My Story

So here's what happened/is happening to me.

In March 2011 I received a letter informing me that unless I cancelled my 1&1 contract it would automatically renew and I would be billed for this service. As I no longer used these domains I rang 1&1 Hosting (as they requested) and asked that they cancel my account. They asked me a security question (my first and last name, very secure) and informed me that they would cancel my account and that there would be no further charges issued.

In April I then received an invoice followed by several chasing letters asking me to update my payment details otherwise they would pass my details onto a debt collection agency.

I knew there must be some mistake and called them assuming I would receive an apology and assurance that the invoice was sent out in error.

I clearly didn't know what company I had signed up with, for the worst was yet to come.

Instead I spoke to numerous people in the billing department who insisted that they had no record of my call and put me through to cancellations who also had no record of my call. They said they would be happy to cancel my  account but that they couldn't credit the invoice. Back to billing then who said that their hands were tied and only complaints could help me.

1&1 Hosting's complaints department are the most unhelpful team I have ever dealt with.

You cannot speak to them on the phone, you have to send them an email to which you may receive a reply within a week and even you should expect it to be repetitious and unhelpful. It doesn't seem as if they read your emails, just send out a basic autonomous reply.

I explained to them the situation quite clearly and about 5 emails later they ask if I have any evidence of the phone call I placed to cancel the services. I was in luck! I had a phone bill clearly showing about 6mins of conversation (or being kept on hold) on the date in March that I said. For this I received no comment except "we cannot accept that as evidence".

So what were they expecting? Most non-commercial, web users don't record every call they make just in case someone later tries to rip them off. Or perhaps we should? But in any case, what does class as evidence to 1&1?

Having still not received an explanation of what this evidence should be, nor any contact details of a manager, or a good reason for why my call was not properly documented or actioned at their end, their complaints department inform me that they will not be responding to future emails as they consider the matter closed.

This is a very poor company when it comes to complaints and customer service.

The story continues...