In desperation after receiving what can only be described as the most abysmal customer service experience I have ever encountered, I have yet again had to email 1&1 to try an resolve the issue I have had since the 17th January with their company. This time though it has a different spin. I have copied in 1&1′s CEO Andreas Gauger and included their UK legal and social media departments. Here is a copy of the email I have sent to them and I think you will be able to see my frustration. But I will not stop pursuing this matter until it is satisfactorily resolved. AND 1&1 YOU SHOULD TAKE SERIOUS CONSIDERATION TO THAT. Here is the email.
Their latest email to me after all that has gone on
On 17/02/2011 20:48, “complaints@1and1.com”
Dear Gary Taylor, (Customer ID: xxxxxxxx)
Thank you for contacting us.
Again, we apologize for any inconvenience caused here.
As well, we have refunded the three (3) most recent invoice.
This is all that we can do in this matter.
Thank you.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
–
Sincerely,
Joseph Quinn
Customer Service
My to 1&1, sent today
Dear Joseph
I am not prepared to accept that response from 1&1, I demand a full refund
of all of my invoices since the 1st January 2011 and I do not feel I am
being unreasonable by asking this considering the following:
Since the 17th of January I have attempted to contact your company and
resolve my issue, which still is not resolved by the following methods:
- 17 emails – 2 to your legal department threatening legal action within
7 days – to which I have had no response
- 10 telephone calls
- 3 messages to your Facebook Team
- 20+ Twitter messages to your @1and1_uk account
Out of all of these attempts I have only received 4 responses from your
complaints, two saying you were looking into the matter and two (which
includes your email below) to say you would only refund the last three
invoices. 1 of these responses was also actioned incorrect which confused
the matter even more.
I have paid in excess of £250 in renewals to your company for domain names
which I cannot use since the start of January 2011. The original issue I
have has still not been resolved and I have repeatedly asked for some one
from your UK head office to CALL me and yet NO ONE HAS.
I find it absolutely disgusting that your Legal Department of all
departments has not responded to my letter warning them of legal action
I have kept detailed accounts of all of the emails, telephone
conversations and all other communication I have had with your company and
have 150+ domain names which are being affected by the issue.
I have been told numerous times on the telephone that the matter would be
dealt with within 48 hours and then nobody comes back to me. I am at an
absolute loss as to how you can treat a customer so badly and not even
have the decency to respond to my emails or requests.
You may also want to check out the comments about your company from other
members of the public on my blog where I am keeping people updated with
how terribly I am being treated in this matter -
http://www.3ac.co.uk/1-and-1-internet-are-a-disgrace
I have copied in you CEO Andreas Gauger into this email in a desperate
attempt to get this rectified
I am no longer asking for you to call me. I am now DEMANDING that I get a
call from your UK OFFICE to sort this issue out. I have copied in ALL
departments on this in hope to get a CALL BACK TODAY!
I am also consulting with my solicitors on this matter as you are charging
me for a service which you are not delivering which is a breach of
contract and fair trading, and if need be I will take this further and
involve the press and online media channels to expose your company for the
terrible customer service which you are providing.
Gary
Gary Taylor
Director | One Result Limited
SO WHAT DO I DO NOW?
I have spoken with my solicitors this morning who have asked me now to send over all emails, telephone records and any correspondence including Facebook and Twitter communications demonstrating all of my attempts to contact 1&1. They are going to review the situation so far and help me to construct a legal case against 1&1 in an attempt to recover all of the costs I have incurred so far whilst attempting to get my issue resolved.
I NEED YOUR HELP
Please help me to expose 1 and 1′s disgraceful customer service by link to my original post about 1&1 and if you have experienced poor customer service from them, then please add your comments. There are 38 so far and I am sure there are many, many more people out there who have been through similar situations with 1&1 and got nowhere.
Now it is time for everyone to have their voice!
Thanks
Gary
Email to 1&1's CEO Andeas Gauger,
I totally agree. I’ve had two websites with them that have never been published and now am being charged for something I’ve never used. Not only that but got a letter this morning being taken to court for £25.56p and the threat of a bad credit rating.
Hi Carl
Thanks for sharing that. Yes there are like that. It’s ok for them to ignore their customers requests but as soon as payment is an issue they are extremely quick to get in contact. I have cancelled my payment details with them and they have now sent me two emails asking for payment.
They also sent me an invoice last night for a domain name which I have actually transferred to Domain Monster and doesn’t even need renewing until Nov 2012 anyway!
If I were you I would write to their legal department and explain that you are not paying for services for which simply haven’t been delivered / provided. Saying that I’ve done that 3 times now, directly to their legal department and threatening legal action against them and they haven’t bothered to respond. I’m not a solicitor but I would find it hard to see how they would be able to justify any legal action if they can’t even be bothered to response to their customers requests and treat them in a fair manner. Stick to your guns mate.
They are a completely sham…
Gary
COMMENT FROM TWITTER:
@garyptaylor I’m having a terrible time with @1and1_UK I’ve never used them and still get bills
Thanks @digitalshooter1
Appreciate the tweet and comment above!
Best
Gary
1 and 1 sucks, they renewed by domain, even after I sent a cancellation, also got a confirmation from them of this. However, they also deleted my account so not only do I have a domain, but I have no access to it. I have contacted via email and phone the billing and customer services team to reverse the action of the invoice demand, but all I get is robotic message from a person regards the terms and conditions blah blah blah.
I have used numerous other hosting companies and have also got satisfactory results from them. 1 and 1 are a complete joke, they should be regulated for the way they operate.
Nav
Ditto customer service received from 1and1.co.uk.
Cancelled domain name renewals via their domains account management URL; received e-mails confirming that domains would not be automatically renewed however, despite this 1and1.co.uk are still renewing domains and hosting that should not be renewed and charging my credit card accordingly.
Sick to death of 1and1.co.uk really am.
E-mails sent to them go unanswered.
Agree 1&1 Internet is the biggest shower of shit its ever been my misfortune to come across.There system has cost me nearly £200 so far and still not resolved.I cant speak to anyone in UK and both calls and emails have got me nowhere.I am travelling to there offices in Slough next week to confront the new CEO,if he will see me.
Having the same problems with 1and1 cancelled domains last April and they are still trying to bill me. Its only over a £100 but its the principle. I now have Arvato (a collections agency) on my case. I hav repeated asked for this to be taken up the chain and to be given information of why i should pay – for them to prove to me that i owe them this money.
They are a joke and a complete waste of space. If anyone has any contact details for the board of Directors then please let me know.
1and1 a complete joke of a company!!!
Hi Stephen
You may want to try legal@1and.co.uk. Although they did not respond to me when I had my issues with them last year, you never know they may respond to you.
It is extremely difficult to contact anyone from 1&1 management in the UK to deal with complaints. Put it in writing to their legal team and at least this way you have record that you are doing your best to resolve the issue. If they don’t respond, they are putting themselves in the wrong.
Perseverance is key with 1&1. I was disputing just over £300 in renewals in January 2010 and it took me about 6 months to get all the money back. I probably spent that on phone calls to them in the end but like you say it’s the principle!
Good luck
Best
Gary
Hi Gary, read your post.
I too am in the same positions. There was a fraudulent transation on my 1and1 account. I complained to them and finally got it cancelled.
I raised a dispute through paypal, were paypal contacted 1and1 and subsequently refunded me the monies.
Now 1and1 want that money back that was fraudulent and are threatening legal action!
I have on many occasions tried to speak/email to them and got in contact with Joseph as well, but they are all monkeys not giving a damn, so i have just wrote a letter to the operations manager of 1and1.
I have created a twitter account which i will be copying an pasting correspondance from 1and1 to show the absolute incompetence of the team and the real serious security issues.
the twitter is 1and1customer. Please follow and tweet along.
Thanks
Steven
1and1 are THE most painful ISP i have ever known..
we have been having issues with our domain and it’s taken them just under 3 weeks to make the domain live again. it’s taken me 14 email in total and approx 20 phonecalls to try and get this sorted.. today i am on the phone with them as i type this mesage speaking to yet another useless support guy, everything they do is “24-48″ hours but in reality it takes 5 days for every action.
I cannot believe how crap these guys are.. i have dealt with many other ISP’s but these guys have to be on the top of being the worst!!! in every respect!
Really peeved off!!!
Sir, I have been very poorly served by both the technical and billing department of 1and1.co.uk I have spent many hours talking to the technical department and the billing department but my problem has not been solved. The claim that any e-mail will be responded to within 24 hours is hollow and an idle boast. It has no bearing to the truth. My account was, without notice, frozen some 5 weeks ago and all my efforts to unfreeze is has failed. I must have spent a fortune on the telephone talking to both the technical department and the billing department. The last straw was when have ing spoken to a helpful officer in the billing department I sen off (by e-mail) a form as advised and completed as advised with a promise to receive a reply within 24 hours. This was on Monday 28 May. As I did not get any response I telephoned the billing department and had the misfortune to speak to a most unhelpful lady who claimed that an e-mail had been sent. When asked to confirm the e-mail address she refused to do so and insisted that I send ANOTHER FORM!! So I did just that not once but twice and followed it up with a submission of the form to the technical department. This was all done on Wednesday 30 May. To claim that a reply would be sent within 24 hours is a hollow claim and the service I have received is appalling and that is an understatement. Thank you. ARVIND MAGAN
1&1 are the worst company i have ever dealt with: their employees lie and cheat & i will be taking them to court.
they are a fraud and a con , im in same position as thousands of others with these same con tricks and want them stopped
1 and 1 have failed to fulfil their offers and I don’t get any answers to my queries when contacting customer support. I have even tried to contact Andeas Gauger by post but didn’t get any acknowledgement.
Whenever I get a reply they have side-tracked around the issue. It is like turning up at a shop on Saturday to find it wasn’t open and when complaining being told that it wasn’t opened on Sundays. They always have to come over squeaky clean as if they haven’t done anything wrong.
I have referred a friend to see how they will honour the offer that I will get my monthly subscription reduced – have I seen a reduction? No. I still pay what I did before so I am looking for evidence they have breached their offer. No doubt they will say it doesn’t apply to this so they can penny pinch.
If another company could offer the technological side which 1 and 1 offers I would move over. Sadly only 1 and 1 can provide me with what I require.
But 1 and 1 deserve to be named and shamed for breaching their contracts in their favour every time and avoiding answering any queries highlighting these failings.
I bet if something happened the other way they would be quick to grab every penny from us.
This is blatant avoidance of fulfilling their duties and using whatever opportunity they can to cheat customers.
This is the tip of the iceberg as many things haven’t been fulfilled, not just a few. They say one thing and you find you have been doubly charged. The list goes on – you need to be alert. They don’t let you downgrade either – just let you upgrade – if you want to downgrade you should be able to without hurdles.
Typical money grabbers.
1&1 certainly need to be named and shamed for their reluctance to honour the offers they advertise and their shoddy customer service. They seem to think customers are stupid and try to get away with not honouring the conditions of their offers.
I have sent many queries to customer support which has returned with a whitewashed answer – side-tracking from the original point so they come out squeaky clean. It is like complaining about a supermarket which opened very late on a Saturday which was closed for most of the day to get a reply “We don’t open on Sundays”.
There have been several times when they haven’t provided me with what I have paid for so I have sent a letter by post to the director Andeas Gauger who has not answered or even acknowledged my correspondence.
While 1&1 has a lot which I can use, it is a shame that there isn’t another company which could offer the same technical services as I would willingly move from 1&1 for their shoddy customer service. So they need to be named and shamed.
Several months ago I recommended a friend to 1&1 warning him about poor customer service and reluctance to honour their offers but good technical services generally of which we were both to get half price hosting for a year. 1&1 have granted my friend this offer but still continue to charge me full price. I have tried to get an answer and they ignore me side-tracking again saying he is only being charged half price – I wasn’t querying my friend’s bill I was querying my bill.
By the way I posted this on a website which had further stories about 1&1 and the director Andeas Gauger in support of Gary Taylor, Director of One Result Limited (@garyptaylor) who seems to have experienced similar. This was on http://www.3ac.co.uk/. But because I gave some good facts about the technical services of 1&1 3ac.co.uk took it down.
It seems that 3ac.co.uk only wants to expose the bad sides of 1&1 but not accept the truth. There are good sides and bad sides, so I give credit where it is due but also criticism. The shoddy customer service from 1&1 is enough to turn me away once I can get the same from another company. But unfortunately, since 3ac.co.uk are biased they need to be shamed too. I certainly won’t give 3ac.co.uk my custom now.
This will be exposed on another blog which they have no control over.
I will try to post this on 3ac.co.uk so they are aware of what I think.
I have been trying to redeem my company email domain for over two weeks now to no avail.
The domain was registered in my ex business partners name and we have no contact any more as he no longer resides in the country. I have explained all of this SEVERAL times to the very helpful (yes I am being sarcastic here) customer service, transfer and tech team..
Each time I am told my domain will be redeemed in 48hrs, I then get an email to say this cannot be done!!!! The call canter is based in the Philippines and the lines are often bad or staff have broken English and do not understand what I am trying to explain. I have asked several times via telephone and e-mail to speak to a manager. I have been informed that it is not company policy to speak with management?????? Or to use the complaints procedure…..complaints@1and1 !
I have now sent 4 complaints each threatening legal action and requesting a call back…….no avail!
I have sent another e-mail to the transfers department AGAIN explaining my need for the domain to be redeemed…..I am potentially losing thousands of pounds worth of business as my clients contact me mostly via email.
I was told by the transfer team that if I could provide information proving that I am the rightful company owner my account could be redeemed, sounds simple doesn’t it? Well our wonderful accountants put together some information- provided company accounts, registration number etc and we sent the information. At last came the email we were hoping for…….I opened it and they said the information is not acceptable? I have once again complained, requested a call back from a senior member and for them to outline what they deem to be acceptable documentation , I have just received an email to say as I can’t provide the information they require???????????? They can no longer help and we will have to wait for the domain to be released to the public and buy it back???? We have already paid for the renewal of this service
This is without a doubt the worst service I have ever encountered let alone used!
WHAT A TOTAL JOKE FOR A COMPANY- STAY CLEAR- YOUR LIFE WILL BE HELL OTHERWISE
Like the previous individuals who have complained I have had similar nightmares. Their Directors are hiding you will also see that their staff do not read emails as they all seem standard replies. Typical question cannot access account? They send you how to re-set password ! You cannot access account to do this!
There is NO Audit trail for your payments e.g does not state on credit card what invoice it relates, simple Sage Accounts will do this but seems beyond their IT capability.
Cannot consolidate all all accounts to one. Strange you can do this with Google Email yet another failing.
I sent over 20 emails and even sent to a so called supervisor who did not respond.
DO NOT USE MY WEBSITE TRIAL, you will start getting billed and have trouble cancelling!