When I first subscribed to their service they were providing good service. Everything was fine when my site wasn't experiencing any issues. However few months later, things started turning bad. My site constantly experienced slow loading speed. Their tech support is crap and wasn't very helpful in providing solution to my problems. They were always giving canned answers and I was sicked of their couldn't be bothered attitude.
Good server speed and virtually no down time. Support is average though as it takes them awhile to attend my problems sometimes. But I was fairly happy as I did not have much problems. Only issue was the package that I have does not support MySQL and hence the move to other host with a cheaper MySQL package.
If you have a simple website then 1 and 1 is good. I have a small business website hosted on their shared platform and it has been running smooth so far. I went with 1 and 1 because they support both Linux and Windows OS as well as MySQL. Support is also good and they live up to their 24/7 support they offer. I used their support on public holidays and surprised they were there serving me almost immediately.
I have a VPS with them and I haven't experienced any major problems. Only complain is the adsent of live chat and that was be a problem when I was out of the country.
Stay as far away from them as possible, they conned me completely, I had exactly the same problems as lwhitmore except that I actually got replies from support/billing which in a way made my situation worse. I upgraded because the price of a better package had been lowered everything was fine but then after a while the price nearly doubled, I questioned it and they fobbed me off with a load of crap about it only being for new customers, anyway they managed to convince me that it was right so I paid up, after a while I decided to downgraded the account because I wasn't using half of the features but I never got a refund for the three months I'd paid in advance, then to make it worse they charged me for the downgraded package.
This was bad enough but again after a few months the price of the downgraded packaged nearly doubled again. As much as I didn't want to I cancelled it, waited for a debt recovery letter and paid the full amount, after getting into a bit of financial trouble when I first turned 18 (credit companies make it too easy to get in trouble) I couldn't afford to have the debt against my name so I paid it all.
Anyway like I said don't ever use them, I wouldn't even bother visiting their website.
My short answer is to avoid 1and1 if you can. I've been with them for around 3 years - and they've got steadily worse. They're okay, until you need support. I thought their prices were reasonable, and one of their main advantages - but they're not actually that cheap, and once they've got you involved in a billing cycle, it's very difficult to get rid of them.
Changing web-hosts is a hassle – but after being pushed a little too far by 1and1, I decided that enough was enough. After doing some research I found a superb web-host who charge half as much as I was paying with 1and1; I'm completely shocked how much better a host can be.
I dislike 1and1 for the following reasons:
billing errors
I've had emails and billing responses sent to me in error - requesting I pay x-amount of money. Responses have sometimes been completely unintelligible half-complete replies to other customer's queries. I got to the point where I had absolutely no confidence in the company at all. unexplained downtime
There have been times when I've been unable to access my webspace / website, and databases associated with my account; unluckily for me this occurred while I was demoing a site to a client. I received no apology or explanation from 1and1; rather than own up, their policy seems to be to hope customers won't notice.
automatic account locking
At one stage I was unable to make a payment because the billing departments IT system was down. Subsequently my account, was locked and sent to a debt recovery agent, making all my domains and sites unavailable for nearly a week.
no flexibility
To get anything more than basic hosting, expensive upgrades are needed. The level of functionality vs. cost often seems arbitrary; for example - why should I pay over £72 pounds a year extra just to receive SSH access?
no follow up to complaints
I've sent complaints on numerous occasions and not received responses. When I have received replies, they've been 'stock' replies - standard templates. They don't listen and it's impossible to speak to anyone who can actually help. Everything is run according to scripts.
automatic rebilling
I cancel my account - they respond; not by refunding me the money I'm owed, but by re-billing me for each domain previously registered, using brand-new two year contracts!
I sound like I'm ranting - and I suppose I am. I'm just deeply dissatisfied with this company - and still slightly shocked that they can get away with such levels of incompetence.
In the fall of 2007, a friend and I where going to start a small local website. We found 1&1 which offered cheap hosting with all of the server specs that we needed. I purchased 6 months of hosting from them using my CC. Unfortunately our website did not last any longer than a few months, and by the time those 6 months where up I no longer needed the hosting. Thinking that the host would simply expire (unless I authorized another payment) I just let it go, only to see a charge for another $29.95 on my bank statement.
I called them, and was sent to http://cancel.1and1.com (a URL that is suspiciously absent from their website) and followed the instructions to cancel the account. I requested that the site be canceled at the next billing date (figured I could use it as a development server or something since I had already paid for it).
In January of 2008 (1/22/2008 to be exact) I received yet another charge from them! I called again explaining my situation, and said I had tried to use the online cancellation form but apparently the account was not canceled. The customer support representative requested information from me, and verified that he had personally canceled the account and that I would be receiving a full refund. I was satisfied (at the time) and rather naively forgot about the whole ordeal.
Today (July 22, 2008) I received ANOTHER charge for another 6 months of hosting. Keep in mind I haven't used this account since January . . . I requested a refund for January - July (as I didn't want, nor did I use this account). I was told my name wasn't on file and therefore I couldn't cancel it. Despite the fact that I was told the account was canceled twice, and I had the credit card information, billing address, and security questions (among other things) to prove I was the owner of the account.
One representative in particular even yelled at me, and basically told me I was incompetent. So I asked to speak to her supervisor. Her supervisor wasn't any more helpful and he told me: "I will not be canceling your account and I will not be giving you a refund. I'm not continuing this conversation" and hung up on me.
I have filed a credit dispute with my bank, and had to change my credit card number to prevent them from charging me again. I also filed a complaint with the BBB (not surprisingly they have an 'unsatisfactory' rating there), The Federal Trades Commission, and sent a letter to the Attorney General.
Now i'm waiting for my collections letter . . . as so many of you have received before. Absolutely ridiculous and unacceptable. No other hosting company has ever come close to being this much of a hassle!
Overall the host was extremely poor. You could not change database names, nor could you access services that are fundamental to a web developer. Customer service was extremely poor, and the downtime was absurd.
Whenever I try to to switch the DNS from them to my server for a new client they drag their feet and rebill the client. They also have an affiliate like 404 page on which is BS as well.
I use 1 & 1 for about 12 sites and only have trouble with 1. Started the hosting of this site about 3 years ago and this problem started about 6 months ago, so I could easily put it off as a corrupted server. How ever I have almost 100 emails addresses, and about 4k+ for the news letter (lots of work moving the emails addresses). I would like to move it to a different server with 1 & 1, but the owner wants to wait to the emails are moved to an server inhouse.
