1&1 bash thread

[ODST.com]

I am creating a thread for the purpose of warning internet users about 1and1.com

This by far is the worst company I have ever dealt with. I signed up for hosting accounts but kept on getting them wrong because I am not too much of a computer literate (that is for my programmer). Somehow I got signed up for 6 different accounts that continued to bill me AFTER they had been canceled. I called 1&1 and after complaining and threatening they finally removed all but 1. Well I had still 90 days to cancel and I did within that time. So now I have a canceled account and a recurring billing cycle. OVER and OVER again until according to their TOC it will magically renew itself upon my inaction.

So I delved a bit into their Terms and voila a 90 day money back guarantee. Am I saved? Nope because beneath the fine print in something called misc terms are terms contradicting all their guarantees.

BUYER BEWARE YOU ARE IN FOR A SCAM

STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS

Any more horror stories I know they are out there. There are tons of anti 1&1 threads

 

[XeHSean]

Not in all instances...sometimes you do get what you pay for. I know that 1&1 in the past has actually taken losses by selling hosting so cheap merely to drive out the competition.

This practice is illegal - I am sure that they were just running sales promotions of some sort

 

[ldcdc]

This practice is illegal - I am sure that they were just running sales promotions of some sort

When they went for the US market, they had a big promotion where they gave 3 years of free shared hosting to new customers. I think they did it in order to promote word of mouth advertising, and indeed it worked. Besides, they had an empty data center at their disposal, which would have taken them years to fill anyway.

 

[WebIntellects - Rob]

When they went for the US market, they had a big promotion where they gave 3 years of free shared hosting to new customers. I think they did it in order to promote word of mouth advertising, and indeed it worked. Besides, they had an empty data center at their disposal, which would have taken them years to fill anyway.

I think they will give a space for other companies as well to earn at least something.

 

[ODST.com]

When they went for the US market, they had a big promotion where they gave 3 years of free shared hosting to new customers. I think they did it in order to promote word of mouth advertising, and indeed it worked. Besides, they had an empty data center at their disposal, which would have taken them years to fill anyway.

I don't disagree I was first attracted to them because of their on the surface deals. It was the shady TOS in which you unknowingly enter upon by accepting their offers and their complete lack of customer care when people bring up legitimate issues. My hell came after I wanted to get out from underneath them and it took the BBB to get them to stop charging me erroneously.

 

[WebIntellects - Rob]

I don't disagree I was first attracted to them because of their on the surface deals. It was the shady TOS in which you unknowingly enter upon by accepting their offers and their complete lack of customer care when people bring up legitimate issues. My hell came after I wanted to get out from underneath them and it took the BBB to get them to stop charging me erroneously.

In any case you have used them for some time and you did get better price. Now it is time to move. I think that is normal.

 

[ODST.com]

In any case you have used them for some time and you did get better price. Now it is time to move. I think that is normal.

My long time was only due to them threatening me with a supposed contract I entered into erroneously.

 

[SEOjmci]

THEY ASKED 10 DAYS to register my domain, XD you can imagine howz their service is. XD

here's the mail which I got from 1and1 custom support,

--------

Dear ......................

Thank you for contacting us.

The reason why you can not login to your 1&1 control panel is because we
are still processing the purchase of your account here in our end. Since
you are worldwide customer, the purchase process will be finished
approximately 10 days from the day you initiated the purchase of your
account. Thank you for your patience on this concern.

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

--
Sincerely,
Jerusalem Tanilon
Technical Support
1&1 Internet

---------------------

10 Days, WTF

 

[domain-gold]

Funny, that's the only company I ever had issues with myself. I only had a couple of domains registered with them, which I did not want to renew. I was unable to convince them that I canceled, however. Now I'm getting calls several times per week from a collection agency, even after telling them I canceled. It's only $20 or so, but still, it's annoying. I hate companies that don't want to let you quit their services, lol.

 

[dotker]

Just in case you guys don't know 1&1 & Sedo are owned by the same company.

United Internet AG - Marken

 

[WebIntellects - Rob]

My long time was only due to them threatening me with a supposed contract I entered into erroneously.

Anyways you must have learned the lesson.

 

[ODST.com]

Anyways you must have learned the lesson.

lesson learned and now I am Paul Revering my warning to all my fellow domainers.

1&1 and Sedo notice any unethical similarities?

 

[XeHSean]

Just in case you guys don't know 1&1 & Sedo are owned by the same company.

United Internet AG - Marken

Very interesting find, I wasn't aware of this

 

[CocoaHost - Mike]

You should choose a web host who want to deliver service to you, not just earning your money. =>

 

[WebIntellects - Rob]

You should choose a web host who want to deliver service to you, not just earning your money. =>

Mike I do not think that is easy to do at all.

 

[MT Domains]

Figured I'd throw my 2 cents in here.

I used 1 and 1 for just domain registrations (Since their price seemed reasonable, and they had free privacy protect).

I would recommend everyone avoid them like the plague...

At first everything seemed fine.. Their billing was a little odd in that they didn't renew a domain before the domain expired, but after a year of having it there even if the domain was not going to expire for months or years. For example:

I transferred a domain to them that had an expiration date of 06/10/10 (this was a couple years ago). When I transferred it to them, as expected, they added a year (for a price of course) to the domain, like all other registrars do. So the domain now expired on 06/10/11 (which was over a couple years away). Fair enough.. However.. They continue to bill every year. So even if the domain hasn't expired or even was close to expiring, you'll get billed again by them. This seemed kind of messed up, but I was willing to put up with it for a while.

Things really went downhill once I wanted to transfer a domain away from them to Dynadot (who I recommend to everyone). The domains were going to expire on 09/03/09. I started the transfer process about 10 days before they expired. Since they were domains that I registered through 1 and 1 the billing part of it wasn't going to be flaky like the domains I transferred to them. Well they drug on the transfer process for the full 7 days, and then billed me for another year for the domains about 2 weeks AFTER the domains were transferred away from them.

I emailed their support pointing out their error and explaining that the domains were no longer hosted there. They responded (several days later) saying they had to renew them or the domains would have expired. I emailed them back pointing out that no, the domains had not expired and were transferred away before the expiration date, and in fact since they "Renewed" them after they were transferred away they didn't even add a year to the domain like they claimed they had... Dynadot did.

And all was silent..they completely ignored me. I emailed them again, and got the same response.. Nothing.

After that I started transferring all of my domains away from them, and as expected they pulled the same shit again with other domains, then promptly ignored my emails.

All total they only stole between $30-$40 from me this way..but it still annoys the hell out of me and really showed me that they have Very shady billing practices, and horrible customer service.

Since I've cancelled my entire package with them I'm guessing I'll still be getting billed from them in a month or two when some of the domains in that package (which I want to let expire) will be renewed by them even though I've cancelled.

They are by far the worst registrar I've ever dealt with. Besides their dishonest billing practices and terrible customer service, they are very slow when it comes to transferring domains away from them, and unbelievably slow when it comes to making changes to a domain or even registering a domain.

As someone who works for an web hosting company, I make sure to recommend people stay far away from 1 and 1. Don't be tempted by their fairly cheap prices and free privacy protection. I'd much rather see people use Dynadot or some other honest registrar.

 

[mohithanche]

Always take service from Big Service Providers like Justhost, Godaddy, HostGator, Pugmarks etc...although they are costly but the give good service and Money Back guarantee.

 

[ODST.com]

Figured I'd throw my 2 cents in here.

I used 1 and 1 for just domain registrations (Since their price seemed reasonable, and they had free privacy protect).

I would recommend everyone avoid them like the plague...

At first everything seemed fine.. Their billing was a little odd in that they didn't renew a domain before the domain expired, but after a year of having it there even if the domain was not going to expire for months or years. For example:

I transferred a domain to them that had an expiration date of 06/10/10 (this was a couple years ago). When I transferred it to them, as expected, they added a year (for a price of course) to the domain, like all other registrars do. So the domain now expired on 06/10/11 (which was over a couple years away). Fair enough.. However.. They continue to bill every year. So even if the domain hasn't expired or even was close to expiring, you'll get billed again by them. This seemed kind of messed up, but I was willing to put up with it for a while.

Things really went downhill once I wanted to transfer a domain away from them to Dynadot (who I recommend to everyone). The domains were going to expire on 09/03/09. I started the transfer process about 10 days before they expired. Since they were domains that I registered through 1 and 1 the billing part of it wasn't going to be flaky like the domains I transferred to them. Well they drug on the transfer process for the full 7 days, and then billed me for another year for the domains about 2 weeks AFTER the domains were transferred away from them.

I emailed their support pointing out their error and explaining that the domains were no longer hosted there. They responded (several days later) saying they had to renew them or the domains would have expired. I emailed them back pointing out that no, the domains had not expired and were transferred away before the expiration date, and in fact since they "Renewed" them after they were transferred away they didn't even add a year to the domain like they claimed they had... Dynadot did.

And all was silent..they completely ignored me. I emailed them again, and got the same response.. Nothing.

After that I started transferring all of my domains away from them, and as expected they pulled the same shit again with other domains, then promptly ignored my emails.

All total they only stole between $30-$40 from me this way..but it still annoys the hell out of me and really showed me that they have Very shady billing practices, and horrible customer service.

Since I've cancelled my entire package with them I'm guessing I'll still be getting billed from them in a month or two when some of the domains in that package (which I want to let expire) will be renewed by them even though I've cancelled.

They are by far the worst registrar I've ever dealt with. Besides their dishonest billing practices and terrible customer service, they are very slow when it comes to transferring domains away from them, and unbelievably slow when it comes to making changes to a domain or even registering a domain.

As someone who works for an web hosting company, I make sure to recommend people stay far away from 1 and 1. Don't be tempted by their fairly cheap prices and free privacy protection. I'd much rather see people use Dynadot or some other honest registrar.

Seems like the stories are all the same. I think what you went through was hogwash. Companies shouldn't function like this at all. Ethics don't stop just because you run a business.

 

[TechGuy1]

The control panel is just horrendous with 1&1

 

[WebIntellects - Rob]

The control panel is just horrendous with 1&1

I do not know for sure, maybe. But I'm seeing a lot of people which keep using them.

 

[ODST.com]

I do not know for sure, maybe. But I'm seeing a lot of people which keep using them.

Classic bait and switch...in their case bait you in with unbelievable pricing and offers and then switch to poor customer service and locking customers to their services sometimes against their will.