1and1 Hosting :(

Hosting
1

In the fall of 2007, a friend and I where going to start a small local website. We found 1&1 which offered cheap hosting with all of the server specs that we needed. I purchased 6 months of hosting from them using my CC. Unfortunately our website did not last any longer than a few months, and by the time those 6 months where up I no longer needed the hosting. Thinking that the host would simply expire (unless I authorized another payment) I just let it go, only to see a charge for another $29.95 on my bank statement.

I called them, and was sent to http://cancel.1and1.com (a URL that is suspiciously absent from their website) and followed the instructions to cancel the account. I requested that the site be canceled at the next billing date (figured I could use it as a development server or something since I had already paid for it).

In January of 2008 (1/22/2008 to be exact) I received yet another charge from them! I called again explaining my situation, and said I had tried to use the online cancellation form but apparently the account was not canceled. The customer support representative requested information from me, and verified that he had personally canceled the account and that I would be receiving a full refund. I was satisfied (at the time) and rather naively forgot about the whole ordeal.

Today (July 22, 2008) I received ANOTHER charge for another 6 months of hosting. Keep in mind I haven’t used this account since January . . . I requested a refund for January - July (as I didn’t want, nor did I use this account). I was told my name wasn’t on file and therefore I couldn’t cancel it. Despite the fact that I was told the account was canceled twice, and I had the credit card information, billing address, and security questions (among other things) to prove I was the owner of the account.

One representative in particular even yelled at me, and basically told me I was incompetent. So I asked to speak to her supervisor. Her supervisor wasn’t any more helpful and he told me: “I will not be canceling your account and I will not be giving you a refund. I’m not continuing this conversation” and hung up on me.

I have filed a credit dispute with my bank, and had to change my credit card number to prevent them from charging me again. I also filed a complaint with the BBB (not surprisingly they have an ‘unsatisfactory’ rating there), The Federal Trades Commission, and sent a letter to the Attorney General.

Now i’m waiting for my collections letter . . . as so many of you have received before. Absolutely ridiculous and unacceptable. No other hosting company has ever come close to being this much of a hassle! :mad:

Overall the host was extremely poor. You could not change database names, nor could you access services that are fundamental to a web developer. Customer service was extremely poor, and the downtime was absurd.

2

I wanted to chime in here b/c I see their banners all over SP & people should know what they will be up against if they decide to go with 1and1.

Whoever thinks the hosting is the main problem with 1and1, think AGAIN.

I only used their domain service just like some on here & I never had any problems with them for 3 years UNTIL I wanted to cancel my domains.

  1. First they make it VERY difficult for you to cancel. They do everything in their power to make it a long tedious process. At first I thought it was just them being cheap & not getting their site updated to reflect the year 2000 like everyone else has, but then I realized over time they do this on purpose so they can make more money from us b/c we don’t cancel on time or we just give up.

With Go Daddy you get NUMEROUS e-mails when a domain is coming up for renewal, but with 1and1 you only get one & you are lucky if you get that too.

So I tried to cancel some domains after the date (only a few days after) & the first time they dealt with it, but then it happened again & they wouldn’t. The bill was a lot larger this time (around $300) & I ABSOLUTELY refused to pay that kind of money when I didn’t want the domains.

  1. I tried to communicate with them & they refused. I went up the ladder & after getting NO responses to e-mails or phone calls I suddenly went online to see what others had to say & was SHOCKED at the numerous complaints against them. We aren’t even talking 100 here, but so many that I had to stop adding then to my blog b/c it was taking me over an hour to do.

All stories with the same similar complaints as to how 1and1 holds your account hostage or makes it difficult to cancel & how they won’t communicate with you & will sic collection agencies after you.

  1. I figured out a way to get the domains I did want back (it took some time but I figured it out), but I spent MANY woman hours working at this b/c I had a lot of domains with them.

  2. It looks like 1and1 has political connections & this is why they are allowed to rip people off & get away with it as many people have complained to the AG. Their parent company is in Germany & they have a few companies in different countries.

  3. It’s been 2 years I think now & they still have a collection agency send me a letter asking for almost $400. And of course their collection agencies don’t pick up the phone so I can discuss this with them, & I’m not about to give out my personal information to them, so I just leave messages. Another sneaky underhanded tactic which again shows the types of companies 1and1 hires. Companies just like them.

I leave messages telling them that 1and1 is a scam, I don’t owe them any money b/c I canceled the domains & therefore they aren’t getting any.

The last time I got the letter I just ignored it b/c it’s just ludicrous already.

I left all the domains I had wanted to cancel back at 1and1. They can have them, I didn’t want them & I won’t be bullied into paying for something I don’t want.

I take responsibility for the fact that I wasn’t more diligent with the cancellation of the domains, but now that I understand the way they do things, this is EXACTLY WHY 1and1 can trick people, is because of how their site is set up. They know people are busy & if they don’t get e-mail notices, they will just forget about the domains & they will renew automatically. This is exactly WHY Go Daddy sends out numerous e-mails b/c they care about their customers.

And if I’m not mistaken (it’s been a while), there’s no way to turn off “auto renew” on their site, which is a MUST for domain registrars.

I went back to Go Daddy who has an excellent interface & allows you to do all these things very very easily, but then b/c they are more expensive, I’m moving all my domains over to Fabulous.

My only complaint about Fabulous, is that you have to have money in your Fab account in order to pay for the domains when they renew. It doesn’t charge your credit card. Plus my debit card isn’t transacting anymore (even though it did for years) & my bank says that’s b/c there’s been too much fraud with Fabulous, so they are declining it to protect the card holder. Turns out Fabulous doesn’t understand about fraud, so they have none of the fraud protections in place like address, CVV, etc.

But the fact that privatization is now included in the domain transfer/registration, I can’t pass up that deal.

Hope this helps.

Michelle

3

Hello, I am writing this as a warning to others to check your invoices from 1&1webhosting. I have been with them for 2 years now and last year I noticed they were charging me for SEO submissions. I never ordered these or authorized them. So they cancelled them and refunded me. So this year I checked my invoices, haven’t done so in a while as am really busy with my business, only to find they have been charging me for this AGAIN for the last year and also for “Exchange hosting premium” I don’t even know what this is let alone authorizing it. So I have demanded a full refund for all unauthorized charges taken from my account in the last year. They said I must have ordered it but there is no way, when I had to cancel it once last year already. What worries me is that when you phone them they ask you for your password, so anyone of them could authorize what they want under my contract. I see this as theft. One of them mentioned that sometimes, they offer you a free trial on something and if you don’t cancel it they start billing you, but I never even asked for the free trial! I have a good mind to go to watchdog, as I think it is disgusting that they can give you these free trials when you have not asked for it and then charge you for it if you have not cancelled. It is a legal way of stealing money from your account in my eyes a nd should not be allowed. I will keep you posted as to whether I have been refunded or you will see me on watchdog!!!

4

I had a bad deal with these guys to.

They simply could not give me what they had promised. So I cancelled within a few weeks.

Apparently, I owe them something, as I keep getting threatening debt recovery letters for a service I did not receive and cancelled!

Thanks,

Mark
PMD Graphics.

5

A few minutes ago… I was planning to get their services… I need a got dedicated server for my new project…

Lucky to found this thread…

6

Hello, I am writing this as a warning to others to check your invoices from 1&1webhosting. I have been with them for 2 years now and last year I noticed they were charging me for SEO submissions. I never ordered these or authorized them. So they cancelled them and refunded me. So this year I checked my invoices, haven’t done so in a while as am really busy with my business, only to find they have been charging me for this AGAIN for the last year and also for “Exchange hosting premium” I don’t even know what this is let alone authorizing it. So I have demanded a full refund for all unauthorized charges taken from my account in the last year. They said I must have ordered it but there is no way, when I had to cancel it once last year already. What worries me is that when you phone them they ask you for your password, so anyone of them could authorize what they want under my contract. I see this as theft. One of them mentioned that sometimes, they offer you a free trial on something and if you don’t cancel it they start billing you, but I never even asked for the free trial! I have a good mind to go to watchdog, as I think it is disgusting that they can give you these free trials when you have not asked for it and then charge you for it if you have not cancelled. It is a legal way of stealing money from your account in my eyes a nd should not be allowed. I will keep you posted as to whether I have been refunded or you will see me on watchdog!!!

7

Christine I e-mailed you.

While you say that 1and1 is always there to help, nothing could have been further from the truth when I tried to deal with this issue 2 years ago. And based on ALL the numerous complaints online, everyone had the same experience whether they were with you for hosting or with you for domain registration.

One last thing…

My point isn’t whether 1and1 has their domains set to renew manually or automatically, my issue is that you NEVER e-mail the person to tell them their domain is coming up for renewal & I feel 1and1 does this on purpose so they can cash in on the money if a person doesn’t want to renew. The odds of a person forgetting about their domain 365 days later is VERY high. I don’t know anyone who is so organized & methodical that they would remember when a domain is up for renewal unless they were notified several times via e-mail. E-mails get lost, people get tons of spam, people are busy & lose track of 1 e-mail. Go Daddy knows this which is why they send out min. 6 e-mail notifications.

That’s one issue, plus how totally difficult it always was to make sure a domain wasn’t going to renew. It would take way to long to do this because of how your site was designed. With Go Daddy, I sign in, go to 2 different pages, then scroll down through my list of domains (all on one page) that are in alpha order & place a checkmark in the checkbox & click on an icon, press okay twice & that’s it, finished. I don’t have to worry about that domain again.

I am not a cop, nor do I care about the one time someone had a problem with their domain because it didn’t renew. If they were with the right registrar, they would have been notified numerous times that their domain was up for renewal. If they were with the wrong registrar, that company wouldn’t care, would only notify them once or not at all, & then they would leave it all up to chance.

I’m just a person who had tons of domains with you guys that was impossible to manage b/c I’m not a 2nd tier domain expert. I had a lot of domains, yes, but it wasn’t close to being my full time business & even if it was, there would still be no way I’d remember when each domain was renewing.

It was never a problem before because I never had to cancel anything which is why some people still think 1and1 is a great company. I also thought 1and1 was a great company & I used to refer them to everyone b/c I’m loyal to companies that treat me well. But then I tried to cancel domains.

Unfortunately you lost my business because of how 1and1 treated me.

I have written you an e-mail & I hope 1and1 is going to do the right thing & clear my account & stop the nonsense with the collection agency.

I will keep everyone posted of my experiences.

Thank you

Michelle

8

Hello, thankyou for your reply, I have sent you a direct email, explaining it in detail.
With regards to the password, maybe you should offer clients an alternative telephone password as they do in banks, this way there is never any doubt as to whether your staff have been logging into customers accounts.
With regards to the charges of the SEO’s, what has happened is in 2009 when they were cancelled and refunded to myself, 1&1 have continued billing me for it from then on, so did not cancel them after they issued the refund. So that is a definate error on 1&1’s behalf.
I will update as to the outcome. thanks

9

Hello, this is an update. I am really impressed with the way the manager has dealt with this matter. They have looked into it and are going to refund me for all the incorrect charges. So I won’t be needing to contact trading standards after all. As this is the only problem I have had with 1&1, I will continue to use their services. I think if you deal with the right person they sort it out straight away. So a thumbs up for 1&1 on this occasion!:slight_smile:

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I’ve used them for more than 7 years and not had any issues worth mentioning.

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i was just about to sign up with them too. glad i found this thread. ill go with hostmonster instead.

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Hi, regarding my previous post, I have just checked through my billing with
1&1 and I can now see what they have done. In february 2010 they have given me 1 months free trial on the “exchange hosting premium” (still do not know what this is by the way) and it appears that as I have not cancelled this at the end of the free trial, (the free trial which I NEVER asked for) they have taken it upon themselves to start billing me for this £35 every 3 months. I am livid to be honest. It looks like the same thing has been done on the Simple SEO which I never ordered. To top it all, I have just checked their website and to order these things, you actually have to go into a shopping cart. Now I would know if I had done this myself. It worries me that as they ask you for your password when you phone, that any member of staff could be adding this on themselves for commission. I think trading standards will have a filled day with this company when I show them the billing information. This is theft and it is about time they were stopped. Sorry to go on, but I am furious that it is in black and white and they are still refusing to refund me. So word of warning to all, if you see a free item on your billing, realise you will get billed for this unles you cancel it. I will let you know what trading standard says, and if no joy with them, I will be onto watchdog and I will forward this forum to them so they can see I am not the only one!

13

Hi Michelle,

Christine from 1&1 here. I’m sorry that you’ve had this experience and I would like you to allow me the opportunity to resolve it. Please contact me directly by emailing online@1and1.com and include your customer ID (if you still know it) and a phone number at which we can reach you. I would be happy to put you in contact with the head of our complaints department.

To clear up a few things for other readers of this post - It is our policy to automatically renew domains unless they are canceled prior to renewal, this is to help protect customers from loosing their domains. There was an article on CNET last month about a police station’s domain that did expire: “Man buys police Web site after getting ticket” http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20007389-71.html.

In fact, every 1&1 account automatically renews unless it’s canceled prior to the renewal date. For domains, automatic renewal can be turned off through http://cancel.1and1.com. If you do this, and still want to keep the domain, you will need to call us to renew or “uncancel” the domain before it expires. For other services, there is no option to opt-out of automatic renewal. An opt-out would be a cancellation, and in most cases a cancellation of a full package cannot be reversed.

If you want to turn off automatic renewal, it is best to contact us first to review all of the options pertaining to your particular circumstance. For all cancellations, we offer assistance via phone and email and also have various FAQs: http://faq.1and1.com/search/q.php?query=cancel&search.x=14&search.y=12.

We are happy to bring any open issues to resolution. We have several support channels, including our phone and e-mail support, social outreach via Twitter and online forums, and an internal support forum for current customers. If you have any questions, contact me at online@1and1.com or on twitter @1and1_4U.
General support: 1-866-991-2631 or support@1and1.com or http://forum.1and1.com

Regards,
Christine Skiffington, 1&1 Internet, Inc.

14

That was horrible experience. I am planning to try their free 1 year hosting but now I realize not to. Thanks for sharing this here.

15

Pathetic order page … not sure about the hosting … never used them

16

Hi ethnatkev, Sorry to hear about your experience. At 1&1, we are always looking for ways to improve our customer service and I would be very interested to look into your case. Please email me your customer ID to online@1and1.com and I will check into how the features were ordered as well as any related conversations with our support teams - I may be able to assist in sorting this whole thing out.
In advance I would like to address some of your general concerns. For security purposes and to ensure confidentiality, we do require password verification to discuss specific details of your account over the phone. We want to be sure that the person we are speaking to has authorization to discuss the account details. I assure you that 1&1 staff would not add any product to your account without your explicit agreement. In fact, to address your allegations, only members of our sales team have the authority to add a service to your account and the extra features you mentioned would not gain a commission. However, I am able to research how each service was ordered and would appreciate the opportunity to do so.
That being said, please do email me at online@1and1.com so that I can fully investigate your case.
Best Regards,
Christine Skiffington, 1&1 Internet

17

…here is an update from my previous post. Tthey have emailed me to say they will only refund me the last 2 months as I should have contacted them sooner, but to be honest, they take the money out of my paypal account and as I run a business and all my payments come and go from my paypal account, this is why I missed it. I knew they were taking it out every month, but assumed they were only taking out what I had ordered which adds up to £4.99 per month I authorized as opposed to the nearly £40! they have been taking out every month. They are not getting away with this one. On monday I am contacting trading standards to begin with then watchdog. After reading all these posts I think it is time they were named and shamed on tv, as these companies think they can do what they want. I will be forwarding this sites address to watchdog also so they can see just how many unhappy customers 1&1 have. They have messed with the wrong person this time and I WILL get all my money back that they have stolen from my account. I will keep you posted.

18

Hello,

Its always good to check reviews of the company you select.

Support and customer care and service matters alot in Webhosting Business.

19

i used 1and1 they are good but there unlimited hosting package is not really true.

20

So just wanted to update everyone on what happened.

I got this response today & it’s just a bunch of lies. I NEVER received any e-mails from them until just now & yes, many months after I already moved to another registrar they froze the account. I didn’t even notice because I had already given up on 1and1.

And so what if they froze my account. I wasn’t with them at that point & they freeze everyone’s account if they don’t pay them the money they say is owing to them. Just read ALL the posts online about what they do.

Any of my previous attempts to resolve this issue were always thwarted & that was both by e-mail & phone, but that’s what 1and1 does, they try to avoid talking to you on the phone & they tend to send out generic responses. I wanted to speak to someone high up & there was no one, but that one guy that everyone complained about.

They clearly have no intentions of resolving this issue as I suspected.

My original opinion & complaint holds true about 1and1, & I was stupid enough to believe maybe they would do the right thing. More waste of my time. Now I suspect they will increase the threatening letters from the collection agency.

Someone needs to bring this company down already. Amazing how corrupt companies get to stay in existence for so long.

Thank you for contacting us.

I am sorry for this inconvenience. However, we had tried to contact you numerous times regarding this billing issues. We had sent a number of emails to the email address on the account. We tried to freeze your account to get your attention. The issue persisted for long enough to the point that we had sent the account to NCO the collection agency. Please resolve the issue with NCO the collection agency and they will remove you from any list that they have.

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

–
Sincerely,
Joseph Quinn
Customer Service
1&1 Internet