1&1 gets progressively worse

When you have a hosting company you expect it to do a few things right even if it cuts back on technical support (by the response time I guess they are high school students or part timers) and outsources its customer handling staff to India (where they work off a screen).

This leaves billing. After all it's your money and they have access to it in terms of charging you and if this goes wrong then what the hell are they doing?

A month ago I moved a domain from 1&1 changing registrar. So imagine my surprise when I get an email almost a month later with an invoice attached with their usual non-sensical parrot-speak (because, let's face it, the only conclusion I can logically draw is that they have all had group lobotomies at a cut-rate place) which passes for customer service at 1&1.

Dear [Customer],

Please find attached your invoice dated 12.08.2007.
The invoice appears as an electronic pdf document:
This pdf invoice can be read with Acrobat Reader. If you don't have this, it can be downloaded, free of charge, from the Adobe web site at:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Just double-click on the appropriate file to retrieve your invoice and produce a hardcopy.
If you have any billing questions, please contact the 1&1 billing department by following the URL below:
https://admin.1and1.co.uk

Here you will be prompted to enter your domain name and password in order to log on to your protected configuration area. Then simply select your contract and click 'Help & Contact', and the billing team will then deal with your enquiry as quickly as possible. It's that simple!

Please note that 1&1 does not charge for sub-domains.
These are listed only for customer convenience.

Kind regards
1&1 Billing Team
www.1and1.co.uk
P.S.:
If you chose to order 1&1's free software bundle with your 1&1 package, the shipping costs will be debited from your credit card, together with the amount due for your 1&1 package. Both amounts will be shown as a total transaction on your credit card statement. You will receive the invoice for the shipping costs with the software.

Notice the "1&1 Billing Team" moniker they are using a sign of one of two things (or maybe in their case both) that they are trained chimps and unable to use names, or that each email sent out is the laborious, collective work of the entire 1&1 Billing Department which means that they are all held accountable for mistakes or maybe none of them is because no one is sure who pressed the 'send mail' button exactly (the old Firing Squad trick).

I was so incessed by yet another 1&1 cock up to what is fast becoming a catalogue, rather than a list of errors and mishandlings (it does fill this Blog space nicely at least), I spent, yet again, my time firing up an email to them:

Hi. You just sent me invoice 7254XXX5 where you detail proposed charges for the next twelve months in advance for domain name www.XXXXX.XX which has been transferred to another registrar for over a month now and for which (seeing how you get paid in advance) you need to issue a credit note. Why is it that EVERY TIME I deal with you I discover ingrained institutionalised incompetence on an epic scale?

I do not expect to see a charge made for this domain. If a charge is levied I will take this matter up way beyond the next level of response because I am so fed up dealing with your incompetense. What exactly does it take to attain even a rudimentary level of customer service? Your complaints email address is a joke as no emails get acknowledged and NONE get answered and your billing has become ridiculous as it seems to reside in a land divorced from internet activities and any connection with what goes on in your clients' control panels and the company's database.

Acknowledge the amount you have refunded. Plus the fact that no charge will be made for this domain.

David

As you probabluy guess three days later and no reply. No charge either and I keep on checking because if one is made I am going to go to my lawyer as well as the banking ombudsman.

On the 15th I sent them this message:

Hi. On the 12th August 2007 - That's three working days ago, I sent you a very precise message regarding invoice 7254XXX5 which, in true customers-can-go-to-hell 1&1 style, has gone unacknowledged and unanswered.

Is there any point at all to anyone using these contact boxes to contact you? Are you really so overworked that you cannot answer or even acknowledge (beyond the autoresponder with its 24-48 hour message) emails? Or is it simply a case of such gross incompetence that your general behaviour and treatment of your customer base is going to create a new low in services which, in due course, will be one of the attributed causes to the demise of your company?

I would really be interested to know.

David

Ok, now all I need to do is hold my breath and face certain death by asphyxiation while they answer.

There's more with them.

I will keep you posted.

David