Let's take things from the beginning a little. On the 13th of October, being in the process of finally closing down and transferring websites off 1&1 (or oneandone) I asked them to amalgamate three packages into one and close the accounts down.
1&1, in the interests of exemplary customer service have a new procedure in place. All communication takes place through an email form on their website which gives you the option to contact 'Billing', 'Accounts', 'Invoicing' or 'Technical Support' - my guess is that this arrangement gives them the opportunity to divert all emails they receive to Dorothy in Cansas who will deal with each one when she gets back from her trip down the yellow-brick road.
As you guess once you click the form and send off your message there is no acknowledgment, no reply and no record of you having contacted them. I kinda got wise to that over a year ago when I finally decided I had had my fill of them and started (and admittedly slow and tedious process) to reduce the sites I have with them and take them elsewhere. So I now keep a dated text file copy of every communication I have with them.
This is the latest message I sent them:
"Hi. On the 27th I sent you a detailed message regarding invoicing and payment. I had also contacted you on the 13th. I am not inclined to repeat either because my time is precious and you just simply waste it. I assume you have some way of tracking all this, though it would not surprise me to find out you haven't.
The gist of it is your 48 hours are up. You have failed to contact me, acknowledge the email or take any form of corrective action.
So now we go public, get the Office of Fair Trading involved plus a few computer publications.
David"
What they have done is:
- Ignored the original message, done nothing about the packages which I needed to close and have taken money for their renewal.
- Ignored the second message, not issued a refund and ignored my request for a response
- Seriously annoyed me
This brings us nicely to the end of this post. 1&1 are dishonest, unscrupulous and do not deserve to be in business. Unlike most vitriolic posts on them (and yes there are thousands on the web) I have kept meticulous records of conduct which redefines the words 'customer' and 'service' to bring new lows.
So this is so not over yet.
2 comments:
In my opinion 1and1 is a horrible company with a horrible reputation which I found out too late. 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?
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."
And finally, the Washington DC, Pennsylvania Better Business Bureau has them listed as "Unsatisfactory" Read comments on the BBB why. Read some customer comments on Red Flag.
I have never bothered to write about any company or their poor service. I have been using 1&1 for about 9 years if not longer.
All was fine until I investigated my bills as they were coming thick and fast. I now understand 1&1 add services to your account (upgraded features) which you get without asking for them, so they bump up the price of your bill tremendously without your knowledge. Yes, they apparently email you telling you this (among all the spam marketing emails) and then if you do not react within a very short period of time, there is no way of removing the service.
All call centres are in the Philipenes, with apparently no authoritive power to change your account settings or issue you with a refund. All that is supposed to be done VIA email, non consumer facing, which they will send you a templated response of "tough luck"!.
I think it is absolutely wrong. Total robbery. On another occasion an American called trying to offer new feature ecom platform for me to test out for a month, and if not happy, we can cancel. Stupidly, I said ok we will have a look at it. Next thing I know, I am billed for 2 years £20 per month because I was not allowed to cancel this new feature which I didn't opt out of in time.
Absolutely unethical business standards, and no care for their customers. I cannot believe that there isn't a case against this company.
They are easy to use, hook on to, terribly difficult to get rid of, and when you are not looking they will bill you for it! BE WARNED
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