deceptive billing practices, crap customer service, and terrible website.... AVOID AT ALL COSTS

I currently have several domain names hosted with this company, and two of the domains I chose not to renew. However, my account is now suspended and being held hostage for $75 for the renewal of those two domains. I called support and was told to "read the fine print in their terms and conditions". Then he further stated that I should have clicked the button not to renew. Honestly, I completely forgot about the domains and did not click that button as it had been a year and simply forgot...I mean, it was only a pandemic right? So this part can be debated. Where the REAL issue is... they have suspended my ENTIRE account and holding the domains that are in good standing and PAID FOR hostage as well. They have "locked" them....so I can't do anything with those either. This is where it seems to be illegal to block something that you have already paid for and there is no outstanding balance. This is unscrupulous and I have filed several complaints with various agencies for their "strong-arm" tactics. Beware of this company, and if you decide to do business with them... don't forget to read the "fine print"! read more

1&1 Internet - Internet Service Providers Near Me - Karlsruhe, BW

I hesitate to call any business crooked, but in the case of 1&1 it is very apt. Like other reviewers, I have been charged for items/services I did not order, including package updates, upgraded email accounts, "additional virus scanners" and the like through the credit card that I've been required to keep on file (probably for the purpose of unauthorized charges) or have my contract voided and lose my domains. After the last unauthorized charge that I just discovered - backdated to a month earlier and billed this month - I am finally motivated to move with haste away from these thieves. I cannot afford to constantly monitor my credit card statements and take the time to call them to cancel services I did not order. Consider this fair warning. Be smart, don't start. Don't even give these cons a glance unless you enjoy the electronic equivalent of having your pockets picked. Here is the Consumer Affairs reviews of 1&1 (1 star total), with scores of customers noting their underhanded practices: https://www.consumeraffairs.com/internet/1and1.html read more

I would highly suggest not working with this company in any way. Their business processes, support staff and experiences that they foist on their customers are so extremely frustrating that I am here to write a review. As others have written, the company (1&1 or Ionos) will arbitrarily lock accounts without proper communication and, in my case, take 1-2 weeks to resolve a simple payment issue of $16. Currently, I have been a customer of this company for more than 10 years but as soon as they receive their small payment and unlock my account I will move on and never work with them again. My brother was the person that registered the domain so he received a different billing message system than I received as the manager of the domain. I was unaware of an unpaid bill for $16 related to a hosting charge of $8 per month. Condensed version of 3 phone calls and tech support chats: - Me: Hi folks, apparently my automatic billing failed to work over the weekend and I'm trying to pay you to renew my URL - Ionos: You owe us $16 and until you send us a wire transfer and our billing department confirms receipt, we will not do anything to help you. Your account is cancelled. - Me: I've initiated the wire transfer to your company and here is the receipt and details, can I literally walk over to your bank (citibank) and deposit the $16 in your account? Can I pay you in any other method, credit card, paypal, zelle, ACH to expedite this? - Ionos = No. - Me: Can I speak to the next level support to ask them to make an exception so I can get my email system working in a faster timeframe - Ionos: I'm sorry, no. I primarily use their service to register and host a URL for my email system. But unfortunately, if you have even the most simple and minor charge that is not paid for appropriately, they will just shut things off without any empathy or desire to find a way to help their customers. I work in a customer service business and can recognize when a company hates their clients. I don't like the taste in my mouth right now after spending a day trying to resolve a payment issue over $16. read more

The worst company. Ever since I registered a website with them a year ago, I've been getting a ton of telemarketer calls. Turns out they put my information out there for everyone to see without bothering to ask me if maybe I wanted to phone calls twice offered free cruises, being warned about the IRS looking for me or other nonsense. I've had many hosts in my life and not a single one has not kept my information private so I didn't bother checking. When I called to complain, they said "well sir, we just want to give you options to succeed". What the hell kinda sales crap is that?! Also, I found out they put a bunch of ads on my parked domain for which I have seen not cent one. Assholes. read more

Ich wollte meinen Vertrag kündigen. Ich bekam eine E-Mail, in der stand, dass ich das bitte innerhalb von 7 Tagen telefonisch bestätigen sollte. Ich habe am nächsten Tag. immer noch, sie nie getan, und wenn ich sie kontaktiert. zuerst, ihre Kunden-Service-Agent war so unhöflich. und dann, anstatt mir eine Antwort, die er sagte, ich kann nichts tun und beendete den Chat, ohne etwas zu sagen. vor, dass ihre Router nicht mehr funktioniert. und sie berechnet mir 200 Euro für einen neuen. Ich werde nicht empfehlen, es überhaupt. besser für Vodafone oder Tmobile gehen. read more

After I posted my review, I had three more days of arguing with good people who simply were only there to take the flak for the policy. The process was insulting and degrading to all of us, but they were humane the whole time. Today I received a contact from their team that was the basic decency I was asking for the whole time. The contact lead was as kind as the underling. I am beginning to think I can just go back to normal, though I am twitchy like a squirrel on coffee. Take my words with care. We only have our reviews to help us. But I will stand by every word, top to bottom, right to wrong. With only humanity as my guide. Kevin read more

1&1 is an excellent and reliable hosting company while you're using their products. I experienced minimal performance or reliability issues while using their products for years. The bad part is they will increase the prices periodically on your account, and not notify you of the increase or grandfather you into the price you agreed to. It gets worse when you try to cancel. Their website has a cancellation form, which lets you go through the process of cancelling until you actually click submit, which presents you with a blank page. When I tried to call to cancel, they wouldn't do it because I didn't remember the phone number I set up on the account ~10 years prior. When I asked to speak to a supervisor, they refused. I had to hang up, call back, and immediately ask to speak to a supervisor without giving them initial context, at which point they were able to forward me to a cancellation team and successfully cancel my account. read more

Good luck trying to cancel your service! It's just about impossible to get out of their automatically renewing contracts. Even after multiple phone calls and online cancellations they (1&1 IONOS) continually entered my contract to auto renew yearly and remove money from my PayPal account. I had to finally get PayPal to block them from withdrawing the money. They said that I only canceled my domain, and not their service. So basically they tried to charge me for a year of "membership", without ANY products or services. When my website was hosted elsewhere. Upon cancellation, Their cancellation-conformation Emails came, Immediately followed with reactivation-conformation emails. Somebody or something was automatically entering my account to auto renew, even after multiple attempts to close it completely. Dishonest and misleading to say the least. read more

Can I rate lower than a one star? To make a long story short, this company wrecked my website. Their backup service went down and when called for support the agent went into my site after they realized that their service was down and pulled an old file I had on the server and reinstated that as the website backup. I canceled the service and then they renewed my service on their own and sent me to collections for a new year of hosting. When I called to tell them I'm not renewing. They told me I can't just cancel. They felt that I owed them the money. I asked to speak to a manager they put me on hold indefinitely. Avoid working with these scam artists read more

I've been a 1&1 customer for years now. If you want reliable hosting that's not constantly trying to sell you more bells and whistles or cheat you into accidentally buying more, go with 1&1. Sure, they automatically renew your contract year after year but who wants a website for only a year? They also always notify you when they charge you for anything so, if you have any disputes, it's easy to bring up. They're there when you want them and not there when you don't. All in all, I can't see how my hosting services could be any better. read more

1&1/Ionos is worthless. I set up a new email account under one of my domains and sent out an email blast to some folks. The service flagged it as spam then locked me out of all my accounts. This was on a Friday afternoon, and despite the claims of 24/7 support, I remain locked out of the three websites that I use to perform business for two days, prevented from sending out any business emails whatsoever. This should literally take someone 1 minute to fix. I'm moving everything from this hosting service ASAP. read more

Shortly after my 1and1.com (IONOS) contract renewed for a WordPress blog for a year, they changed their support for the PHP version and said it would cost an addiitonal fee, almost $100 a year, to keep it going with the older PHP. I said no to that, and they moved me from PHP 7 to PHP 7.1 which completed corrupted the WordPress blog (trying to log in I just got a bunch of garble). IONOS support was no help in trying to straighten it out, had no support pages about how to adapt to PHP 7.1. I don't even know what PHP does for my site or why it is there -- I didn't yearn to be a coder, I'm a writer. Finally, I simply asked for a refund. No dice. I will have to eat 9 months (of my year prepaid WordPress contract) to switch to a new provider (WordPress.com). read more

If I could give 1 and 1 zero or negative stars I would. They have absolutely the WORST customer service I've ever known. They are incompetent and they lied to me telling me they could send me an an email to transfer my domain to them when they themselves sent me an identical email just hours before. When i asked to speak to a supervisor, they said supervisors don't talk to customers. When i asked to speak to the head of customer service, Sebastian Gonzalez, they told me that Mr. Gonzalez does not talk to customers. I spent hours on the phone with them today wasting my time getting them to do simple tasks. Incompetence is too good a word for these people. I've been a customer of their for many years but am pulling all of my domains from them right now. i will NEVER deal with them again. I cannot say too strongly that you should avoid 1and1 at all costs. These people don't care one iota about their customers. They are a joke. read more

We hit a tipping point with the service due to frequent disconnections and poor upload speed. We tried calling the service and it was so bad I can't even explain. The person we interacted with hung up on us, twice. We tried calling again and spoke to Niko L. and thats when faith in humanity was restored. although Niko said he did not speak English for 20 years, he's English was perfect. But I think what was more important was his personality. He was really trying to help and guide us, long term customers, towards a solution. This review would be about one star and switching providers, if it wasn't for Niko. Dear 1 und 1please value Niko and any other people that are as good as he is. They are the ones keeping you afloat. read more

Horrible customer service experience, i called after receiving an e-mail that they will automatically renew my registration tomorrow for $111. i am not using my website anymore so went online and could not cancel the "automatic" renewal. When i called, someone from the Philippines answered saying " you can't cancel the payment, you have to do it 3 days in advance" i told him i just got the email 1 hour ago, if thats the rule why wouldn't i get notified at least 3 day ago?. i was told i have to call on monday because no one is available to take my call saturday night but to charge my card, they have an "automatic system" and they will take the money Sunday. Bottom line, they have a system to "automatically" screw people. By the way the customer service rep. hung up at me before i finish talking to him!! read more

This pretend company is not the place to trust with your website hosting. My email has been down for three days and eight calls later the situation has still not been resolved. I am not a new customer but soon I will be an ex customer. Call go daddy better quality better customer service. When a vendor gets you so mad that you yelp them you know its time to go. Have a great day. read more

(BEWARE) Don't hesitate to file a complaint against 1 and 1 to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Under the for Unfair, Deceptive or Abusive Acts and Practices (UDAAP). My opportunity to renew the domain promptly due to the confusing 1 and 1 massive flooding of Marketing/Junk/Advertising emails sent to my billing email box; made it extremely challenging to distinguish essential billing emails from junk. An influx of marketing email from 1and1, definitely hindered my ability to made payment; due to new card had been issued with an updated expiration date. After all, was said and done the wanted to pay a whole lot more to reinstate the domain and they then ridiculously hiked the price of the domain up so high that I let it go and now the domain is bidding for $ thousands of dollars higher online. Should any of you experience this please file a complaint with the CPFB with the UDAAP in mind. I had already asked them Countless times prior, to stop the advertising/ marketing email from them precisely because I was getting confused and they failed to do just that, and the results ended up with me losing a domain I had for nearly two decades. They blamed the mishap stating it was my fault anyway. I felt the deception of bait and switch for a higher rate. So please, if you experience this please file a complaint through the proper channels. Understand the UDAAP laws. read more

They insist of charging after providing the service. Then when it fail to bill they cut the account access and keep my domains in hostage, and they don't give a proper way to pay what I own. There support can speak English but "don't have the right to do so" (my account is with 1and1.mx because I registered while in Mexico, I do not speak Spanish. They insist about talking to me on phone in a language I cant speak to resolve the issue, calling the US branch redirect me to the Mexican branch. I have submitted a complain to ICANN hopping I can get my domain back.. Stay away, especially if your not in your native country. All other registrar I ever used are totally online and everything can be managed online and, at lease the one I use, provide the service after billing success and don't lock your account in a case of a failure. read more

I'm pissed! I have had 1&1 for years. Now all of a sudden their servers are rejecting emails sent to me. They say its because the server is detecting multiple emails coming from one source - NOT. One did send 3 emails replying to my emails all at once. But the other that got rejected only sent the one. Why now?! Well - if I'd like to fix that and have it not happen all the time I can upgrade my mail box from basic to business for 6.99 per email address. Seems they are purposefully setting their servers to reject so you pay more. I'll be leaving you 1&1 after some 20 years. read more

I used 1&1 for several years, primarily just for email. I decided to cancel my contract and went through all the online cancellation and was then told to 'complete' my cancellation I have to call in. I was able to sign up with no interaction. I should just as easily be able to cancel with no interaction. I have little doubt they only want to up-sell or try and talk me out of cancelling my contract. This is absolutely ridiculous and I went from a fairly pleasant experience to one where I will never recommend 1&1 to anyone. read more

Having a problem because I paid for domains and I'm not using the hosting. This company is terrible- they are total scum. Stay away from this company, register your domain elsewhere. I switched name servers and they are taking the domains I paid for. read more

On Nov. 24th 2017 I received an invoice for $83.88 for the next 12 months (future!) after a one month free trial. Not needing this product, I cancelled on Dec. 2nd and was told over the phone I would receive a refund within a few days. I received a cancellation notice. But after waiting one month, still no reimbursement as promised. I called back on January 12th 2018 and was told the service had been cancelled but that was different than cancelling the "invoice" and that as a "special favor to me they would now cancel the "invoice" and I would get a refund. I am still waiting.... read more

Do not use this company! I own several businesses and used many different hosting companies. 1and1 has been providing me with services for over 7 years. They are nice when everything is going well but when you need customer support and their is a serious problem they are well known for having one of the worst reputations for customer support in the industry. We made a payment for renewal but their staff made a mistake in re-regerstering a long time website. Our companies website and email went down and we lost thousands of dollars in revenue. Our staff called them night and day to resolve the problem (literally two phones calling in trying to reach the right person at the same time) but it took several weeks to solve. We transferred everything we own to wix and go daddy hosting. DO NOT USE 1AND1, I promise you from experience you get what you pay for, I regret ever using their services. read more

1 star is one too many for 1and1. The main problem I have with them is frequent changes in the prices of the services they offer. And they also, change your package or the type of service you signed up for, without your knowledge, and put you on a package with higher cost, without your permission. You will only find out if you look at the invoices, which is frustrating. The customer service is good when you are adding service, not so much when you need help getting a refund for a wrongly charged item. Same for service cancellation...you have to go through multi-step processes that involve first requesting cancellation online, then confirmed through an email and even after that, you cannot be entirely sure if it went through. There are a lot of other services out there...please research in advance and avoid the mistake we made. read more

this company should be shut down immediately in my opinion, because they run a scam. like all others reviews, i was charged for "who knows what"?? they claim it was a contract, of course, i never had a hosting contract with them, nor did i ever have a website with them. i only parked domains there. i had to call them numerous times to tell them and demand that they stop using my credit card, any damn time they want, even when you tell them over and over again, they can't and to stop it immediately! they will tell you they need your driver's license (actual copy), picture of both sides of your credit card, your social security number, and any other picture of identifying info on you, in order for them to stop using your credit card, any darn time they want to. when trying to reverse charges and making hundreds of calls to them, try to get back all your money they fraudulently charge on the card!! i don't mean its's a few bucks, we're talking about $200.00 or so. this was a major fight and struggle!!! also, they fought me over and over again and made life hell on earth, when trying to transfer out my domain names away from them. the only way i succeeded with all my complaints was to file formal complaints with icann, which is located in los angles, ca. i'm in so. calif. icann provides licenses to these companies like 1 and 1. i felt like a hostage, with my domains locked up and my credit card being used against my will! once icann gets involved, the company will straighten up!!! i didn't go to other gov. agencies because remember, icann is the international association that licenses these hosting companies and allows them to operate. thank god for icann!! i appreciate everything they do to look out for our safety! i totally despise 1 and 1 and hope nobody else ever goes through what i went through with them. lastly, they charge $15 per renewal, when my new company, dynadot (great company!) only charges $8.99 per renewal. in the past, i've also been with wild west. they charge $10 and are also good. my opinion is, to stay away from 1 and 1! read more