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Well I have read a few of the threads here bashing 1&1, and have just had my own problems with them culminating to today. If you are thinking of purchasing from 1&1 don't do it! 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!
Hey, I read your comment and I am going thru the exact same problem now. I simply have to change my cc number to prevent them from charging my card. This is to much. You cannot imagine my anger.
They did the same thing, and I got the collection letter. Since the credit card wasn't mine, I had to pay.
They renewed 10 domain names even though I had explicitly chose to not auto renew.
I was so angry, you can't imagine my disdain towards this "company". 1and1 is the civilised world's version of nigerian scam.
I am going through the same thing. In fact, they purposely deleted a domain that I wanted to keep since I had a website starter attached to it. This started happening when I removed the authomatic renewal from my account so I can start transfering my domains to another registrar as they come for renewal. Unfortunately for me it did not even get to that stage. What's more, when I called the customer service, he wrongly informed me that I CAN REMOVE AUTOMATIC RENEWAL FROM MY ACCOUNT AND THAT WHEN DOMAINS COME FOR RENEWAL, I WOULD RECEIVE AN EMAIL AT LEAST 30 DAYS PRIOR TO THE RENEWAL DATE. This of course did not happen and I am still fighting with them to reinstate my domains that are still in redemption stage.
ANYONE WITH A SUGGESTION, I WILL VERY MUCH APPRECIATE YOU SHARING IT.
I ADD MY VOICE TO THOSE BEFORE ME AND WARN ANYONE THINKING OF BECOMING A 1AND1 CUSTOMER! RUN AWAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN
I signed-up for 1&1 a while back since it had a LOT of bells & whistles which sounded appealing, especially for the cost-per-month.
After signing-up, there was a glitch in their system which caused me not to be able to even access my dashboard in order to build my website. I tried and tried for 7 - 8 days to get this resolved and to no avail.
As such, at the end of that 7 - 8 day period I emailed them canceling my business relationship and asking for a refund. They offered me a prorated refund rather than a full refund even though I was never able to utilize their services. Okay...a prorated refund was credited to my Pay Pal account within a few days. No problem.
A few weeks later, I get an email from 1&1 informing me that they're going to bill my Pay Pal account for $29.97 within a couple of days as per the contract agreement. I wrote them back asking WHY I was being billed for a service which I'm not only NOT receiving since I was unable to build a web site to begin with due to a glitch on their part, and also because I had received a prorated refund in the past, which invalidated and put an end to the contract!
They wrote me back telling me that my account had NOT be canceled and that their records indicated that I had NOT received a refund of any kind. My Pay Pal account reflects that I did, in-fact, receive a refund from 1&1, so these folks don't even know what they're talking about.
Their accounting system is all messed-up; one hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing, and they refuse to accept responsibility or be accountable for anything. My dealings with them have been like entering the Twilight Zone, and I would not recommend their services to ANYONE!
A company which I WILL recommend however, is "Intuit.com." Their site is extremely user-friendly; they have a multitude of ready-made templates if you want to utilize them, their costs are extremely reasonable, and their customer support on all levels has proven to be superior over that of 1&1 and many other hosting companies which I've dealt with over the past year or so.
It's NOT my agenda to pimp another company nor to promote my web site on this board, but I believe it's appropriate to share "what works" with others who have encountered issues with 1&1 just as I have. Though my website is simple and it serves my needs, you're welcome to view it, primarily for the purpose of viewing one of the many templates they have to offer. http://www.bobmcdowell.org/
I hope everyone gets their problems resolved, and continues to bring to the attention of others about web hosting companies which are not consumer-oriented, as well as sharing what they've found to be good and positive! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
1and1 scam you, when you want to leave. Even when you think you have cancelled they then send you a bill saying that they have given the bill to someone else to collect and double the price. If your with 1and1 and you want to leeve you need to fill out a form and then confirm then, confirm again, then call and cancel to then find your passed there allowed date for cancelling to then find that now your account is with a collector who charges for calling them and keeps you on hold for ever, to then tell you to please hold longer.
Rubbish
they did same to me. Im no way paying to third party.
I have may bitter experience with them. They don't care Support emails and the delay from their side is horrible. If you send a support email, don't expect a reply in 48 hours. I ordered for a VPS in 06th Feb and it has not been delivered yet ( 09 the Feb ). I requested cancellation and waiting for refund. They did not answer my email that I sent them on 06th Feb.
If your domain name expired, and you are waiting for it to be available to the general public, you would be better off to keep checking with your original host. If 1and1.com says your domain name is available, and your original host says it is not, you better not go with 1and1. Apparently, the 1and1 people have an agenda to mooch off of those who are seeking to get their expired domain name back.