Domain into redemption which it will lay dormant for up to 60 days………… I have spoken to chat saying his name is Joe he is director of customer complaints and will personally deal with this , I last spoke to him monday at 17 15 he guarenteed me he would call me back Monday evening or Tuesday during day time due to time difference between USA and UK He still has not made contact, I have just spoken to somebody else who says Whilst they are sorry Joes dealing with number of different complaints now and still trying to sort out what they can do with my Domain name.. i have now had to purchase another domain name to get site up and running although still not good as all advertising etc is in Domain Name thats on holiday care of 1and1….. i would advise anybody thinking of joining this company to stear well clear as really really not what it advertises on UK Television……………….
Call their bluff – they’re counting on people giving in when sent a debt collector’s letter. The debt collectors cannot seize your goods without a court judgment nor impose “fines” unless you have agreed. (Look in their T&Cs.)I would be amazed if 1&1 issue proceedings. To do so would tie up enormous amounts of their time and defended cases would be transferred to customers’ local county court. A hearing would be given and it sounds as though they would not even bother to turn up so their case is likely to be dismissed especially if you show these posts to the Court. If the claim is for less than £5,000 it will be a small claim for which you don’t need a lawyer and normally no order for lawyers’ fees. CAB will help with advice. Write to the TV companies and ASA about misleading adverts. Not libellous if factually accurate.
Don’t even start me on these tossers!! save ALL your documentation from them, get everything in writing, then go for the throat!!
I am pulling my hair out with 1and1.co.uk support and my business is losing money fast!
I’m trying to of move my .co.uk domain away from them to another provider and in order for this to happen, they have to change the domain tag. I have so far been waiting 7 days for them to do this and the really bad news is that they straight away dropped my website and all email addresses from their servers. At the moment I have no website or email because of this!
My domain name and website are the lifeblood of my business.
1and1.co.uk said that they have escalated the problem and keep promising a response, but guess what, no response from their escalation team have no ETA on when this will be sorted out.
I am left feeling very angry with 1and1.co.uk, sick and very upset.
If you are thinking of using 1and1 for your website solution, I would have a real hard think about this.
I just want to say thank you to everyone who has posted their experiences with 1&1! I’m building my first website and looking to secure a domain name, and 1&1 was suggested by my tutor. Thank god I didn’t go with them!!
I hope everything gets resolved for you all, what a horrible company…
I transferred my domain to this company and they did not get it online. Five weeks later after emails calls and hassle they tried to sue me for the package even though it was still not online. I have finally got my domain back after one year!!!!
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY
My company has had a website with a domain name registered with 1&1 for about a year. About a week ago the site vanished off Google although it is still indexed. It used to be consistantly on the first page. The same has happened on all other search engines. I tried to contact 1&1 for some help but could not understand the customer service reps.
My company is losing orders and I am receiving no help. I want out of 1&1′s control ASAP
I have just started to build my website with 1&1 but like previous people have said, it is not as easy as they say it is. I am only on my 3rd day of free trial and have come across the reviews and complaints. I have not moved my website domain or tag to them yet and will not be doing that now. I will write my cancellation of the free trial and send it recorded delivery as suggested by a previous victim! I will cancel my direct debit instruction and also send an email to them to confirm I am cancelling. I would like to thank all of you for your advise and hope that this will be an end of 1&1 for me. This is only a small positive for you that I and hopefully many others will take your advise and not join or continue with 1&1.
Hi Martin, however much I’d like to say this is 1&1′s fault, it won’t be. Your ranking on Google is not determined by where you host your domains, perhaps the recent Google algorithm update has affected your rankings. Have you reviewed the inbound links to your company’s site? Do you have a company who do your SEO (search engine optimisation) for you, perhaps ask them? I know the customer service reps at 1&1 are not great and many are not based in the UK however in this instance, they won’t be to blame for any drops in rankings.
I hope you get it sorted
Best Regards
Gary
Hi Sarah
This is exactly why I started my series of hosting company review posts so that people can make an informed decision about using different hosting providers. I am quite happy to recommend DomainMonster.com, I have a large number of domains with them and have not had any issues to date.
Kind Regards
Gary
I’ve been a customer of 1&1 for many years (12+) and generally not had any issues. But I’ve just discovered I’ve been charged a total of £575.68 for two MyWebsite Plus packages that I never wanted or asked for. I now know that I was tricked by one of their telesales staff who called me to ask me to “look at their new website tool” last July. I refused as I don’t use them for website authoring, but they kept resisting over a few calls and they agent reset my password to enable it. At no point did he tell me I must cancel within 30 days or that I was entering into a contract.
Now 10 months later, I’ve only just realised that I’ve been billed for this service and the payments have gone automatically via PayPal. It was my mistake for not checking the invoices, but I get so many from 1&1 (as I have a lot of domains), I was leaving them unread.
I phoned 1&1 today and have now discovered that I’m in a 1 year minimum term for these two services. I’ve never used them, never asked for them or never wanted them!
I am of course complaining (via email only). I can see this is the start of a long battle – firstly to cancel the contract immediately and secondly to refund the £578.
I’ve also got PayPal to cancel all auto payment agreements with 1&1 too today.
1&1…Man oh man. where do I start?
Been a long time customer too, on some business package only because I started with them yonks ago and have progressively upgraded. Left things the way they were after I moved to a dedicated server only redirecting the DNS on live domains.
Not so long ago I had an email from them saying that some script (that I must have forgotten about) had some malicious code in and I have to remove it from the server otherwise they’ll close the server down, I couldn’t id the code they referred to and their help desk didn’t enlighten me any.
The next week they had closed down my server, I subsequently asked them if I could just downgrade to a hosting a account and there response was that I would have to open a separate account and manually port all the domains over from my existing package.
I can’t be arsed to do that plus it would mean disruption to existing sites too…but it still annoys me that I am paying them money on a package that I don’t need. I feel your pain
Unbelievable I have moved to a managed service, and I have been told I cannot cancel my old server without cancelling my domains. And there will be a fee for every domain I move to a new account
FFS this is b.sh***
Avoid 1and1
1 and 1 what a joke i would advise no one to use them i set up a free 30 day trial with them and cancelled within the 30 days as it was rubbish they then bill me £40.96 3 weeks later saying i had not cancelled the trial period they have now passed the account to a company called arvato another company with bad customer service unwilling to listen YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED STEAR CLEAR OF 1 AND 1 INTERNET AT ALL COST
This company is a disgrace plain and simple and we need to advise all the registration bodies about their malpractice
My experience in short, I have a growing online business and I discovered the cloud server the sold me was not partitioned correctly
Did they offer to help? Hell no, so I decided to move to a managed host, but my problems only begun when I started to cancel my old package with them
They informed me that I would have to cancel the 98 domains that I had purchased, if I was moving host, I said the services were not connected so why. They told me the only work round was to enter a new contract and pay for every domain again!
I have stopped my card and moved all my .co.uk domains to 123-reg, frankly outrages, as there own website claims that interaccount transfers are free
I have lost hours talking to their pathetic billing departments, buying domains with these jokers is potentially the worst thing you could ever do, and you will only find out once you have a problem
avoid, avoid, avoid
Yeah, 1&1 are fucking scumbags, I had the same experience as above, tried to cancel, ended up being hounded by some collection agency for a full years subscription.
I concur with everyone here. My experience has been horrible with them. Customer service is very very rude, but also extremely stupid to the point it makes you feel like you are on a candid camera show.
Agree. 1and1 is the worst company I dealt with. I transferred my site to Hostgator in the US and since then I have no problems and getting the best customer service ever.
I can’t understand why a terrible company like 1and1 remains in business.
I have never experienced such appalling service and con tricks. I signed up to two domains which were presented as though they were pay monthly, within a few days I got an invoice for the years amount and contacted them to cancel both accounts as I felt they were not implicit abouyt their fees. I ve been fobbed off by different depertments and was promised my money back and now have been told I wont get a penny back even though I cancelled within 7 days. Does anyone have any advice or contacts to try- even though this wasnt a vast amou nt of money I object to their poor service and scamming ways of obtaining funds. I would like to take it further but am unsure of the best route – is there an ombudsman that regulates that sector?
Thanks
Kirsten
Totally agree with how rubbish 1&1 are – and I only used them for domain names! They have sent the debt collectors around for 7.18, which is only owed because the subscription automatically renewed and for some reason the domain names I had were on seperate accounts. I went to ‘cancel all’ and it only cancelled one. I’ve told them they owe me for me time in dealing with their customer services, and told the debt collector to bring their claim!
No one should fear a debt collecting agency (DCA). Mostly the DCA will be owned and operated by the alleged creditor. Though it may be a different address its likely it will come from the next desk to the one they’ve already been in contact with.
Nor should anyone fear a bailiff visit. That will NOT happen unless there is an unsettled County Court judgement. The DRA cannot initiate a Court case – that will have to be back to, in this case, 1&1. They are extremely unlikely to do this for the, relatively, trifling anounts involved.
Should they in fact initiate a Court case then the Defendant must file a Defence – easy to do if you have evidence of their default or lack of proper response – and I warrant they will drop it there and then. When a Claim for these small amounts is made, costs are limited to expenses etc even if you lose. When the Defendant is an individual or a small business the Defendant can have the case heard in their local County Court – thats enough to put a Company off if they have to send someone to the other end of the country!
Don’t be bullied!
The company are a scam, it has just taken me a year and a good deal of money to finally escape from their contract. I have had to pay for a year’s unwanted non-service.
In particular, don’t believe anything they tell you on the telephone (such as “you contract has been cancelled”) and they are probably not telling the truth.
Shocking. Absolutely shocking. They took so long over a domain transfer that it went into the next month, then they billed ME for the next 3 months!!! Refused to close my acct till I paid up and as I have a chronic illness and no money, and jsut one of many many phone calls to them cost me £5+, I couldnt afford to fight them and had to pay them. Then they billed me for 2 accts I`d closed years before!
I tell you, beware, this company dont give a toss about their customers, and good luck with their `cheap`websites thing if you need help. Trust me, it wont end cheap.
1and1 are complete and utter garbage. Technical, Accounts, Customer Services. In addition to complaints@1and1.com try emailing jan.hulswit@1and1.com, brandon.kuhns@1and1.com, kara.loomis@1and1.com, aaron.nye@1and1.com, beth.hollock@1and1.com.You get some names behind a faceless organization tends to help with your problems. Happened to get those email addresses via an incompetent support team member when I was constantly trying to resolve my domain transfer issue by phone and email. Although with 1and1 its ike getting blood from a stone. Please please please if you can spread the word about the contact emails mentioned. I’m looking to seek legal action and I’m going for the juggler.
1&1 recently did some server upgrades and took our site offline. This is the response we got from 1&1:-
“Our administrators have informed us that the current dedicated server you have, UK Dedicated Managed Server Value 1 (2008/08), was actually never intended to have support for PHP. Apparently there was a stable bug in the image design that allowed for PHP to be run, but however now that the debian upgrade has been performed the ‘Value’ servers are no longer able to support PHP. Additionally we no longer offer that tier of server anymore.”
Er, over 70% of the Internet and most forum sites use PHP and how did they manage to eventually get our site back up and running on a server that just so happened to have the same settings as the old one, but now magically supported PHP?
Epic Fail in the Apache Server department. We are changing hosts very shortly….
They are impossible to deal with. An absolute disgrace of a company. Dont touch them with a bargepole unless you like being threatened with court action when they try and take money from you that you dont owe.
1and1 are a complete scam. They have twice assured me on the phone that payment has been processed and I have then received an email threatening me with a debt collector – trebling my payment. I emailed to say a cheque will be in the post recorded delivery tomorrow. Their response is that they do not accept cheques, only online payments (which they don’t process so they can slap on a debt collecting charge). All this has happened since I tried to cancel my account. I can’t believe their actions are legal.
Blimey mate, it all looks good on their front page doesn’t it? I’m a web designer-hoster and I was thinking of switching to their business hosting package – not now mate, thanks for your posting!
Awful and dangerous service provided by 1&1. Someone was using our email address to run a scam asking for money. The police was called by some of our clients complaining that we were asking for money? We are loosing busuness and it is everything due to 1&1 website. Their customer service is a shame. After 10 calls in the same day for endless customer advisors and after passing through all departments, the issue is not solved. The last one has passed us on a department already closed. Unbelievable!!!Only thing we asked for was to screen our website regarding safety issues and remove our data from google. I have no words to describe this behaviour. Can someone let me know how to stop these kind of companies?
Paula Costa
I’ve moved my domains to http://www.siteopia.com – the guys who run this used to own Namesco. Their service is spectacular. Highly recommended.
Best
Gary
Hi Leigh
Apologies for the delayed response. Hopefully this reaches you before you before you make payment. Email the 1&1 complaints team and tell them you are setting up a direct debit so that they can take the normal payment but state in the email that you are disputing the charges. After they take the direct debit with the charges on top, which they will, go to your bank and ask them to do a direct debit indemnity claim. (Make sure you take your email with you saying you are disputing the charges.) Your bank will put the entire amount back in your bank account the same day and 1&1 will not be able to dispute it – see http://www.bacs.co.uk/Bacs/Businesses/DirectDebit/Services/Pages/PaperlessDD.aspx where is states “originators cannot counter claim following receipt of an indemnity claim for the reason ‘payer disputes having given authority’.
Here’s what they did to me which gave me no other option but to take this action – http://www.3ac.co.uk/1-and-1-direct-debit-indemnity
Best
Gary
I had enormous problems with these charlatans when I decided to not continue with their service. Fortunately my wife dealt with the issues, but after several letters, phone calls and no end of emails (mostly from 1&1 or their finance arm) threatening all manner of things.
In the end my wife contacted Trading Standards with copies of documents which she had sent and without a response. This done the trick but it beggers belief that such an amoral practices can still happen today with all these trading laws and standards.
1&1 are the worst company I have ever dealt with. I took on one of their Hosting “services” on an offer only to discover that I did not have full use of the WordPress. I was advised to change to a higher level account and get SSL. I did so and made it quite clear that I was doing so only if the terms remained the same and they would honor the offer. I was told that the terms would remain the same and the offer would be honoured. They did not.
I phoned to complain and the woman just kept repeating over and over and over the same old nonsense. I got very angry. I asked to speak to someone higher. She pretended to and left me hanging. I hung up and rang back to be told the same and this time advised to go to complaints. They wanted to charge me for the whole of the first hosting even though I had only been with them 2 days and the whole of the second one.
They did eventually say that I would not have to pay one but insisted I pay the other. £27 for two days and a lot of stress. I am still in dispute with them and advise against using them EVER! They are totally evil, unreasonable and uncompromising and to not keep their word.
I am now taking further action against them. I will not pay for such a bad service.
1 and 1 charged me for a service I did not ask for and did not want! Not only that, as I am unemployed my bank then charged me £70 for bank charges! Today I tried to cancel my contract via the website, but you have to telephone a number to speak to someone! I was passed on to someone in the USA! NO warning of this drastic phone charge anywhere on the site! I would not recommend 1 and 1 to anybody!
I am sorry that I found this review so late! My case is already with debt collectors. But I still do not want to pay because of the service 1&1 did not provide at all!During the registration I mistyped my e-mail, so I could not log in next time. So I did not receive confirmation about setting up account. Also they changed the name of my web site which I created at first day while I did not log out. I tried to contact them asking what is the problem they did not answer. So I decided that I did not have account with them and after 2 month I found on my bank statement DD set up and money were taken. After month correspondence they advised me to change my details and sent instruction how to log in.
In August they wanted second payment but I already cancelled DD. So now they sold my debt to debt collectors and I do not know what to do. in SAB I was advised to pay but what for? By paying I will encourage to prospect such crocked company!
avoid , dodgy , con , fraud , scam , read the web reviews im just one of thousands with fake bill and charges you cant cancel its unbelievable they can legally do this
Ditto to all of the above!
My saga is too long to bore you with but please AVOID 1 & 1 AT ALL COSTS! They are a complete nightmare….
I have to add my voice to the pile here. I am currently on hold to 1&1 waiting to be put through to somebody who can actually even understand the nature of my problem… who knows if they can solve it. Every time I have called tech/customer support it has been a truly soul-sapping experience. If I knew of an easy way of transferring all of my websites and domains to a different company with no down time, I would do it right now. Absolutely awful service, I really hope some progress is made towards holding them to account for their serious, continuous failings. What a terrible company.
I transferred two domains from 1 and 1 to GoDaddy ten days after the domains had expired. But I received a bill from 1 and 1, whose rep claimed that the domains were automatically renewed when I was billed. Trusting fool that I am, I gave the 1 and 1 rep my credit card number, only to learn that the domains had not in fact been renewed by 1 and 1.
Instead of saying to me, “since your received nothing, you owe us nothing,” every 1 and 1 billing rep I spoke with, the last being a supervisor, said essentially, “too bad for you.”
I canceled the credit card I used to pay 1 and 1 and am hunkering down for them to send the invoice to a collection agency.
Piss-poor excuse for a business model. Avoid 1 and 1 like the plague.
Yep they scammed me to. The idea is to trick and threaten you (debt collectors, credit rating damage) into continuing to pay even when you are not receiving the service. There’s nothing much you can do except pay to get rid of them and make sure you read reviews before choosing a company the next time.
PLEASE EVERYONE COMPLAIN TO TRADING STANDARDS AND WRITE REVIEWS ONLINE so they can’t continue to get away with it.
I have enormous issues with 1&1, never use this service. I cancelled an account and was emailed to confirm. Now I have a debt collection agency chasing me. Like you trying to contact and get a response is impossible. Please never buy a service from these a holes.
We have been receiving letters for payment for someone who set up a website registered to our home address while our house was empty for 18 months for renovations! 6 months later and the saga is still ongoing…they will not listen to us saying that this person does not live here and to stoo sending letters. Their response is that we are not the primary contact for the account and that they will email said contact. The letters continue to come and the cost is increasing. Shocking customer service…nobody listens or communicates. Have just sent email to complaints dept giving them 14days to resolve matter before we take our own legal action.
I am absolutely fuming!!!! I had a problem with my laptop so wasn’t getting emails for a while. Just decided to sieve through and delete the many junk emails that i have and have discovered they have taken £71.96 out of my bank without authority for web hosting which I do not need or have never authorised for it. Have spent all morning trying to get through to someone about this – TOTAL WASTE OF TIME. Only to be told to send an email to complaints department. Completely and utterly unacceptable. The biggest laugh is the 1st junk email came through at 12.31pm on 4th October to see if I needed a business website and the next email came through on the same day at 3pm to say me website was online?????? Have only seen these emails for the first time today. I don’t even have a business. Upon looking at the 1st email the small print at the bottom says Offer valid until 31/10/12. 30 day free trial then £9.99 p/m thereafter, then the bill comes through on 5th November charging me £19.99 per month. HOW CAN THEY GET AWAY WITH JUST SENDING AN EMAIL OUT THEN AUTOMATICALLY ASSUMING THAT SOMEONE WANTS THIS SERVICE. Surely they would need personal information in the first place for a website. They are just a bunch of rip off merchants and they have picked the wrong one to mess about with.
I cancelled my account with this shower of gangsters three years ago and found them accessing my Paypal account without consent to take money. My company ceased trading three years ago and used different email service providers which I no longer have access to.
On phoning 1&1 there representative will not discuss a cancelled contract or cancel an account without email addresses and passwords that no longer exist. Arvato are now involved but do not listen either. Seriously shocking attitude by both. Why is nothing being done to stop these creatures?
Yes 1&1 are a bunch of criminals The whole operations is designed to get you to hand over your money and then keep draining you without you being able to escape by threatening to damage your credit rating. That is their little trick. Sound dramatic? Just Google it.
Hi,
DON’T GIVE DIRECT DEBIT TO 1&1. Don’t use them at all. They just keep on booking money from your card for something that you didn’t request for and asks you to cancel the service.
I have written so many emails and have callend them. THE CALL CENTER IS THE WORST BIT.
It’s a shame 1&1 ! Dishonesty and illegal business practices !
Steer clear is all I can say. Our business very nearly went under because of these muppets. Their customer service (if it can even be called that) is the worst I have ever experienced in over ten years of being in this industry.
Now happily back in the UK with a hosting company whose support responds in 10 minutes and not the next day. They also know what they are dealing with unlike 1&1′s basic customer support who sound like they are reading from a script.
You have been warned.
Well I did not even apply for a 1 & 1 site , heres what has happened to me , I recieved my Bank statement and on looking at it I found that there was a transaction that this website 1 & 1 has took monniesout of my Bank account ( WITHOUT MY PERMISSION !!!!!!!!!!!!) Fruad or what , where the hell did they get my card details from as I have never applied for a site !!
I then found a telephone number for them , and when I rang the number a forienger answered , when I asked where I was ringing , yer bloody ( Deli ) I finally spoke to a member of staff , and she put me throught to there FRAUD department , I was amazed when I was told that they cant find me on there system of having an account ,nor can they find that they have taken monnies from my Bank account !! .
So I said to them , why is there an amount of £37.65 taken by you ie 1 & 1 that is showing on my Bank statement , they could no answere this question , so as to date I am out of pocket of that amount , hey WATCH OUT 1 & 1 this matter has been past over to Spalding Police and the FRAUD DEPARTMENT of my Bankers , you have STOLE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! monnies without my permission , AND WHERE DID YOU GET ALL MY CARD DETAILS FROM ? people watchout regarding this Company !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just wrote back and told them that I was happy to pay what I owed when they showed me a signed contract.
I pointed out that if they pursued me through the courts a judge would throw out their case as ‘frivolous’ since there was no disagreement over whether the money was owed.
I didn’t hear anything further from them.
In 2007, 1&1 had charged me automatic renewal fees to my credit card without my authorization and against my will. I then disputed their charges and got a refund for it. I also then went into my account and make sure that auto renewal is turn off after this incident.
In 2010, once again I was billed for renewal without my authorization and against my will. When they could not bill my expired credit card, they forwarded my account to the agency collection. When I talked to their billing department, they told me that there was nothing they could do about it, and transferred me to cancel my account. I then canceled my account with them, but they said that they could not do anything about the collection agency and to contact the agency directly to resolve it. When I contacted the collection agency, the agency directed me back to 1&1 Internet to resolve the issue, unless I wanted to pay the agency the collecting amount.
I never wanted auto renewal for my domain names in 2007. Neither did I want it in 2010. I personally set it in my account to not renew after the 2007 incident. There are a lot of customers complaints about such unethical business practice and unconscionable terms on the contract agreement regarding automatic renewal for domain name (they cannot take someone’s silence as one’s acceptance to their offer/contract to renew the domain names and charge the person for it). You can find many similar complaints about this company online. (http://www.yelp.com/biz/1-and-1-internet-chesterbrook).
Due to the impracticability of such a small amount in dispute, no attorney would take my case. I was so outraged by such conduct that I decided to file a complaint regarding 1&1 Internet’s business practice with the California’s Attorney General at the time. Unfortunately, the Office of Attorney General of California has not taken any action about this rogue business practice of 1&1 Internet.
Ditto to all the above. My father is the account holder and he died in September. Ive spoke to them and sent them death certificates etc but they just keep sending letters to my deceased fathers address where my mother still lives.
They are now threatening debt collectors even though it’s nothing to do with my mother or myself. Trading Standards is one option but on a personal level I’d like someone to bring the whole of the 1&1 system down and the CEO rot in hell.
I hope I dont sound too angry!!
I thought there wasn’t anything else I could do. September 2012, 1&1 was cancelled via phone by my husband because we went over to iPage. I haven’t received any noticed until the other day informing me that our account went over to collections. So our original $10 fee, went to collections which racked on another $15 or so, and then when my husband tried to resolve it, collections accepts payment via phone for the SMALL ADDITIONAL FEE of $14. What a bunch of BS!!! Their service sucks, we called multiple times, and was only able to get in touch with them last September WHEN WE CANCELLED the service, and now we were just forced to pay the bill to refrain from being reported to the credit bureaus. I hope someone is able to make a class action lawsuit, and please contact me so I can get the money they scammed me out of. Thanks and aloha!
I have been using their service for the last year and have not encountered any problems until a few days ago. They phoned me in November talking about an 30 day free trial on a new service the brought out. To get them off the phone I agreed to the 30 day free trial only if there was no charge at the end of the month. That was the last I heard from the sales guy.
Three months later they went into my account and helped themselves to £71. When I called them to find out why they took this payment, they said it was three months payment for a service a I didn’t even use. When I emailed them demanding a refund they said that I was not going to get a refund and that I was tied in for a 12 month contract!!!!
The idea of them having my account details scares me that they are able to just go into my account and help themselves when ever they like. This to me is borderline theft and I cant believe they have been getting away with this!
Possibly an ex employee or someone went on to my 1and1 them changed the password ect to my account.
So having made contact with 1and1 support ?? ( I use this term very loosely indeed ) I was informed to send them my proof of ownership. I carefully selected , copied and then posted 1st class Recorded delivery my documentation comprising of :-
Proof of purchase of the company.
” ” Bill Payment via Paypal
Passport
Driving Licence
Covering letter explaining the history of the purchase of the company and a copy of emails between the former owner and myself discusing the transfer of a couple of domains that belonged to a seperate company he runs.
For the following week I was emailing 1and1 Support asking them to confirm receipt of my documents, the answers I received was , ” we cant see your documents please resend them ” ,
“You Have Them, They Have Been Signed For ?
“We dont have them , Please email them to us”
13 Documents to scan and attach…..Your Having aA Laugh ! ……..( I thought )
These are very important sensitive documents posted to the UK address for your contact
Please find them and contact me asap.
So you can see how this is going , every email to a Support ?? goes to a different foriegn
operative who doesn`t really care what they reply because they wont be dealing with you again.
My 1and1 account has been switched off , It wont be long before Google remove my listings.
My Admin Pages have gone I cant process orders or service exsisting customers.
They want me to email them yet my POP 1and 1 account they have shut down.
So I email from a seperate account and they wont discuss the matter because its not the original email that they recognise and that all the other contact was made BEFORE THEY SHUT IT DOWN !! ….JESUS !
The chances are 1and 1 are going to be responsible for the closure of my business .
ABSOLUTELY APPALLING SITUATION
1&1 charged me for services after I had closed and cancelled. On TWO different accounts. On one, I had cancelled a year in advance – and they still tried to take my money at renewal time. It’s as though they do this as a company policy to see if they can fleece some of the less attentive or lazy people.
Hi
I to have had the unfortunate pleasure of 1&1 internet and even though I tried cancelling my account they would not action it till I complained. At one point I was getting emails and letters threatening me with putting debit collectors on to me. I went on to update my card details but before I pressed save I deleted the details opting to try cancelling my account again, but they still cloned my card details and went on to charge me even though I canceled my account.
So my advice is stay well clear of 1&1 internet
1and1 sucks. I registered and had hosting purchased and paid on monthly basis. 1 month later I canceled the account and they are still charging …
WTF is this? When you cancel account, they should suspend your hosting and never ask for payment, now they say I owe them £50.
1AND1 INTERNET SUCKS.
I run a charity account and 1 & 1 set up a direct debit from it even though we have never had dealings with them. Unbelievably the bank (Natwest) released the money. Apparently Natwest do not check authorization on direct debits before releasing funds, so check your statements. Stealing from charity, dispicable.
Hi
well i was just about to buy a domain name with 1&1 and came across this site.lots of strong feeling against them. feel like i just swerved that one ! thanks everyone,
can anyone recommend a good company for me to use as I also want to set up a personalised email account with the domain name.
Thank you!
Andy
Hi Andy
I would recommend Siteopia.com. I use them personally and they have a great customer service and good value for money
Best
Gary
Hello everyone, I am not sure if my complaint is quite the same – however, any help or advise would be gratefully received.
I bought 4 domain names in 2010 – and have done NOTHING with them -
1and1 charged me for them in 2011 and I queried it with them and said I no longer wanted the domains.
In 2012 the emailed me and said payment was due again – I stated that I had gone on line and cancelled.
I didn’t get a confirmation from them that this occurred and as I am not really a technical person I assumed it had been done – as I had followed the instructions – their system didn’t log it.
They are now pursuing me through a collections agency for all the domain names – they send you from one dept to the other and I wondered if anyone else has had this experience and can offer some guidance.
I have spoken with the collections agency who say ‘ask 1and1′ and then 1and 1 say ‘speak to the collections agency’
Yesterday I asked them to provide me with the original agreement – as I really didn’t know that I have to keep these domain names!
can anyone help? thanks in advance
I can’t even begin to express my anger and frustration about 1&1! Back in October 12 I cancelled my account via the desktop to which I then followed up with a phone call to confirm that I was closing the account. THEN in February 13 I get a bill claiming I owed £46.76 to the account and it needed to be paid via credit card etc. of course this made no sense to me as 1 I closed the account and 2 with the account being closed my direct debit was cancelled too. So how is it possible I owe them money?!
I wrote to the complaints department to be told that they ‘tried’ to get in touch with me and that the last resort was to forward the outstanding balance to their debt agency. I always received my bills via my email account up until august ( which was my final bill). There is no record in my emails for this invoice in february?! Instead they posted it to me? All of my details were obviously taken off this account when I closed it?!!! Then on March 12th I rang to speak to someone to find out why my account was not closed- the response was that they would send my complaint further up. I then get a response email saying that from their records they had received information that I closed the account in March?! Eh no I called to complain that the account was not closed in November when I last called?!!!! This was also on their log that i had closed the account via the 1&1 domain and I had called back in Nov.
I have now emailed them back and wait for another addled response. I refuse to call as I want everything in writing as verbal conversations seem to get “lost” or “transferred”.