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General discussion

Avoid 1&1 hosting service

Nov 26, 2005 10:52PM PST

Just wanted to share a horrible experince i've had with 1&1 hosting. I've been trying to cancel for several months and I'm still getting charged. The service quality is poor and the customer service is horrible. Just needed to vent.

Discussion is locked

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1&1 (1and1) hosting service is TERRIBLE
Oct 2, 2011 10:52AM PDT

As you can see with all the 1and1 reviews on the internet...don't go anywhere near this company. Everything about them is TERRIBLE. Don't fall for the "1-month or 3-months free" gimmicks. Use another hosting provider. Don't be a victim like the rest of us!

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Good to know!
Oct 6, 2011 5:19AM PDT

Thanks for the heads up!

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1and1 internet.com is dangerous to your wealth
Apr 5, 2012 3:01PM PDT

I purchased a domain name from the firm. Subsequently, I received a telemarketing call from the company. The 1and 1 representative went on and on and on. I said I did not want to build a web site at this time. I told them I did not want to use their automated website builder. I told them I didn't want them to build me a website.

Today, I received an email from the firm advising that my website was ready. I called and got the run-around. I was told you can't speak to the General Manager, you can't talk to the supervisor of the department that 'builds' the web sites. You can not talk to the customer complaint department - you can only send them an email. Apparently it is impossible to speak to anyone in management. I spoke to a fellow called Mbemba Kawah who interrupted me on a number of occasions. I asked him to forward a message to the GM, Frederick Iwans. I was told that the customer call center can not pass along messages to anyone.

Based on my experience with 1and1 I would warn everyone to stay clear of this firm. The firm's business model appears to be to bill for services that have not been contracted for and then to fight it out with the customers. It probably doesn't cost them much to fight with customers because you can't talk to the consumer complaint department.

If you do business with 1and1.com, there is reason to expect that you will be cheated. Proceed at your own risk.

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Horrible is an understatement!
Apr 18, 2012 5:51AM PDT

This was by far the worst hosting experience on all levels I have ever had. I wouldn't recommend this service to my worst enemy. They make it nearly impossible to cancel, play games with you and then talk down to you. No empathy what so ever and seem to get pleasure out of billing you for the contract term even if you haven't logged on after the trial period. Worst Hosting service by far! I have a dozen emails showing that one hand doesn't know what the other is doing. They seem to really get a kick out of upsetting you and doing nothing at all to try and correct your bad experiences. Worst Company by far! I even filed a complaint with the FTC concerning their games and threats to hurt my credit. DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT SIGNING UP, you will not have an easy time cancelling and even then they try and milk you for every penny they can get without even giving any service. I would give NO stars if it was possible. I found the most disturbing thing about the whole experience is that I signed up on a 30 day trial... accessed the service maybe a total of a couple hours because it never worked like it should have and their Customer Service and Billing "Reps" have no Empathy or even seem to care about trying to understand .almost in a smart cocky way even their "Supervisor" lacked any real customer service skills in calming me down. They even played games and sent me to the UK site to reset my password. The fact that they seem to get so much pleasure from me being upset boggles my mind... who wants their customers to be upset more than they were when they called. I would stay far far away from 1 and 1 at any cost. They can't even bill me the whole contract amount to make it easier for me ...they like to drag things out as much as possible. They also seem to not care what customers think at all .. especially those tricked into thinking they needed to buy it by another company like "myonlinemoneysystem" type scams. They know what they are doing and they don't care... like I said, wouldn't recommend to my worst enemy!

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"customer service" reps require you to divulge password
Jun 11, 2012 2:58AM PDT

Horrible cancellation policy and shady business practice of making their customers divulge their personal password in order to cancel a business package. First I tried to cancel online but it said I must call in to cancel after going through everything due to "Security Reasons". Then, the customer service rep said the only way to cancel was for me to actually speak my password to him on the phone so he could confirm that I am the actual owner of the account!!!!! I have NEVER had to speak my password to a rep!!!!! This is wrong in so many ways especially being as this is an internet technology company. Not even financial institutions require their customers to divulge their personal password to one of their representatives. This is unforgivable and completely unprofessional. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY!

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Don't share your personal domain password....BEWARE!!!
Aug 15, 2012 12:28AM PDT

I too don't know why the support is asking our personal password for 1and1 domain control panel. Beware!!! Don't even think to give your password to them. If there is any argument going on, then they can easily use your personal password and delete your entire account and sell your domain to someone else!
Even if you transfer your domain, cancel your entire account/contract from cancel.1and1.com. Otherwise, they will keep on charging for your non-existing domain!!!!
So, be careful with these cheaters....
1and1 is the synonym for 'cheating'....BEWARE!!!

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what is your method of payment?
Jun 13, 2012 11:03PM PDT

what is the method of your payment? you can ask for your bank or paypal resolution section to return back your money!

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Method of payment
Jan 30, 2013 10:00PM PST

I used a credit card as payment, and because I closed a business, I closed the cc account. 1and1 kept billing the same cc # for months after service was discontinued. Because the cc account was closed, I could not receive service from the credit provider. The paradox is that when you sign up, you pay for 1and1 services not yet received (eg. if you want to receive service for the upcoming year, you pay ahead of time), but when they have your information they bill you for services that are often not wanted, and my case (and many, many others) discontinued services. It is essentially a predatory business practice, and a class action suit should be filed.

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Didn't read all the complaints, but...
Jun 15, 2012 1:17PM PDT

...I was a 1&1 customer for over 10 years. They treated me like crap the whole time, shutting down my service if my automated payment didn't clear, arguing with me when I called for support, and basically treating me like crap. It is amazing how they are still in business. Seems like the only people who get decent support are the big spenders, and the little guys get ignored because they don't care.

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I am also having problems with 1&1
Aug 30, 2012 2:12AM PDT

First off, I do my own hosting through a Hostgator reseller account and have 161 hosted accounts. I set up a test site on a windows server last January. The programmer I was working with asked me to set it up with 1&1 because he was familiar with there control panel. The project ended up being cancelled so I sent 1&1 an email cancelling it. They say they sent me an email saying I can't cancel by email, but I never received such an email. Now they say they are turning me over to collections for $14.95! I say this is really bad business! I would never treat my own clients this way and it seems 1&1 would rather collect money than be reasonable with their customers. 1&1, you suck, and I'm still not paying you, so go ahead and pay your collections people! Also, their form won't even allow me to copy this comment.

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1 and 1 are a scam and a con
Oct 15, 2012 12:24AM PDT

read the web , thousands of ripped off domain holders out there and im another one , same story , charged for a so called free trial of website builder plus even after cancelling within 30 days , then cancelled domain and hosting weeks ago and just got bill for another year , why are this company still trading ?

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Avoid 1&1 and save yourself some hassle.
Nov 26, 2012 9:58PM PST

Same thing as many others....you try to cancel your account only to find out it's still active and you're still being billed. I cancelled my account on 10/30/2008 only to receive an email just now indicating my account will auto renew 2013???? AFter 30 minutes on the phone with tech support, I hear the tech support person say "are you not hearing what i'm saying? you're account is still open, what do you want to do??" Really? I just want to cancel my account and keep it that way. Their product is outdated and difficult to use compared to others. DO NOT waste your time - there are much better deals out there with much better companies

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Please Review Them First!
Jan 13, 2013 1:14AM PST

I own two business and I deal with many clients and other businesses. WOW, I can honestly say that I have never seen such bs from a business before. Customer service is horrible, the csr service rep told me that they have no power to cancel accounts or give any kind of refunds. I say ok, and ask how can I cancel and get a refund because its been 3 days since I got locked in to their contract after their free trial. After emailing them they supposedly cancelled the account and would NOT give any kind refund. The account remained open! I was about to give them money to cancel my account. I hope people are smart enough to google their reviews first. PLEASE READ REVIEWS! I unfortunately read the reviews after.

CONCLUSION:

-No refund
-Csr Service apparently has no power and is not helpful.

-Cancel accounts through email! WOW, thats worse than no refund!
-Wasted my time dealing with them, and time is money.

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Worst service I have ever experienced. Avoid
Jan 20, 2013 9:48PM PST

It took two months to have them shut down a web site. Then one day out of the blue I couldn't access my account nor my email, probably because I had cancelled the credit card. Three months later I received a number of calls from a credit agency at home and work saying i was behind on my payment. After navigating through the credit agency i was sent to 1and1 "customer service". They sent me to complaints@1and1.com- an email address.

Apparently when I shut down the web site account, I didn't shut down my email server account first. The paradox is, I didn't realize I had to do this in a certain order, and as a result I couldn't shut down my email server because I couldn't access my main account. This is a never-ending, no-win situation.

DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY CREDIT CARD INFORMATION. (Which essentially means don't give them your business). Apparently they bill directly through a credit agency. This means zero customer service when it comes to billing. I am still waiting to hear what "complaints" has to say. I am only hoping they stop the billing, because I am afraid it will go on long after I am dead.

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Follow up
Jan 30, 2013 9:41AM PST

I spoke with customer service and they threatened that if I don't pay within 30 days, "I will suffer the consequences of the credit agency". Their explanation was that once it goes to the credit agency they can't reverse their call. On the call to the credit agency they said that 1and1 bills directly through them, so essentially 1and1 has no say in the matter. This is such a money grab and run. I have never seen in all my days in business that can run this way and not be busted. A crime, a shameful crime.

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1and1
Jan 30, 2013 3:26AM PST

Avoid this company like the flu. They suck you in and bleed you dry. And if you cancel they continue to charge you. Then they send you to collections and you are stuck paying them even more money. If you have a complaint they make you contact them through email. They will not talk to you on the phone in that department. I called to speak to customer service and they said they could not help me. They did verify that i did cancel in the appropriate time. Then when i tried to talk to them they hung up on me. This is the worst company out there with the worst customer service. They never did help me get my website up and running. They are terrible at support. Never returned calls. All I can say is avoid them you will be sorry!!!

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Agreed, 1&1 is a scam
Mar 2, 2013 3:39AM PST

It's much smarter to simply hire a professional web developer if you really want a web site that will bring actual customers to your business. It's one thing to put up a cookie cutter template web site and it's quite another to have one custom built by a professional with proper search engine optimization. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Web sites are an investment in your business, why throw all that away by using something like 1&1 or the other so-called free web sites out there if they aren't going to bring you new customers?

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Difficult to cancel with 1and1.com
Mar 14, 2013 5:35AM PDT

Most of the posts are a few years old so I wanted to add a post from 2013. I agree with these posts. Nothing has changed at 1and1.com since 2005 - when the existing comments were posted. 1and1's business practices lack integrity and are unethical. They make it very difficult for a person to cancel their account, even after the person has canceled. They say they record all phone conversations for 'quality assurance', which is a bunch of bull kaka. Whose benefit do those recorded calls serve if a customer calls and cancels their account a dozen times? Unless the customer recorded their own call, 1and1 isn't about to cough up the evidence (from these recorded calls) that the client tried repeatedly to cancel their account. When you try to do it online, their web ap displays an Error404 on submit. SO bad. These guys are schisters - you would think there's a law against their business practices? I hope people who lost money on their CC, complain to the CC company to recoup those funds. This company doesn't deserve the right to process credit card payments.

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Same with me, longer delay for transfer and false pricing ad
Aug 5, 2013 7:48AM PDT

I just transferred 12 domains from various companies to GoDaddy. 1&1 is the only company that has made it difficult. They also sent my customer a message stating that 1&1 prices were going up 50% but that they were still the best prices out there. The quoted GoDaddy prices at 27.17 (current price is really $9.95 but 99 cents for transfers). They quoted Yahoo.com at $46.83 and Register.com at $49. I watch prices regularly and have never seen actual prices this high.

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lawsuit needed class action
May 30, 2013 12:40AM PDT

1 & 1 lied to me and everytime I wanted to cancel they tricked me into another trial period they new I was going into the hospital I tried to cancel using the library computer when mine was friend and becasue they had tried to bill me they locked my account way back in 4/10/2013, they sent emails which were not answered and finally 5/14/2013 sent me a bill for 89.97 and that I was locked into this for a year!
If the customer service had just allowed me to cancel when I wanted and not trick me into a free extension I would have been all right, this is a way to get you into a contract.
If you call them and say this conversation is being recorded they hang up on you!
Now I am being sued for this balance and a monthly for the next year!
Because the first time they tried to collect on domain name and the credit card did not go through my account was locked. I never could after that go in and cancel and the domain name act is apparently billed seperatly and was billed sooner!
There is no real customer service the wait time is excessive and if they had just said ok go ahead and cancel but if you decide to reinstate blaa blaa blaa I would not have a gripe but they themselves entrap you with oh go ahead and have your surgery and then we will extend a 60 day grace period I never once went onto the website in that period and there was NOT ONE PHONE CALL REMINDING ME OR ONE LETTER! They knew I was having surgery!
This is just wrong they should of sent a reminder! They have plenty of employees they also never sent me a contract, they said they did but All I have is a welcome letter and my online account.
Please in order to stop these people let us all start a class action suit!
Thank you
Karen Lorentzson
flatrock61@gmail.com

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Add me to the stack of people that got screwed over...
Oct 31, 2013 5:24AM PDT

Here's the thing. While I had 1and1 service, it was great. It was always up, and while there were a lot of things I couldn't do (due to the limitations of their web creation software), it was reliable and easy to use.

The real problem was when it was time to cancel. The cancellation process is unbelievably complicated, and the process is cloaked... it took me three tries and a phone call to figure it out.

And evidently I still didn't get it right, because three months later, a collection agency came looking for me. I called 1and1, and it still took me 30 entire minutes to cancel this account that I had already cancelled. And I'm still getting charged for the three months.

I am an unhappy camper. Do yourself a favor and do business with a company that's easier to deal with. I will be.

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1&1 Inept Billing Rep
Feb 25, 2015 12:12AM PST

I have two domains hosted by 1&1. One has a payment that was declined by PayPal because I needed to update my card. I responded to their email after I updated my card information, as there is no way to retry payment on their site. I was very clear about requesting that they reattempt the payment with PayPal, as I had updated my card. The first response back stated that they did not see anything on their end showing that I had updated payment information. I explained again, that I updated the PayPal payment option and notified them that they will not see that I updated the card on PayPal. I aksed, again, that they reattempt the payment. The second email stated that they do not see a pending payment and that the payment was declined several days ago to PayPal. Argghhh! I cannot state this any clearer to them. I am now looking to move my domains from 1&1. Apparently they don't want my money.

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1&1 HOSTING
Jul 29, 2015 2:19PM PDT

As I Read along the posts here regarding the experiences with this hosting company, I came to the conclusion that the majority of this post are mostly rants about a perceived problem that is just MOSTLY the fault of the end user. This is not an unusual thing to see, since in fact most people will rant about something out of frustration rather than give out constructive criticism. The fact to support my claim comes from collecting data claims and making a correlation report that clearly indicating this trend is not only happening with this posts here, but in the majority of discussion forums found everywhere. To simply put this in layman's terms, I came to the conclusion that this company has some growing pains in the past, but they have been making strides to listen and give the end user a better experience. I know this because I currently use their services, and frankly they are doing an excellent job of hosting my sites. I have some issues before (stemming from not knowing the interface very well) but a quick call to customer service/ tech support got me going in no time. So in the spirit of helping out, here are some tips on how to work out issues you may be having here. I would say the way to get better customer service is to identify the issue you are having, and honestly ask yourself: Did I cause the issue? Can I honestly said this is an issue that can be resolved by customer/ tech support? (IE asking for features you don't have available in your plan etc) and finally, did I clarify the issue with customer/ tech support without adding up negative remarks that do not helps resolve this issue in a time manner. I am in the habit of recognizing good services from people and businesses since I believe in the power of positive thinking. Hope this helps you as well.

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1AND1 ANSWERS: Stay away, I think!
Sep 13, 2015 8:30AM PDT

1and1
Zero service!
Technical support zero!
They take your money and keep you waiting for weeks.
I was very sorry and still did not get my money back!

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AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID
Jan 27, 2016 12:25AM PST

AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID

Worst ever billing - DO NOT LET THEM GET NEAR YOUR CREDIT CARD
Horrible Customer/Tech support

AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID

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Don't expect any service from 1&1 they just hangup the phone
Jan 27, 2016 4:00AM PST

Horrible experience with 1&1 customer service, been on the phone several times with them over the past few days. After being on the phone with them for 75 min, Ed in the dedicated server department simply hung up the phone as he was incapable, unwilling on unknowledge resolving my issue. I got transferred around many many times and had to do my story over and over again, landed with the same guy again in the dedicated server department and he did the same thing, hang up on me!.
Called again got Ryan on the phone in the same department, he couldn't help me either after being on the phone for 55 min, asked to be transferred to a supervisor got Ron on the phone,
Could help me either referred to the processing department however the are not there anymore call back tomorrow. I emailed supporting documents to the legal & process department, faxed it as well to the customer service line. Than they stated I used the wrong form and had to use a different form, LOOKS EXACTLY the same with same information just a different headline.
Re faxed documents call again the same spiels started all over again, getting stonewalled and NO service in regaining control of our our accounts that are paid by the company and not by the individual that is on the account. In the meantime the business activities and email access is crippled, they didn't care at all and simply hung up the phone. Look for another hosting company!

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Avoid 1&1 hosting service
Jan 31, 2016 2:11PM PST

good to know about your negative feedback, these feedback are important to find good hosting sites. thanks

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USLESS give them too much credit.
Feb 2, 2016 6:52AM PST

It might be impossible to overstate how poor 1 & 1 is. But the answer is simple. STAY AWAY they are USELESS.

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1and1 -stay well clear
Feb 21, 2016 11:56PM PST

I would concur - poor service, incompetent technical supportand uncaring customer care. This lot managed to wiped out 11 months of emails
from all 5 email accounts causing me no end of problems in my business, they
then blocked my website, they continue to charge me and now have sent
threatening letters as they still want to charge me for a service I don’t have.
I now use rackspace for email hosting (no issues so far and its free!.) from my
experience I can only advise to look else where before singing up with 1and1.

The main website states that they ensure a 'top notch' hosting experience for
domains, emails eshops etc - laughable in my experience.

I will sit down and work out what this has cost my business in recalling
emails, chasing back lost information and counter charge them accordingly.

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DO NOT USE 1AND1 FOR ANY THINGS
Mar 25, 2016 6:31AM PDT

It must be insane to use their service. Be careful guys, they made some ILLEGAL charge into your account. Recently, they suddenly charge me $5.97 for 3 months anti virus. I HAVE NEVER ORDERED. I called them for the third time to remove this charge. I still on the phone with them as speak. DO NOT USE THIS HOST. THEY ARE NOT TRUSTABLE.

Many has the similar problem with them. Stay away from this British UNLAWFUL company. THEY ARE NOT TRUSTABLE.