Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : If you see 1 and 1, run far, far away!

[pbhosting]

Wow, where to even start on THIS topic.

My oldest client had an old site hosted on 1 and 1. he decided after looking at its usage to cancel the domain and give up the hosting package at 1 and 1 (considering now hes hosted on my server).

So being the admin, technical, support, etc etc, except owner contacts on the domain, i call up and say hey, i wanna cancel this domain. Well before i could say hey i wanna cancel, the first person stuck me on hold, no problem.. waited, waited, waited, AND WAITED, 18 minutes go by, no one comes back to the phone. so i call back in a few minutes because i needed to finish up a transfer to the servers.

So i called back. this time, NO ONE answered.. waited, waited, waited.. 23 minutes this time. frustrated that i cant get a simple cancel completed. i hung up, by this time i needed a cup of coffee and headache meds! SOOOO i call back, this time after waiting 15 minutes, i FINALLY get someone. i strongly told them that it would be in their best interests not to place me on hold again, or i would file charge back charges to the credit card used to pay for the hosting. This seemed to rattle their cage and i FINALLY got the answers i needed.

so after a 29 minute converstation with the subject at 1 and 1, we finally figured out why the online request to cancel the domain didnt go through. their systems messed up.. again (third time in less than two monthes that ive personally had an issue with their servers not completing transactions ive asked to be completed). so he processes the cancel, and then says that i AGAIN, have to go in and request the package to be canceled. so now 1 hour and 10 minutes of phone time trying to get a simple request fulfilled, and 4 asprine three cups of coffee later, the package is finally enroute to being terminated.

Now, moral of the story: CUSTOMER SERVICE SHOULDNT BE RAN LIKE THIS!! The larger hosts who treat customers this way should be shamed and swept under the rug. My client requested a simple thing done, and its taken me two days to get it completed, through no fault of mine. If your looking for a host, i would STRONGLY reccommend you run, as fast as humanly possible away from 1 and 1. while they look nice and shiny on the outside, once they get your dollar, its all downhill from there. Even if you dont host with me, find someone else! Save yourself the headache, trouble, and an ulcer!

James

[HivelocityJJ]

When I first entered the industry, before I had an account with HostNine, I bought hosting from 1and1. It didn't take them long to mess things up; first, when I had a problem I called their customer service center - I waited, and waited, and waited. Second, I paid for three months of service, but on the 2nd month they charged like $60.00 to my mom's credit card.

I really dislike those people.

[Quartz]

Hmm, lately I see more bad reviews off 1n1, interesting.

[pbhosting]

no kidding, well my domain is registered to them but dns pointed outside their network, it took them 9 days to fix the problem, and 4 days on top of that to register and populate my domain.. talk about S L O W! ! ! !

AND THEN the dns got messed up and it was pointing it to some messed up place over seas somewhere which nearly caused me to pull my hair out cuz it was advertising porn or warz or something. as soon as my 60 days is up with my domain, IMMA OUTTA THERE!! going to namecheap.com. those folks have been S T E L L A R on customer support and QUICKLY getting domains registered and transferred (provided 1 and 1 doesnt cause an issue) i would suggest everyone register their domains thru namecheap.com. 9.29 a domain for regular ones, not bad, and you have STELLAR customer support before, during, and after the sale. i wont be going anywhere else.

james

[pbhosting]

Originally Posted by Quartz_

Hmm, lately I see more bad reviews off 1n1, interesting.

maybe its a sign of worse things to come?? maybe the hosting gods are telling people to run, FAR FAR FARRRRRRR AWAY!

all praise be to the hosting gods! lol

James

[Quartz]

You ordered your domain through 1and1? Ah I see. Yeah, If you can get your domain away from them, be sure to have it hosted with a registrar and NameCheap sounds like a decent registrar from what I have seen. Good idea.

Good luck with that too, I don't know much history on how 1and1 handles their domains, but sometimes hosts can get picky and troublesome

[Dan B]

They overbilled me for some "registration fee" and when I called them it was aggravating because their phone support was outsourced in India.

[pbhosting]

non-us based tech support is a HUGE no no in the hosting world. I'm sorry but i would rather pay and / or charge an extra 10 bucks a month to have US BASED tech support, with people that speak english as a first language, than to have someone that i can barely understand. i know its frustrating, and i KNOW its worse when a new person to a website has an issue, and they get someone reading from cards.

i like touchsupport based out of LaFayette, Indiana. granted they are outsourced, but the guys are AMAZING! sales guys, VERY helpful and nice. i called their sales department, in the middle of the night, i just wanted to leave a voicemail. at 330am in the morning, the sales guy CALLS BACK!! sadly i had woke him up out of bed, BUT its that kind of support and sales that makes the deal.

[dbihosting]

I used to see a lot of people using them. Seems less and less as time goes on. I think you aren't alone in poor customer support from them.

[pbhosting]

i almost wanted to cry because of the poor support. it makes me wonder how they even stay in business. I know if my folks didnt provide 100% great customer service, they wouldnt be working long.

i make sure my clients are happy, cared for, treated with respect and i value their trust in me to host their site. sadly as some of these hosts get bigger, they forget these very SIMPLE customer service points. Shame.

James

[HivelocityJJ]

I really hate how all these hosting companies are outsourced. Yes, the people in India will work dirt cheap (no, I am not making fun of anyone), but it doesn't help your business if your clients can't understand what the customer service representative is saying.

When I had a problem with my router, I called the provider, which is D-Link. I was on the phone for an hour and a half trying to understand some Indian who couldn't explain himself any better than a three year old. At one point where I asked him to repeat an IP he said it as fast as he could, so I told him that if he was unable to fulfill his job duties (speaking clear English and actually assisting the client, instead of acting like a total ***), he should resign his position.

[Energizer Bunny]

Originally Posted by dbihosting

I used to see a lot of people using them. Seems less and less as time goes on. I think you aren't alone in poor customer support from them.

I see 2 things happening in near future, people becoming aware of not going with 1 and 1 and hence 1 and 1 shutting down, or 1 and 1 getting sold !!

Poor customers in both situations will suffer, so there is still time, i know a dude who had 1 and 1 and i had to pm him all the time hey ur site is down again . Its funny with 1and1 u get more downtime than uptime (just from the dudes website situation) he moved to asmallorange and they aint doing any better either

So, what comes to my mind is that "fools rush in" , not saying all newbies into hosting are fools or anything, but you make hasty decisions when it comes to hosting, you are bound to suffer !!!!

[HivelocityJJ]

I wish someone would buy 1and1 and save those poor customers!

[pbhosting]

give me the money and ill buy it, shape it up and make it the best host in the world.. besides me of course! lol jk

[dwrunyon]

I love em. Over two years running and no problems. I've bought, canceled, transfered in/out around 400 domains during that time, had three or so separate instances of hosting accounts... all no problem. I've opened accts, canceled accts, downgraded accounts, gotten refunds during trial periods... all no problem. Maybe The Force is just with me.