1&1 Review (1and1)
1&1.com is a giant web hosting company. They have almost 6 million customers and more than 2,400 employees, and in excess of 37,000 servers. You’ve probably seen their 10+ page ads in magazines or heard about them from friends or colleagues. They are definitely an industry leader and a well known company in the web hosting industry.
1&1 offers a few main service types: domain registration, mail hosting, Linux hosting, Windows hosting, virtual private servers, dedicated servers, eshops, and Microsoft Sharepoint hosting. This review will discuss the pros and cons of 1&1 as a Linux hosting provider.
The company’s offerings are quite inexpensive. 1&1 offers a lot of space and bandwidth for very little money. You have to pay six months in advance for many of the plans, but the six months of their least expensive plan still comes out to be less than $20. Be sure to read the order and refund terms carefully. 1&1 will try to lock you in for longer if you choose some of their special offers.
Each account includes plenty of email accounts, databases, a control panel, a 90 day money back guarantee, and 24/7 support.
I called their sales department and the office was closed due to weather. I gave up trying to reach technical support representative over the phone after waiting on hold for more than 10 minutes. Their hold queue didn’t tell me when I should have expected my call to be answered, so who knows how long it takes to get through to a human. Among bigger web hosting companies, support seems to be the worst aspect. 1&1 doesn’t seem to be an exception in that regard.
An email sent at 11:07 PM on Friday the 16th got an answer at 3:26 AM on Tuesday, March 20, 2007.
Bigger web hosts have their advantages, though. The main ones that apply to 1&1 are: they have a top notch data center and network and lots of partnerships with interesting companies. Furthermore, you don’t have to worry about the company disappearing or going under and there is always someone to turn to if there are serious problems.
1&1’s partnerships range from being an ICANN accredited domain registrar to having partnerships with companies like Google (for ads) and Plesk (for control panels). A lot of these partnerships have helped 1&1 develop its marketing center, which offers discounts and vouchers on major web sites and tools like Google Adwords or Microsoft Adcenter to 1&1 customers. These offers add a lot of value to the accounts and can make a difference for someone starting out on the web.
The company’s custom control panel isn’t bad. It offers all of the expected features and has some nice add-ons that aren’t typically found in control panels. Most of the features, including billing, can be easily managed via the control panel, which has one login.
The control panel features a whole bunch of tools ranging from blog systems (a custom WordPress install) to web site builders to statistics programs and everything in between. Most of the little applications are pretty user friendly and will easily serve the needs of a newbie or an average web site owner. Each one has its own customization options and can be customized to a certain extent.
In my tests, FTP access was pretty quick and problem free. 1&1 likes to assign every install and many folders an odd series of letters and numbers as identifiers. This annoyed me personally, but was easy enough to get used to and understand.
Getting used to the control panel is not difficult. After a few minutes of playing around with, I was able to get a good idea of how it worked and was up and running. If you aren’t sure how to do something, 1&1 offers a lot of in-depth help articles and tutorials. I was able to get answers to a majority of my simple questions by looking at these documents.
Would I use 1&1 personally? No. Would I recommend them to a new web site owner who was just looking to get started and didn’t want to spend too much money? Most likely. As they say, you get what you pay for – and with 1&1, there is definitely a lot of value for your $20 a year.
Bottomline: For people new to the world of web site creation and hosting, 1&1 is a solid choice if your web site is not mission critical
Pros: Powerful control panel with lots of features, inexpensive pricing, useful marketing tools
Cons: Lack of customer service, some sneaky terms in ordering process
Rating: 
–Review and testing by Douglas Hanna for Clickfire
Visit 1&1.com
December 7th, 2007
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January 7th, 2008
This is a warning to anyone considering using 1and1 for dedicated server hosting.
We signed up for two servers with 1and1, and we were working on the assumption that 1and1 support is almost non existant (Which is very true).
We are Microsoft Gold Partners, and have extensive OS and hardware experience.
I signed up on the basis we would not need 1and1 support for anything other than a physical hardware fault.
When we had a physical hardware fault it took 1and1 3 days ! to replace a stick of memory.
When the server came back the OS had somehow been corrupted.
The 1and1 windows recovery system didnt work (1and1 suggested we use a linux emergency recovery), but as we have no linux experience this was about as much use as a chocolate teapot.
The Serial console access, also didn’t allow us to press f8 for DS restore mode or safe mode (from which we could have recovered the OS).
(essentially rendering the serial console access useless).
So all the “safety features” 1and1 offered didnt work correctly, essentially leaving us with one option and that was to do a clean install of the OS, (Which fortunately does work from 1and1 control panel).
we now have a day or so’s work to recover the server just because the 1and1 service is so bad. so all in all 3 days + downtime for our customers.
My complaint to 1and1 customer support was never answered (2 months+)
There is no online ticket system to track issues.
If you leave an issue with 1and1 support they will not resolve the problem.
If you call regularily to get problems resolved you might as well be speaking with a monkey , as you would get a similar response.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS , YES THEY ARE CHEAP BUT you will pay for it in customer dissatisfaction (Unless this server is going to be used for something completely non critical – ie you can wait up to 1 week for it to be fixed , and you have the time to rebuild the server whenever there is an OS issue.
(I did research before signing up, and thought that due to our technical skills and experience we could ignore the support issues with 1and1 but this was not the case as there are times when hands on server access is needed (especially when most of the 1and1 tools offered for server recovery do not work).
You have been warned.
February 2nd, 2008
This company will charge you for the service that they did not provide. Even if you would like to cancel the next day after you have been charged they will not allow this. This company has the worst customer service that I have seen in US. They do not care about the customer. They only care only about there revenues and profits. This is not the way to build the company.
February 12th, 2008
Pricing on 1and1.co.uk is quite good but I cannot begin to tell you how many problems I have had with the CUSTOMER SUPPORT. They are based in the Philipines and that would be fine except that
- they don’t understand English very well and so have trouble understanding you and expressing themselves
- they read scripted answers and cannot function if you ask them anything complicated
- they stammer and use unnecessesarily long phrases that sound polite to them but are a waste of time for a busy customer who is frustrated and needs a quick solution instead of fluff
It’s terrible! This may sound petty but when your business depends on it, it really matters! To top it all off, one of their staff members was very rude to me yesterday. When I asked if if he was sure about something he was telling me, he said, “I have been working here for 2 years so don’t tell me what to do.” – all because I asked him if he is sure my webspace isn’t 100gb instead of 8gb! When I asked to speak to supervisor he insisted on knowing what my nationality was! Ridiculous. I am this close to taking my business elsewhere.
February 29th, 2008
I have used 1and1.com for several years and can confirm that their support has become worse over that time. For me, I am comfortable using their hosted solutions, because I’ve never encountered a critical issue that required their assistance to resolve. Most of my concerns have been related to getting additional PHP modules installed (which they won’t do…). I might be hesitant to have a dedicated box with them, for the reasons cited by Scott. That said, the low costs and broad features are a bonus to my clients, who are small businesses looking for cost savings.
March 4th, 2008
When it comes to cancellation, 1and1 won’t do it, I even sent a request and said that I followed their directions to cancel one of the services, but I still got billing. I refuse to pay for the service I’d like to cancel. 1and1 shut down all my services, including the one I already pay and still under contract for a few more months… I ask them how about just shutting down the one that I’d like to cancel instead since I don’t want service. They refuse to do it and kept shutting down all services have.
March 17th, 2008
DO NOT BE FOOLED BY ONE AND ONE! They are a shame of company and a terrible service provider! They trick the pubilc with their giant glossy ads, and their claim to be “#1″; the reality is that they are only interested in trapping new clients, not maintaining existing clients with even a mediocre level of service.
If you think I am being too subjective here you’re wrong! I had the service for years, so as you can imagine I have some really negative things to say. They do not provide anywhere even close to even 95% uptime, that is an outright lie! Email with one and one is unreliable, so if you need a strong email solution DO NOT USE 1AND1, your business will be affected. But their horrible customer service, and their unethical business practices with regards to accounting are by far their worst offenses. The humans behind the US operation do not care if you do business with them or not because they already have your money; so they will provide little or no help when there is a problem, all the while being the rudest, most unsympathic, and demeaning people that you have ever dealt with in a business environment(the two supervisors are absolutly awful people).
I have come to the conclusion that there is no oversight for this little hole-in-the-wall operation. The corporate office is in Germany, so it makes sense why the US office acts with such contempt for their customers, there is absolutly no accountability. The US offshoot of 1and1 is run out of a office suite in some random pennsylvania town, by a handful of unethical people. Don’t bother complaining either, your email goes straight to them. The same people who you might be complaining about, filter the emails, and in their words,”decide which ones are vaild, and get seen to Germany”! Can you believe it! Here’s the point, i have taken time out of my life to write this for the hope that I may prevent someone from experiencing what i have experienced. If you are looking for a web host, and you are an honest, self-respecting individual, who needs an honest, hardworking, and friendly service provider DO NOT use 1and1.com. It is almost too easy to find a better service! DONT GIVE THEM ONE CENT OF YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY!!!
March 18th, 2008
Honestly I’ve never had any problems with 1&1. I don’t have a dedicated server and I have used them for hosting numerous sites. When ever I have needed to cancel a package or domain, I never had any issues. I know they can have some problems with their dedicated servers but with their shared servers, no problems ever.
March 19th, 2008
BOTTOM LINE 1 AND 1 IS S#@%!
THEY CHARGED ME $7880 FOR A SERVICE I CANT USE!
THEY RUINED MY CREDIT!!!
March 19th, 2008
What was the service that 1&1 charged you such a huge amount of cash for?
March 20th, 2008
mar2008 and the pirate ship 1+1 sails merrily on, pillage in its wake.
i think i’ll cut my loses here and not waste any more time “arguing” with them.
March 22nd, 2008
I’ve been using 1and1 since May/2006 or for 1 year and 10 months. I have 7 domains and 8 subdomains hosted with them.
The biggest website I have hosted there is 860 meg (14,000 files in 370 folders) and the others are somewhat smaller.
I have lots of picture albums, a movie database (Access), and use ASP pages.
I used Front Page and now MS Expression Web (New Front Page). All the Hosts I’ve used (including 1and1) have some issue with FP and extensions, however I have had the last problems with 1and1. The issue is Front Page and the number of files you are publishing.
The Good:
- Found them to be reliable (100% uptime in 2008)
- Only one minor insident in all of 2007
- Addons okay (better than nothing)
- Inexpensive (using Microsoft Home for around $60 / yr)
- Paying sem-annually at 29.94 each six months
- Least expensive host offfering ASP
- No support issues however didn’t use more than once
The Bad:
- Cannot use FTP when site has Front Page extension enabled
- Front Page extensions enables all domains (All or nothing)
- Strange naming of accounts and email (changed since last year, more like the other hosts)
Conclusion:
- I’ve had the best experience of several other hosts that I’ve tried.
- No issues with up time
- No issues with email (via Outlook and web)
- My sites are for home use and not high bandwidth usage, on Microsoft servers and am very happy.
- Note that 1and1 has 6 million customers so it’s normal to have some disatisfied ones and usually the satisfied customers don’t express themselves in these forums, so for once I thought I should write something.
- I have three other friends using the 1and Hosting and are all satisfied.
-Sent one request for help on July 17, 2007 received an answer on July 18, 2007 (Within 24 hours).
- For your home site this is best and this price point that I’ve found with loads of space and fast enough.
Actual SiteUpTime as of today March 21, 2008.
Since: July 22, 2007
Outages: 5
Total Uptime: 99.924%
Last Check: March 22, 2008 at 10:42 AM PST+3.0
Year Outages Uptime
2008 0 100.000%
Year Month Outages Uptime Downtime
2008 March 0 100.000% 0.000%
2008 February 0 100.000% 0.000%
2008 January 0 100.000% 0.000%
Average response time: 0.108 seconds
March 22nd, 2008
Stephen, I like the way you recorded the outages/uptime/downtime and summarized the good and bad. Gives some valuable insight into 1&1′s performance. Thanks for reporting this.
March 28th, 2008
1&1 is a joke!
Terrible service..Bad website.. Bad customer service..Even BAD Collection agency!
I registered a domain with 1&1 for a year. I let the domain expire..However 1&1 auto-renewed it..One day I got two mails from their collection agency – NCO Financial.
I talked to 1&1 to let them know that I didn’t want to renew the domain, but apparently their policy is to auto-renew the domains. This was not at all apparent in the sign-up process. Customer service was not at all helpful..
So, I got stuck with two bills to pay – $29.99 for the auto-renewal (that I didn’t want) and $18.95 as a collection fee! I called the collection agency number and it took me 4 tries over a matter of few hours to have finally someone pick up the phone! Then they wanted $7.95 as extra fee if I used a credit card!! I downright refused..The only way to not have the $7.95 fee is to use a check, which is what I am doing now.
ABSOLUTELY AVOID 1&1.
April 14th, 2008
This company tried to charge me almost $100 for domain registrations three months AFTER I transferred my (fully paid up) domains to godaddy. The charge didn’t go through because the card they tried to use had been cancelled in June of 2007. They tried to tell me I owed them money and when I refused to pay their bogus invoice, they sent my account to a collection agency! No, I am not kidding, they charged me for 2007 (no problem) but then they tried to charge me for 2008, three months after I transferred my domains to a different registrar. Be warned, if they tried to do it to me, they probably have gotten away with it many times. My attorney is handling it now and I intend to sue these people for as much as I can get.
April 15th, 2008
Have hosted my own for years, tired of doing it all, so i
hosted with 1and1.com , my mistake. Got it all set up
friday and it was all down for 45 mins Monday. They double
bill you as well for sql access that came with thier servie.
Cant php localhost sendmail, though they say I can up to
1000 a day, the web response time is sluggish at best,
people wind up posting twice, this is worse lag than when
I hosted the site from my dsl with it’s massive 512k up.
The domain transfer was easy enough and thier site is
easy enough to use for anyone.
If you have a SMALL website with no feature or frills and
you are lucky enough to get on a solid server then have
a good hosting life, otherwise you’ll be like the rest of us
and sadly dissapointed with their services.
NOTE: I’ve been told they have some good servers and bad servers, so , you got a 50-50 shot of having a good service
or bad one. This of course is unacceptable for my website to
be hit and miss. I need it up 24/7. Bye 1and1
April 15th, 2008
Hope and Hugh, you are talking about the 1&1 domain registration service. This review covers the web hosting service. Any comments on hosting that you want to share?
April 15th, 2008
On Sunday 1&1 customer service walked me through setting up imap on my Outlook. Then he had me go into the 1&1 control panel and change my password. Immediately all 400 of my emails for my contracting company disappeared. I’m moving my domains and website to a much better company. STAY AWAY FROM 1&1. I have many other complaints but I won’t bother to list them.
April 17th, 2008
Below are some complaints I sent to 1&1 after a very frustrating and trying experience with their company over the past week in 2008. As soon as my accounts are unlocked, I will be moving all hosted domains to another company. I have never had such poor customer service nor have I ever felt so helpless and frustrated. I have recommended numerous people to 1&1 and now am forwarding this to them as well. 1&1 has been a wonderful company to me up until this last week when I had to deal with their customer service. This is the letter I will also be sending to the US main office as well as United Internet in Germany. Hopefully they’ll take this information and change their system so this never happens again. Read below:
To Whom It May Concern,
Friday, April 11, 2008, I was baffled to learn three of my domains were not only delinquent but 1&1 had sent me to collections and locked my account. My credit card had been stolen in 2007 and I had forgotten to update the card on the account. I am a web designer and currently hold over 70 domains with 1&1 and my business also has a business server.
I have never worked with a domain and Internet provider that didn’t try an alternative method of contact about upcoming payment or delinquency. I think sending me to collection over $16 was a bit unnecessary. Even more troubling is I have over $400 in charges coming up in May that would have been billed to the same incorrect card had this incident not occurred. I have a client rolling out a City website that is one of the sites delinquent. They want to launch at their board a week from today as well as go live to the public. The web designer working on this site was trying to get in to the account today and that’s the ONLY reason I had found out there was an issue.
After calling 1&1 and explained my predicament, I was given a code to call a collections agency to take care of the $16 late fee plus charges for being late. I immediately called the collections agency to pay the bill and she promptly gave me a confirmation number and told me to call 1&1 back and give them the confirmation code.
Upon calling 1&1, I explained my situation again to the service rep which said he could not help. I was told I would have to wait 3-4 business days before the account would be unlocked. I asked for a manager and I was rudely greeted when he got on the phone. Actually, no greeting was given at all. “Is this about the 4 day business day policy?” he barked. Later I realized the service rep (Josh) had not honored my request to speak with a manager.
I told Josh I had no idea why I had never received 1&1’s emails regarding the three default accounts but I asked Josh if he could update my email account online because I was afraid the other large amount of domains I held was already behind as well. Very curtly he let me know not only would he not change my email, he would also not change my credit card information to ensure it was updated. I was traveling in Sacramento and did not have all the 1&1 account information with me. I would not be able to change any of my information until I returned from my trip.
I had the great pleasure of telling my client they’d be locked out until next week possibly ONE day before their release. The 1&1 staff had absolutely no sympathy for the situation and was no help. 1&1 also informed me that they were no longer “required” to take the confirmation numbers from the credit agency and would not assist me in getting the account unlocked. I took this to mean that Josh could have helped me, but he didn’t feel like it and I deserved what I got for going delinquent. He also told me he couldn’t give me his last name because it wasn’t “policy.”
Shortly after we ended our conversation, an email survey was sent to me regarding my experience with customer service and Josh’s entire name was listed in the email. I gave the service poor ratings and pasted the above in the email survey.
I’ve been a big advocate of 1&1 for some time now and have referred several clients. I was about to move over another 50+ domains from IPowerWeb. I will now start looking for a new home for all of my accounts and I will never refer your company again. Furthermore, this letter will be sent to all of my clients that I have referred to you to warn them of your customer service.
I’ve been in the service industry for some time and the way I was treated today was unacceptable. I’m sure you deal with a lot of dead beats in your business that just are lazy and don’t pay their bills. I have never been one of those people and I don’t appreciate being treated like one over an honest oversight. Especially from a company that didn’t do all it could have done to avoid this situation.
I’ve been on the phone twice with your staff today as well as the credit agency. Now I will spend further time sending this via mail to several people on the 1&1 staff as well as United Internet AG including Andreas Gauger, Ann Marie Tropiano, Ralph Dommermuth, and Norbert Lang in hopes this never happens to another customer. I had been very impressed with your company until today. I’d hate for another consumer to have the same experience.
A simple letter or a phone call from 1&1 would have saved us all time and money. Both my mailing address and phone number, by the way, were correct on my account. Now I have the issue of restoring my perfect credit thanks to 1&1 which will require AMEX verifying the stolen card with the credit agency.
For your future customers, I hope 1&1 reconsiders its policies and considers sending out a late notice via standard mail or a phone call if someone goes delinquent. For us in the web industry who handle multiple domains and several clients, it’s not always easy and this seems like a simple courtesy that saves everyone grief, time and money. If email is the only way 1&1 plans on contacting customers, please allow a second alternative email address so it has two chances to reach a customer should one go bad or change. This could very possibly save this from ever happening again. And please consider changing your three to four day restart policy. This practice seems unnecessary, unproductive, and frustrating. It’s done nothing but make sure I never want to work with 1&1 again.
Update: Monday, April 14, 2008
Today I called the credit agency again and wanted to make sure the charge went through and to check and make sure this didn’t go on my credit report. I’m extremely anal about my credit and looking to buy a house this year.
The gentleman confirmed that my account had been billed and everything should be set to go. I wish someone would have let me know it was not a reporting agency. I stressed a lot over the weekend.
When I got back into town from Sacramento, I had a letter from the credit agency telling me of the delinquent account. I wish I would have got one from 1&1 a few months prior letting me know to update my account before sending me to the collection agency.
Update: Thursday, April 17, 2008
Thursday, April 17th I was still nervous because the account had yet to be unlocked and my client was sending me emails asking the status. I called 1&1 to see what was happening. While I was on hold waiting for a manager, I looked at my bank statement to be sure it had charged my account.
Sure enough my account had been charged April 14th for around $46 and it showed an origination date of the charge at April 11th. I told the rep the situation and she passed me on immediately to a manager. The manager (Ian) informed me that the account had still not been paid and he said he even logged in to the NCOF’s (credit agency) system and it showed it hadn’t been paid. That would have been nice if they would have checked that when I called them Friday after I paid and wanted them to check with the confirmation code.
As you can imagine I was again baffled and upset. I told him I had even called 1&1 back Monday to confirm with the confirmation number that 1&1 refused to take it down. I had discarded the envelope I wrote the confirmation number on while I was in the car.
Once again I was told I had to call NCOF with the code given by 1&1. I asked if I could have his direct extension and if he could help me have this fixed so my client could have access by tomorrow morning. He said he could get it turned on in the morning as Germany would get the request early as long as I could get this fixed with NCOF. He feared that NCOF had charged the wrong account!
Off I go to NCOF once again. I give NCOF the number 1&1 gave me and sure enough it shows I had not paid. I told the woman I had my online statement in front of me and even a number attached to the charge. There was no record that I had ever called and she couldn’t find the charge. I was given another number at another department at NCOF to call.
Now I arrive at a separate department and speak with Mr. Williams. He is as baffled as I am and we start digging into the system. Come to find out, either 1&1 had given me the wrong number or I had written the number down incorrectly. My payment went to another delinquent account!
I found this extremely upsetting since she asked to verify my name and I believe my address before we even started. How could my bank debit card get charged under a completely different name? How could my address mismatch not be caught? I don’t know who to be upset with here about the charge. I dare not call Citibank as they would freeze the account and cause even more problems.
I explained to Mr. Williams my predicament with my client and I need his help. He tells me to fax my bank statement over along with a note stating what we had discussed on the phone. I did and the fax was sent 2:50 PST. I figured I would call Ian and tell him it was in the works and perhaps have him speak to Mr. Williams so he knew what was going on.
I wait for the fax to go through and print out the fax receipt and started trying to call Mr. Williams back to ensure the fax had gone through. I keep getting a voice message saying they’d call me back and to leave a message. The third time I finally left a message and wanted to tell Ian so he could set things straight in their system and set things up for the unlock Friday morning.
I dial the 1&1 number and enter Ian’s extension.
“The billing department is now closed. Normal business hours are from 8-5 EST.”
As you can imagine my stomach dropped. Ian had not informed me about the time difference and I am not sure I he had set up for the unlock to go through.
I called NCOF again only this time I call the original number and ask them what happened to the other department. She informed me they too are on EST and would not be until morning!
1&1 nor NCOF had told me we were on a time crunch. Ian made it sound like he would set up the unlock if I got back to him with the info from NCOF. I had sent Mr. Williams a personal bank statement and was now unable to verify if he even received the fax. I was under the impression that both were available and willing to finally help. They were not.
I had even asked for Ian’s extension and I couldn’t even reach his voice mail.
I am so flustered and angry that my card was charged to someone else’s account and that 1&1’s staff couldn’t take the time to help me out when it was obviously important. I only spend $2,000 with 1&1 per year which I know is not much. But I have never been treated so poorly as a customer. Just once in my whole experience, I wish I were treated the same way the people I was dealing with would like to be treated (especially from management).
As soon as I can get my accounts cleared I will be moving my entire portfolio elsewhere before you can charge me for the other 70 domains I have with your company. Even after I sent the past review, I received zero contact from 1&1 regarding this matter.
The last note I sent had a few suggestions as I hate people who just complain and never offer any solutions. I think I’ve run out of constructive ideas and I don’t feel anyone on the other side would listen anyway. 1&1 is an excellent company to work with unless you really need their help.
I am completely helpless at this point and I have let me client down. I feel horrible. They’re upset but not nearly as upset as I am. I have spent numerous hours dealing with this issue and now I will spend a few more taking the time to move all my accounts.
For all you readers, make sure you keep numbers handy for any domain accounts you may have and keep your credit card current. You have absolutely no control of your experience if you go delinquent. I realize that going delinquent was my fault. I’ve been in school and working full time. I never expected to have the truly horrific experience I had with these two companies over $16 and a stolen credit card.
April 19th, 2008
Wow, that’s quite a story, Aaron. Thanks for sharing and please let us know things turn out for you and your clients.
April 25th, 2008
Our company uses 1and1 for all email (450 mobile employees) and we’ve been down all day today (4/25/08) and they have no idea when we will be back up. This is the second time (December ’07 was the other) that we’ve been down for a full day!!! We’re a mobile company and we can’t use email or our Blackberry’s! The other major risk is that we will probably loose all the communications from today….
We’re switching to another provider as fast as we can get it done….
April 29th, 2008
@freenah: Don’t be stupid, if you are a technical support rep, you don’t use scripts, you use your knowledge. hello??
May 5th, 2008
I’ve been fighting with these thieves for six months trying to transfer a domain name away from them. They only seem to have two tech support reps, both of whom are in the phillipines. My grandfather kicked their **** ***** in world war 2, and I want to go over and do it again now.
May 19th, 2008
ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. Do not go with 1and1.
My sites go down twice a week.
Customer service ppl have no idea what they are talking about
Have been denied speaking to a supervisor
Absolutely horrible, it was my biggest mistake being with 1and 1
DO NOT GO WITH THEM!!! two thumbs down.
May 20th, 2008
I do not agree with Jason. My site is up and running for three years and I have only ’1′ site down case in all these years which was very promptly recovered.
June 6th, 2008
AVOID 1AND1 AT ALL COSTS!
Their hosting is extremely slow, constantly has outages AND they sent me to a collection agency after I canceled my account! I recommend anyone that cares about their website and credit history to AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS!
June 13th, 2008
as Hope mentioned above, and everyone else here, AVOID 1and1 at all costs!
the credit card I had on file with 1and1 was expired so they processed my renewal anyway and then sent me to a collection agency. My domains expired 4 months ago but 1and1 decided to renew them on my expired card.. how ridiculous is that?
I still want the domains and i need access to my DNS now but they’ve locked my account so I paid $18.95 admin fee plus $20 for the renewal of my domains 4 business days ago and every day 1and1 tells me 1 more business day before they will open my account. its been a week and I still dont have access to it
July 8th, 2008
Please stay away from 1and1.com
They have sent a number of current accounts to a VERY VERY bad collections company that has numerious violations with the FTC. Not a very nice company to do business with.
July 11th, 2008
I was unhappy with Assurance Hosting and planned to move my web site to 1&1. I didn’t get around to it before assurance hosting went belly up leaving me in a lurch. 1&1 emailed me at my email address that no longer worked (because of assurance hosting) and I never received their renewal. They automatically renewed and I received a letter from their bill collector. I called them and asked why they couldn’t have mailed me a bill like their bill collector did. their answer was “It’s not their policy.”
I offered to pay the money I owed, but they wanted two $29 penalties too. I explained that I would pay the back payment and the forward payment and no fines or they could have nothing. They choose nothing. I was told my credit rating would be affected. Well maybe their credibility will be affected now.
So far my experience with GoDaddy support has been excellent.
July 14th, 2008
4 days later and my website is still down. A simple corruption in an SQL database and nobody can fix it. After 2 days I was told delete it and re set it up. I did that 2 days ago. The deletion worked but the status or the new set up is still “setting up”. Calling tech support is useless. They read from a script the same thing over and over again. If its more than they can handle they have to email it to an admin. Today, the 4th day they told me the Admins couldn’t fix it and only 10 minutes ago forwarded the problem to their Microsoft support team. This is for their developers package which is supposed to have better tech support. They can not give me a time frame of when it will be back up and this is for an e-commerce site. After spending hours on the phone and wasting my time, I have nothing to show for it but frustrations. I can’t even get in contact with anyone who can help. No way to contact admins directly and even their complaints is email only. They are completely incompetent for support.
July 16th, 2008
Thanks everyone for giving me heads up before I signed up for this place.. Everyone has their downs, but I’m going to go continue my journey looking for a place to park for a long time tata
August 28th, 2008
It’s true: AVOID 1and1 at all costs.
If you’re in any doubt just do a little research on Google, but please read up on this company and their awful business practices before you are tempted to go with them. There are few good words to be said of them anywhere. I also speak from personal experience.
You’ll be glad you took the time to look elsewhere.
August 28th, 2008
So sad, I should have seen those warning before. I signed up for a domain name last month, I paid my first year fee via Paypal. Now I decide to transfer my domain to another web hosting.
How do I avoid those problems with cancellation? How do I cancel my account without being reported to collection agency or being charged cancellation fee?
If I tell them 2 months before I cancel my account, would that help? Or they will close my account right away and ignore the remaining time in my contract?
Please help, thanks in advance
August 30th, 2008
User,
Simply stay away from this company. Complete fraud company. Guranteed you will not be able to cancel the service. you will be stuck. you will continue to receive billing after you canceled the service.
Remember, if you are their customer. move now..
Remember, I told you so. Do be another victim.
September 10th, 2008
Right now, I’m dealing with 5 sites that are being redirected through a number of malware sites, and 1&1 support have not been to resolve satisfactorily after a week of trying. I republish the sites and the redirects go away for awhile only to return.
I suspect their shared servers have been hacked which is corrupting my base code but they aren’t talking.
Any ideas on what to do next?
John
September 11th, 2008
John, Have you checked your .htaccess file to see if the redirects appear there? I’m assuming you’re using 1&1 Linux hosting.
September 18th, 2008
1and1 Sucks: 1&1 Will Rip You Off
they the worst customer service i ever had
September 23rd, 2008
One and One has terrible customer service.
I tried canceling my account over the phone. The rep told me it was complete, but then three weeks later I get a call from a COLLECTION AGENCY telling me that I have an unpaid bill from 1&1. I get in touch with 1&1, who says that they have no record of me canceling, and that i will now have to pay a membership fee for a website they already canceled, and a collection agency fee.
They are terrible. Pay the extra $3 for another service.
September 23rd, 2008
1and1 is a complete nightmare of a hosting company. Their IT staff has to be the most inept, unqualified staff to every be hired anywhere. The webmail goes down daily, for hours. If you want to speak to someone other than a CS rep in India, good luck. I’ve been trying to switch hosting companies, but my mail and everything else is never up long enough to back everything up. Stay away from 1and1 or you will be sorry. I think the the numbers 1and1 stand for how many times a day your service will function properly and how many minutes you will go consecutively without running into a problem.
September 23rd, 2008
HORRIBLE HOSTING COMPANY!
Downtime King. My business package goes down every other week, I already have these guy’s phone number on speed dial because I have to call so often regarding down time. Absolutely horrible customer service and its unacceptable.
September 29th, 2008
This is horrible. I am sorry for what everyone who had a bad experience had to go through. I am glad I read this before signing up with 1&1!
October 13th, 2008
1 and 1 has non existent monitoring services and their developers slow to react and resolve.
I use their email marketing service for readers to subscribe to my newsletter.
I spent 75 dollars so far on PPC and 30 dollars on directory submissions.
Unfortunately, there were a lot of visitors to my site last weekend but the email marketing tool was down so they could not subscribe to my newsletter. Instead they received an error message.
I have sent more than 3 emails and I get the usual fluff from support about how sorry they are blah.
A critical component of their site was down the whole weekend and continuing into the weekday and they have not done anything…
This is a wakeup call.
1 and 1 can’t be trusted for anything more serious than a static one page website
October 20th, 2008
Well I see that I am not the only one that feels they are useless and incapable of giving any real support. Only been with them a few months and it has been continuous battling with web site slowing down unable to connect to database and then all I can get from them is when they tried it was up. For F-sake the fringing fault is intermittent what part of this don’t they understand? I have reached the stage I don’t even have to read the replies to my tickets as they are all the same copied and pasted off a whole lot I would expect. If the problem reported is A use b1 reply I can just see it. So now the battle comes to cancel my account by the looks of it
October 21st, 2008
run from 1and1 —- don’t fall for their marketing schemes, the software they give away is complete junk, they suck, they will over bill you, there is no support and when there is it is BAD SUPPORT, BAD BILLING, BAD SERVICE.
1and1 Internet SUCKS, they are the worst, run away!
December 3rd, 2008
I have been with them for years and have had a few run ins. Like the people above I was also charged for things I never signed up for. An SSL certificate being one of them. I caught it and after a couple phone calls and a month or so the money was returned to me.
Also as listed above their customer support is pretty bad. Expect to be on hold for on average 15mins before you are connected with someone. Also their agents don’t speak English very well or understand what you are explaining to them.
I have stuck with them so long because my hosting is like $36 per YEAR (2.99 per month). I understand somethings are going to suck for that price. Most years due to some people I know going with them I have made commission to cover 1/2 or all of my hosting fees.
My major issue with them now is there email features. I get daily “Spam Notifications” (which are spam themselves) which there is no way to shut off pretty annoying. Also though trying several times to hook my webmail to a mail client (Outlook and Thunderbird) I failed. After having them access my computer they we’re unable to get it to work either. Their webmail is very slow (which is all I can use now) you click a message, and your message pops up UNDER the current mail window for me. It can be a real pain to check your email. There are several redirect scripts so more clicking and waiting.
If the cost of your hosting is most important to you, then they are a fair option. But quite honestly, if you have some extra change laying around your house, convenience wise you would be better to go elsewhere.
Go Daddy is by far the worst company I have ever dealt with though. Extremely uneducated, people working there.
December 3rd, 2008
Do yourself a favor. Do not assume that negative posters are telling you the whole story. DO you believe everything you read or see on TV? Yes you need to choose your host carefully, but you can call 1&1 and ask as many questions as you want BEFORE you buy. That’s what I would do.
I am always amused by “haters”. You try getting 7 million customers without upsetting a few. Do not delude yourself, any and all problems you might read about here or might have with 1&1 can happen at ANY web hosting company.
With any company, billing problems usually arise because the client doesn’t read the T&C’s, don’t understand what they are buying, don’t ask questions before purchasing, and more often than not, do not keep their own billing information (cr. card/email) up to date. They expect that their finaicial obligation will just “go away” if they don’t pay their bill or update their info. Try that one on the phone company, or a home mortgage company.
OK support issue. Do you expect 1st level techs to fix your scripts or programming for you or debug your site. I will admit that support seems to be the achilles heel of so many companies. Get someone good on the phone and they are your savior, get someone not so good, and you are tempted to curse the day they were born. Again, this can happen with any company.
If haters spent half as much energy complaining about really important things like poverty, disease, global warming, social injustice, then maybe the world would be a better place.
I guess haters look for ‘validation’ from others which is easy to get,; while those who are happy with something don’t have the time to say so…they are to busy being successful and happy.
All that being said, I still like clickfire. I still respect the right of others to have and express their own opinions. However, inflamatory scare tactics and exaggerated half-truths do not do justice to the commenters or to this site. Too bad the millions of happy 1&1 customers aren’t here to counter your complaints.
Just my .02
Rob H.
December 3rd, 2008
12manywierdos, I appreciate your comments. It seems you don’t hear much from the happy millions. It is very tempting to disallow extreme negative comments. I want to show other points of view. I am guessing that most people who are trying to make a hosting choice will judge all the comments as a whole. With some of the more fiery reactions, I get sense that people are letting their emotions get the best of them. I totally understand that because there is nothing that gets me more upset than a hosting outage!
December 8th, 2008
Agreed. Never a good time to have a website or server go down. I just hope reader’s will understand that the vocal minority of ‘haters’ does not represent the millions of happy and satified customers the 1&1 claims to have.
I have seen a few negative commenters, who seem to crusade against 1and1, by posting the same story on different sites, with no one from 1&1 jumping in to clarify, deny or confirm the claims. Guess 1&1 folks must prefer just to let people vent their frustration.
I will continue to be a clickfire reader, and appreciate your pretty even handed review of the companies you write about. It just seemed a shame to have your hard work diluted by a bunch of nay-sayers.
I doubt this company, 1and1 can be perfect for everyone, but it seems overall that they are great for the majority who choose them. I even have some domains with them, and am thinking of getting a hosting plan for a smallish site I wnat to launch soon. I will go with your positive recommendation, instead of only listening to the moaners and groaners.
Thx!
December 11th, 2008
Just stumbled on this thread, I don’t normally post things but feel I should here.
I’m a bit surprised by some of the tales above, I wonder if 1&1 in the USA are somehow offering a significantly poorer service than 1&1 in the UK. I always thought they would be very similar, I’m not well versed on the technical aspect of hosting.
I’ve used 1&1.co.uk for years to host a variety of domains, some smaller brochure sites, some with MySQL backends. I moved to them after getting fed up with a small outfit I was using having constant downtime. They said ‘You’ll be back’ at the time, but that’s never crossed my mind in three years – I never get any downtime on the sites or the e-mails.
Any time I’ve had to use the (free) telephone service for tech support (for things like the cancellations, which to be fair, isn’t obvious, and some htaccess questions etc) they’ve sorted me out quickly and politely. Even if they do have Indian accents, which I don’t care about and find it sad that others do.
Anyway, thats my 2p – Perfectly happy with them, inexpensive and more importantly I never get a single complaint from my customers due to ‘things not working’.
December 28th, 2008
To UK1&1Customer
I am with you. 1and1.com (US version of 1and1.co.uk) has provided me with plenty of space to host many small sites within the same hosting plan. The few times I have had to work with their support people, most of my questions were answered and they seemed very willing to help.I did one time get a young man who seememd to read from a script, but maybe he was still in training, I don’t know.
I have no plans to move away from 1&1, and now thanks to clickfire, I’m gonna go turn on the free domain privacy I heard about here. I totally didn’t realize 1&1 gave this for free! I got hosed on Privacy fees at another ‘nameless’ but large registrar.
Thanks clickfire for letting even those of us who are happy with a service to post. Most of the forums I have seen, on seem to attract angry posters.
December 31st, 2008
Latest review of 1&1: http://www.DomainFlipBlog.com
February 6th, 2009
It’s hard to express just how bad 1and1 is. I’m at the point of pulling all my clients from them. we’ve had a sharepoint site down for almost 3 days so far with no end in sight. Customer service is something that even Kafka could not imagine.
March 3rd, 2009
1and1 is really poorly run and they just nickle and dime you for everything. Try to make you pay more. If you dont they will threaten you about collections and cancelling your account immediately.
March 9th, 2009
Three stars is quite generous. The longer you’re with 1&1 and the more you notice their downtime. What good is a server if you can’t access it.
March 18th, 2009
this company is unethical and is a huge scam. after trying to cancel my account several times via email, and then refusing to give them my updated credit card number to they could continue to charge me without my permission–they sent my account to a collection agency without telling me. they are HORRIBLE. please do not use them.
April 2nd, 2009
Echoing what everyone else said here, 1&1 is terrible and should be avoided… I signed up for a domain name for 1 year and after the year was up I get letters in the mail from a collection agency for the 2nd year domain name charge and an additional late fee charge. I only signed up for 1 year and it never asked me if I wanted to do recurring billing. The emails I got after it expired were asking me if I wanted to renew the account and I didn’t respond because I didn’t want to and the credit card expired, 1&1 is a total scam and I better stop talking now before the swear words come out…
April 17th, 2009
I wouldn’t use 1&1 if they were the last provider on earth! I’ve just found myself in a situation where my web-designer had a dispute with 1&1, & despite the fact that I offered to pick up the bill for my individual web-site, 1&1 SHUT DOWN MY WEBSITE! In order for them to reactivate my site, I am responsible for ensuring that my web-designer pays HIS BILL, not just for my site, but for many others. If he fails to, then my web-domain is locked for 1 YEAR!!!! I’m responsible for ensuring that a 3rd party acts in order to be able to keep my own website live! No matter how cheap they are, don’t do it! You’ll regret it, because you’ll lose your webdomain!
April 27th, 2009
OK, just to add my own comments about 1and1 Internet:
The original review appears to two years old. My experience is far more recent. I currently have one of their dedicated servers, Titan Linux, and I get excellent support and extremely reliable service. Clicking on my name will take you to one of our higher-traffic sites, and you’ll see that it works just great.
Why is their support getting a bad rap? Well, support for the shared service is based at their Philippines office, and is strictly Tier 1. So their are limits to the knowledge they display. Dedicated support in the U.S. is based at their headquarters near Philadelphia.
Certainly I accept that things can change on the long time, but right now, I have no complaints, and the price for the package, including features and the extremely high bandwidth allocated, is more than reasonable compared to most of the competition.
Peace,
Gene Steinberg
June 16th, 2009
I have found 1and1 to be a terrible web hosting service. They lure you in with a very cheap price then raise their rates and make it very hard to leave them. You can’t cancel your service through the control panel that you use for managing your account. That would make perfect sense. Instead, you have to write to customer service and hope that they respond to you (I had to write several times) with a separate website to log in to in order to cancel your account.
Also, you would think that they would stop charging you and just cut off your service if the credit card they have on file stops working. No, they would rather keep charging you for a few months before stopping service to your website and then send the bill to collections so that they can ruin your credit. I moved and hadn’t changed my billing address on their website and therefore didn’t receive the notice of the problems with my credit card. I had the money all along to pay the $40 bill and was perfectly willing to pay it. I tried contacting their customer support and they refused to help restore my credit score even though they were capable of doing so. This is the only bad mark on my credit reports: a $40 overdue bill from 1and1 that I had thought I was paying.
Stay away from 1and1. They do all in their power to wring money out of you and care very little about providing good service or being a company of integrity. My website wasn’t very fast and went down numerous times due to 1and1. I have read about other people having far worse problems with 1and1 than myself. Find a better web hosting service.
June 17th, 2009
I opened an account with this company about 2 months ago and as I did not get the service
I was expecting (access to MYsql) I cancelled the same day ( I thought that was it). After 15 days I
got charged to my paypal account I called and they told me that I
should get the refund in 7 days by bank wire (They sayd the could not refund my paypal account – company policy). Ok 12 day later I did not get
the money so I contact their billing department and they told me that due
to a system error the payment was not processed. So I have to wait another
7 days. A few days ago for my surprise I got a refund to my paypal
account , but today They have charge my again. I have talk to the billing department
and told me that they can’t stop the system and they will give me a refund
again in 7 days. Also the first advisor I spoke with she put the phone down
on me. They service is terrible and also when asking for a complaints dep. or a responsible, they don’t want to now. They pass the ball between departments
I won’t recommend this company to any one. I f you want cheap hosting godady.com is a lot better.
August 9th, 2009
I had used 1and1 shared hosting for a few years and found it reliable and competent–never really had a problem with them. I then moved to other shared hosts like Site5 and Hostmonster, both of which are very good, have more flexibility, and are cheaper–but have now found myself going with a 1and1 dedicated server. It’s great value, I can get a live person on the phone in their dedicated server tech support immediately, and the performance is great–100% up-time since setting it up 4 months ago. So, basically, I’m very happy with them. I’ve spoken with the tech support folks about 4 times in that time–mostly for issues that end up being problems my end rather than theirs, and they’ve been courteous and knowledgeable and have solved my problem with answered my question then and there.
August 12th, 2009
1and1 is the worst internet provider! They treat their customers like trash. They are great in the beginning and are very happy to take your money.. There are a lot of hidden fees and they won’t stop until they get every penny from you. They make it impossible to cancel your account!
Please beware. This is a big internet provider. Don’t be fooled by their name.
If at least one person doesn’t use them because of this, I’d be content.
August 14th, 2009
Absolutely do not use 1 and 1. They are tricky and try to make you pay for renewals even after you cancel. They also make the cancellation process hard to understand and charge you more for renewals than the initial domain. If you want to cancel go to cancel.1and1.com and make sure you get their follow up email and go through them otherwise your cancellation will not be completed.
September 10th, 2009
Wish I would have seen these reviews a year ago. Avoid 1&1 at all costs. I’ve been sent to collections due to a credit card expiring and they never contacted me to let me know. This is a common complaint I’m finding. I urge everyone to contact the Better Business Bureau bbb.org. Wow! Amazing business practices.
September 30th, 2009
1&1 is acceptable so long as you DO NOT WANT
–customer service
or
–technical support
When you do decide to transfer AWAY from them, they will put you through the most convuluted, frustrating and expensive campaign this professional has seen since he first started playing with his Tandy TRS-80 years ago.
STAY AWAY FROM 1&1. Choose a reputable company like Godaddy or Network Solutions. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THESE PEOPLE as the time spent untangling their mistakes, ommissions and refusal to help will far exceed any cost savings.
CHECK OUT their “F” rating on the better business bureau website (observed yesterday, 29 Sept. 2009).
September 30th, 2009
I received a collection letter in the mail out of nowhere from 1&1 communications. I was furious because I have not used them in several years not only that but I have never been billed for anything or had them make contact. I had purchased a domain name for $8.99 a year and so I figured I payed up front for it so when it expired and I didn’t renew it was no big deal because I figured how can a company charge me for a service I am not using or that they have not provided because you pay in advance. I was wrong they took me to collections for a service they have never provided. I will never use them again and this is not the way to do business. I have no problem paying if I owe something but to be blackmailed by sending my account to collections, is wrong. I also believe that more must be done to stop companies from just sending you to collection without proof and ruining your credit, they should have the burden of proof showing why they are sending you to collections.
October 5th, 2009
There’s nothing good to say about this host. HORRIBLE SERVICE!!!
it took 15 min and 3 people to cancel my account but after looking at other’s comments, I just hope it works. I experienced much problems with email service like not being able to access the server. with all these problems, I could only think the same must be true for the web host. tech support was of no use.
the customer should be first!!!
October 23rd, 2009
DO NOT GET YOUR DOMAIN WITH 1and1
I am very disappointed with their service. After waiting over 9 days, they still couldn’t change my name server. I had to give them 60 days before they could fix the problem. I called many times and sent many emails but it didn’t go anywhere.
Please pay little more and get your domain with a reliable company.
November 16th, 2009
Terrible internet hosting company!! They extend your contract without your knowledge and threaten to sue you if you don’t pay. Don’t get involved with this company or you will regret it.
November 20th, 2009
Thanks for the reviews in here. I was looking for a solution for a business site and this review has helped a lot.Good pricing too.
November 24th, 2009
I tried their advanced eshop because I was lured in by the 90 day free trial. After about 2 weeks of trying to configure and working with their tech support, I finally realized that it did not have some basic functions that I really needed; like interfacing to UPS and customizing the look of the template or showing product details.
I spend the next 2 and half months trying to cancel the account. Needless to say, their 90 day trial is a complete fraud and I now have to fight with my credit card company because they won’t cancel the contract. Save your money and stay away from them for anything other than buying your domain name. Corecommerce is much better for ecommerce.
January 10th, 2010
avoid they suck huge
January 30th, 2010
I was with 1&1 a few years ago whilst living in the US and to be honest it was chronic.
Help was non existent and generally speaking they are crap.
This is not hate stuff just frustrated fact.
David
February 4th, 2010
Issue with 1&1 is they are slow on their shared hosting. As for their dedicated servers, TOTALLY separate support people. Hence the difference.
I live in KC and although my hosting is based in KC, it has to route through Chicago and Denver then back again. Totally inefficient. Considering moving.
February 9th, 2010
They are the WORST web host I’ve ever dealt with in my life. They can’t be bothered to fix problems. I’ve had daily problems with them for nearly a year now — servers down all the time, mail not going through, kicked off the program after 3 minutes.
Their upgrade has made it impossible to do anything but stare at my site and my webmail.
I’m trying to switch hosts, but can’t download the files on an FTP so I can put them on a hard drive –c ontracts and other necessary work that I’ve stored.
I can’t use the address books — I have to hand-enter every address.
Instead of trying to work with me on the problems, they argue with me, tell me THEY aren’t having trouble (how nice for them) and ask for my passwords.
As soon as I can get my materials off, I’m moving hosts and filing fraud charges with the appropriate consumer service agencies and the Attorney General.
February 14th, 2010
After reading about how aweful the service is, I think I have to post something.
My dad and I have 3 domains hosted on 1and1. I myself have never had any problems with 1and1. There telephone service is the only one I have had problems with. E-Mail Support is better however.
I have to say that I haven’t had a problem with 1and1. Been using since 2007. I use a shared linux server on a business package.
March 28th, 2010
hello
building my first website what company do people here recommend to get their domain name from? i already choosen a hosting company NOT 1&1. some people have said a few names like Network solutions, IpowerWeb and godaddy. are they good and if so why did you move from them? Normally would choose godaddy but i seem to have trouble getting into my account i may have to try to get a 2nd account lol with them
i’ve been look at the BBB website and they all have a A rating for these companys (but i haven’t looked at 1&1 rating)
April 13th, 2010
RUN away from this company… their user interface is like 10 years old- and they delete your account if you change your domain name registration to a different company… terrible service- i think this company is owned by overseas el cheapos that nickle and dime you to death and don’t care at all about customer service, they just want their money
April 14th, 2010
yeah i went with IpowerWeb and so far i glad i did
April 14th, 2010
If you want a heart attack use 1&1 as it will kill you
Customer service is useless
Good luck speaking to a manager or anyone important
Your web site may be pulled down mine was 3 times costing big
Avoid at all costs
April 28th, 2010
I have been a 1and1 customer for almost 10 years, and they have the most awful technical support, but I am a tech guy, so I manage.
But now, after being a customer of them for so long, I will now be moving away from them because of these facts:
1. They don’t care that you are a loyal customer for over 9 years in good standing
2. Their web system at http://admin.1and1.com is faulty.
3. Tech support is Grade F
4. They don’t read emails
Basically, I had automated payments setup through them, and for some reason the automated payment got declined (card was on fraud alert), so they decided that after only one email notice, to close my website.
They don’t care that a website and email can be a lifeblood of a company. It’s not just some brochure on the interwebs that is ok for customers if it’s unavailable.
As soon as the site went down, I did due diligence to fix it. I found an email in my spam folder (of course!) about the declined auto payment, and followed the steps in there. One of the steps was to click on a link called Billing Overview and click on “Retry Charge” which will basically retry the auto-charge on a new card. I receive a Server 500 error.
I emailed them hoping that they would fix it right away, but I guess I waited too late for a response, and it turns out that the Billing Department is not 24/7. Tech support is 24/7 but they do not have any authorization to do anything, nor knowledgeable to at least help the customer. They are utterly useless.
So now, my website and email have been down for over 15 hours, I’m losing business, but my provider does not care. I can’t even point my MX records to another mail server because my account is locked so I can’t make any DNS changes. I’m screwed by a company that I thought I could trust with my business.
Goodbye 1and1. When it comes down to the important stuff, you fell through.
June 5th, 2010
Well i Have just started using them and I came up against certain things I didn’t understand with the website building program I emailed them and they answered or helped with the solution within 6 hours? To me that’s brilliant customer service.
June 13th, 2010
I would suggest to stay away from 1and1, they are one of the worst companies that we’ve dealt with. For trying to sort out one of our domains it took us 3 weeks which costed us over £200 in 0870 calls.
Hope this may help someone out there that is looking for a webhosting provider.
June 20th, 2010
I’ve been using 1and1 for more than 5 years and never had a single problem with them…
I mostly use them for domain name registration and do my hosting elsewhere.
On the registration side, No problem at all.
Good prices, etc.
It’s not all that bad…
July 2nd, 2010
(Sorry about my english! I just have to share my frustration)
This company SCAM people, I purchase a 6 months hosting with them and cancelled last year. I’m so frustrated right now, they send me to a collectors agency over $29.94 bill “host package” that i did not purchase, they also send me another bill of $18.95 “late fee” charge,
*Note that they NEVER send me any advise about this charge “they call conveniently renewing my package” (without my permission) I called the agency to dispute the charge, the person was really really rude, I asked her if that’s how they treat their customers, she said “you’re not my customer!”… can you believe that… i called 1and1 they did not help at all, my head hurts and i will pay for the scam because I afraid that could hurt my credit…
PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! they don’t even tried treat you fair.
(Sorry about my english! I just have to share my frustration) This company SCAM people, I purchase a 6 months hosting with them and cancelled last year. I’m so frustrated right now, they send me to a collectors agency over $29.94 bill “host package” that i did not purchase, they also send me another bill of $18.95 “late fee” charge, *Note that they NEVER send me any advise about this charge “they call conveniently renewing my package” (without my permission) I called the agency to dispute the charge, the person was really really rude, I asked her if that’s how they treat their customers, she said “you’re not my customer!”… can you believe that… i called 1and1 they did not help at all, my head hurts and i will pay for the scam because I afraid that could hurt my credit… PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! they don’t even tried treat you fair.
v2272@yahoo.com
Divine
July 2nd, 2010
DO NOT use this company!!! They will steal your money! Do not ever give them your credit card information, they will continue to charge even after you have canceled. They are very sneaky and their services sucks! I cancelled only a couple of weeks after I had their service because it was so poor. This cancellation process has been ongoing for over a year now!!! I AM SO TIRED OF THEM!! BEWARE!!!! Save yourself a nightmare… go with another company!
July 7th, 2010
Whoever wrote this article needs to get checked by a doctor. For anyone who didnt notice the authors links to 1&1 will pay him an affiliate fee. Now that you have 86 posts about how bad 1&1 sucks – you should really thing about altering your article, and stop trying to make a buck off what your subscribership is clearly telling you is bad company.
For any small users, 1&1 is also a problem. Their website builder is limited, and you have to pay for the PREMIUM website builder in order to put in HTML code directly. This means no advertising, no affiliate programs, no links to the outside world. Once you have your domain with them, no parked pages unless you use their german partner SEDO, who also is despicable.
Whoever the author is you need to reverse your position. Your simply guiding people into a crappy provider so you can make a dollar. You too, should be ashamed. For this article toting 1&1′s services, you have discredited your name, your entire site, and anything else you publish in the future. Hope you made a buck selling your soul.
July 8th, 2010
Scott, if you look a bit deeper you can find out all about the process of how authors rate and review hosts here. It’s a 3/5 star review. It is what it is, a cheap non-mission critical alternative. The way I read it, the author isn’t pushing 1&1 and certainly doesn’t himself earn money from affiliate traffic.
July 10th, 2010
Just don’t do it.
July 11th, 2010
Let me elaborate. 1&1′s initial low price point on services hooked me. I committed over $10 K to them in services. A year later, they failed to honor my cancellation request to the tune of about 3-4K and billed my card and their customer service morphed into something that seemed to be out of a horror flick – absolutely ghastly. Later, they billed me for names I did not own. It took an investigation from the Attorney General’s office to get them to admit the “error”. The truckloads of wasted time, rotten customer service merry-go-rounds, internet service-related problems, domain name problems, money and stress this company has caused me to go through not only caused my business to fail but made my life very difficult for years. After the smoke cleared, I moved to GoDaddy and from then on, life in the domain and internet services lane has been smooth without a hitch. I literally was in shock, after being traumatized by 1&1, that GoDaddy could be so easy and stress free. Going wth 1&1 Internet was the worst business decision I have ever made in my life and have still not fully recovered from it. There is a reason 1&1 is listed as being UNSATISFACTORY with the Better Business Bureau. Listen to wisdom – please stay away, unless of course you’re hooked on stress.
July 20th, 2010
We regularly get conection timed out when conecting to the pop server. For the third time that I can remeber over the past year today 7/20/10 the site (www.1and1.com) has been down for 2 hours now. This means i cant do any administration at all.
July 20th, 2010
Wow, you’re right Steven, the 1and1.com is down. I am getting a 503 server error.
July 24th, 2010
It is no doubt very good hosting provider , they provide very good mailing facility along with less down time on their server.