1&1 Ionos
reviews and complaints

www.1and1.com is the worst service I have ever dealt with and I want to warn everyone to stay away from them! I paid for their service but I had not idea these guys had an automated renewal, there was nothing mentioned about that one their website. When they renewed my account I contacted them and asked for a refund but they refused and said it was my fault that I did not check their site more carefully. But I did read everything when I signed up and I'm sure there was nothing said about that. Then I asked them to cancel my account but they did not reply. So just to be sure I called my bank and blocked 1and1. Watch out, 1and1 is a scam!

Stay far away from 1&1

They recently blocked my account due to a failed transaction (tried to buy wp hosting from a card with different name, I bought many other domains with same card haven't faced any issues but this transaction got me directly blocked) , my 1&1 is around 3 months old, I have a 3 months old domain along with all my hard work of quality backlinks. They suspended all my domains and blocked my account. Emailed them a lot of times, haven't got any reply yet.

- called support, they said call security team.
- called security team, they said we cant accept the transaction, you'll have to call the support team to get back the domain.
- called support team, they said "i have to fill up a form and submit it", now I submitted a form and got this reply
" unfortunately, your account was terminated by the security team. Without an active account we will not be able to restore the domain. "

- called the security team again, they said I can get the domain back, what I need to do is create a new 1&1 account and ask transfer team to transfer my domain this nee account.

- therefor I contacted an 1&1 agent and created new account, and I talked to them for 53 minutes and they said they can't do anything.

I have called them so many times, I even don't remember what conversation we had each time.

Two weeks prior to the re-up on my 1&1 account I sent an email explaining that I no longer wanted the service and that the account that they had previously charged was no longer in service. I thought nothing of it till I began to get phone calls saying that I owed them money. I began to no answer the calls because they would not take no for an answer. Today I received a notice in the mail telling me that they will send me to collection if I do not pay

I purchased a domain and web hosting this week. The service I got cost more initially that advertised but agreed to that. Struggled to log in. Tried to get through to them on phone to get help getting online but never got through to a person. I was just stuck on hold.
I eventually did get onto the control panel and found the service was very restricted in what i could and couldn't do, to the point it wasn't a suitable host for me at all.

It had stated 30 day money back return so i cancelled through the control panel. It confirmed cancellation but said i needed to confirm by phone.
I repeatedly tried calling the number but could not get through to a person to cancel.

I emailed the email contact highlighted in the cancellation confirmation email but have had no response. The cancellation request expires after 7 days, which i am in danger of not meeting because i can't get through.

In the cancellation part of the website it says the number is toll-free and available 24/7.

Today i managed to get through to a representative. He told me he couldn't help because the cancelation team only work Mon- Fri until 8. He said i could try emailing the team but that i would need to ring back Monday. He didn't provide an email address. Told me he could try to get them to call me back, but when i gave him my number he interrupted and said he was giving me their number. It is the same number I had called.

I asked if I could cancel in writing. He said maybe, but then said no. He didn't know. He said i could try but i would probably need to ring back Monday. I said if i wrote in with recorded post would it be ignored. He said he didn't know, then yes.

I then asked how i am supposed to call in the week if I am working full-time and then when i get home I can't get through to a person. He said he knew it was difficult but I had to ring back.

As far as I can see they are making it nearly impossible to cancel. It's misleading and I only hope the claim it is toll-free is at least true or I will have one heck of a bill for the time spent on hold.

I built a website with 1and1 and had one month to try it out. The company I created the website for proved false so I wanted to cancel the contract for 1and1. Here is a copy of the cancellation at paypal: billing detail you've authorized use of your paypal account for future payments to 1&1 internet inc.. Billing id b-26203704tg0013003 status cancelled on sep 12, 2015 description your purchase at 1&1 merchant business name 1&1 internet inc. Merchant url http://www.1and1.com customer service email [protected]@1and1.com bill term initiated date aug 13, 2015 total billed amount $95.76 usd notice the initial date is aug. 13, 2015 and the date of cancellation is one day less. It was sept. 12, 2015 and I still haven't received my money case / contract : myonlinesuperstore.com # [protected] id [protected] I have notified 1and1 several times regarding ths matter with no response. I even phoned customer service and he informed me that the payment was returned (this was about two weeks ago, I still haven't received payment. This isn't the only time this has happened. 1and1 tried to collect $119.88 after I cancelled a domain, but they put it back into my paypal account. I don't know why they are holding funds this time, but I will never deal with them again. I am a senior and can't afford to throw even this amount away. Can you please help me?

I bought a domain around 20 days ago from 1&1 internet. Their.Net domains were on sale and I got it for 99 cents (Ofcourse for the 1st year). It was my first purchase from them.

The day before yesterday, I got a email from their "security team". Saying:

"dear rayhan emon (Customer id: 4530665**) ,

In order to better serve the internet community and reduce the harm associated with online fraud and identity theft, 1&1 internet has developed a comprehensive fraud prevention policy.

Unfortunately we were unable to confirm all of your contact details. As a result, we will ask that you provide us with the proof of your photo id. This documentation can consist of one of the following:

Passport
National id
Drivers license/state id

Other forms of id could be acceptable upon our review.

You can send this to us by:

Email:
Reply directly to this message with attached images.

Fax:
Uk +[protected]
Us +[protected]

- please include your customer id as shown in the salutation.

E-mail: please just reply to this e-mail with a scanned copy of the
Document (S) attached. Acceptable formats for the attachment include:
. Gif,. Png,. Jpg, or. Pdf.

If this information has not been received in three (3) business days this account will be locked and/or terminated in accordance with our terms and conditions

Thank you for your compliance.

Sincerely,
Security team
1&1 internet inc. "

Alright. They need to check my id. No problem. I replied that email with my id right away after seeing it.

But today I woke up in the morning with sms from uptimerobot. First I thought my hosting providers were having some issues. But they said their server are 100% okay. Then I noticed my domain is not pointing to their server.

I tried to login to 1&1's domain control panel, but it said "invalid password".

You just cant imagine how much trouble I went through to build up that website. All in vain? The domain was of 5 character and it was like a premium domain.

Stay away from them. Far far away.

Sorry for my bad english. I'm not a native, so I hope you understand. :)

Our company has been a customer of 1and1.com since Jun 12, 2004. In November 2014 we started experiencing problems with two of our 4 email accounts. Both accounts had the same problem, both accounts had no emails in them, neither in the Inboxes, nor in any of the long list of subfolders they have. Both accounts are set as IMAP on multiple machines (both OS X and Windows 7 operating systems). For those unaware of email protocols, IMAP leaves all messages on the host server (1and1.com). None of my email settings are set to archive on a local machine and even if they were I should see an archive on one of the machines. No such thing anywhere. In both accounts I had contact information, correspondences with business partners, invoices, etc. related to my businesses. I called multiple times and was told that the issue will be resolved and my emails will be restored. This didn't happen. To the contrary, in December 2014 my emails were cleared again, and again in January 2015. At this point I was on hold for many hours, being told that my issue has been escalated to the back server support team, and finally being told that my issue has been resolved. What was resolved was that the technical team restored a week worth of emails in my mailboxes and the deletion of emails stopped for 6 months or so. Until June 15, 2015 when I saw my emails being deleted once again in front of my eyes when I was searching for an email saved in one of the folders. My whole mailbox was cleared once again. All records of business done for the past six months disappearing once again. At this point I called once again, stood on hold once again for an hour insisting that I need to speak to a supervisor in the etch support team. I finally got to speak to Charilyn who (i) refused to give me her direct number, (ii) refused to give me her email address, (iii) refused to give me any information other than her first name due to company policy. I was told once again that my issue will be resolved, that my emails will be restored, and that the server techs will look into the settings on the server so they server will stop deleting my emails. I was also told that somebody will call me to update me on the progress of the issue. As a result, I now have the earliest emails currently in the account is from [protected], i.e. a mere week before the latest deletion incident.

1and1.com worst web hosting service

Very bad service 1and1.com - professional solutions for website, domain, hosting worst web hosting

Ripp off bad customer service
This is the worst web hosting service for support
They keep you on hold for over 30 minutes, and always trying to scam you by forcefully trying to get you to change the registrar to their company.
If you do transfer the registrar they make it very difficult for you to get your
Domain back from them
A complete ripp off

Very bad service 1and1.com - professional solutions for website, domain, hosting worst web hosting

Ripp off bad customer service
This is the worst web hosting service for support
They keep you on hold for over 30 minutes, and always trying to scam you by forcefully trying to get you to change the registrar to their company.
If you do transfer the registrar they make it very difficult for you to get your
Domain back from them
A complete ripp off

Very bad service 1and1.com - professional solutions for website, domain, hosting worst web hosting

Ripp off bad customer service
This is the worst web hosting service for support
They keep you on hold for over 30 minutes, and always trying to scam you by forcefully trying to get you to change the registrar to their company.
If you do transfer the registrar they make it very difficult for you to get your
Domain back from them
A complete ripp off

1&1 is by far the worst company that I have ever come across in any business category and I am 43 years old and have done business with 1000's of businesses. I will put it as plain and simple as I can, you will get better service if you went to a buy here and pay here car sales with a salesman who is fresh out of jail and an IQ of 5 even if that's possible. This company absolutely does not care about customer service and it shows in there business model set up. There are no phone numbers or email addresses for any management in customer service and you have to hunt for a direct line to a customer service department, when you call the main number there is not an option for customer service. When you call and hit the option for tech support you get a call center in the Philippians and good luck dealing with that call center. I had nothing but serious issues from day 1 with 1&1 and I was with them for 8 months, I am currently trying to transfer my domain name which I own and they currently holding my domain name hostage. I had employees there saying if I want to use my domain that I have to sign back up with them, they have denied my transfer of my domain name 3 times now and no one at 1&1 has the intelligence or even the care of doing the right thing to get my domain name transferred. The new company that I am transferring my domain to is doing everything right on there end and they even showed me a email where 1&1 denied the transfer 3 times now. Do not do business with 1&1 internet they are the worst company period!

I have a home package with 1and1 internet services. This costs & pound;6.28 +vat per month and provides web hosting/email services. On checking my credit card statement I discovered they have been charging me an extra & pound;19.99 per month +vat for their 'web site package'. This is for people wishing to build their own web sites. The total amount they have stolen from my credit card is now & pound;359.80. I have never requested this package and was absolutely shocked and horrified when I discovered they had been charging me for it. When I complained to their call centre which I believe is in the phillipines the people there did everything they could to obfuscate and obscure what is a blatant act of fraud. There replies were all the same; 'you must have requested it, or we wouldn't have been charging you for it'. A search on google of '1and1 complaints reveals that thousands of others have been caught by the same scam. I have now contacted the serious fraud office, and have issued a county court claim to try and recover my money. People should avoid this criminal outfit like the plague. You have been warned!

December 12 2013

Today I opened two envelope mails from a collector called nco financial systems, inc to my surprise they are collecting a debt on behalf of a web hosting website I initially enrolled with 120 days ago. I am certain that I called them in response to their emails that I owed them money for a lesser amount than what nco financial systems is trying to get from me. Like I said I received on the same day two mails dated the same day one was to collect $14.97 and the second was for $18.95, this is unamerican! So here I am at the mercy of another collector who is going to horribly impact my credit report. My issue is that 1&1 representatives are horribly disorganize, & uninformed for telling me that my account is in good standing when apparently it is not. Another thing is how these types of collection can have such an adverse effect on credit ratings regardless of the results.

Customer id [protected]

My hosting company 1and1.com blocked my account without a reason and lock all websites from been publish to internet. I further ask 1and1.com unlock my account so i can transfer to another hosting company.My self and my company own the domain names and information of the domain names 1and1 is only the hosting company. I ask for 1and1 to let me move my account to another hosting company.1and1 lock my account 2:00am Sunday morning without reason and I where unable to reach their department about the matter after i send about 10 emails to [protected]@1and1.com i also call [protected] several times and message that the department is closed since July 4th 2013 and will reopen July 8th 2013. i contact techsupport but they are unable to give me any answers about the matter or reason.My websites emails are not working and i am also concern about accounts setup with google.com and other companies will be ended.

I had previously used 4smartphone.net for my hosted Exchange service, but unfortunately after dealing with numerous issues and problems from that provider, I was forced to switch elsewhere. I did some further research before making the switch (although the switch had to occur pretty quickly due to circumstances beyond my control – i.e. 4smartphone.net completely crashing and therefore removing my ability to send/receive email or access my mailbox data), and finally settled on 1&1 (1and1.com) for my new hosted Exchange provider. One of the reasons I chose them was because I figured they were a much larger, more established company, so not only would I hopefully get better service and support, but the chances of a repeat of what happened with 4smartphone occurring again were slim. While I was right that an exact repeat didn’t occur, I was wrong to think I would get better service and support from them!

Almost immediately after signing up for their service, I encountered what would be the first of many problems with their service. After moving all my mailbox data over to 1&1, I changed my phone (at the time a Windows Mobile device) to sync with 1&1. Right away, my phone requested that I accept some security policies that were required by 1&1’s Exchange servers. Figuring that it wouldn’t really impact me (since I already was using a passcode/PIN to secure my device), I went ahead and accepted them. Immediately after doing that, my phone pretty much died (couldn’t connect to anything via Bluetooth without a reset, couldn’t receive incoming calls, no reminders appeared any longer, and more), ultimately requiring that I rebuild it from scratch. After talking to Palm level 3 technical support (yes, my phone was a Palm Treo), we all came to the conclusion that somehow the enforcement of 1&1’s security policies on my device had caused the issue (especially since all of the issues began occurring right after I accepted 1&1’s security policies and I hadn’t made any other changes to my device). I attempted to contact 1&1 customer/technical support for assistance, but all I got was the run-around and rude responses (one even culminating in them hanging up the phone on me). At one point, I was told that the security policy could be disabled for me, but in my numerous attempts to follow up on that and get them to do so, they kept refusing. Unfortunately, given that this occurred so long ago, I can’t quite remember what the ultimate resolution of this issue was, although I suspect they finally did disable the security policies for me (which, according to Microsoft, was a very simple procedure they could do that would only impact my account and wouldn’t cause any security vulnerabilities to 1&1) since I remained a customer of theirs for a while longer.

Not soon after the above problem, further issues arose. Some of these included:
- Lack of response to further questions I had for them (which only reinforced what I had learned from the above issue – that they had very poor customer and technical support)
- Connectivity issues between my locally installed copy of Outlook and their Exchange servers
o Almost every morning when I woke up and went to look at my computer, pop-up balloons from the Outlook icon in the system tray indicated that the connection had failed several times throughout the night
o At random, sporadic times, my connection between Outlook and their Exchange servers would just fail for periods of time, thus causing me to have to work offline in Outlook and not have access to my most current information (or be able to receive or send email)
- Access issues with Outlook Web Access (OWA) and Outlook Mobile Access (OMA):
o At times I would be able to browse to the login screens, but would be unable to log in – the system would reject my credentials or provide me with error messages
o Other times, the login pages themselves would not load
o At one point, there was an outage that lasted for a significant period of time and which they finally informed me of, but during the other instances there was no real support response or resolution
o They also kept trying to redirect me to use other login pages, and not only was this annoying, but it didn’t usually help fix the problems.

What finally was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” was a synchronization issue that occurred in mid-2008. Somehow, my mobile device began to attempt to synchronize with 1&1’s Exchange servers every minute despite it being set to only attempt a sync when new mail items arrived (or I imagine when I made changes to items on my mobile device that then had to be sync’ed back to the Exchange server). Obviously, this was a real problem because it was rapidly draining my battery. Despite requesting assistance from 1&1 yet again, I got nowhere with them, and ultimately had to once more hard reset my phone and rebuild it from scratch. At that point, however, I decided that I’d had enough of 1&1 and begin looking elsewhere for a company to use as a hosted Exchange provider.

Even after I’d left their company and was in the process of cancelling my account, 1&1 couldn’t seem to resist one last parting shot at me. I wanted to make sure that after I cancelled my account, 1&1 would delete all of my data that they had previously stored and not retain it for any reason (obviously there was plenty of confidential information stored within my Exchange mailbox). Despite repeated and pointed emails to 1&1 customer support where I very specifically asked and insisted that they delete my data, they continually responded with vague information about my account being in the cancellation phase and never once gave me any sort of reassuring response that my data would be safely deleted and not retained.

Overall, while using this company wasn’t quite as bad as my previous experience with 4smartphone.net, it was still pretty horrible, causing me numerous times where I couldn’t access my data, as well as 2 separate instances where I had to waste time rebuilding my smart phone because of issues on their end.

P.S. In the interest of full disclosure (which I’m always in favor of), the above situations occurred while I was a customer of 1&1 from early 2007 to mid-2008. I know this is a long time ago, and it’s very possible that 1&1 now operates differently and/or has corrected the issues I experienced, but the fact remains that I did experience all of the above problems and I wanted to warn other potential customers out there to be wary when dealing with 1&1.

I purchased domain names and related services from 1and1. They have biled me "non stop" for services I did not authorize, and then threatened to send me to collections if I did not pay their bogus charges. I am considering filing suit against them. Are there other out there that are of the same notion?

I have never had my website hosted my 1and1.com, the customer service department would not help me get it up, and yet I am being charged every month. Customer service told me it would cost over $30 to cancel a contract which I never signed. I want my contract cancelled immediately and I want a refund for all the fraudulent charges made to my account for no rendered services. -Travis King

Hopefully you'll never purchase a domain name from 1and1. I purchased a domain name last January for ~$40 thinking that I would use it and maintain it all year. Well, that never happened and I figured I would just cancel the service.

Herein lies the problem. The way to cancel a 1and1 domain name is to pull your own teeth out. I cancelled once and then a week later I received an email from them saying that they were so thankful that I decided to not cancel and stay. This was odd since I already had cancelled my domain name. Did it again, same thing.

Interestingly enough, two weeks ago I received an $84 charge on my account for that domain name. Haven't used it in eight months and two cancellations later, I have this $84 charge. I'd like to call them and give them a piece of my mind but their "customer service" hours are only between 9AM-5PM...not super great if you have a stressful job and work during those hours.

They also started calling me at least every day for the past month saying how I should try their new service or whatever, I honestly don't know since I've hung up every single time.

Take my advice, don't buy anything from 1and1.

I registered a domain through 1and1, I got a rep call me a few days after that, saying I can try some service and the service is completely free if I cancel it in one month. For unknown reason I was persuaded by this person and I agreed to try the service. However the email I received shows it was not what they told me so I immediately cancelled it online, but their system is deliberately designed to have me call in to talk to a live person. Fine, I waited a long long time and spoke to someone and get confirmed that the service is cancelled and no cost is generated.

Two days later I received a billing email showing some amount will be charged from my credit card.

I tried to call back and off course waited long long time to a live person and the guy refused to talk to me saying he needs to talk to my wife who doesn't speak English, I asked him I can get my wife to authorize me to talk to him but he insisted that he can only speak to her, so I asked him to transfer the call to his manager, and again, the system was deliberately designed to put me on hold and suddenly disconnect me.

1and1 is so cheap! the bill is only 24 cents! they don't care about their name by ripping 24 cents from their clients!

I can't believe this happened here. Shame on 1and1