I’m now trying to get 1and1 to let me move my domains that aren’t in dispute to Go Daddy.

Billing said I could, of course tech support doesn’t know their a** from a hole in the wall, so first they say ok, then they say they can’t because my account is locked.

I’ve also faxed ANOTHER letter to whomever trying to pay the domains that I do want to renew & getting them to take off the domains I canceled from the invoice. Of course I got no response back, so that’s like 3 faxes, & several e-mails & they totally ignored me.

She’s trying to tell me I should pay & then they will refund me. LOL, yeh right.

Here’s another thing that’s interesting.

transfer@1and1.com is now asking me for my password in order to verify who I am before they will unlock those domains & give me the authorization code.

I said no bloody way am I giving you my password & you should NEVER be asking for that anyway & how in the world are you able to see my password??? That goes against security 101 for any website.

No one in that company should have access to my password. It should have been encrypted, so people, just let it be known that 1and1 has access to your password when they shouldn’t.

Finally me & one of their tech support people figured out how I could solve this problem.

I changed my password to a word I would never use & I let them in.

Then for the next 2-3 months I moved sets of 4-8 domains at a time.

Whenever the 60 days that all registrars seem to hold your domain hostage was up, I’d have them unlock & unprivatize each domain so eventually all of my domains were moved.

Be aware that at times they will unlock them, but NOT unprivatize them, & so if that’s the case, you have to go into www.whois.com & check the status of your domain. Even then it may take 24-48 hours.

Many times they were inept as usual, & didn’t unprivatize, or they would tell me it was & it wasn’t. This is why it could take 3 weeks just to transfer a block of 4-6 domains at a time.

Soooo, FINALLY after about 3 months I had most of my domains transfered over.

In my 1and1 account I took screenshots of EVERYTHING which isn’t easy to do because as we all know, they only give you partial information on each page.

I left the domains that I didn’t want in the account to stay there until they expire. We will see if 1and1 tries to charge me for them.

Things to watch out for on top of EVERYTHING ELSE:

1. The expire date for your domain can change to 2 years later. LOL, boy was I shocked & confused when I saw that. That isn’t YOU who does that, it’s 1and1′s terrible backend code. It took a call or two & me & my assistant to figure out that it was ok, you get a free year, & you should just transfer it anyway.
2. It’s still not clear to me if my domains are dropping off once they expire. I don’t have time to analyze every single screenshot I have, but I think they are.
3. I recommend once that’s done that you cancel the entire account so they can’t try to run payments onto your credit card.
4. I haven’t heard back from the collection agency after I left those two messages asking to be e-mailed & then telling them that 1and1.com is a fraud, just check the numerous posts online. I do have to check my credit report to make sure they haven’t done anything to it.

I hope this helps you get your domains back. I don’t wish my experience on anyone.

I’m back with Go Daddy.

Michelle

So today has been a useless day so far.

I spoke to Christine in the billing department & told her I wish to pay for the domains I still own, but of course I won’t pay for the domains that have been cancelled.

She refused to give me any contact number to Sebastian Moser. She said that the higher ups locked my account because I hadn’t paid my bill & that even the 2nd bill I just got the other day won’t go through because the first bill hasn’t gone through.

When I told her that Sebastian Moser isn’t returning or even reading my e-mails she said she couldn’t do anything. I asked for 1and1.com’s fax number and she gave it to me. It’s 610-560-1507

I said what about all my other domains in my account, you can’t hold them hostage. She said I can call tech support to get them to unlock them so I can transfer them.

We’ll see if this is actually true.

More points to be aware of that did not make my life easy when dealing with 1and1.com:

1. You can’t work on multiple pages at the same time. If you open a new tab & try to work on another domain (meaning you work on 2-3 domains at the same time), it will screw everything up, so you have to work at a snail’s pace, one page at a time.
2. Why isn’t the cancel area on the main site like every other registrar’s? I didn’t even know that site existed until 2 years after I was with them. As far as I knew, it wasn’t advertised anywhere on their site, I had to get that information from their customer service department.
3. https://cancel.1and1.com logs you out pretty quickly. If you aren’t hitting that “continue” button every X seconds, it will log you out & you will have go ALL the way back to the beginning & start all over again going through your tons of pages.
4. They don’t allow you to bulk purchase, so every time I have a few domains I want to buy, I have to do it one at a time because they feel time isn’t important to clients. I complained about that way back in the beginning, & they still haven’t done anything about it. Go Daddy allows you to purchase in bulk.
5. They don’t allow you to renew for more than one year, so if you have a domain that is one of your main sites, you have to renew it every year & make more work for yourself. Go Daddy gives you a discount if you renew for multiple years.
6. There is no way to print off your domains.

   What if I want a list, which I’ve wanted 3 times now. I have to call them to get them to make a list in Word for me, & because they outsource to the Philippines, I’ve had to check their work because they didn’t always give me my domains up until the last page.

7. Half the time their tech support drives me up the wall because they don’t understand what I’m saying, or they are sooo slow because English isn’t their mother tongue, so they have to repeat everything back to me as if they are in school learning English for the first time.

So my assistant calls up www.1and1.com on July 22, 2008 to deal with the matter of them trying to bill me $314.55. My credit card had declined because I wasn’t expecting such a large charge to go through.

I was more than willing to pay for the other 26 domains, I just wasn’t willing to pay for the 19 that I had wanted to cancel, & the minute I found out they weren’t canceled, did cancel.

So I was left with no domain name, & having to deal with lovely 1and1.com

Billing was no help with my assistant.

They said the same bullshit, that they don’t have to tell you when your domains are up for renewal.

When he tried to tell them that their e-mail notfications were wrong & out of date, they didn’t care, they just stated the same robotic thing, “we are not responsible for notifying you when your domains are up for renewal.”

They said that I should mail Sebastian Moser, & I have a feeling that is a fake name.

My assistant asked for the e-mail to Sebastian Moser, & he was told to e-mail complaints@1and1.com

The first time I e-mailed on July 17, 2008, I was livid & very angry, threatening to move all my domains to another domain registrar.

I heard back from Michael Quinn who was a technical representative, NOT someone who is well versed in dealing with escalated matters.

Once again, I get the same bullshit:

“We do not provide email notification for when domains are about to
renew.  It would be your responsibility to monitor and maintain your
domain’s renewal dates.  This is all outlined within the terms and
conditions that you had agreed to upon signing up.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.”

Oh yes, I love you to bits Michael, I have TONS more questions.

The next time I e-mailed them on 07-21-08, I calmed down & I asked for the number to the Office of the President, but instead of a number, I was told:

I should snail mail something to the following person & address:

Sebastion Moser
701 Lee Rd
Chesterbrook, PA 19087-5612

(looks like they don’t even know how to spell his name properly, based on his e-mail address, it’s Sebastian, NOT Sebastion, but you will find him online with either spelling.)

I remember someone saying I could use that complaints@1and1.com e-mail address to reach this Sebastian Moser, so I forwarded the complaint again on 07-23-08 explaining the situation, & attaching 2 word documents this time, with another formal complaint about how I wanted my money back for those 19 domains.

I didn’t hear from anyone, so on 07-29-08 I e-mailed complaints@1and1.com again & still no response from this Sebastian Moser.

The next thing I know, on 08-04-08 I get 3 e-mail notification notices that say my e-mails have NOT, I repeat, have NOT been read.

And look who’s e-mail address has shown up, it’s Sebastian Moser’s e-mail address sebastian.moser@1and1.com

So why is it that Sebastian Moser has ignored my e-mails?

I go into my 1and1.com account on August 6th, 2008, & my account has now BEEN LOCKED!!!!

I have over 150 or more domains left in that account, & they have locked me OUT!

I have e-mailed Sebastian Moser at sebastian.moser@1and1.com asking him for the number to the office of the president.

If he refuses to give me that, I’ll ask for the number to the new CEO’s office, Oliver Mauss.

Michelle

P.S. Does anyone know if this is Sebastian Moser’s LinkedIn page? http://www.linkedin.com/pub/4/234/633

Just goes to show you, just because someone is on LinkedIn, doesn’t mean they can be trusted.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

Part I

1and1 Internet Domain Registration is a really really terrible domain registration company.

Note: their headquarters is in Germany, & their parent company is United Internet, listed at
Frankfurt stock exchange symbol UTDI.ETR ISIN DE0005089031.

Their CEO of 13 years, Andreas Gauger, has FINALLY stepped down. Did his conscious get the better of him?

In my research about 1and1.com, I couldn’t believe how many people have been ripped off. Their amounts aren’t anywhere near what 1and1.com wants me to pay for domains I no longer own, but still, there are tons of people, not counting how many haven’t complained.

Please check out the links area dedicated to www.1and1.com

My story:

I’ve been with them since either early 2006 or late 2005. I transferred ALL of my domains from Go Daddy & Blue Razor over to www.1and1.com when I realized their price was cheaper & included privatization.

While that was okay for the first few years, what I later on realized is, that they only send you ONE e-mail notice that they are going to renew, the e-mail dates are all screwed up & do not fall inline with the REAL renewal date.

If you miss that one e-mail, or you are too busy to cancel them, you are SOL.

While you may think this is normal in the domain registration industry, nothing could be further from the truth. God Daddy/Blue Razor give you around 6 e-mail notices dating all the way back to 90 days before the domain is up for renewal. Even a week before the domain’s renewal date they send you an e-mail.

1and1 has also configured their system to be that you can’t take yourself off auto renew. They did not have it like that before.

Having auto renewal on is great if you want to keep the domain, but if you don’t want to keep the domain, it’s terrible & here is why.

Let’s say you now want to cancel a domain or a few of them, 1and1.com has built their website just to make it very very difficult for you to cancel your domain.

If you only have one or a few domains, that’s fine, but I had over 300 DOMAINS. Yes, I spent thousands of dollars with 1and1.com, for 1-2 years per domain.

On their www.cancel.1and1.com site, my 300 domains came to 32 pages of domains based on their amateurish website design. Every time I wanted to cancel one or a few, I had to go through 32 pages just to get to the end because there was NO “finish” or “complete” button anywhere except on the last page of your list of domains.

I believe they make the entire process difficult (it’s soooo far away from web 2.0, we are talking it was clearly designed back in the early to mid 90′s, or designed by a terrible database designer.) on purpose so you will give up & just keep the domain with them.

With Go Daddy/Blue Razor, you just search for the domain, check the box next to the domain, & click the renew or cancel button, it’s that simple.

Another very easy way to do it with Go Daddy, is you scroll through all of your domains (you can put your entire list on one page) & you will see a flashing red word in all caps that says “RENEW”. You can’t miss it, it’s there plain as day. Then you just go into that domain, renew or cancel it, & you are done.

More details on 1and1.com purposely confuses you.

At the bottom of each of those 32 pages, you get 2 “continue” buttons, one on top of each other which is very confusing.

Why do they need two?

They don’t.

I once clicked on the bottom “continue” button by accident, & it logged me out or took me back to the first page <geeze>.

So, you have to click on the “continue” button at the bottom of each page, as I said earlier, there is no “finish” button until you get to the very end.

Once you get to your last page, they do something else very sneaky. You have one last “continue” button which you think is the end, but NO!!! they put another “continue” button on the bottom left side below the fold, so you don’t see it, while on all the other pages, it was at the bottom right of the page, so one time I thought I was done the cancellation process & I really wasn’t.

Are you done at this point? Nope, FINALLY you get to a page that has a button called “finish”.

That is THE last & final button you have to press in order to cancel.

As I mentioned earlier, they only send out that ONE e-mail & their company policy is, we are NOT RESPONSIBLE for notifying you when your domain is up for renewal. I’ve now been told this by everyone from customer service to the complaints department.

No of course they don’t want to send you out a notice. Why help the client? In my opinion, they clearly want to hide that information so you are clueless with what is going on with your domain names.

Why do you think that is?

So you don’t cancel. Then your domain name(s) renew automatically, & they make money off of you.

They aren’t really giving you a choice. They know you are busy & won’t memorize the renewal dates of every domain you own every 365 days. How could you remember the renewal date of 1 or 2 domain names, let alone 300 domain renewal dates.

Their lovely helpful response is, GO TO Whois & check your expiry date.

Like I’m REALLY going to waste my time looking up 321 domain names on Whois & keep track of everything when it’s the domain registrar’s responsibility (not to mention moral ethics) to make it easy for their clients.

And FINALLY, it appears that they renew domains early, & I’m not talking a few days here, I’m talking 30-60 days before it’s supposed to be renewed.

What a way to steal people’s money & also prevent them from canceling. Then by the time you get that one e-mail renewal notice, it’s too late, the domain has already renewed. Maybe you tried to cancel it, are now being charged for it, & they refuse to give you your money back. So in my case you don’t have access to the domain because it’s canceled, & they won’t give me my money back.

Last time when the domains didn’t cancel because of the mixup with all the buttons, the manager was nice enough to cancel them for me & return my money, but of course one of their people in the billing department screwed up & didn’t refund me everything, so I had to continue to call & make sure everything was done properly.

This time because I somehow missed canceling some domains (not sure why, as I know I wanted to cancel them), they are refusing to refund me my money, & we aren’t talking a few domains here, my bill came to $321 & I wanted to cancel & did cancel 19 domains which still allows www.1and1.com to make a lot of money off of me & the other 26 domains I wanted to renew.

What is even more stupid, & I am guessing another ploy of 1and1.com to prevent you from having a choice to cancel the domains, is that they don’t bill you until like 30 days after the renewal date.

Go Dadday renews your domain on the 366 date & bills you right away, this way you see it go through your credit cards statement, & they give you 6 days to change your mind.

With 1and1.com, by the time you get your invoice & realize you don’t want that domain, or you canceled it but it never went through, it’s already too late to do anything about it.

By & large Go Daddy is still the best registrar (except for the increase in prices), but they make everything easy for you & their tech & sales support is right here in the US, so they understand me most of the time LOL.

While I remember in the past there were times when I knew they wanted to make it hard for me to cancel my domains, they were babies compared to what 1and1.com has put me through. The amount of time I have now wasted dealing with 1and1.com far surpasses the savings I might have made off of them.

It took me 7 hours to go through my entire list, make 2 files, ones for canceling, one for transferring to Go Daddy, & then unlock them all individually, because there’s NO way to bulk transfer.

I will be moving all of my domains from them as I am allowed, since the rule is, if you just renewed or transfered your domain, you can NOT transfer a domain again for 60 days.

Over the 19 domains I didn’t want that they refuse to give me my money back for, they have now lost my business for my entire life time, AND I will NEVER refer them to any of my clients, but from what I’ve heard from others, 1and1.com doesn’t care. They think they are soooo big, that they don’t care about your small business.

About 6 months ago I did get very angry at 1and1.com for domains being renewed that I didn’t want, but because I’m usually loyal to my vendors, & we all know what a pain it is to transfer domains (remember it took me 7 hours & I’m not even done yet), I stayed with them hoping that now that I knew how NOT to get ripped off by their system, that it wouldn’t happen again.

Unfortunately as you already know, there were problems again twice now & it doesn’t take that much to convince me I have made the wrong choice & should move on to a company who really cares about me as a client.

Good luck with your domain names everyone, I hope I’ve helped educate some of you

Michelle

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…