1and1.com Internet Web Hosting Sucks

There was a thread up on wickedfire some time ago where a member was complaining about them and a 1and1 marketing rep actually came into the thread and tried to argue the case. It was NOT pretty. I’m sure most webmasters who have been at it 5 or more years have been burned by them at some point… I know I have.

I bought 2 domains (3yr registrations) through 1and1 and paid for 6 months hosting to try them out. I went so far as to speak with an actual sales rep on the phone during the setup process to make it crystal clear that I was not going to participate in recurring billing.

The day the money went through and the sites went up I went to their recurring billing section, changed my credit card address zipcode by one number (so they could not bill it again) and filled out the billing cancellation form.

This was one of those situations that happens to all of us on occasion. I got a bug up my butt about a website. Bought it, played with it for a week and forgot about it.

A year later I decided to go back to that idea and signed up with a new host. But guess what, I can’t get to my domains. The are locked and Transfer is Prohibited. My new provider can’t move them to their dns servers without the auth code to unlock them, 1and1 says it is not their policy to give out the auth codes over the phone. Because I no longer have a hosting plan at 1and1, I cannot login to get the Auth codes for MY domans to let the new host move them.

After 3 months of on and off contact with 1and1, I have been told that I owe them $50, am in collections, and they will not unlock my domains until I pay it.

So, two domains I OWN are being held hostage by 1and1 over a hosting renew that I cancelled 6 months in advance.

I called my friend who was a current (AND HAPPY) 1and1 customer and told her to get her auth codes and get out while she still can. Although she was a paid in full ACTIVE account, it took two weeks, 10 emails and 4 phone calls to get 1and1 to stop trying to bill her. Though they did keep $8.00 for a charge of their time to help her.

For the next two years, my property (my domains) are being held captive by 1and1 and I cannot use them.

At 1and1 you can check out any time you want. But you can never leave.

All I can do is thank my lucky stars that I hadn’t followed through in that first 6 months with starting my business or 1and1 would have shut it down.

If you use 1and1…GET YOUR AUTH CODES and store them somewhere safe while you still can!