IONOS Reviews

I have spent 2 months on the phone with customer service, and still they can't solve a simple issue. I keep getting transferred between departments. And I hear a new excuse/response every time I call. The issue stems from an expired CC on file. Then my account got locked. Then they said I uploaded a virus to their server. Then they said I have an unpaid balance. Then they said there was a security issue. Then another unpaid balance. Then they said they deleted all my files. Finally, they said, "Sorry we can't help you, go with another provider and start building your website from scratch."

He said that their business does not do that and that everything is done via email. This was the best that he could do for me. He was unprofessional and didn't seem to care that I had this issue. I asked to speak to someone higher than him, and he said there was no one, but that I could file a formal complaint via email. Their rating on various review websites is 1.5 out of 5. I can understand why. The company has very poor customer service, they don't have a tech team competent enough to fix the problem. I have worked in customer service and have gone out of my way to make sure the customer was completely satisfied after we were through. I have not received anything even remotely close from 1&1. Each phone call left me feeling even more upset. They make you feel like a number... Next!

And when something sounds too good to be true, there is a reason. Web hosting and domain is suppose to be around 8-9.99 "PER MONTH." Again, they will try to charge you more by month to see if you notice. Do NOT trust this company by their advertisements. It is next to impossible to get them to refund your money. They will most certainly try to make an excuse not to do so. My site was **. I contacted them before about this. I contacted them by email and I am sending proof this time in regards to their excuses to not refund my account.

Updated on 11/30/2015: As of 11/30/2015 at 9:40am, 1&1 never submitted my credit for transaction authoring from 11/24/2015 in the amount of 119.88. They responded once to say they would credit my account, but as of today have not according to my Bank Representative. No credit was received. This company continues to lie to me and is nonresponsive to my followup. I am getting numerous emails from people all over the country now to redo my website, when it is just for academic projects. It's not even business. "I" never gave my info to anyone. It has to be from this company who is a "national" company. How is this ethical?

Warning: I am informing the public of the misuse of credit card information and personal data by these companies. They incorrectly billed me twice this year for an entire year without my consent. My privacy has been violated. I am getting numerous calls and emails from people all over the world trying to do business with me. Please pass this along. All I tried to do is set up a required academic portfolio with web hosting. Do not trust any of these companies below! United Internet, 1&1, 1and1.com, 1&1, Inc., GMX, WebDe, Mail.com, Arsys, InternetX, United Domains, SEDO, Affilinet, United Internet Media, Versatel, Fasthosts.

After deciding enough is enough I went on the site and looked in the help under the topic of "cancelling service". Following the steps exactly leads you to a point where there are two options, one is to cancel the website, the other is to (cancel everything). Conveniently the option to cancel everything is "greyed out" and not selectable. An error says you must first disable "automatic debiting of your credit card". Fair enough. I immediately disabled automatic payment and then returned to the menu and it was still greyed out, though under the cancelled menu it says my account is cancelled, so I assumed it was. Today I get an email saying that "1&1 was unable to debit my credit card", (It was a Bluebird throwaway account as a barrier for protecting against online fraud) despite turning off the option to debit my card.

Switching to this company for my web hosting was a HUGE mistake. It's been nothing but a headache of overcharging, multiple billing, and sitting on the phone with people who don't know what the heck is even going on. Save yourself a headache and avoid this company like the plague. It seems like a good deal and cheap hosting until you realize that they screw you over on billing left and right, wasting time, money, and energy.

The company sends copy/paste emails, blocking me from any true dialog. The legal department offered me a $14.99 refund (which I have not seen in two weeks). Then after all this time in one business day, while I was receiving treatment and doctors visit, an aggressive rep emailed me out of the blue multiple times for a resolution, which I requested a form to cover a phone call because: a) after post neck-surgery, they pull your voice-box out of the way to do surgery - it is horrendous pain to do anything (including speaking); b) our mobile phones are temporarily disconnected; c) we do not have money for toner so I have to use Adobe to fill out forms or go to a Fedex office to print; d) and, because I did not respond in their way, that day on their out of the blue terms, by close of business, they made the determination on my behalf that they would close the case - without any fair resolution. Not helping me at all.

Then they send a rep on me who out of the blue, one day, while at a doctor for testing. This has caused a lot of distress to me personally at a time I'm not well and dealing with an overwhelming amount of personal, financial and health related issues - most notably we are facing an eviction. But the siphoning of my account, $10-15/month has made it more difficult to divvy the unemployment check our family is living off of portioning food, my medication and out utilities - the company is relentless. Our phone has been disconnected temporarily and we do not have a printer caused a lot of havoc and excessive fees charged me personally. I have contacted One and One on multiple occasions. I've explained my situation in great detail. They continue to charge me. Overwhelmingly, I contacted them by email. I had to go through via email in order to cancel.

They didn't care, they didn't offer to give me the access back upon charging my card instantly (WHICH THEY DON'T), they sold it the next highest bidder. I'm consulting with my lawyer, building a case and if anyone else has had this happen to them, please contact me as it will just add fuel to the inferno that's already in place. I guess they think domainers are ** and have no means to pursue illegal acts. You buy a domain, YOU OWN IT, you pay them for the hosting of that said domain.

Case: Client purchases 52 domains over the course of nearly 24 hours straight. All receipts and emails of confirmation received all the same. 49 Were fine and name server changed to a parking site. 3, worth more than the $70 or so that the sign up fees were by far (I'm speaking about domains that my client would make 20-150$/day for paid ads) and cancelled them, without any prior notice or reason until he called them. He had to literally yell at the first person for over 30-40 minutes after explaining the situation. He was given excuse and then changed and another excuse and again. Finally someone else answers (Note: no one gave a ** to even try and see and fix the problem, they just kept saying what I did wrong.

Outstanding bill? I had the button clicked to bill the card but no, it won't bill me for days after that. I run multiple online business and own a tile business I run locally and money fluctuates for multiple reason: stock funds for vape selling, savings, personal / business account funds exchanging. etc. End result: a name and an ID number **. This is all the supervisor would give me after I told them I am going to pursue legal charges for illegally selling property of mine worth well over the amount of petty theft. Online Larceny is sure as hell going to cost them more than stealing 3 domain names from me. For the sake of the situation, I won't name them, but details on just one has Google page rank 6, hundreds of SEO Backlink popups and Backlinks, high CPC and huge exact searches a month. But they insisted it's my fault and it's due to the billing. THEN WHY DID 49 OTHER DOMAINS HAVE NO PROBLEM?

THESE WERE .COMS 3X .99$ -- SOME OTHER ONES COSTED 6.99, 9.99, 14.99$. It's black and white and they were insulting me by saying it was billing issues. These domains weren't bought at the same time. They were not all at the end or beginning of the 52, they were random in the huge amount I bought from them. I hope they see this so maybe they will think twice about treating their customers like ** and stealing from them. But one way or the other, this will bite them back. I will have to check with billing (reason one), my fault with unpaid bills (which I pressed to pay and says in 7 days), last reason they said it's already been sold to another host. Because while I was on the phone and the cancel was in Progress, meaning not done, they sold it and ** me over. Good job 1&1.com 1&1 w.e., scam and this is what you get, don't give a ** about your customers and steal, now you have me.

When all lines of communications were exhausted, they would say "we will have someone with higher expertise take a look at it and will get back with you". Days would go by with no return call, email or notice and I would have to call back and start the whole process again. Don't waste your resources on this company. This is why they are at the bottom of the barrel when reviewed by trusted companies. Out of date, unhelpful customer service and bad e-commerce platform.

I had to file a complaint with the Attorney General. I called for the physical address and was told they could only give me the city and state and not physical address. I was able to get the physical address to file a small claims lawsuit. In January they charged my credit card again. I now have to close my checking account and cancel debit card to prevent them from charging me. This is truly the worse company with the worse customer service. It is true the company is a total scam.

Today I received a bill for last month service and it stated that I will be billed in 2 days for this month, the account has been closed for 3 months. They even took it off the web at that time. When I called they said they had no records of any of my calls, and they could see where the account was canceled. But stated you have, you must call in and talk to 2 departments to cancel the account after it has been canceled and taken off the web. Today I spend the 30 minutes to be passed around and have received TWO cancellation numbers confirming the account has been officially canceled by them. Stay away from these scammers at any cost, if you have given the billing information monitor it carefully. They can not be trusted.

I called and Peter explained - I had closed the websites but not the account. In order to close the account, I needed fill out forms and return them with a copy of my driver's licence. No way would I ever send a copy of my driver's license. I searched online and found many people had the same problem. I followed a link to Cancel.1and1.com and managed to "tentatively" close my account. I needed to call to confirm the cancellation!

I called (8:30 pm on 5/30/2012) and was told I called the wrong number and the office was closed. The hours they are open (M-F 9-5 EST) makes it difficult for anyone with a job to contact them. I didn't need this kind of confirmation to open the account(!) or my driver's license for that matter. Today (6/14/2012), I finally was able to place the call and have the account confirmed as cancelled but the effective date is June 18! I mentioned the trouble I had had and Rick in Tech Support said he could not help me. He transferred me to Billing. There I was told, "I don't have authority to adjust your close date." And there is no one to speak to - in this case, I need to go to Complaints.1and1.com. So, they want to make it as difficult as possible to close the account - but to register a complaint - or ask for a refund - not so much.

They claim that they shut down my account to get my attention, said by the billing department. I filed complaint to 1and1, the complaint department said they don't see any call I made. I also emailed them again and again that I don't want the two domain names. They closed my account from January through March, which means my other two active domains for two different company websites were also shut down. Countless customers lost. I advertise through San Diego News Papers and online, and at festival. I contacted 1and1.com and all they do is say sorry. Sorry, but now I got collection in the mail. That is ridiculous, don't you think? I also called godaddy. They did the same thing for me when the domain I don't want expired it's gone. And the other domain is still running.

1and1 sent me to collection company for $17.98 for something I have not used. What about the two domain names that I use for my companies that they shut down? What are they going to do about it? Again, all they do is say sorry but no resolution. After I emailed both billing department and complaint department, they still do nothing.

I contacted their billing department and they emailed me back and said, "We tried to get your attention but you did not reply so we froze your account to get your attention." I told them that I do not want those domain names and I already called on October 15, 2010. The complaints against 1and1.com told me that they have no record that I contacted them. How do I supposed to know if they put it in or not? I'm not there at their desk or stand behind them to see their work.

Again, they are not supposed to freeze people's domain name that were paid. For example, you made a payment on two cars but not on the other two and I will come and tow away all your cars. Will you be okay with that? Anyway, they made me lost a lot of business. I put my Web on newspaper and online advertising. I have been in contact them for a week but they still did not unlock my domains that were paid for and not yet expired.

If any lawyer or someone want to help me take action against them, please email me at **. Thanks. I m extremely angry with them and frustrated. It is supposed to link here: **. They also locked my admin option. I cannot transfer my domain name out either. I requested to talk to their supervisor, chair, president of company but their billing department stopped contacting me. Thanks, guys. I am traveling and selling machines now so I am not at my home address. Please contact or email me at **.

One month later, I received an invoice from them asking me to renew my account. I logged into my account and removed my credit card to avoid charges right away, and called them up again. I explained that I have set my account to cancel and my domain names will not be renewed either. They told me to ignore the bill. I received an email to activate the cancellation of my domain names and clicked on the link to do so. I was successful according to the message I received. The account was cancelled as scheduled and all was done. Three days ago, I received a mail from their collection agency, asking me to pay the sum of $56.44 + $38.93 for hosting and domain names or else my name will be sent to an outside collection agency.

I called them up today and spoke to three people, including a supervisor at the billing department, to look into my closed account and find out why my name was sent to their collection agency for payment when I have cancelled my account and stopped my domain names for being renewed by them. They checked and all they came up with is I have to pay the collection agency, even though I am not a customer anymore and don't even have access to the domain names and hosting account they renewed beyond my knowledge. I told them this is unprofessional and not good for business. My account number with them was ** and their collection agency is called NCO Financial Systems Inc with NYC license #0907469.