1&1 Ionos

Hi, please read this.

I have somehow received a free trial from 1&1. It may have been triggered from a sales call from the usa. It resulted in an e-mail welcoming me to a free trial. The e-mail ended up unbeknown to me in my spam folder. And there it stayed. I am now being charged & pound;70.00 per quarter for a service I did not ask for. I only became aware of this charge when I inspected my pay-pal account and saw the 1&1 debit. Incredulous as to the source of the charge I searched my mail account for 1&1 related e-mails. It was then I located the free trial details in my spam folder.

At the foot of the 'free trial' introduction was a number to call should one choose not to use the service offered. Failure to call the number to cancel the trial within the specified time period automatically gives 1&1 the right to charge for the service. As I have an existing domain 1&1 have my payment details.

I am pretty devastated this has happened and the sharp practice used appears legal.

So, my message is 1and1 are using stealth & sharp practice to sucker people into useless services at an outrageous cost. I call it white collared theft.

I asked for a refund as the package is unused, no contract has been signed and no invoice received by me. They rejected my request and here I am on this forum joining you as a disillusioned fellow victim. I am going to attack 1and1 in any way I legally can.

Watchdog next.

The cat

1and1.com is the worst company ever! I have never experienced a customer service with no technical expertise (Which you would assume they should have at this company). On the top of that that would put you on hold for a where long time. My record time with them pon the phone 101 minutes (Stayed with them out of principal) and they stil did not fix the problem. Let me rephrase... They still did not understand my question. The funny part they speak great english. Here is the solution for all of those who are tured of this company. Send an email or connect to the ceo of 1and1.com - oliver mauss - german guy and complain to him!

Signed up for one month free spoke to a man who was supposed to help me get my web page up and running ...spoke to him about a hour and he told me all was good and people will be able to find my page...after a week I called to cancel my membership because I couldn't Google my own web page...a month later I got my bank statement and 1and1 charged my account 88$...I spike to my bank and they told me to contact 1and1 and before I could call a Rep called me asking me why I haven't used my web page and he could help me get it up and running...ugh no thank you I want out and I want my money back!

1and1 Internet has auto-renew of your registered domain names. If your credit card changes, they cannot rebill, so they send you an innocuous e-mail asking you to update your credit card. The subject line of the e-mail does not state that there is a payment owing or asking whether you do want to renew the domain names. Once it is sent to collection, the intiial collection fee (~$20)is larger than the renewal fee. In addition, the collection agency charges a $12 processing fee. This company has poor and unethical business practices. BEWARE!

This is the worst hosting company and they are a complete ripp off. When you first join your call is answered immediately

When you become a customer their wait times are over an hour and if you complain they lock your account.

Do not host with 1and1.com they also charge your credit card without austhorization and you cannot do anything about it

1and1q.com is a complete scam beware and do not join this lousy company for your web hosting needs

Wow, so I saw my credit card was billed over $500 by this company.
The thing is, I dont have an account with them. I have never had an account with them.
I have never used them for anything. I have never even heard about them.
I have no idea how they got my cc info (Which ive already cancelled and reported them for fraud with)

I need to wait till monday to speak with their billing department, but needless to say, i'm livid.

This is what the past customers are saying
Http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaint…ia-c161434.html

Please read the link before buying!

My name is travis dominguez, i am a cancelled customer but my credit card is continuously being charged $29.97 when i have cancelled my entire contract and service! they have confirmed in writing that my cancellation was authorized and confirmed by the company.. so why does my credit card keep getting charged? do not i repeat do not buy this service! the company claims to be taking money out of individuals accounts (fraudulently) for cancelled services because they come up with bogus claims of it being part of the promo or that its in the terms of agreement, or whatever excuse they can come up with, they are stealing money! lets not put up with this and do something about it! we have the power to stand up say no i will not allow them to take my money without my permission or anybody else's money for that matter! we must not let them get away with this!

Be ware of aggressive tactics by 1&1 preventing cancellation of services. Two years ago I cancelled services with 1&1 due to lost emails, in-bound and out-bound. After one year of documenting the lost emails, 1&1 blamed every one else under the sun and questioned my ability to understand what was happening. When I cancelled their services on a specific date, they continued charging me after that date. Even with letters to the bbb and reporting this to the arizona attorney general, I had to block payment at my bank to end the charges. Two weeks ago 1&1 sent an email informing me they changed my internet settings, which was done without my knowledge or approval, back to 1&1 servers. This action effectively blocked all inbound and outbound emails from the company I have been working with for two years. My guess is these aggressive and unscrupulous tactics by 1&1 are the only way they can keep clients as their services are deplorable. Solution? Stay away from 1&1. If you leave 1&1 and register your domain name elsewhere, make it private and change the password regularly.

I purchased web hosting services from 1 and 1 and after using them for awhile, discovered their services to be mediocre. Nearing the end of my contract with 1 and 1, I called and spoke with their cancellation department, who confirmed my cancellation request. Now, months later, 1 & 1 emailed me to say they are trying to charge my credit card and that I owe them money! They even threatened to send me to collections and charge more money for processing. 1 and 1 refuses to recognize my "confirmed" cancellation request and has no explanation for why they took months to request money from me. Their phone support is poor, but their customer service on this issue were very aggressive and over-talked me a lot, like i'd cave-in if I couldn't get a word in to defend myself. I feel that 1 and 1 is despicable for having the policy that "customers are always wrong. " do not use 1 and 1 without being prepared to proactively defend ourself, and be prepared to send a legal letter with signature requests to confirm your cancellation!

Wow! So, somehow my wife and I got involved with getting a "domain name" through these guys. I'm not a techie nor do I really know what a domain name is, I never used what they sold us, but we got it anyway. Every few to 6 months we would get a call from some polite sales guy trying to sell us more stuff that we couldn't use. I would always tell them, and make it very clear, that I didn't even know what I had from them or how to use it. I know, that is my fault and i'm not blaming them, I am the dummy here. What did bother me to the point of writing my first complaint ever is that one of the sales guys signed me up for something that I have no use for and I don't even know what it was and that I refused in the first place! Anyway I just got some kind of threat in the mail that they were going to send me to collections, I called them up and that's how I found all of this out. Yes, shame on me for not paying attention to my credit card billing, but shame on them for committing fraud. I called and tried to get to their cancellation department, it took over 15 mins of wait time. While I was on hold, I called using my wife's this time I pushed "new accounts" or "sales" and withing 25 seconds from dialing, I was talking to a human... Go figure. Also while on hold I googled " 1&1 scam and found this site and read a bunch of same similar stories of how this company is really not that ethical. So sad. Anyway, I hope that this helped someone out. This mistake cost me around $300. Fortunately, that's not going to break me, but it did caused me to write and publicize my first complaint ever. I'm sure that they are good to a lot of their customers, but this is how they were with me. I did end up talking to a nice young lady named stephanie who helped me cancel. Even though I was upset at the company she was polite and professional with me... It's the sales guys that rip people off that bother me, (Please don't discredit my complaint because of what I am about to write) but I hope that they die a slow painful death, like being chained to the bottom of an out house and slowly getting drowned by raw fecal matter and urine... And flies and maggots.

I saw an advert in the friday ad for Ivy Escorts. I applied online and within an hour they phoned me to process my application. They said that the fee for my membership should have cost £365 but because i am a student they would reduce it to £200 of which i paid. I then heard nothing for 2 months so I sent them an email of which the duty manager phoned me and said she had a VIP client interested but to upgrade my member ship would cost £2000 but as i was a student they could do it for £1000 but i refused. About three weeks later i phoned Ivy Escorts to see why i still had no work and a gye called kevin would look into my case. After a week he said i would be most successful on a Europian memebership which would cost me £650 but i negociated it to £350 becasue i was promised there were clients waiting to book me. All together I have paid £550 to Ivy Escorts with the promise of work and still i am waiting.

I had Yahoo email service for years, then all of a sudden in the past two years, I had nothing but problems, so I switched to an email service that is ONLY email service. I switched to gmx.com, it seemed pretty decent at the time I was researching it.

I have some friends who have not been able to send me emails, they keep getting "mailer daemon" when they try and email me at gmx.com. I have also never received two important emails, which cannot be resent, so they are lost and I am screwed.

I have been emailing thier "service" email and keep getting this stupid auotmated email about having to fill out a "feedback" form even to get help with website problems. Two things wrong with this...one, they dont list enough options on the form, and two, it doesnt matter what you write in the "feedback" form, all you get is an automated response which has NOTHING to do with my problems Im having.

Ive tried to look online for a phone number, but all I find are links to articles and complaints about this company/site. This company sucks!
There is NO customer service, and NO way to call them! Im sure if I write a letter, it will conveniently get "lost" in the mail.

DONT USE THIER SERVICES!

I advise people to check out web hosts and domain registers very carefully before committing. I have come to the conclusion that I made the dreadful error of choosing a company because it had a 5 page ad in a popular computer magazine. I believe I have put my trust in a straw man.In my opinion 1and1, with ceo oliver mauss, is a horrible company and many customers have voiced a host of complaints on various blogs. It should be a warning that when their phone is answered by a recording that tells you if you have gotten a notice from nco, a collection agency, to press a certain number. If they are a reputable business, why do they have to send so many accounts to a collection agency? Patrick frey (Patterico) of the los angeles district attorneys office alleges his domain was high jacked and put up for auction on sedo. Sedo is an associate company of 1and1. Patterico: "i believe i'm facing massive incompetence, thievery, or very possibly a deliberate combination of the two. It feels like evil intent & mdash; but not for political reasons. It feels like cyber extortion & mdash; people going after the almighty dollar. Commenter's have pointed out corporate ties between 1&1, which can't seem to process my timely renewal, and sedo/domcollect, which stood to profit from 1&1's failure. Usually, corporate incompetence does not earn the corporation money & mdash; but 1&1 and its related companies have found a way to make money off of their own slipshod procedures. " patterico was able to regain his domain. Also investigative journalist, kelli jack, has written 30 articles about this company and has a suit pending against them. Kelli alleges that 1and1 stole her domain name and sold it. Kelli states: "1and1 should be shut down. " as of today kelli is working with the pennsylvania attorney general. I have filed complaints with the federal bureau of investigation, federal trade commission, eastern pennsylvania better business bureau, icann, and others. I recommend everyone else having a problem consider doing the same.

The washington dc, pennsylvania better business bureau has given 1and1 their lowest rating: "f. " read comments on the bbb why. Read some customer comments on red flag. Don't bother trying to access my 2 url: warthpublishinginc.com, migraine-abort.com they are gone with my money and hundreds of domains I had at 1and1.

Here is the situation,
Yesterday someone exploit a vulnerability on my website were he/she was able to upload one malicious file. All this nightmare start happening around 6:00am, by 6:30am the attacker start sending thousands of email through 1and1 gateway mail. By 4:30 the account linked to the compromised website was locked by 1and1 abuse department. I notice the issue by 6:30 and I call they technical support. While on the phone, I got only apologize, and sorry - we don't have access to remove the restriction, only the abuse department has. Ok, fine, transfer me over to your abuse department, I said - well, unfortunately the abuse department is closed till tomorrow, since they have a 9:00am to 5:00pm schedule. So, now at 6:30pm I found out that I can't do nothing till next day - how messed up is that - 16 hours and 30 minutes till the department opens. So, I asked, is the a way to contact them directly? Yes, I got as an answer, and I got the [protected]. After I hang up with the tech department I called that number to find out that actually that number is they billing department. I called back the 1and1 tech department, and tell them that I got the [protected] as the phone number for abuse department from them, and I expected to hear a generic message from the abuse department, but they ensured me that the abuse department use same number. Ok, so now, I got mad that I have to wait 16:30 hours. Meanwhile I send an email to [protected]@1and1.com to let them know that in such a case like this I wasn't notified over the phone, were seamed to be a such an emergency going on with my web space.
Here is the replay from them:
#########
We understand you’ve been upset with the functionality of our anti-spam security systems mistargetting you. This is something that I can only apologize for. This is an aspect of our service that we're always trying to improve. This is why your feedback is so important to us. We can now look through and see where and if we made mistakes. Then, we can look into making sure that this doesn't happen again. Again, we can only apologize for this frustration that you've suffered. We will continue to work on this to serve you better.

I can see that there is a ticket with our abuse team regarding this. There are abuse agents available 24 hours a day, so they will be able to address your issue faster than you have assumed. We hope that you do not leave 1and1, and are willing to do what we can to assist you here.

Our sincerest apologies again and thank you for using 1and1.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us. "
#########
Again, another department another misleading information and full of lies,
Notice were was mentioned quote "there are abuse agents available 24 hours a day, so they will be able to address your issue faster than you have assumed. " this pissed me off way beyond my expectation.

Here is my replay to that message at 10:31pm:
##########
Thank you for replaying with same incompetence from department to department. You guys are all the same there, working for 1and1, untrained properly and giving misleading information.
How can you lie (1and1 employee) that there are abuse agents working 24/7 when the abuse department works 9am to 5pm? Oh, i'm sorry maybe that's how you got trained to say.In reality, you should know that that department is closed after 5pm - forget weekends.
Please cut the crap, and make it happen to have my websites up an running asap. Nobody from any of your departments had the courtesy to call me if there was a such an emergency. I know in reality is just generic one-man-judgment hidden from umbrella of "the abuse department" - yeah right - like that will gonna fly.
And by the way, I didn't assumed that the abuse department is closed after 5pm - your tech department told me that on the phone - so you can know how well you guys communicate there.
As much as 1and1 got big from 1988, can go down as well by continuing this type of crappy relation with they customers.

Have a boring day!
########
As expected, no reply.
Now, horror show part ii.
Today 6/9/2011, 9:00am, I call the "abuse department" aka "billing department" at [protected], someone answers, and I ask nicely to be transferred to they abuse department since this is not a billing issue that i'm having, and here is how this conversation went:
Me: after 10 minutes of waiting to be transferred to they abuse department, I ask the person on the phone what takes so long to be transferred?
1and1 employee's answer: we are looking into your account with the abuse agent
Me: I didn't ask you to look into my problems, since never even mention what problem I have to you, I asked you to put me in contact with your abuse department, I have nothing to do with you
1and1 employee's answer: sir, we are looking into your account with someone from abuse department
Me: look, I wanna speak with someone from that department, what's so hard to be transferred over?
1and1 employee's answer: the abuse department can't accept your call yet, but we are looking into "this" (Which I never mention to this guy ever the reason of my phone call) right now with someone from abuse department, please be wait...
—another 10 minutes pass by (20 minutes total by now on the phone) —
Me: what type of support is this if you can't transfer me over to the other department ?
1and1 employee's answer: sir, your account has been unlocked and as of right now you can access your websites.
Me: aham, so basically your billing department is also the abuse department also? How messed up is that to have to wait 16 hours and 30 minutes for your department to be operational, simply because someone did a stupid mistake yesterday locking my account at 4:30pm 30 minutes before you guys went home...
1and1 employee's answer: sir... Interrupted by the supervisor
1and1 employee's supervisor: he never said his name, but before he hang up in my face he said - i'm the supervisor here, and you (Me) are harassing my representative - and bang he hang up.

Now, lent me tell you mister whatever your name is, shame on you to say something like this to a customer with more then 6 years of relation.
So, people you be the judge.
As per the hacker, that find himself, herself conformable playing through my websites - what was taking care of officially.

I am now desperate for help on this problem with 1and1; they seem to have locked me into to their operation in someway. Please let me explain.

I transferred two domains of my own without problem to 1and1 in March 2010, and paying by my credit card. As my son was about to open his own business I though it a good idea for website presence with his own domain name, as a marketing tool for him. So I purchased a .com domain and two .co.uk domain names with a basic web hosting package.

I noticed that it was possible to made payments through PayPal, my preferred method of making payments over the internet. I did not like following the link for payment that 1and 1 provided to PayPal because I never follow links to make Internet payments. So I opened up my PayPal account and authorised the full payment for the invoice account for my son’s domains and basic hosting package.

PayPal paid the amount to the full invoice total required by 1and1. Acknowledgement of this was never mentioned by 1and1; instead we were being threatened with the bad debt collection agency. I have a 2gb USB Pen almost full of the letters and emails 1and1 ignored, or never really read my complaint, I became so frustrated that I believed, my emails where only being read by robots and well my posted letters never got answered at all, I even recorded a couple of letters but even they where ignored.

Now for the first time in our lives we where landed with the bad debt collection agency, for double the amount, this we paid instantly because we are aware of the trouble these organisations can cause you. I contacted all departments of 1and1 to explain that in fact this account had been paid out of my PayPal account and that I did have a receipt. They still kept sending me noreply emails explaining how to change my payment details, I had to kept sending letters and emails back explaining that the control panel would not let me change the payment details from PayPal to credit card, but the robots took no notice.

I am puzzled as to how they have my hotmail address when I have never registered this with them? They must have picked it up from their link to my PayPal account. Without informing me two months later they put back into my PayPal account the amount that I had authorised for payment I also have this copy on my USB Pen.

To date we still have not been able to upload our website best part of the time passwords are not accepted and you have to go into https://admin.1and1.co.uk, only to find I was not inputting the wrong password anyway.

And the problems start again this year, our .com account was due on 19th March I have been trying since then to sort the payment method out again would you believe they are still trying to access my PayPal account, and again I have been trying to change the method of payment from PayPal to credit card but still the control panel reports error.

So I sent them a cheque for the full amount and today an email received says payment of the cheque has been refused, this has not been done from my end.

I need to find out what a billing agreement B-38P55702VX867264K means?

I’m now just waiting again for the bad debt collector letter to drop through my door. They say I am on automatic payment, I do not want to be on this I like to pay as I go, yet I cannot find out how to make these changes.

The Control Panel does let me change address, phone numbers, email address but not the method of payment.

When reading the small print it seems when you pay by PayPal you have to have £350 each month in your PayPal account so that they can help themselves.

I do not have that kind of account and PayPal would not allow anyone just to go into my account and make deduction like a direct debit. I am really feeling too ill to cope with all this again this year can you please advise me just what I can do.

I have tried looking at others who have had problems with 1and 1 but nobody seems to have got a solution what-so-ever. I have explained to 1and1 numerous times that I am deaf and cannot use the telephone to sort this problem out but no response. I now want to transfer all my Domains somewhere else but I will have to be careful after such a bad experience with 1and1. Please advise, Thank You

Update I have finally found the Companys General Rules and Conditions and searched for the B-38P55702VX867264K, but there is no such mention.

I have also sent an email to [protected]@1and1.co.uk to tell them I do not want hosting this year and that I intend to register my domain with another company. Since then today I find they have blocked amazongaragedoors.com

I advise people to check out web hosts and domain registers very carefully before committing. I have come to the conclusion that I made the dreadful error of choosing a company because it had a 5 page ad in a popular computer magazine. I believe I have put my trust in a straw man. In my opinion 1and1, with CEO Oliver Mauss, is a horrible company and many customers have voiced a host of complaints on various blogs. It should be a warning that when their phone is answered by a recording that tells you if you have gotten a notice from NCO, a collection agency, to press a certain number. If they are a reputable business, why do they have to send so many accounts to a collection agency? Patrick Frey (Patterico) of the Los Angeles District Attorneys Office alleges his domain was high jacked and put up for auction on SEDO. SEDO is an associate company of 1and1. Patterico: "I believe I'm facing massive incompetence, thievery, or very possibly a deliberate combination of the two. It feels like evil intent — but not for political reasons. It feels like cyber extortion — people going after the almighty dollar. Commenter's have pointed out corporate ties between 1&1, which can't seem to process my timely renewal, and Sedo/Domcollect, which stood to profit from 1&1's failure. Usually, corporate incompetence does not earn the corporation money — but 1&1 and its related companies have found a way to make money off of their own slipshod procedures." Patterico was able to regain his domain. Also Investigative journalist, Kelli Jack, has written 30 articles about this company and has a suit pending against them. Kelli alleges that 1and1 stole her domain name and sold it. Kelli states: "1and1 should be shut down." As of today Kelli is working with the Pennsylvania Attorney General. I have filed complaints with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Trade Commission, Eastern Pennsylvania Better Business Bureau, ICANN, and others. I recommend everyone else having a problem consider doing the same.

The Washington DC, Pennsylvania Better Business Bureau has given 1and1 their lowest rating: "F." Read comments on the BBB why. Read some customer comments on Red Flag. Don't bother trying to access my 2 URL: warthpublishinginc.com, Migraine-Abort.com They are gone with my money and hundreds of domains I had at 1and1.

1and1.com hosts the website for americandreamhorses.com. The site has a listing for a Stable we used to operate that closed over 3 years ago. Our personal home phone number (a no-call list number) is listed on the site. I have repeatedly, over a long period of time, used the contact form on the site to ask that this listing with our personal information be removed, but have never received a response nor has the listing been removed. I recently contacted 1and1.com to obtain the contact for the site administrator so I could go the next level to try to make this happen. 1and1 refused to provide me with the information, and ultimately replied with this:
Dear Sir,

Please contact [protected]@1and1.com. Thanks.

--
Sincerely,
Security Team
1&1 Internet, Inc.
I used to work for a Technology company that did web hosting. I'm not an expert, but believe that 1and1 must legally remove my personal information from this site or shut it down until it is done by the responsible party.
At any rate, even if they aren't legally obligated, it is clear that they have no concern for the damage being done and aren't going to do the "right" thing. Note - "[protected]@1and1.com" e-mail is returned as non-deliverable.

Bottom Line - I strongly recommend that you steer clear of any relationship with 1and1.com and any sites they host. You may be risking the same situation we are in.