Domain Hosting alternatives to 1and1

Dear All,

Firstly I am not sure if I have selected the correct forum - so apologies if this is the wrong place it did not seem to sit with the web hosting forum which appears more technical.

An outline of what has happened and where I want to get to:-

I have various domains and e mail accounts hosted via 1and1. These are very small affairs but are nonetheless quite important to me.

I have been with 1and1 for several years and have in this time been more than pleased with their pricing and their package. However getting support and dealing with their administration has been nothing short of a nightmare.

Two recent events have cost me literally hundreds of hours of time involving phone calls and endless circular e mails.

The first event occurred when I responded to an e-mail that 1and1 sent inviting me to cancel an unwanted domain that was coming up for renewal. After following the links and making various calls to their support centre I was assured that the process had been completed and the domain cancelled.

Some weeks later whilst checking my statements I found that 1and1 had charged me a lump sum for a further 2 years worth of hosting for the domain that had been cancelled.

This prompted a bizarre set f phones calls and e mails in which 1and1 repeatedly claimed that I had requested the billing to be extended for a further 2 years. Which obviously I had not.

I have repeatedly pointed out that it was their systems that decided to generate this fictitious date and that I had at no time selected or input this renewal date. Further when I suggested that under their billing procedures it should not be possible to bill a client once a domain cancellation process had been entered into - 1and1 consistently indicated that they felt that it was perfectly normal for a client cancelling a domain to wish to be charged 2 further years of charges for an unwanted and unusable domain.

Ultimately I got my refund. But it cost me dear in time and stress with large clumps of hair frequently being pulled out.

The second problem arose when 1and1 erroneously attached my personal details to an account belonging to someone else. That person went into liquidation and 1and1 sent my details to a third party debt collection agency who subsequently contacted me.

Personally I take this somewhat seriously and am exceptionally upset and distressed by this latest event.

I have been in the most bizarre, mad as a hatter, stressful e mail and phone correspondence regarding this. To date we have exchanged 70 e mails which have gone round the same circuit several times. Obviously this has cost me an enormous amount of time and a massive amount of stress.

Obviously I have escalated these issues to the Information Commissioner and OFT and copied Nominet and Ofcom. I hope that between them they will be able to get 1and1 to at least understand that it is not ok to send my details to a third party debt collection agency in respect of a debt which has nothing to do with me and secondly to disclose to me what information has been sent and send confirmation that the erroneous records have been removed.

So now I am in a terrible situation. Obviously I would prefer to cease all dealing with 1and1. But as I have zero confidence in their systems I am afraid to start the transfer process in case they mess that up as well and I end getting double charged and or my details sent to another third party.

Therefore I would like to know:

1. Is there a statutory procedure for transferring domains that ensures that someone is policing 1and1 as the transfer occurs and that they do it correctly and do not double charge me.

2. Who is reliable and honest with a very high level of integrity within the hosting market? Obviously I can see the main players on various ranking sites. The trouble is that these do not really give any insight in to what they are like to deal with. After all most of the sites are ranking 1and1 highly and yet I would not wish them on my worst enemy. Is HostPapa any good?

3. Has anyone else been through this nightmare. If so how did it end and has there been long term damage to credit rates etc resulting from your experience.

4. 1and1 have no executive office and no route to speak with or e mail the CEO. Does anyone have any clue how to break through the layers of stupidity so that one can actually communicate with a sane rational person at 1and1. If so please let me know.
Note - Recorded delivery does not work nor does [email protected] nor does [email protected] nor does [email protected].

Thank you.

Very poor of 1&1.

Are the domains registered and hosted with 1&1 or simply hosted there? If they are registered and hosted the first step I'd take is to get the registration transferred to another registrar but keep them pointed at 1&1 for hosting services. Once that is complete I'd start looking around for a new host.

Plenty of good hosts for light use domains. If they are busy that's another matter.

Hi John,

Yes they are registered and hosted with 1and1. I had assumed that when transferring the domains that the new hosting service would also have to be the new registrar. Clearly I am wrong in this thinking.

What is the idea behind doing it in two parts. Is it to make sure 1and1 don't mess up the domains during the process.

Looking forward is there any advantage in keeping the registrar and the hosting service separate?

I am a light user.

Thank you for your reply.

To be honest I've never thought about the advantages of keeping them separate. I always think if you share hosts/registrar they can make life difficult if you move hosts. I suppose it's like saying never depend on your ISP issued e-mail address. If you want to change ISP you have to notify lots of people of the new address and fear some e-mails get lost.

The reason for doing it in stages is as you say. Make sure each step is properly completed before you attempt the next.

I'm a bit surprised no one has spoken for or against 1&1. I have no idea if they are a good company or not. Your problems may be highly unusual and unfortunate. In other words you may be "cutting off your nose to spite your face".

Be that as it may I would still move the domain name registrations elsewhere. It is the first step to make if you want to disentangle yourself from 1&1 and I think makes sense even if you want to stay hosted with them.

Have a read of this current thread.

As I say in there, I also have the emails telling me the best way to go about a transfer to Tsohost. I moved 7 domains with their emails, plus a few simple websites, with no hassle whatsoever.

This was helped by the fact that the Purple Cloud "My Account" page has the facility to request the domain transfer authorisation, (similar to an ISP migration MAC), and to alter the email server addresses to the new ones, thus ensuring no possible loss during the transfer. I don't know if 1 & 1 has the same or not.

Note that even if you transfer domain registration and hosting, plus email going to the new target, your existing hosting package should stay at 1 & 1 until it expires. (OK, expiry is one of the problems you have there, but that's a different matter to how you transfer).

I have had domains with 1&1 for quite a few years and hosting for 18 months or so. Never had any problems, but have never had to contact their support. Two of my domains are registered elsewhere and point to 1&1, the other two are registered direct with 1&1. Also use their email. Remember with their hosting packages they include one free .co.uk, .org.uk, so if you move you might lose that cost saving.

I keep seeing horror stories about 1&1, and some are clearly unlucky, but by and large they are as good as anybody and reasonably priced.

I have had quite a lot of experience with 123-reg for domain hosting, and I have never had a problem. On the occasions I have dealt with support (always via their ticket system) they have resolved my queries satisfactorily.

You should be able to switch registrar using the two companies respective control panels. You can do it directly with Nominet if you prefer, but it costs £10 + vat but it is meant more as a "last resort" method (e.g. registrar ceases trading).

Hi Oliver,

Many thanks for your reply. That is very useful to know. I assume using the Nominet service means that you are in control. That to me sounds like it would be well worth paying a £10 fee.

I will most certainly look into to this further.

I think I am already at last resort I wouldn't trust 1and1 with anything, if they can mess it up they will mess it up. My personal opinion is that they deliberately mess everything up. That way you ave to call their support line and they profit from you doing so.

I may be cynical biter and twisted but for the life of me I can't see any other logical reason for their totally irrational actions.

I similar problems when I took over a small church web site. I moved to Hostway (by luck) I can say that they were when I first transfered and still are extremly helpful.

Hi Roberto

Many thanks for your reply.

It is interesting that you are suggesting that the hosting package remains with 1and1 until expiry. Are you saying this from prior experience. Obviously I want to make 100% certain that 1and1 do not charge me twice again. I would rather not leave it til the last minute to find out that they have.

Furthermore I would prefer that not to have any further dealings with 1and1. Quite frankly the stress that they are causing me is too much for me to handle it is making me ill. So I would prefer to cut all relations with them as soon as possible.

Regards