Blacklisted: 1&1 Internet, Inc.
First on the list is 1&1 Internet, Inc. These guys provide domain registration and web hosting and they have a VERY aggressive marketing campaign. They are literally spending tens of millions on advertising, yet their product is absolute shit.A while ago, they had a promotion for free web hosting for a year. Not bad, thought I. I signed up and hosted my website, chaparyan.com on it. The back-end administration can easily cause a grown man to openly weep. The web-based email system is so slow, you are probably better off mailing in your letter through the good ol' United States Postal Service.
I emailed them about why their service is so horrid, and they responded with a nice form letter telling me how to setup Outlook Express to get my mail. Utterly helpful!
If not 1&1 (the self-proclaimed leader in all things web), then who? I have had very good experience with Dreamhost. Although I have heard that they temporarily take down websites if there is a sudden spike in traffic (such as rrrrthats5rs.com), they have a VERY friendly staff and are willing to bend over backwards for their clients.
2 Comments:
This company also hosts or owns at least one anti American website that I know of. I just recently had to leave a website that 1&1 took over. I had been using the website for 4 years until 1&1 took over and deemed that American members are NOT allowed to defend themselves against Muslim extremists in forums, but the Muslims run amock with racist anti American comments on the forums and 1&1's john F who runs the website which isn't worth naming, is the biggest anti American on there, so naturally he allows the Muslims free speech and won't allow the Americans the same.
Simply put, I would advise Americans to not do business with 1&1 period!
I'm writing to lend my voice to what has been said about 1&1 on this site.
I had an idea of expanding my existing business to the Internet. Sadly, I chose 1&1 as the host for my domain: seawarddesign.com
I submitted the forms, received my password and user ID from 1&1 within hours, and also watched the money being taken from bank account in the same short amount of time. I gave the Customer ID and Password to my site developer who quickly reported that the host was unable to host the site as advertised.
After MANY calls and hours on hold, I finally spoke to 1&1 "Technical Support" which I believe is in the Philippines. On my first call, I was told that the account was correctly set up on their system and that there should be no further problems.
There were nothing but MORE problems.
The developer was NEVER able to submit the site. More calls and more time on hold to 1&1 and more business lost as the days rolled onward. More $$$$ lost as 1&1 continued to fail to perform.
After a week or more of being told that "Everything was correct", I was told that the hosting package I had already paid for was not able to accomodate my site. I would need to pay more money for a more comprehensive hosting service.
I agreed reluctantly to pay more money and told the developer to proceed. She called back after trying for days to submit the site to 1&1 using the new Password and Customer ID and FTP Password, saying that 1&1 was unable to accomodate the site.
More calls and more time on hold to 1&1 and more business was lost as the days rolled onward. After many, many more calls, I finally spoke with a person at 1&1 who told me that the upgraded hosting package I had just upgraded to was incapable of hosting the site - "I would need to pay more for an even more upgraded package if I wanted my relatively simple site hosted".
I felt at this time that 1&1 was deceitful and possibly even fraudulent so I asked them to unlock, release, and transfer my domain. I made that request on 14-02-2007. After more hours on hold and more transfers and time on hold, someone in the Philippines told me that my request had been implemented.
I told the developer that I had switched the domain to DreamHost and that she could submit the site to them as soon as I received the verification of transfer and the necessary codes from DreamHost.
The verification of transfer never came because 1&1 has steadfastly refused to transfer MY domain. I received a rather nasty email from Mahmoud in Germany, telling me that DreamHost was responsible for asking him to transfer the domain, which was something they had already done............and again, 1&1 failed to do anything.
Below, you can see some of the correspondence I've had with 1&1, and with DreamHost.
It is clear to me that 1&1 is less of a web host and more of an international thief - thumbing its corporate nose at the customers it seeks to take money from.
DreamHost on the other hand, is a highly responsive, responsible American corporation staffed by Americans who are doing their best to provide web hosting service and customer service to those who need it. 1&1 is deceitful, fraudlent, disingenuous, rude, inconsiderate, and is one of the only companies I've ever felt I was morally obligated to warn others about.
I've disputed ALL of the charges against my credit card because I've never received ANYTHING from them but trouble and disappointnment and neither of those were among the many features and services promised by 1&1, so it IS fair to say that they have provided me with NONE of the services they offer in exchange for money.
From my experience, I can say that 1&1 does not provide any of the services it claims to provide.
**********************************
Here is the most recent email I received from 1&1 "Customer Service":
Dear customer,
Thank you for contacting us.
Basically I have tried to contact our admin and still there were no
reply.
I believe you need to send an information to our complaints department
so that
this issue will be resolve faster. Please send it complaints@1and1.com.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,
(name deleted to protect this person from reprisal from his employer)
********************************
In the last two days, I have sent three emails to 1&1 at the link provided above but I have not received an answer.
Below is an email I sent to DreamHost yesterday, and the response I received from DreamHost TODAY:
On Tue, 27 Feb 2007, you wrote:
Hello DreamHost,
I appreciated the tone and information of your reply to my frustrated email. Since nothing has happened in the transfer of domain request, what do you suggest would be an appropriate next step to try to get 1&1 to release the domain?
"THEY" (1&1) say that DreamHost has to effect the request and
you've shown me that a request was made, but here I am with a domain name I've registered and paid for but can't use. It's being used as a sub-domain by 1&1 to promote their customers who sell kayaks.
RESPONSE FROM DREAMHOST:
"As far as our records go, the domain registration transfer has been approved on our end for at least a week now:
transfer_in_confirmed = 2007-02-17 14:26:07
transfer_in_confirmed_ip = 71.XX2.30.XXX
transfer_requested = 2007-02-17 17:X:1XX
It is up to your current registrar to complete the process. We cannot do anything further on this case.
Thanks,
DreamHost Customer Service
Today, at one minute after 21:00 hours, I will pay for a new domain and move on with my business. I belive am morally bound to caution people about the consequences of believing that 1&1 is anything but another foreign scam with a Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania address.
Not to warn people of this is the same as not warning other motorists at night that a bidge has collapsed and they will plunge into an abyss if they continue on this path.
"Andreas Gauger" is the alleged Chairman of 1&1, but he is hiding somewhere out of contact. He may not even know what his subordinates have done to the reputation of 1&1, or this may be part of his plan.
DO BUSINESS WITH 1&1 AT YOUR OWN RISK!
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