1and1 sucks and they will rip you off. Take notice!
This post has nothing to do with the topic of my blog but I feel obligated to share this nasty experience I had with 1and1 regarding domain registration and renewals of some other domain names I own.
In March of 2007 I registered three new domain names with 1and1 at their amazing price of $5.99 for the first year and $6.99 for renewals. I have been using these three domain names successfully since they were registered, right up until today June 13, 2008.
This week I needed to make an update to my DNS and change the name servers of my domains. So I log in to my 1and1 account and attempt to make the changes but I was unable to because my account was in a locked status. As I was a little concerned that my account was locked I immediately got on the phone with the customer service department only to find out that my account is locked because I owe them money for the renewals of March 2008. I then proceed to ask how I still owe them money for the domains if the domains are still active and online displaying my website, which in my opinion is a definite valid point. They begin to tell me that the credit card I had on file with them had expired prior to the renewal date so 1and1 renewed my domain names for me and then with only 1 email notification that conveniently made its way to my spam folder, advised me that I had been sent to a collection agency to pay the renewal fee plus an administrative charge of $18.95 .
I then go digging in my email and sure enough 2 days after the expiration of my domains I had an email stating I had 7 days to log in to my 1and1 account to update my billing profile or I’ll be sent to a collection agency. That is the most ridiculous outrageous policy I have ever heard of.
ANY normal domain registrar would do one of two things when a domain name expires and is not paid for.
- Upon expiration, turn the domain name off making it inactive
- Park the domain to another page
Doing any of the above two options would obviously make me or any other person aware that the domain names I own have a problem. I would then contact my registrar and they would tell me my credit card is expired, and I would update my profile and be done with it… problem solved.
However, 1and1 chooses not to do this therefore I have absolutely NO WAY to know that my domains did not renew properly since they are STILL ONLINE RIGHT NOW.
I needed and still need access to my DNS right now this very instant so I paid a total of $41 to the 1and1 collection agency. That was a charge of $18.95 administration fee for being sent to collections as well as the cost of my domain renewals. I paid that on Monday June 9, 2008 and immediately contacted 1and1 and advised them it was paid. They told me that my account would be unlocked within 2-3 business days once they have confirmed receipt of my payment.
I waited two business days (Wednesday) and contacted 1and1 and was advised I would have to wait one more business day. I call on Thursday and am told I have to wait one more business day. I call on Friday (today) and they confirm that they have received my payment but my account has not been unlocked. They advise me I now have to wait until after the weekend because only the billing department has access to unlock my account.
I am sick and tired of this bullshit. This should have never been sent to a collection agency and there HAS to be something wrong or illegal with how they handle the accounts.
What if I knew that the credit card on my account was expired and just didn’t want my domains…. would 1and1 continue to renew them indefinitely until I receive a notice 10 years later that I owe them for 10 years of domain registration? Unfuckingbelievable.
After first calmly discussing and later on yelling at the useless supervisor Xenia at 1and1 Im given the usual, “we will escalate this with the highest priority” which means dick. So I’m now waiting until Monday to regain access to my account.
I would love to hear from anyone else who has experienced a similar issue with 1and1 and their ridiculous billing policies. I will also be contacting the BBB and filing a complaint against 1and1 for disgusting practices.
I also strongly urge anyone who still currently uses 1and1 for any services to begin looking for a new hosting and domain provider before you get screwed too. This is a sneaky tactic. 1and1 banks on the fact that most people will miss the email and have to pay additional fees.
UPDATE: I am now unable to connect to 1and1′s servers. Any attempts for me to access *.1and1.com results in a connection refused however I can still access it via a proxy and my neighbour and friends can still access it. Did they not like the email I sent to their complaints department? Instead of responding to my email have they locked me out of their servers?
Digg it StumbleUpon Facebook Twitter del.icio.us Google Yahoo!
I stay away from 1and1 because I’ve heard enough bait and switch stories and enough problems with their tech support to make me apprehensive about their services. I manage my web services elsewhere (don’t want to be too commercial but happy to post here if that helps).
Thanks for the comments. More than anything I just want the word to get out that 1and1 is as scam and hopefully enough people get the message and move their domains and hosting away.
I am still waiting for access to my account and I can almost bet my life it still won’t get unlocked tomorrow as they say.
[...] my post about the crooked 1and1 so I figured I should post a follow-up to my previous posts here and [...]
this is a warning for lots of people who has similar experience. thanks for sharing. At least we can take precaution in the future.
Sherin
Almost the same situation happened to me.
Today i found out that i have 6 days to pay for my 1and1 bill, or the debt collection agent will come pickup the money and also charge $18.95 fee.
I have 1and1 hooked up with my paypal which has enough money to pay off the bill, but for some reason it hasn’t been sending since the day i started hosting with them(about 3-4 weeks ago).
So i called paypal and they told me that i need a credit card hooked up to my paypal because 1and1 is a ‘subscription’. (Basically if i don’t have enough money in my paypal by the next subcription bill they will just grab it from my credit card.)
After calling paypal i call 1and1 to ask if there is any way to have the money sent before the debt collection agent comes, and they tell me that the ONLY thing i can do is to get a credit card and sign it up with paypal. I told the lady on the phone I am only 15 and can’t apply for a credit, and the lady on the phone told me that i should either get a prepaid credit card(which will cost me $34.95 to get plus many fees for both withdrawing and depositing money) Or to get a friend or family member to sign up their credit card to paypal.
I guess i’m going to have to go buy a prepaid credit card within 6 days before a collection agent comes.
I have the same problem with them atm. I was in the army and expected the domain i registered to expire automatically if i didn’t renew it. But now 6 years later, i’m out and collections wants me to pay the damn fee and 6 years for the domain to let me actually cancel the domain
If i don’t pay the fee 1and1 will continue to renew it, even though i said i want to cancel it. 1and1 is the worst company ever. Please stay away.
Just go to another major domain registrar and register there for the same price as 1and1 using coupons you can easily find on google.
Wow Jack… that is brutal. In my case it was only $40 so I paid it to be done with them but with you you could probably contact your credit card company and file a complaint…. i wish you luck though because 1and1 are cut-throat
[...] those of you who follow my blog you might remember two articles I wrote earlier this year about how 1and1 stole money from me, hijacked my domain names and then told me too bad so sad and refused to entertain the possibility [...]
Am I the only person in the world that likes 1&1?
I think it was not good that you only got 1 email about the need to update your credit card. But I have over 300 domains with 1&1 and I am glad that they will not delete my domains just because they have not been paid.
I have had good experiences with 1&1 as well as bad. I have found their 24 help desk to be very useful and helpful, for example.
I have heard a lot of bad things with other hosts/registrars also – like GoDaddy, for example. Each works differently but I don’t think 1 & 1 are the worst in the world, its just that they have their own way of doing things which can catch you out if you are not careful?
@Ray
I certainly understand your point and you are right, all hosts and registrars have negative feedback as well as good. THe problem with 1and1 is that their billing practices are bordering extortion.
How would you feel if you contacted 1and1 and requested to not renew all 300 of your domains and although they confirmed your cancellation request, they still go ahead and try to renew all 300 domains on your expired credit card, or credit card with no funds.. and although you did ask to cancel your domains and they confirmed, you still get sent to a collection agency for 300 domain renewals + collection agency fees for domains you never wanted.
now you are stuck dealing with a vicious collection agency………..
I’m taking them to court. I transferred several dozen domains to them from another registrar where I had paid several years in advance. I spoke to 1and1 first to verify they honor the existing paid term, as the old registrar does not refund those fees. The 1and1 representative said yes, it is standard practice between registrars as it all evens out in the long run.
They charged me a year up front when I transferred, which extended the domain expiry dates by a year, which is exactly what they told me would happen. I didn’t expect any further charges until near the expiry dates, as I had already paid for it. Now, almost a year later, they are charging me for ALL of the domains on the 1 year anniversary of transferring them, and at a fee of $8.99 per domain – that’s an over 28% increase!
I contacted them by phone and they said they don’t do mutli-year registration (despite above posts saying they even did a 2 year registration when it wasn’t requested) and they stated it was “not their policy” to transfer in pre-paid domains. I am wild – we’re talking many hundreds of dollars here!
They suggested I email their complaints@1and1.com which I have done, but I don’t expect a favorable response (or any response at all) based on what I have seen on Google about this apparent bunch of crims. Fortunately I have an associate who is a bulldog lawyer in Brooklyn where I live, and he will gladly help me take these bastards to court.
Although I only have a verbal contract regarding that transfer, the judge will apparently accept it based on the fact that I chose 1and1 because they had a special on the time that saved me a whopping $0.87 per domain.. and logic dictates that I would not sacrifice hundreds of dollars in order to save about $15 total in transferring them to 1and1, so they’re screwed basically. It will cost me only my time to sue them, as the amount is small enough to go through no claims court, and I don’t need to pay for legal representation for that.
I despise companies that pull of this sort of crap, and I trust the judge has seen enough of this sort of thing to maybe award some form of punitive damages against them as well, as 1and1 seem to have built a pretty strong reputation for ripping people off.
Thanks for letting me vent.
Hey Jim,
Thank you so much for sharing your story with us. I am a victim in a same situation. I registered my domain with 1and1 in 2007 for $5.99 which expected to be expired on Oct 2008. Several days later, I got an email from 1and1 stated that they’re not able to charged my expired credit card and ask me to pay for more expensive renewal fee $6.99 + Collector agency NCOs $18.99.
I email 1and1 told them I don’t want keep my domain. Follow their tricky instruction to cancel my account within several days. After, the account had canceled; I had never heard anything from 1and1 again. I thought situation was over. Unfortunately, situation is get worst before it gets better; the worst has yet to come with a collection letter from NCO in Jan 2009.
I was shocked and think it is absolutely ridiculous. I never meant to renew it and they should not charged it without my consent. 1and1 threat me if I don’t paid off the way they charged me, NCO may file a negative report to impact my credit score. I am really scare and terrified. It made me feel like I’ve been robbed by the internet gangster. I am also worried that kidnapping situation may happen again. I am always worried shady company may figure out a new hidden term of agreement or condition to bill me again for ransom in any way they want to. I am really terrified with such endless nightmare.
I wish you luck in your lawsuit and hope that will bring justice and freedom once again to American consumer!
By the way, they are graded not even a B or C but an “F” with BBB.org vs. their competitor godady “A+”. I was really stupid by having business with them and giving myself a punishment a year after dealing with this chaos situation.
@Jim, What is the out come with your attorney. I do have a problem with them. They send out to collection agency for 8.99 and 18.95 for administration fee that I wasn’t aware. There is no notice until I got NCO Fnancial Systems, a collection agency.
Please let me know what you have done so far.
Thanks
@ Jim .. It is ICANN regulation that registrars honor years that were paid to another registrar.
For example, if your domain has an expiration date of December 2012, and today January 30, 2009 you perform a registrar transfer to another registrar, then as per ICANN regulations your new registrar should be setting the expiration date to December 2013 .
Id love to find the link for you right now but I can’t seem to find it.. it is there though for sure (I work with a registrar and registry)
There are a small few exceptions such as transferring the domain within the auto-renew period, etc.. all explained on ICANN’s website. You should locate it for your court date.
1and1 seems to think ICANN’s regulations are useless and that their tos trump ICANN. I hope someone teaches 1and1 a lesson
Hi Jim,
Same problem here. Transferred in to 1and1 a bunch of domains that had been registered previously 2 years in advance. Upon transfer, we were charged a year’s registration and an extra year was added to each domain. No problem.
One year later, they charge another year’s fee, but this time dont add another year’s registration. Telephone service useless. They say write to complaints@1and1.
OK, so we write emails for each of about 8 invoices, asking them to either refund the fee or add a year to the registrations. For 3 of them, we get the refund. For 5 of them, we dont and instead – after several emails – are told it is a “domain maintenance fee”. But there is no such fee in the terms of service or listed among the fees.
So we sent in a credit card chargeback. Awaiting the result now,
I dont really have any other beef with 1and1, where we have 100+ domains. Low cost with low-quality but acceptable service. OK user interface. A reasonable value ….. except in this particular situation where they are charging a non-existent fee, likely due to an error in their internal systems that noone has the authority to correct.
I have experienced same issue.
I had 60 domain names with 1and1.They sent me collectio for $138.82.
They extended some domain names when they experied and billed me later.
When my credit card number didn’t go through they suspended the whole account.
DO NOT USE 1and1 THEY SUCKS big time.
This is the 4th site i found, the more i look the more i find.
People, 1and1 sucks. If i knew this was so bad as it is, i would never ever registered my domain name with them. Only thing we can do now is to let everyone know about how much they suck so that others can save them their time fighting with them. I’ve seen people having problems with mail, ftp, domains, to make it short, mostly everything.
Daniels last blog post..1and1 nameserver broken!
Wow, in a weird way it is a relief to know I am not alone in this…I have like 200 names in 80 packages because I didn’t know you are supposed to only have one…Bottom line is 350 went to NCO – I paid it and told NCO and 1and1 to just take all my names…it was horrible what they did. I don’t need to sound like a broken record, but there are now over 10 items listed on my credit report for between 10 and 50 dollars…each package is showing up separately. But it’s not showing up in collections…it’s showing up as a revolving account, as if they are my creditor.
I have never felt so helpless…it’s like if I told you I might give you 20 bucks in a year, but decided not to, so then you send that to a collection agency…
DOES ANYONE know how we could band together and get these off our record and out of lives…Canceling a name and/or package is one of the most confusing and ambiguous things EVER…
If anyone lawyers are reading this please contact me…
They are crooks…how are they getting away with this…back in the day on APLUS.net I had one auto renew but made sure my credit card was removed so it wouldn’t renew…they simply took the name. FINE…I offered them all my names. they want over 1400 dollars of which 750 is the cost they charged to auto renew and the rest is their late fee/surcharge…
SERIOUSLY, I NEED A LAWYER, so if you are one familiar with this situation or know one who is please let me know…also, please let me know if anyone got them off your back and off your credit report without paying the crooks…
Thanks
I got hit with this too. I never got the notices because it went to an account different than my primary. Recently I got a collections letter from them. I don’t know what this does to my credit report, but I can tell you one thing, 1and1 has lost all credit with me. They never lent me money, I never asked them to! This has got to be the worst policy I’ve ever heard of.
I’m not even going to respond to them. No way I’m paying it, especially their collections fees!
@Tim Harper, Tim I am too a victim from 1and1.com. Try to cancel the service before due date. Just a few days after due date and they want me to pay for another year service in which I want to cancel. They are worse business policy I ever see.
I also received a collection notices… I am not going to pay for it. As far I care. They can eat it.
1&1 are crooks. Fortunately I haven’t been sent to collections (yet), and reupped for the minimum contract period (updated my cc info today, should get charged tonight/tomorrow AM), and will cancel ASAP. To me my clean credit is worth far more than anything they’re trying to charge me for my single domain renewal. That said, as everybody here knows, this is a very shady company and I’ll do whatever I can to spread the word to avoid them like the swine flu….
@Stomp, Me too dude…
They did the same thing to me, and I had to pay 41.00 in full to the collection agency because they tacked on 18.95 additional charges, and this is all while I’ve been in contact with them trying to figure out why the payment wouldn’t go through. While I’ve been in contact with them trying to figure out what the problem was, they sent me to collections and never told me. I updated my expired credit card, they never charged it, so I called to find out why they never charged it and was told – well, we sent it to collections. WHILE I WAS IN CONTACT WITH THEM, they sent it to collections and never told me. I dont know what to do…..I’m so upset!
1&1 are scammers BEWARE
Like others on this thread I was also sent to collections (without my knowledge) for a pre-paid account that I was rung through the ringer when trying to cancel. Instead of just closing my fully paid account account, they sent me to collections. I found out about the collection over a year later when I was trying to qualify for a mortgage. My credit was spotless and my FICO was above 800 prior to this issue. Needless to say this sunk my FICO into the 500′s and lenders now don’t want to touch me because I have this $30 collection on my credit history. I’ve spent over two weeks on the phone and writing letters and emails with 1and1 and NCO (the credit agency) trying to resolve the issue with no luck. I’m now working with an attorney to try to get this resolved.
BE WARNED before doing business with 1and1. 1and1 makes it extremely difficult to close your accounts and when you do close your account, they refer you to collections. Please consider that by doing business with 1and1 your credit will be forever affected which makes it impossible for you to ever by a car, house, or get any type of a loan because of their extremely aggressive policies.
I have same problem with 1and1. Tried to cancel the service before
due date using their web page but, there is no cancellation setup. I called serveral times before I got a live person on the phone. This was few days after due date. They say I have to paid for another year service because I didn’t cancel before due date. Now, they send 18.95 administration fee to collection agency plus 8.99 for the year. I will never do business with them again. They are the worse customer service ever. I have dealt other business and they always give me some grace period. Stay away from 1and1.com.
I switched over to Godaddy.com. So far, they treating me very nice on the phone.
If you read this and you still have 1and1.com service, do us all us a favor, cancel it.
You all can file complaint to Better Business Bureau..
More complaints the better.
1and1 will send you to debt collections if you do not cancel properly. Their cancellation system is very confusing and convoluted. The renew doamins and then try to get your money, not the other way around.
Stay away from 1and1.com. The company’s practices are borderline scam. They have a BBB rating of “F”.
[...] My brother called me yesterday about a company called 1and1 who he has a couple of domain names with. They advertise heavily in tech magazines and many people have used there services. I won’t say anything about them, but do some searches about 1and1 and collections. My brothers credit card had expired and he was never contacted to update his card. Now with companies I have done domain business with would send an email – or 5 before the date arrived and then some after. If you did not update the card they would expire the domain name. That was not the case for my brother. See this guys experience with 1and1. [...]
Today is September 14 of 2009 and nothing so far has changed at 1and1. I have the same experience as in the original post and as in many of the comments. I, also, am wondering what the legality is of scaring people into payments based on “terms of use” and sending collection agencies after them because of claims that charges and fees were not paid, even years after domains were deemed closed, and without 1and1 ever contacting you. It claims to send a message, but where is the proof? The only message I ever received is an after the fact “invoice” based on automatic renewal, on the most ridiculous cancellation policy (no links from your Control Panel to the separate cancellation site), and on the “terms of use.” This is one of the most vicious scams I have seen so far on the intenet.
If this is legal, then all our credit cards are in danger at the hands of any company referring to some never read “terms of use.” That could even be restaurants where you’re sitting down to eat your dinner. There could be a little line at the bottom of the menu saying that if you order food you agree to having read the terms of use. And the unread terms of use could state something ridiculous that when you sit on the chair in the restaurant you agree to be billed $5 per month for the next twelve months. This is heinous, wicked, flagitious, atrocious, villainous, nefarious… and I am still looking for more words without deteriorating into a slanging-match.
Terms of use are terms of use, and should not cover the manual, help desk, customer service, and communication and debit departments all in one.
Had 1and1 myself and the performance was terrible, the cost however couldn’t be beat (free).
I’d like to file a class action lawsuit against this company. Anyone with me?
1and1 is ruining people’s credit if people let their subscription expire. That’s crazy! I have plenty of hosting accounts on the internet, so I am very familiar with hosting policies. When a subscription expires, and your card is expired, your prepay doesn’t go through. That then cancels the account.
But I guess 1and1 finds that it’s profitable to send people directly to the NCO collection agency if they don’t prepay for the next term without clicking the ‘cancel’ button, which is not even available on your control panel!
Anyone else think this is an unfair business practice? I think we should contact the Abbey Spanier law firm and file a class action lawsuit!
Same thing happened to me, however in my case I was contacted by the collection firm and this was the only thing that made me aware of it.
I told 1and1 that they they could have called me and likewise that they shouldn’t have renewed them in the event they couldn’t withdraw funds, and that I would pay them the outstanding but refused to pay the administration charge seeing as they had done pretty much nothing to make me aware of the situation, and to be fair they accepted that and told the collection firm to get off my case and I never paid the administration charge! So for better or worse I’m still with them…
1and 1 are a bunch of scumbag NAZI’s
I think that this is symptomatic of the new electronic age. We get the same treatment here in the UK. These businesses are not like those that we are familiar with traditional bricks and mortar firms. They think that because virtuality is their field that they can distance themselves from customers. You are right to use this, the internet, which is their own weapon of choice against them. Power to the people!
I also had a lot of problems with 1and1 when I tried to cancel my contract, it still doesn't work fine. But there is just not enough money involved to try harder.
My recent post Prepaid Handy – Vorteile