1&1 sucks.
I used to use (until 17 minutes ago) 1&1 Internet Hosting for all my websites, including this blog. Now, I’ve had problems with them frequently, but the past 3 days have been beyond anything readily comparable. Over the weekend the server that “hosts” my web content was up… then down… then up… then down. Since yesterday morning it’s been down – 19 hours and counting.
You may ask, “If you’re site is still down how are you blogging right now?” Great question. You see… since my site has been down I’ve had plenty of time to:
- Call GoDaddy.com and order REAL web hosting
- Migrate all web content (that I backed up manually with Adobe DreamWeaver) to GoDaddy
- Create new MySQL databases on GoDaddy’s servers and run SQL population scripts
- Change the domain’s DNS listings from 1&1 to GoDaddy
- Wait for the so-called internet to propagate my new DNS info
- Blog about the colossal suckfest that is 1&1
And I’ve made plenty of calls to 1&1′s Technical “Support” during my run with them… not the fewest of which were the recent salvo of a half-dozen hopeless inquiries. But calling 1&1 Tech Support puts the cliché back in worthless.
I have to go to bed for now… but I will update this post soon.
Here’s an update after a few days of calming down.
My entire set of internet property has been fully migrated – files and databases – to GoDaddy. Everything went smooth and is now working fine (there’s always a few rough edges at first).
After over 48 hours since I formally filed a complaint (which can ONLY be done by actually sending an email to complaint@1and1.com) they finally got back to me.
Thank you for contacting us.
I apologize for the delay of response. I understand that you have experienced downtime with your website. This is something I can only apologize for. The reason for the downtime was due to the issue with the server your sites were on. Our administrators were aware of the issue and have since resolved this matter. As a gesture of goodwill, I have added a month of hosting to your account.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
They added a month of hosting? I lost more than that in advertising revenue! 
And I like the part about the administrators being “aware of the issue”… yeah, every time I called them I heard the EXACT SAME spiel – “Our server administrators are aware of the issue… they are currently resolving the issue so it won’t happen again”. Whatever… I guess won’t happen again doesn’t include two hours later.
By the way… if you need something a little more robust for your hosting you should check out Peer1 as a good option for managed and colocation hosting services.
I'm a Christ-follower, compelled by my faith toward reason, which points directly toward conservatism. This world's daily onslaught of lunacy offends my intellect and senses, so this is my venue to blow off steam.
I notice there aren’t any smiley faces in the post.
Nope… no smiles at all. Just lots of pain… blood, sweat, and tears. But still not like watching the Pats lose.
noooooooooo smiles at all…
sorry, i just had to…
I love to laugh a lot
Ever since I dont have any issues with 1&1 internet. I’ve been a customer of 1&1 for so many years. Their tech support are so friendly and knowledgeable…
I really recommend 1&1 internet………(^_^)
Cheers,
Good area! Total to favorite
I guess some web hosting providers are just not cut for the job. From the sounds of this, it seems as if they tried doing something they were not suppose to. Smaller less-organized web hosting companies tend to go too far out of their way for their customers, commonly resulting in complete failure for the rest of their clients… Sad day
I’m curios why you chose godaddy. I thought that they were mostly a domain registrar. How is their tech support?
I have found GoDaddy to be suulllllooooowww occasionally. I migrated all my domain registrations there after a run-in with 1and1. Found this page because now my 1and1 IMAP email is down. All calls to ALL of their numbers yields an “All Circuits are Busy” message. I started wondering if there was an earthquake out west or something then realized they are in Pennsylvania. Anyway, not had much problems with GD, just noticed very slow downloads of a site I have hosted there one day and played around with comparing that to other sites I was hitting to be sure it was not on my end.
After reading this post I cancelled 1&1 Internet Hosting and switched to Godaddy web host. Finally a good service. Thank you so much for your article!
I opened an account with 1&1.
They had a 30 day return policy, so I figured if it did not work out I could cancel and get a refund.
That was 6 months ago.
I canceled the service within the first 30 days, I never received a refund, and I have been billed for an additional 6 months on a service I am not using!
Here is a quote from the email I received from them this was after sending them a copy of the email I sent in June that stated I was canceling my service !
“Thank you for contacting us.
Although you have previously submitted a cancellation request. Our records indicate that your account is under a 12 month contract that does not expire until Jun 21, 2010. As such, your account will remain active until the agreed upon contract period and you would be responsible for all invoices generated until then.
If you have any further questions do not hesitate to contact us.
–
Sincerely
Billing Department
1&1 Internet Inc.”
Now I am on a search to find out what agency I can send a copy of all these correspondences, and file a complaint. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated
BTW I did open an account with GoDaddy. The hosting package did not work for me. I called them up explained the problem and received a refund in 24 hours. They were very polite and helpful, and quickly honored the cancellation period without any hassles
I’ve used 1and1 for years, and as long as the help I needed was over the phone it’s no problem. Issues arose when I needed some real support (including the “server issue” you mention above). I was in the process of moving moving my domains from 1and1 to a new host that supported ASP.net 3.5 when they came out with the deal that for a 1 year contract you could get Dreamweaver free. Great deal! So I took it and moved my domains over. It’s been a month now and STILL NO DREAMWEAVER!!! All I get is a canned we’re working on it response. They do truly suck. The funny thing is I’ve just taken over administering a Baptist association’s website that includes 161 members, and will be taking those sites to a new host, but certainly not this one!
I just can’t believe this is the support with 1&1 hosting. I heard many +ve reviews on 1&1 and thought a very good hosting company. Probably, it is an isolated case which should be escalated to higher level. I my self is a host with a small team of 3 members, but we never let our customers down even though we charge peanuts(compared to other hosting companies)!
I agree, I am a long time web developer and 1&1 has always been awful. GoDaddy is definitely the way to go!
The thing I never liked about 1and1 was how difficult it was to cancel services or transfer a domain contract for that matter.
I am not aware of 1&1 hosting but I am familiar with Go Daddy. It is because they usually park some familiar domains and turned the parked domains into cash. It must have been a hassle to have problems with the hosting site and I am glad that everything seems okay.
Hey there ive used both before and i find that recently 1&1 have uped there priformance i dont have anything bad t
I use Hostgator exclusively. Great uptime, excellent customer support – never had any issues at all.
Ian
Ug. There’s hardly anything more aggravating than unreliable hosting and crappy tech service. I’ve gone through several hosting services over the years. Godaddy is a good choice, but lately I’ve been using Hostgator. They’re good.
I have used 1&1 for some time and would agree that the way 1&1 do things does seem a bit backward but are ok for a reasonably priced place for hosting and domain registrations.
I think it’s generally agreed that the biggest problem with 1and1 is their support, which sucks according to most of the stuff I’ve read. I also had personal experience with them, during a brief period when I joined up and then canceled.
One of the things that bothered me was their arbitrary limit of 100MB for MySQL databases. With a growing forum, I didn’t want to tolerate the threat of having to prune older messages.
But I gather they have decent uptime and performance stats, so I suppose if folks can handle pathetic outsourced support (Dell didn’t do to well with that either), and you can do it all yourself. Well.
I don’t know about the double-billing, however.
I will no longer use smaller hosting companies. I also had a hideous hosting experience once with a small hosting company, who totally tried to hold me hostage, refusing to let me close my account. When I stood my ground they deleted all my files off all my sites without any notice (luckily I had everything backed up). Since then I have used bluehost and hostgator and had zero problems, with many domains hosted, in the last few years.
We have two dedicated servers from 1&1 and have no complaints.
I have been a regular user of 1 on 1 internet. And during my work span I never faced any problems yet and hope that would never face them
“they are currently resolving the issue so it won’t happen again” This is the most irritating and annoying bit of mantra which to me is unendurable. And if it is a recorded message then may God have mercy on this poor creature.
I am sorry to hear about your experience. It is just a pain when you have lost more than you can afford to lose and all these hosting companies do is apologize.
Anyways, thanks for sharing this. I would share your experience to my friends as well.
Hi, i think that i saw you visited my weblog so i came to “return the favor”.
I am trying to find things to improve my site!I suppose its ok to use a few of your ideas!
!
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