How To Get a Refund From 1and1
For 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 that they messed up. For those not aware of what happened, in the extremely short version 1and1 kept my expired domain names online and active for months after trying to charge my expired credit card and then sent me to a collection agency rather than let me just pay the renewal and transfer away.
I gave up…… I’d sent my letters to the BBB and received a less than satisfactory response. In their letter they included a response from Joseph Quinn the manager who was dealing with my account. The response Joseph Quinn sent the BBB was the same damn email he sent me which pissed me off so much it made me contact the BBB in the first place. So I calmly wrote my response to the BBB advising them of just that. At that point I had already settled for the fact that I was not going to win. I needed my domain names right away so I caved in and after paying their collection agency for the renewals and an additional administrative fee I gave 1and1 a new credit card so they could unlock my account and I left. End of story or so I thought.
I really never thought the BBB would come through for me. Not that they don’t do a good job because they do, but because of 1and1’s record and past history with the BBB. Check it out for yourself and see their Unsatisfactory rating and the number of complaints they receive yearly which is roughly 1 per day.
So what a surprise it was for me when I went to visit my parents this past weekend and I found a letter from the BBB waiting for me in the kitchen. I opened it up fulling expecting to see another denial to my refund request but lo and behold they begin by saying that they feel that I will be satisfied with the response received this time. Joseph Quinn wrote back via the BBB apologizing for charging me the redemption fee for my domain names and that they have refunded me a total of $40 which covers the cost of the collection agency. I am happy that I received this refund but my problem is that Mr. Quinn still doesn’t get it despite giving me my money back. I was not disputing the redemption fee. A redemption fee is applied to a domain that has been expired and then placed into a “redemption period” via the registry. During redemption my domain would be offline or likely parked by the registrar somewhere else. The redemption period also only lasts 30 days at which point the domain is then released back to the public. Leaving a domain name online for 3 months is not redemption.
So screw you Joseph Quinn and thanks for the money. You should know to quit while you are ahead. I had already written this off as a loss after what… 6 months? I’d still never use your services again.
Moral of the story is: If you want a refund from 1and1 just be persistant. File the appropriate complaints with ICANN, the BBB and the FTC and you will get your money back eventually.
They didn’t release my domains. I registered 730 domains with them. They started off giving me a 42 day notice that domains were coming up for renewal. This is my story as best I can remember: They lulled me into thinking I would get an advance notice. Then I got no notice until it was too late to indicate a non renewal. They sent me an invoice for $625. I told 1and1 to give me a corrected invoice and I would pay, they refused saying their system wasn’t set up for that. I told the credit card company to charge back the fee which they did. Then 1and1 told me if I would pay the $625, they would unlock my domains and issue me a refund. I paid and they sent me the original invoice without any corrections or refunds. Then they sent me an additional $1200. Invoice for more domains I did not want. I then charged back both fees. When they unlocked my account some of the domains were not even listed, 3 pages of domains were missing, and the confirmation button was missing so I could not change any listings. Now my account is locked again. I can’t trust them to do what they say they will if I pay anything. NCO, a collection company, is calling me daily. I am not going to give in. I believe with the “unsatisfactory” listing with the BBB and all the other complaints, my credit rating will not be downgraded. I am going to collect names for a class action suit. An investigative journalist, Kelli Jack has written articles about 1and1 and has a suit pending.
That sounds awful. Sending in a collection agency for something that doesn’t cost _them_ a huge amount of money is excessive.
If it was _my_ internet-based business, I’d just give ‘em their stuff, put ‘em on a personal blacklist and leave it at that.
It’s always a good idea to search webmaster forums for recent comments about web-hosting companies and domain registrars.
A good, inexpensive registrar: Namecheap.com
Good, inexpensive web hosts: JaguarPC, Hostgator, ASmallOrange.
Thanks for the impute. Here it is December 13, 2008 and it is still is not over.