To the Invision Community,

The below statements are factual and are verifiable by my attorneys in Houston, Texas, United States and Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He has copies of all correspondence between me and 1&1 and I will give his address upon request. He has over 200 copies of these articles and will surrender them for free.

It all started in the beginning of the year. 1&1 Internet, Inc. has been uncooperative throughout the entire process. My package only included domain names but this focuses on their overall support.

My invoices were paid to 1&1 and yet, they sent my bill to a collections agency. I had to pay that agency over $600 which so far totals $1200. However, I run my own small business which is in the process of moving to Canada. Basically, this means funds were tight (and still are).

After 4 months, I had completely paid off the debt to 1&1 and their collection agency but 1&1 would not unlock my account for 1 month. I called them at that time demanding that they cancel my package and the person on the other side of the phone confirmed the cancellation.

Now, they are charging me $125 in renewal fees and I called my lawyer in Houston, Texas to try to resolve this. THIS is the last thing I need because I am in the process of getting my Permanent Residence in Canada. I confrenced my lawyers in Edmonton, and in Houston with the people at 1&1 and they fought with us for an hour making absurd claims and threatening to take legal action against us for revealing this information to the public.

After the call, I conversed with my lawyers and they said that they wouldnt mind taking the heat for these pieces of detretis. I had drafted a contract with all of them so that we can distribute this. I had the transcripts typed up, translated in french, the phone call in mp3 and burned these things on 400 CDs. 200 of them will be at my lawyer's office in Houston overnight.

1&1 is a terrible company to do business with. Don't do hosting, domains nor anything else with them. I just got off of the phone with them. Get any domain you have with them off of the account. Move to a better registrar that respects their clients like Spirit Domains, Webnames.ca or Invision (once they start offering domain names). Move to a better hosting that truly respects you and your needs (Invision, A Small Orange or even eleven2)

Sincerely,
Kyle Korleski

They had this huge ad in the latest Wired magazine...

Ignore it. Trust me, you'll be a lot happier and you'll keep minutes on your life.

I couldn't agree more. Currently I'm using GoDaddy (which is working great), but I've tried 1&1 in the past and it definitely wasn't a good experience.

Really, don't use them.

I use Spirit Domains and Webnames.ca now.

Hope you get the situation resolved...

I won't use them if I can help it, I've had friends who've used them and have had awful service from them.

I just think that if someone treats customers the way they do, they should get the least business as possible.

I bought my very first domain from 1&1 which was a mistake. I can't remember the exact details now but I think they only allowed me to use my domain on their own webspace. Something like that anyway. In the end I had to transfer it to another domain provider. I can highly recommend both 123-reg.co.uk and GoDaddy.

Fortunately, I bought my first domain (kyletech.us) from Spirit Domains (then called the IA Registry)

I've got a server from them - and I know their support is awful, I only chose them because I found a community who help with server administration problems on the 1and1 network. However, I've decided its not worth it really - I have heard bad things about their servers now too, and so, I'm in the process of decommissioning the server and migrating to an alternative solution!

Might I suggest The Planet?

I'm taking a step back from server management - I'm keeping one of my clients servers there, but I am paid to manage that one, I think I may consider other providers (colo) for that server however.

Actually, you can get a hold of a staffer. Just call billing instead of the 1-877-HELPAT1AND1 .

I don't normally do internet forums, and wouldn't have noticed this if it hadn't been left in an open browser by a colleague who was researching for a press release.

It's a growing problem these days. I agree that anyone who fails to treat customers in a decent way does not deserve their business.
It can be summed up with two words. accountability and responsibility.
What tends to happen is that companies surround themselves with staff who through no fault of their own, have neither the authority or the competence to deal with the issues that are presented to them. Of course, the worst offenders soon become known, and people let their fingers do the walking.

They use extortion to renew domain names. Unusual, but true.

If your credit card does not auto-debit, billing sends an email stating that they will freeze your account and turn you renewal fees over to a collection agency for collection.

This is illegal, plain and simple.

If anyone else has had this issue with 1and1.com, please contact me via this board or email me. Perhaps legal action is in order.

http://www.ukreg.com are the best.

I think it is a tie between Spirit Domains ( http://www.spiritdomains.com ) and webnames.ca .

I posted this a couple weeks ago:

http://forums.invisionpower.com/index.php?...pic=216443&st=0

1And1 should die. That's all i have to say about them. GoDaddy is AWESOME.

Thank you Cy. You know, I am thinking about making a site about 1&1 and it's terrible service.

I just knew someone who switched both their domain and hosting from 1&1 to GoDaddy, and I feel so much better for them and it isn't even my account! I can attest for GoDaddy's awesomeness in both domain names and hosting (minus their bare naked control panel for hosting, but who cares?).

I like the fact that their phone support you almost always get through instantly, the sales/tech peson is almost always english (easily understood) and they know what their talking about and willing to help.

Go Daddy Go!

I've heard bad stories about 1&1, as well. GoDaddy is great for domain registration, but not hosting. I'd also recommend NameCheap.

1and1 suck!

I am glad to see that I am not the only one fed up with 1&1's antics.

Well, I use shared hosting with 1&1, and even though their service isn't great, I've really had no problems with them.

However, I too have heard horror stories about them. I suppose for know I'll count myself lucky.

I just renewed my domain name for another year today. It only cost me $8.88, and it was quick and easy.

Check up the fastest host here:
http://uptime.netcraft.com/perf/reports/Hosters

I have read with great interest the comments about 1&1 and their cancellation policy, automatic renewals without notification and their use of a debt collection agency to enforce their policies.
I myself have had problems with 1&1. In July, they automatically renewed my domains without any notification and in full knowledge my card which they were holding on file had expired 6 months previously.
The first contact I had with 1&1 was a letter demanding the payment of 15.12, which was surprising, as I had had no previous contact with them. The letter also threatened to refer me to a debt collection agency which would incur a further 15.00 penalty.
When I asked why I had not been sent a notification Email prior to the expiration of the domains I was told this was ‘not their policy to do so.’ I thought this rather unfair, as by not doing so, they were effectively trapping customers into a further extension of contract who, should a reminder had been sent to, may have cancelled.

This raised an interesting point as 1&1 are ICANN accredited and under the terms of the accreditation agreement, the registrar (1&1) must send an expiry notification Email to the domain name holder prior to the domain expiring. This is stated in the rules clearly laid down my ICANN.

Below is an extract from the ICANN ombudsman’s FAQ page:

“Are registrars required to give renewal notices to domain name holders before the expiry of a domain name?”

“Under ICANN's Registrar Accreditation Agreement domain name holders have to be sent an email notice prior to a domain expiring. The email address will be the one you list on WHOIS, so it is important for you to keep it up to date. If the email is sent to the email address on WHOIS, and that address is no longer valid, the Registrars may little other chance of contacting you.”

You can view the original text from the ICANN ombudsman’s website here:
http://www.icann.org/ombudsman/questions.htm
In addition to the above, 1&1 is also in breach of ICANN accreditation agreement by renewing the contract without assurances of payment for the services being renewed.

"3.7.4 Registrar shall not activate any Registered Name unless and until it is satisfied that it has received a reasonable assurance of payment of its registration fee. For this purpose, a charge to a credit card, general commercial terms extended to creditworthy customers, or other mechanism providing a similar level of assurance of payment shall be sufficient, provided that the obligation to pay becomes final and non-revocable by the Registered Name Holder upon activation of the registration."

The fact that 1&1 renewed my domains in full knowledge that the card had expired 6 months previously has contravened the above accreditation clause.

"3.7.5 Registrar shall register Registered Names to Registered Name Holders only for fixed periods. At the conclusion of the registration period, failure by or on behalf of the Registered Name Holder to pay a renewal fee within the time specified in a second notice or reminder shall, in the absence of extenuating circumstances, result in cancellation of the registration. In the event that ICANN adopts a specification or policy concerning procedures for handling expiration of registrations, Registrar shall abide by that specification or policy."

It may be argued that automatic renewals without prior notification are not fixed term contracts, but are an indefinite contract. Indefinite contracts are non-compliant with ICANN regulation 3.7.5.

The above demonstrates how 1&1 are not fully complying with the industry best practice as set out by ICANN and in not doing so, are gaining at the customers detriment and to the disadvantage of other companies who fully abide by ICANNs rules.

I have discovered 2 websites that are worth looking at:
www.wasitfree.com (self help group regarding issues raised here)
www.bankraid.com (scrutinizing the business conducts of the aforementioned company)

Hope this information is of some assistance.

Regards,

Jason

Yesterday they billed me for a domain that I had already transfered to GoDaddy six months ago. I was really ticked off. Surprisingly I got what seemed to be an American support rep right off the bat who helped me. Most of the time you get someone that barely speaks english and tries to get you off the phone as soon as possible, and it takes 15+ minutes just to get them on the phone.

What happened is I had like 20+ domains with them and I had transfered them all. There were a few listed as "Acked" and they had it in their system for months and sent be a billing invoice.... Really though... no excuse as it shows in their system it was removed, just had not disappeared form the list.

Ahh, I hate these stories! lol....

I am a new client with 1&1 Internet. Things seem to be ok, but their shared hosting GUI doesn't always make it clear what options are included and which ones you pay for!

I've read all these stories and sympathize with the hardships involved....I was with Aventure Media and had the worst experience of my life with my old site (1+GB of video files belonging to me deleted without my permission or notification for "abuse") and would like to hear more about 1&1...I will keep my account and see what happens for now I guess.

Why did you Grave Digg this topic?