1and1

I pointed the problem out to a customer service rep on the phone and he said I need to send an email about those prior years. I did not pay the outstanding bill for one of the domains, because the credit that needs to be issued for the years I was charged after cancellation of two domains would cover the cost of the bill (for a domain I am keeping). Since I was setting up a new computer and had other more pressing tasks to deal with, I postponed sending this email for two weeks. I would have written a quick email if not for the annoying detail of having to sort and match domain names with contract numbers. The invoices do not have the purchased domain name on them, just the contract number (of the purchase) and the more domains you have with 1&1, the more tedious the task.

After two weeks, I logged back into 1&1 and the whole site had changed. My canceled domains were no longer listed, so there was no record that I had canceled these contracts and the credits issued last year were also gone. It was revisionist history before my very eyes. Only thing that was still showing were the credits issued two weeks ago by the rep I had spoken to on the phone. When I called Customer Service again to get the email address, he shouted at me and said I never canceled the domains until last week. So there is now no point in sending an email, b/c everything I had to say would be rendered fictional since my account has been wiped clean of all evidence! I paid the outstanding bill so I could transfer my domains out of 1&1.

Now, I have to start the process of blocking emails and phone numbers as I am hammered for the next 3 months. GoDaddy charges for privacy BUT AT LEAST THEY GIVE YOU THE OPTION UPFRONT IN A NOTICEABLE WAY. I will be looking elsewhere to purchase my internet products from now on and I advise anyone that doesn't want a ton of Spam and Telemarketers to STAY AWAY FROM 1&1.

And so I reached-out to them with a detailed eMail and received a generic reply from their Solutions Manager stating...“Unfortunately, we are not able to re-obtain the domain name in question, as it is currently registered with someone else, but as a courtesy for the trouble, I have applied a credit on this account equal to a .com domain renewal ($15.17), to provide you with a domain name renewal for free for the year. This credit will be applied to any upcoming invoice from this account until the $15.17 is spent.”

Nice huh?? 1&1 had been inconsistent with their supervision and here was yet another example of their system failing me. Something like this would have NEVER happened just a few years ago when their supervisors were based in U.S.A. (Philadelphia) before moving their operations overseas. And so I cancelled my account and WILL NOT be using any of their other services (to build-out sites and monetize other domains, etc.). I'm already using a number of my other domains for affiliate-related businesses (which were originally listed with 1&1). Considering how many domains I had listed with them, that was undoubtedly a poor business decision on their behalf (taking into account all of the renewals and related business that was intended to go to them). As a satisfied client, I would have been happy to provide positive feedback on social media. Sadly, these reviews will reflect a negative experience.

I called and spent about an hour on the phone to get it fixed so when you typed in our domain it would go to the website I spent hours building. Later on I found out the emails for the new domain were deleted and I was unable to re-create them. I called again and the customer service representative told me that I needed to move the domain in their system but that the website would still be connected to the domain. I asked several times because I did not want to lose what I built. He assured me that when everything switched over in their system that I would be able to create the email accounts and the website would be linked to the domain.

About an hour later, I was able to create email accounts but the website did not transfer over, I called them back again. This time I was told that nothing was wrong on their end and they do not know why it was not working, so he had to submit a ticket for a Supervisor to look at and he told me that since it was Saturday night, that there were no supervisors in but that I could call back during the day on Sunday and they would be in. I called back on Sunday and I was told that none of the Supervisors were working today and they would not be in until Monday. I explained that I needed the site up and running yesterday due to marketing material that was going out and he stated that there was nothing that he could do. I am very frustrated and feel like the referral program was a scam to get more business. I wished we would have went with Domain.com and plan to change when my contract is up.

I effectively had to do exactly that THREE or FOUR times (I lost count) before it finally "took"!! And, no one seemed able to explain to me WHY. What went wrong the previous times we went through the steps of changing my contract? After the third time I heard someone say, "Yes ma'am, I can help you with that! Let's start by changing your conract...", and mind you, that was after being bounced around from department to department for 20 minutes. I asked to speak to a manager. I simply needed someone who knew what was going on to help me. Well, that's not exactly what happened. The manager apologized profusely and proceeded to go through the motions of "changing my contract" for me, so as to get our business website back online. No one seemed to appreciate that having a website shut down costs us revenue daily, and when it happens for over a month - due to incompetence - is inexcusable.

I felt better after hanging up the phone and patiently waited the additional week or so. The time came and went and... NOTHING. I mean, I was incredulous. I called, yet again, and was informed, yet again, that we needed to "start by changing ur current contract..." I was dumbfounded. I was frustrated and very stressed about the situation, but maintained my composure as well as my manners and professionalism... which is more than I can say about the MANAGER at 1&1 (the same one I spoke to before, "Michael"). He was short, rude, and dismissive with me. I felt like I was in the twilight zone. What kills me is that, at that point, I wanted to speak to someone ELSE, and Michael tells me he is the "highest ranking" in his department. "You have no boss?" I asked. "Yes, but they don't take calls, ma'am." That is just wrong. And, I have no idea if that is accurate.

He never explained to me why 1&1 FAILED to upgrade my contract 3-4 times while our website sat dormant. What's more, he dismissed my concerns multiple times with a heavy sigh and, "Look, at this point we can either try it again or you can choose to cancel your service with us. That's up to you, but I would really like to move on." -Speechless- "And, if what you want is to complain about me, you're gonna have to email..."

I found my voice after that. "Michael, can you not conceive that this is NOT about YOU? I don't WANT to complain about anything. What I want is for 1&1 to take care of me and value me as a customer! YOU can't seem to DO that, therefore, I have to find someone else! At this point, I am trying to cut our financial losses, do you not get that? Do you not care?" I ended up speaking to another customer svc manager who ended up helping me enough to FINALLY get my contract changed and my website back online. Since then, which has been just a couple of weeks now, I have had to call once more for some simple guidance.

I am not brilliant with websites and computers in general but thought that this must be the going rate and didn't really understand, nor did anyone breakdown the charges for me. I asked a number of times if I was paying too much and I didn't seem to get to very good responses nor a conclusion for my inquiries. It's now January 2017 and I found out on a Saturday that the £35.97 is for two other contracts that haven't even been used for over 12 months. I was told to contact the complaints department and that I'd get a refund for it.

I feel I've been misled into paying for something that hadn't been used when I stressed that all I wanted was a simple website contract. Now 1&1 are saying that I'm not entitled to a refund because I didn't ask for a cancellation of those contracts? But they made it sound that my website cost £65.96 a month and didn't explain that there were two contracts on the account but were not being used.

I've contacted citizens advice and consumer rights and am hoping to get this matter resolved as well as my money back. Had I known that the contracts were unnecessary then of course I'd have cancelled them and not carried on paying £35.97 extra a month for over 12 months but I've been misled into thinking that the extra £35.97 was to do with my website. I'm so confused and feel that I've been tricked. I hope this doesn't happen to anyone else.

They kidnapped my second domain. I can't move it, they damaged my project with that domain, they lock all your domain based on one subscription. After that they send you sent by mail tons of letting threatening to demand you whatever... We have a second domain. We canceled the renew on time and miracle it is renewed automatically so they are charging us again a domain we already cancel, they trick user so you can think you turned off auto-renew but it is auto-renew appear again, I don't want to deal with this suck dirty fraudulent company ever again... Another thing. When you want to cancel a contract with them they don't cancel it immediately. You have to wait like 4 months for it, very ridiculous.

Below is an extract of the email they sent to me: "Following our previous conversation I am writing to let you know that we are no longer working on this issue as it has fallen out of our scope of support. The problem at hand here is with Windows Server 2012 and not with the dedicated server we supply. The problem as we have investigated is as follows: Error with RDP grace period HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\RCM\GracePeriod This registry key needs to be deleted."

After receiving only a cryptic email indicating there was nothing to transfer to the new account, I had to spend another hour and a half on the phone with 1&1, being transferred between various reps, none of which seemed to understand how to help me, only to land on a particularly rude and uncooperative rep that simply informed me 1&1 was not will to accept the customer name we applied to the account, a name we had used for a previous account, and had subsequently simply refused the account creation. Upon asking to speak to a manager about this, I was refused service due to the fact that the account number we were given had been arbitrarily deactivated by 1&1.

Essentially, 1&1 refused to provide ANY service or support for a paying customer. Furthermore we were never given ANY indication of the account termination, forcing me to waste valuable company time trying to figure out what they had done and why. We are now being forced to recreate another account with a name 1&1 considers appropriate simply to gain access to resources we have paid to gain access to. Avoid this company at ALL COSTS!!!

This is disturbing to me, as I ALWAYS record ALL of my Business Conversations. This "practice" of mine, was vetted through the F.B.I. (FIVE Special Agents), on NUMEROUS occasions, and I have been doing so for over 25 years. I do this for 3 reasons. 1. We live in a "he said, she said" world. 2. People lie to me every day. 3. I am an independent Special Investigator. From experience, I know...that there is ONE reason, that someone would be unwilling to be recorded. That reason, is that they lie, and don't want to get caught, so they use that "blanket excuse" to prevent you from doing so. Following this posting, I will file a complaint with the BBB, ic3.gov, and any other agency I can find.

Additionally, while being a 1 and 1 Customer, I have repeatedly been told the EXACT OPPOSITE by several of their employees, when asking questions about the poor functionality of my Website. One of those times, their employee made a statement (another excuse), that contradicted himself...in the SAME SENTENCE. It's like saying..."It's exactly the same, only different", which is "an impossibility". Unfortunately, I've found that most people would rather lie, than admit that they are wrong. It's rampant in our society today. To protect myself, I record everything. A policy that has saved me thousands of dollars. So... now I am at the point where they won't talk to me. And I don't blame them a bit. But, again, there is only ONE REASON, that they chose this "option" (blanket excuse). They don't want to get caught in a lie.

After reading the horrendous problems that so many people seem to be having with their "false billing", I have canceled both of my Business Account Cards they had on file. I have been given, what I call, "misinformation" many, many times, which I call a "circle of lies". Apparently, NO ONE at 1 and 1, is humanly capable of making a mistake. Their Web Page states that their Website mechanism is "Easy to Use". Nothing could be further from the truth. I've had problems from the start (OVER a year ago), which they consistently attribute to ME doing "something wrong", even though I recorded their conversations, and did EXACTLY what they told me to do. Doesn't add up. I've "re-set" ALL of the pages of my Website, OVER 100 TIMES.

FINALLY, I paid a highly qualified IT Technician $300 to look into it for me. He informed me that NOTHING was "as it should be". The metatags were all wrong (I don't even know what a metatag is), and NOTHING will work, as is. So I contacted 1 and 1, and explained to them what I'd done (hired someone to find the problem), and that I wanted it fixed. Their "counter statement" was..."Who built your Website?" I explained that "I did." They proceeded to tell me (again) that it was all my fault, and that "I" needed to fix my metatags. I cannot, by ANY stretch of my imagination, call this an "Easy to Use" Website Provider. If I had been told that I needed to be able to "write (computer) code" to set up this "Easy to Use Website", I would never have ventured into it in the first place.

Now, I am being blatantly lied to again, telling me that I cannot get a refund. The reason for my refund request, is that THEIR SERVICE DOESN'T WORK! BUT...I spoke with MORE than ONE representative of their company, confirming that a refund was available, even after 30 days. Now, according to the F.B.I., "Recorded conversations always win in Court...always." So, now I have to take Legal Action, if I want results. I will do so, in hopes that I can save others from this kind of Predatory and Fraudulent Business Practice, and advise others to do the same. If it was possible to give this company a "negative" rating, I would need a scale bigger than from 1 to 10. Simply put..."I can't be wrong all the time". Turns out, I was right. I learned long ago, that someone that doesn't keep records for accountability, has a reason. Something to hide, is that reason.

On a good note, after they were told that it was their malfunction, and not mine, my Website was "fixed". The "fix", lasted for 6 DAYS, then the "Optimization Text" kept being changed (again) to text that prevented my Website from being found. I fixed the mistakes again, 2 days ago. Then I was told another lie...That "Optimization, is only a suggestion" (though I was REPEATEDLY told that it had to MATCH). Exactly the opposite of what everyone else had explained. Without my recordings, I would have ZERO recourse. Good luck to you all. I don't recommend doing business with this company, unless, 1. you're insane, 2. like to waste your time, 3. have too much money and like to be frustrated. I think that I fit into category #1. Seeking Attorney.

The following day, I received another email from 1&1 that the payment has been declined and another from my bank that charges will be applied for failed transaction. I logged in my online bank account and on my statement showed '£19.40 - Pending transaction withheld 1&1 Gloucestershire GB' and an available balance of £35.47. I called my bank and they confirmed that 1&1 is holding £19.40 as well as tried to take a payment of £40.06. I called 1&1, and after spending nearly 2 hours explaining to 3 different agents (also 2 more agents picked up but just decided not to talk and simply laugh), a support agent named Nel told me that this is how you shop on 1&1.

He explained to me that you need to have x1.5 (times one and a half) of the amount if you want to buy something on 1&1. Nel also told me that this is normal and this is how shopping is done online. I said to him that I have never heard of anything like this in the UK, I even have a few websites selling goods to the public. I asked him if this is mentioned in the T&C. He promised to email me the links but it's been few days now and still hasn't.

So basically, if you want to buy something from 1&1 for £10, they will first hold £10 from your card, then invoice you for £10, then take another £10 from your card and when they feel it's time to return the first £10, they may do so. This is completely unfair, as I had enough funds for registering those domains. Today it's been 5 days since this happened and 1&1 is still holding £19.40 + I will have to pay charges to my bank. I sent 6 emails to billing & complaints department and still no reply. They are just ignorant, I suppose, as they already have my money. BEWARE before making any purchase or registration with such a low level company and with agents in the Philippines who lie, ignore and don't understand the meaning of customer service we request in the UK.