HeidiAllen.com

1&1 Internet is a hosting service and domain registrar that’s recommended by many. However, my own experience with them has been abysmal.

I used them to register two domains and get a basic hosting package. Miscommunication abounded, and everything took much longer than it should have. (You know those telephone conversations that make you feel like you’re having an aneurism?) In addition, I told them that I didn’t want automatic renewal. Instead, I wanted to be notified in advance so that I could make payment decisions.

This week, they tried to do an automatic renewal without notifying me. Fortunately, the card they used no longer exists, so their attempt failed. THEN they sent me an invoice, even though the start date for the new billing period had already passed.

I wrote back, noting that invoices are usually received a minimum of two weeks in advance. Regardless, I asked them to cancel my hosting. Suddenly, the notice of the declined charge magically appeared in my mailbox. They also responded directly, saying they couldn’t cancel anything by email and sending me to a cancellation website. (I’m still baffled as to why my direct request, sent in response to the invoice and from the address they have on file for me, wasn’t adequate.)

When I went to their cancellation site, the only option I was given was to cancel the hosting AND a domain name. The domain doesn’t come up for renewal until next year.

I called customer service and was told that they had to manually activate a third option if all I wanted was to cancel hosting. From the tired monotone and rapid delivery of this information by the rep, it’s clear to me that he deals with this all day long.

So… Why would an honest company not provide the most logical cancellation option up front? Clearly, they realize that most users aren’t very web savvy and will either accidentally cancel their domain name, or give up and renew the hosting for fear of losing their domain name. Only the tenacious, like myself, will actually call and demand to be able to cancel hosting only. In all scenarios, the result is unhappy customers.

On a positive note, my hosting and domain registration with SustainableWebsites / SustainableDomains has been close to aggravation-free, which I’ve found to be very rare in the hosting world, especially at prices as low as Sustainable offers. I now host three websites with them and have no complaints. As an added bonus, they offset all their energy use with wind power, and operate in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. Two thumbs up!

UPDATE: 1&1 seems bent on being the worst they can be. The first rep told that he was adding an “Instant Domain” option to the cancellation form online. (Why “instant domain” to cancel hosting? Don’t ask me.) Instead, the option was something like “Change your package”. When I called back to make sure this was correct, the rep (a different one) started using terminology that wasn’t on the web pages, and that didn’t seem to refer to what I was trying to accomplish. When I interrupted him to point this out, he told me that if I interrupted him again, he’d terminate the call.

This threw me for a loop. When I was a CSR (customer service representative), we were told never to terminate a call unless the caller was shouting and/or cursing. I was doing neither. After a few more paragraphs worth of miscommunication, I finally got the rep to step me through the page options. When I thought we were done, I mentioned that I’d also like to receive an invoice when my domains come up for renewal, rather than being billed automatically.

The rep, obviously exasperated, informed me that I was now changing what I wanted and I’d have to do everything over again. I pointed out that cancelling my hosting and asking for invoices when my domains approach expiration were two different things. He said I was wrong, that I’d have to wait for the hosting cancellation to finish processing (said it would be “a few minutes”) and that he’d send me instructions by email on how to start over again to get what I wanted.

The email he sent contained instructions on how to cancel my domains. Arggggh! In addition, it’s been over 2 hours and my hosting package still shows as active. They won’t get another penny of my money or a minute of my time.