1and1 hosting sucks

[british steve]

For the last 6 or 7 months we have had a website running at 1and1, the web hosts. When we signed up they quite happily took our money via our business PayPal account. Since then they have not bothered collecting any payments. Several times they have pulled our website due to non-payment – I have phoned them and tried to pay by credit/debit card – they say they can not accept payment over the phone by debit or credit card - they turned my website of on Monday so I phoned up and asked why, they told me because I had not paid them. I then asked the (completely useless) lady in the billing department if we could send them a cheque in the post to ensure that our website was not pulled again to which she said yes, Once they had re-instated my website she would email me with an address to which I could send them a cheque. Have still not received that email and now 1and1 have disconnected my site again And told me I now have to speak to the debt collectors that they have handed my account to. I have now had to ring the debt collection agency to try and sort this out – the debt collection company have told me that I have to pay the last 3 months for the arrears that 1and 1 have not collected but I also have to pay the next 3 months in advance and pay a £15 agency collection fee if I want my site put back up. 1and 1 are useless. Avoid this company at all costs. I have now refused to pay them and decided to move my site to another host. If I have learnt any thing from this I guess it would be the following – Never ever have your domain names and you web hosting with the same company – keep the domains separate and just point them to your web host that way if they try to screw you like 1and 1 you can re-direct your domains to a new host and have a new website up and running in minutes

 

[eprint]

Yep, it does!

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

1&1 have a dedicated desk in Trading Standards office, Slough.

 

[That Guy]

Had problems with them years ago and switched to www.vidahost.com and never looked back

 

[iboxsecurity]

Without a doubt 1and1 are tied worst hosting company ever along with FastHosts!

I had one client previously on 1and1 who had their site and domain held hostage and turned off for 14 days because they tried to move the hosting elsewhere!

 

[MARLEY2]

what a nightmare, Your google rankings would drop massively , I am with godaddy.com never had any problems like that.

 

[seanstevens]

Have never had a problem with 1&1 and had an issue yesterday which I reported to them online, they emailed me with a solution within 1 hour.

Swings and roundabouts really. All services are good until they go wrong.

 

[wnt]

Indeed. we've been with 1and1 for years and have never had any problems whatsoever.....

 

[LicensedToTrade]

I have the highest linux business package with 1&1 and have had very few problems with them, even the best companies have a bad day (disappointingly even the worst companies have a good day)

 

[british steve]

I am happy to accept the fact that all companies have bad days - but how stupid must you be to turn down a customer who phones you up and tries to pay you?

 

[LicensedToTrade]

I knew a company like that once, called themselves the British Government, you may have heard of them. Wouldn't take my overpayment.

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

Is there a desk for them too in trading standards slough?

 

[janekbar5]

Hi
I had recommended 1and1 as hosting provider for e-commerce (Zen Cart). We needed to install crypt blowfish in order to collect payments by protx. It turned out that this hosting package ( 1&1 Business) doesn't support this installation and that’s it no help, no advise just bug… off. In previous hosting company in USA I had this thing done in 1 minute.
Very disappointing attitude don’t recommend them.

 

[bdw]

Have never had a problem with 1&1 and had an issue yesterday which I reported to them online, they emailed me with a solution within 1 hour.

I have been with them for eight years and I can honestly say that their support is the worst I have experienced from anyone in any business. The only thing that stops me from moving my accounts away from them is the problems I anticipate in trying to do so.

I have had an emailed support request open with them for almost four months. It's a billing enquiry and they owe me money so it is not a critical problem with regard to my websites. I deliberately email support@ billing@ and affilliates@ every couple of weeks and they do not even reply. Three different departments none of whom can be @rsed responding to my problem. I am retaining all of the emails I send to them as evidence.
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[hostedweb]

We've have had lots of customers move to us from 1&1, most of the time they couldn't even cancel the contract properly, with our customers having to contact them multiple times and initiate the cancellation a few times before it going through.. Usually being billed for the next term during the process!

Tony.

 

[JMCDesigner]

I've never had any real problems, customer service replies are very quick. Although they are a bit behind on technology at the moment. PHP 4, dreamweaver 8 as well as other dated apps on their application cd...

 

[FE]

1&1 host our domains and e-mails and in 6 years never a problem always very good. The website is hosted seperately though i.e. domain forward as the developer we used did warn of some problems that he had personally encountered with them but not had any ourselves to be honest

 

[flower123]

I just signed up for them with a domain name and hosting. I was having no end of problems logging in so I sent an email cancelling under the distance selling regulations. To be fair they did reply to my emails promptly but insisted I paid for the full year. I finally managed to convince them the distance selling regulations needed to be adhered to and the contract was cancelled.

I think this took about 15-20 emails but I think they all get dealt with in India so their knowledge of DSR maybe a little lax

 

[sally_b]

Had problems with them years ago and switched to www.vidahost.com and never looked back

Thanks That Guy - just what I needed!

I haven't used 1 and 1 recently but a long time ago I had some domains with them. I had problems cancelling them, I wont go into details but it was not a nice experience...

 

[HostColor]

Hmmm, this is very interesting. 1and1 are one of the largest web hosts in the world and this means that their services are stable and standardized. At the same time I see a growing number of negative reviews about them within the last couple of months. They have probably become too bureaucratic and because of the size of the company the customer support probably fails sometimes. But I think that no one wouldn't say they are becoming a low quality web host...

 

[stasilo]

Without a doubt 1and1 are tied worst hosting company ever along with FastHosts!

I had one client previously on 1and1 who had their site and domain held hostage and turned off for 14 days because they tried to move the hosting elsewhere!

agree. these 2 are most popular and the worst ones!

 

[Richard Moore]

I have had an emailed support request open with them for almost four months. It's a billing enquiry and they owe me money so it is not a critical problem with regard to my websites. I deliberately email support@ billing@ and affilliates@ every couple of weeks and they do not even reply. Three different departments none of whom can be @rsed responding to my problem. I am retaining all of the emails I send to them as evidence.
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I've had a dedicated server with 1and1 for about 5 or 6 years now.

On the whole they've been Ok - no better and no worse than anyone else in the price bracket. Certainly a lot better than FastHosts though from my experience - both in terms of customer service and control panel functionality.

However one thing where I agree that 1and1 'suck the big one's proverbial' is their email support!

I found that contacting them via email is a complete waste of time. On the other hand phoning them has always reaped instant results for me.

 

[bdw]

However one thing where I agree that 1and1 'suck the big one's proverbial' is their email support!

I found that contacting them via email is a complete waste of time.

But we are talking about the world's largest host. Don't you think they should be capable of answering an email support request when they have provided this as an option?

 

[Richard Moore]

But we are talking about the world's largest host. Don't you think they should be capable of answering an email support request when they have provided this as an option?

Yes, absolutely! It is amazing that an 'e' company like 1and1 can't respond to emails more efficiently than phone calls.

Have to say my ISP is like that at present too, if I send an email or add an admin note for them (via their reseller console) they just ignore it. If I phone them it'll take 20 minutes on hold but after that time I talk to someone that will 'resolve' the issue.

The problem I find is who to replace these people with. There are other options out there, but some are way more expensive. Others would answer emails but be lacking in another (unknown) area.

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

When I looked around for hosting, I didn't find 1&1 substantially cheaper. And infact Fasthosts were more expensive than the (highly recommended) supplier that I am with.

 

[NICHOLASM1987]

note to self, avoid 1and1 web hosting. they sound like a bunch of idiots thanks for the post.

 

[Richard Moore]

When I looked around for hosting, I didn't find 1&1 substantially cheaper. And infact Fasthosts were more expensive than the (highly recommended) supplier that I am with.

I suppose it depends what you're buying. I'm renting a Windows dedicated server and 1and1 offer a good deal for that.

 

[evilonion]

yep, iandi offered a great deal on my dedicated server, even gave me a month free and 6 months at half price for me to sign up... did so, and i have now moved.
support doesn't exist, the server got hacked and they switched me off and cut all my access, they have been seriously un helpful and had to get another company in to help sort the mess out.

I have now located elsewhere and will be happy to see the back of them.
I was warned about them but the cheap deal caught my eye... you get what you pay for!

 

[british steve]

Now have the debt collection agency phoning and threatening to take me to court.

Bring it on boys - take me to court. I have copies of every email I have sent and I also have all the recorded phone calls between me and 1and1.

 

[Deleted member 61074]

just out of interest, why do you prefer email support over telephone support for webhosting?

 

[bdw]

just out of interest, why do you prefer email support over telephone support for webhosting?

I am quite a busy person and I cannot bear to wait for an indeterminate period to talk to someone in a different continent who invariably has problems understanding my west of Scotland accent and I have problems understanding their accent. I have a business account with 1&1 and perhaps I am being unrealistic but I expect better.

If the problem is not urgent I will always choose email over a telephone call because calling many of the larger companies for service nowadays is such a traumatic experience. In this case 1&1 owe me money for an affiliate agreement. I want to know why they have not been paying me what they owe me. I have been waiting for an answer since July.

I eventually did call them and got to speak to someone in the UK. That was a couple of weeks ago and I have still not had a resolution to my problem.

Believe me, 1&1 are the essence of bad customer support. I have full file of examples of this going back about seven years. When they do respond their support emails are opften signed by people whose names look suspiciously fictitious to me or could "Ruxan Repollo", "Warvi Love Rubio", "Aspirin Ponce", "Karlo Magno Guadalupe" and "Jupiter Mata" be real people. Personally I think they are having a laugh at our expense.

(If anyone knows a pain free method of moving several websites from 1&1 please let me know. I would love to get shot of them once and for all.)
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[officemunkey]

i agree with steve, in this current climate you cant afford to turn away business

 

[Dominic Taylor]

Hmmm, this is very interesting. 1and1 are one of the largest web hosts in the world and this means that their services are stable and standardized.

No it doesn't, it means they have a huge reach and good marketing. Size of a company is absolutely nothing to do with its service level!

Larger companies have better economies of scale so can usually offer various things that smaller providers can't, but then you lose things such as the more personal customer service of a small company.

 

[Deleted member 61074]

(If anyone knows a pain free method of moving several websites from 1&1 please let me know. I would love to get shot of them once and for all.)

to prepare to transfer your websites the first thing to do is change the domain registrar - only change the TAG if its a co.uk or for a com its the registrar. Do not change nameservers at this stage.

Find a registrar with a control panel so you can self administer. You may be able to leave the domain regs where they are (if they are with FH or 1&1) as long as you have CP access.

Now choose your new host. Again choose a host with CP access and who will offer a temp URL and one who will allow you to administer your own domain.

Prepare to transfer sites over a few days....

1 Upload site to new host using temp URL
2 set up email addresses via new host cp
3 change nameservers to new site via registrar cp,
4 optional - set up forwarding from email to a 3rd party during propagation to minimise losing email)

by using a temp url the site will become visible as the name servers propagate thus diminishing downtime issues.

PM me if you need hosting recommendations for business hosting

Ask any other Qs here

 

[Deleted member 61074]

Originally Posted by HostColor
Hmmm, this is very interesting. 1and1 are one of the largest web hosts in the world and this means that their services are stable and standardized.

not necessarily so sometimes big means you fall between cracks.
go small and hopefully get personal service - in an ideal world

 

[bdw]

For the last three or four years I have been using UKWSD, a small company based in the north east. Their service and support has been second to none.
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[british steve]

note to self, avoid 1and1 web hosting. they sound like a bunch of idiots thanks for the post.

I cant help but think calling 1and1 idiots is letting them off a little to lightly I think useless f****** Idiots is nearer the mark (Hash but fair). The thing I dont get is how the hell do the useless companies like 1and1 manage to stay in business?

 

[bdw]

They stay in business by having the resources to plaster their two and three page adverts all over every computing magazine in the UK and by telling unsuspecting people that they are the biggest and best in the world and that they offer brilliant support.

In other words they lie.

From their website ...

Total customer satisfaction is our main objective

I have been experiencing the same problems for years and nothing has been done to improve their support during this time. It just keeps on getting worse.

1&1's approach to business is based on trust. 1&1 aren’t interested in gaining quick business at the expense of your satisfaction.

Yeah, right!

Excellent Support
Questions? Concerns? You can always reach 1&1's dedicated customer service team who are available to answer your issues quickly and professionally via telephone and e-mail. You will receive professional guidance through any matter you need settled.

Yeah, right!

1&1's technical support team is ready to help you throughout the life of your package. With a range of convenient ways in which to gain fast, expert advice on using your package, with 1&1's Support service you can rest assured that you'll be able to make the most of your new web presence.

Yeah, right!

Expert Technical Support 24/7:
Professional, technical support by e-mail and phone is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week . You can find the technical support number in the control panel in 1&1 Help & Contact section.

They tell people this knowing full well that their support team are a bunch of incompetents who cannot answer an email and who don't give a **** about you and I.
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[dingbat]

I've been with 1and1 for at least 7 years, Early days I had major problems with migrating my domains from an American company to them and trying to explain the problem to 1and1 by email was getting nowhere. Being a bit naive back then I ended up losing the domains.

But since, I've had no real problems. Admittedly, I've never asked for much support.

I think their support is based in Brazil or Portugal. Judging by the names. Could even be Goa.

 

[simpleitsolutions]

Just reading this thread with interest because we're having major problems with Enom and I'm desperate to move away from them now. I've obviously learnt from this thread that 1 and 1 are not the way to go anyway!

I noticed Vidahost have been mentioned a couple of times - are they easy to get hold of by phone if you need to get a problem resolved? Enom are based in the US, I can only contact them by their ticketing system and the person manning that has the technical know-how of your average 4 year old! So I'm looking for someone UK based and easily accessible now. Any more thoughts on Vidahost or does anyone have any other recommendations?