Dear Brian Gothard, (Cust: XXXXXXXX)

Thank you for contacting us.

This is David, billing department supervisor. We are going to credit your account $152.83 and zero out your balance. We will also require you to update your payment method to a valid credit or debit card using the process below. If you do not do this we will unfortunately have to cancel this account as we require a valid payment method on file. I truly do apologize that this occurred and hope we can regain your trust as a valued customer once again.

If you have any further questions do not hesitate to contact us.

–
Sincerely
David Rubel
Billing Department
1&1 Internet Inc.

NO customer service skills whatsoever! STILL making demands!

9:12 PM My Reply:

That is unacceptable.

Once again, you choose to antagonize me.

I have tried to be reasonable about your incessant failures to act in an ethical and professional manner, but you always choose to issue some form of threat, as though I were the one who caused all of these problems in the first place.

Just in case you haven’t noticed, I do not trust you.

As I have repeatedly stated, you have proven your inability to properly invoice, and the time it takes to correct errors is ridiculous. You cannot be trusted with access to my accounts on any automatic basis.

You say you require a valid payment method. I require a valid billing method, which you have yet to supply.

I have NEVER received a correct invoice from 1and1 on this contract. Not one.

Even now, today, there is not a single correct invoice in my contract. You have never once shown me that you are capable of issuing one. Now you expect me to trust you to bill me properly. Not a chance!

I am more than willing to pay any proper and correct invoice, but I do not trust you to automatically charge the correct amount.

I have absolutely no reason to believe that I will not be billed for domains I cancel following your stated procedures.

You have billed me for almost EVERY domain I cancelled, and then taken almost a month to figure it out and issue the credit.

I do not intend to let you fraudulently charge my credit card every month, then fight to get my money back.

If you want to regain my trust, issue an invoice for $53.94. When I verify that it is valid, I will pay it. You will never have to worry about me owing 1and1 another penny, I assure you.

I can also assure you that any attempt to cancel my account will be addressed by my attorney, and will result in escalated complaints to the Federal Trade Commission. I have plenty of documentation to prove your breach of trust.

If you cannot handle this, have your boss contact me, as I have requested time and again.

Most Sincerely,
Brian Gothard

Am I being unreasonable here? Should I just trust in their promises to fix the issue and correctly charge my account from now on?

RIIIIGHT!!!! KEEP READING!

I apologize, please be patient as we work on this issue, pelase be assured we are still working on this and will get back to you as soon as possible.

2:41 AM From 1and1 Billing:

Dear Brian Gothard,

We are writing to inform you of a matter requiring your attention. We regret to inform you that your current PayPal merchant agreement limit is not sufficient to cover your recent invoice at 1&1.

Please take a moment to log into your 1&1 account and update your PayPal account limit as soon as possible, so that we can continue to offer your 1&1 services without interruption.

Please follow these instructions to update your 1&1 account limit:

1. Log into your Control Panel at https://admin.1and1.com, using your Customer ID, or a domain name from one of your packages and your password.

2. On the ‘Account’ page, go to ‘User Settings’ > ‘Payment Method’ and then select ‘PayPal’.

3. Click on ‘Go to PayPal’ and update your ’1&1 PayPal Account Limit’ by marking the ‘PayPal Billing Agreement’ box.

For any other billing-related questions, please send an e-mail to billing@1and1.com. Or you can reach us Monday through Friday (except holidays) 9am to 5pm EST at 1-877-300-8316 when calling from within the US or Canada. International customers can reach us at 1-610-560-1621. Your normal long distance calling rates apply.

We will be glad to help you with any questions you may have.

Sincerely,

Your 1&1 Team
1&1 Internet Inc.

http://1and1.com

THEY TRIED AGAIN TO CHARGE ME $341.62!

I forwarded it to billing@1and1.com

12:23 PM:

Mr. Rubel,

This is exactly why I will not allow any automatic access to my PayPal or credit card accounts. Even though you claim the problem is being addressed, your system is still trying to charge me $341.62, when I owe you a grand total of $53.94.

Whatever you are doing, it is not working.

1:43 PM:

Dear Brian Gothard, (Cust: XXXXXX)

Thank you for contacting us.

In regards to the failed pay pal debit response you got today. The system automatically tried to charge the incorrect invoice and declined today. We will not attempt to charge that invoice again.

If you have any further questions do not hesitate to contact us.

–
Sincerely
David Rubel
Billing Department
1&1 Internet Inc.

Am I the only one who thinks that a COMPETENT person would have anticipated this and made some effort to stop it BEFORE the system automatically STOLE money from a customer?

He admitted yesterday that the invoice was completely wrong, but did not stop the charges?

And notice: NO attempt at an apology!

Keep reading… It gets better!

Well, yesterday I complained that 1and1 had created a brand new invoice that included all of the domains I have been trying to cancel for over three months now, and were also trying to charge me for domains that I have very clear documentation of cancellation on.

I issued a public challenge to anyone at 1and1 to prove me wrong.

I received this reply from joy in Transfers this morning:

Brian,

I went through some of your invoices and you are correct as some should be refunded. The billing manager currently has someone looking into this and you should receive a response shortly regarding this issue. I apologize that this has been such an inconvenience for you.

Joy

Knowing better than to get my hopes up, I awaited the followup.
This afternoon, Damion Son sent me this:

Dear Brian Gothard, (Customer ID: XXXXXXXXX)

Thank you for contacting us.

The latest invoice that was generated on the account was for the domain name renewal in the month of March.  The previous issue was regards to the invoice that was generated in the month of January due to the during the transfer process.

Unfortunately we will not be refunding the account for the domain names on the latest invoice on the account.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

–
Sincerely,
Damion Son
Customer Service
1&1 Internet

So, it is Mr. Son’s contention that this is a new issue.  How can it be a new issue when it involves the same domains?

Also, these domains are no longer in my account, so for what exactly am I being charged?

Several were already transferred to a competent registrar, prior to the dates 1and1 claims they renewed them.  How did they renew domains no longer under their control?

This is the most blatant attempt to perpetrate fraud I have ever encountered.

Here is my reply:

Once again, you are proving my point that 1and1 is completely incompetent, unethical, immoral and does not care about their customers.

16 of these are the same domains I have been trying to cancel since January.  They are the same domains I have been complaining about since January, and for which I have submitted over twenty cancellation requests by email and fax.  This is NOT a new issue.

The rest were cancelled prior to their expiration dates, and I have all of the documentation to prove it.  I have every email 1and1 sent me confirming the cancellations.  I was very careful to keep records correlating the cancellation IDs to the domains, because I knew 1and1 would try to pull some unethical garbage.

Four of these were actually transferred and renewed with GoDaddy prior to the dates you claim to have renewed them.  Again, I have full documentation.

And to top it all off, all but four of these (not the same four referenced above) are no longer in my account.

I am sick of being treated like I did something wrong.  I have done my utmost to follow your procedures, even submitting additional documentation that is NOT required by either ICANN or your posted Terms and Conditions, yet you still cannot get your act straight.

Your antagonistic and ignorant reply will be posted as the latest proof of 1and1′s attempt to defraud me at http://Ripped OffConsumers.com.

Anyone else interested in a class action lawsuit?  This antagonism and mistreatment is actually causing me health problems!

Here is his reply:

From: complaints@1and1.com
Sent: Monday, March 09, 2009 2:01 PM
To: Brian Gothard
Subject: C122680964

Dear Brian Gothard, (Customer ID: XXXXXXXXX)

Thank you for contacting us.

I have spoken with our billing department regarding this matter.  They have informed me that you would need to fax a list of domain name that you wish to cancel with your signature.  And we can set those domain names to cancel and refund the account regarding the domain names.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

–
Sincerely,
Damion Son
Customer Service
1&1 Internet

OK, this time they want it faxed.  This is completely outside their normal procedures and is listed nowhere in their terms and conditions, but I am willing to do what it takes.  So, I made a nice spreadsheet identical to their invoice, and identified each line item as “Keep” or “Cancel”.  I signed it and faxed it to both Damion Son and David Rubel.

One thing I have not mentioned:  the February invoice was wrong, too.  So, I did the exact same thing, and faxed them both together on March 10.  Then I emailed a PDF of the fax to Damion.

They issued a credit for the entire February invoice the same day.  They were not supposed to.  They credited domains that were not supposed to be cancelled as well as those that were.  They did not touch the January invoice which is causing all the problems, and the February invoice was not enough to cover the discrepancy.

I notified Damion Son of this fact by email and fax the same day.

On March 18, I once again sent Damion Son and David Rubel a request for the status of this issue by both email and fax.  No response.

I sent it again on March 23.  No response.

That gets us to the present.  I will post updates here as they occur.

If you waded through all of this, thank you.  It is a whole bunch of information, and i really don’t expect anyone to read all of it, but I hope the deluge makes enough of an impact that people are warned about just how bad 1and1 is.

Continuing proof that 1and1 is incompetent, dishonest, and cares nothing about their customers.

Just a quick recap.  A transfer of 270+ domains was requested on December 8.  1and1 was unable to complete the tranfer until January 15.  During this period, the domains were inaccessible in my account.  1and1 is attempting to charge me for 17 domains that expired between December 15 and January 3; domains I had no ability to cancel and did not want.  They have locked my account, denying me access to over 150 domains that are fully paid and not in question.

I have issued complaints with the Better Business Bureau and Federal Trade Commission.

1and1 has thus far ignored every request to fix this issue and they keep blaming me for their internal system failures.

That’s where this site comes in.  Since 1and1 continues to ignore my complaints, I decided to tell my story here in hopes that I can warn someone else before they subject themselves to 1and1′s atrocious customer service.

Here is what I sent to David Rubel, Billing Manager, and everyone else at 1and1:

From: 1and1 Complaints [1and1complaints@rippedoffconsumers.org]
Sent: Sunday, March 01, 2009 3:34 AM
To: ‘David.Rubel@1and1.com’
Cc: ‘billing@1and1.com’;
‘marketing@1and1.com’; ‘redemption@1and1.com’; ‘complaints@1and1.com’;
‘sales@1and1.com’; ‘support@1and1.com’
Subject: FW: CXXXXXXXXX Re: FW: ATTN: David Rubel FW: KXXXXXXXXX Reminder

Hi, David.

I’m sending this to every address I can find at 1and1 because I’m not sure you are getting my messages, and I really want to make sure you get this one.  At least you choose not to respond to them.

Maybe you’ve just been busy.  I guess with all of the BBB and FTC complaints you have to deal with it must get pretty hectic around there.  I saw in my research that you do get a huge number of those.  Sorry I had to initiate my own, but your customer service really stinks.

You still have not corrected my invoice so I can pay you, even though I have submitted proof on a dozen occasions that I had no ability to cancel the domains due to 1and1′s internal technical problems.

Just in case you have forgotten the details (although after a dozen reiterations I don’t see how), here are the pertinent details:

The contract transfer was requested on December 8, 2008.

On December 10, 2008, Employee Name Removed acknowledged the request and promised a 24 hour completion.  (I sent you the email.)

December 18, 2008, Employee Name Removed acknowledges that they are still having trouble transferring the contract.  (I sent you the email.)

December 22, 2008, Employee Name Removed acknowledges that they are still having trouble transferring the contract.  (I sent you the email.)

January 7, 2009, YOU, David Rubel, admitted the problem, and promised Mr. Seller it would be completed that day.

The domains were not placed into my account until January 15, 2009.  That was the first time since December 10 that anyone outside of 1and1 had any control whatsoever over the domains.  I could not cancel what I could not access.

Every one of the domains in question expired between December 20, 2008, and January 3, 2009.

I had no ability to cancel them.

My account is locked, so I can’t change my DNS entries, therefore I cannot redirect any of my 240+ domains to the websites I am building to generate revenue.  That includes all of the domains that have not expired.  You are denying me access to domains I own that have nothing to do with this invoice dispute.  You are now costing me money.

The good news is that in the same bulk domain purchase I picked up another great domain, and I have been working to get it online.  Luckily, it is registered with a competent registrar, so I have not been denied access to it for even one day, much less the six weeks you cost me trying to transfer the contract, and now two more weeks because you can’t remember to fix my invoice.  You can visit it at http://RippedOffConsumers.org.  I really think it’s going to be very popular once I get some good content posted.

Listen, I know you are very busy, but I think you should be able to spare a few minutes to correct my invoice so that I can pay it and we can move on.

I look forward to hearing back from you at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,
Brian Gothard

http://RippedOffConsumers.org

David Rubel never replied.  I didn’t hear a word for five days, when I received this:

From: complaints@1and1.com
Sent: Friday, March 06, 2009 10:33 AM
To: Brian Gothard
Subject: C122680964

Dear Brian Gothard, (Customer ID: XXXXXXXXX)

Thank you for contacting us.

I apologize for the delay of response.  We have further review the account with our billing department regarding this matter.

Please provide us a list of the domain names that you wish to have canceled and refunded.  I apologize for the frustration this may have caused you.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

–
Sincerely,
Damion Son
Customer Service
1&1 Internet

Hmmm, Damion Son is the name David Rubel claimed was the “upper management” person looking into the original transfer problem.  He is the one who was supposed to fix this originally.  Considering that I have sent that list over a dozen times already, his apologies are not helping much.

But, I sent them again.  With the whole story included.

Next post – Damion’s response

Where were we?  Oh yeah, my account is now locked because I refuse to pay a fraudulent invoice.  1and1 is trying to charge me for domains I had no ability to cancel because they were incapable of transferring the contract for over a month.

David Rubel, the Billing Manager, is pretending all of this is my fault and ignoring my messages, even after I have submitted proof on multiple occasions.

So, on February 16, I issued a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission regarding their dishonest business practices.  I sent the reference number to David Rubel, along with another outline of the entire situation.

Here is his reply:

From: billing@1and1.com
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 12:21 PM
To: Brian Gothard
Subject: CXXXXXXXXX – 1&1 Internet Inc. Billing Re: ATTN: David Rubel
FW: KXXXXXXXXX Reminder

Dear Brian Gothard, (Cust: XXXXXXXXX)
Thank you for contacting us.

Please provide me with an incorrectly charged domain, as my records now show the contact with the domains are on this account and they were correctly invoiced.

Unfortunately the rest of your email are features we just do not offer at this time, except for the cancellation of domains as at any time you can go to can go to cancel.1and1.com to cancel a domain.

If you have any further questions do not hesitate to contact us.

–
Sincerely
David Rubel
Billing Department
1&1 Internet Inc.

Can you believe this?  His records show the domains were correctly invoiced?  Again, I question whether he is that incompetent, or intentionally stonewalling me.  I cannot believe anyone is this stupid.  I have sent him emails every three or four days for several weeks with a complete explanation, and spoken with him on the phone!

So, I once again sent him the list he requested, and the entire history, with full documentation.

I sent it again on February 18.

And again on February 24.  This time I added every 1and1 email address I had been able to acquire.

On February 25, I received instructions from complaints@1and1.com on how to cancel domains.  It did not address any of the real problems, just blamed me once again for not knowing how to cancel domains.

That was the day I submitted my complaint to the Better Business Bureau.  1and1 has an “F” rating, the worst you can get.  They have hundreds of complaints, proving that 1and1 does not care about their customers.

I sent the reference number to everyone at 1and1. No one cared enough to respond.

On February 27, I sent another request that they fix my invoice so I could pay it.  Never received a response.

Not being one to just sit down and shut up, I still refuse to just pay the incorrect invoice.  1and1 created this situation, and I intend to make them fix it.

Next post: RippedOffConsumers.org is born!

I picked up the phone and called their Billing Department.  The person who answered could not help me, so they took a message.  At 12:18 PM on January 13, 2009, David Rubel called me.  I documented the conversation, and here is what I emailed to him afterwards:

Mr. Rubel,

I am documenting our conversation of January 13, 2009 from 1218 to 1225 CST.

Per our conversation, you stated that

1)  There is no one above you who takes calls.  I am unable to discuss this or receive assurances from anyone with more authority than you have.  You are the most authoritative person I have access to at 1and1.

2)  You see multiple cases open in “upper management” and that they are “working on it”.  One person who may be “working on it” is Damion Son.  You do not have access to any additional information regarding what “working on it” may entail.

3)  “Upper management” will not get back to me until they have a resolution, and I have no ability to contact them to get a status on this promised resolution.  You cannot give me any information regarding a possible time frame for this resolution.

4)  My account is not frozen, and will not be until 28 days after the invoice date.

5)  If “upper management” determines that I did not have access to the contract, they will issue a credit.

6)  You have issued another case on my behalf requesting that my issues be addressed.

If I have missed any salient points, please reply and I will include them in my files.

Thank you for your assistance, and I am truly sorry that you have to catch the brunt of my anger.  But, since you are the highest I can get to, I have no option than to hold you personally responsible for the resolution of this issue.

I appreciate your assurances that the matter is being addressed, but I have been receiving those same assurances since early December, and Mr. Seller was having problems with your system for a month before that.  I have no confidence in those assertions anymore.

I am losing money every day that I do not have access to these domains and I think more than 5 weeks is plenty of time to fix whatever problems you have.
I can honestly say that 1and1 is the worst registrar I have ever dealt with.

Sincerely
Brian Gothard

Does this sound like 1and1 cares about their client?  Not to me.  It sounds like they consider me nothing more than an annoyance that they do not want to deal with.

My next contact was on January 15.  After the conversation I just documented, this reply from David Rubel made me question his competence.

From: billing@1and1.com [mailto:billing@1and1.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 9:07 AM
To: Brian Gothard
Subject: CXXXXXXXXX – 1&1 Internet Inc. Billing

Dear Brian Gothard, (Cust: XXXXXXXX)

Thank you for contacting us.

I have researched and looked into this case, and both contracts with the domains you were recently charged for are available to you under this account number, account number XXXXXXXX. The reason why you were charged for the domains is because all the domains moved to this account renewed between mid December to early January, so this is the time they are normally charged. Please check this account and make sure you see two contracts.

If you have any further questions do not hesitate to contact us.

–
Sincerely
David Rubel
Billing Department
1&1 Internet Inc.

He acts as though I had not just two days before submitted full documentation of 1and1′s failures and my inability to access the domains, then spoken at length to him explaining the whole situation.  He once again spouts standard garbage about when things are normally charged, completely ignoring the underlying fact that the charges are invalid because of 1and1′s internal technical problems.

Yes, the domains were now in my account!  Now we were getting somewhere.  At least I could verify the list and make sure what I bought was what was delivered.

So, I replied with another complete explanation of the problem, complete with dated screen shots showing that the domains were not in my account on January 14, and the two lists detailing which domains I wanted and which I did not.

He never replied.  I am dealing with the Billing Manager here.  He claims to be the top guy; the most authoritative person with whom I as a lowly customer can correspond.  Does that seem like good customer service to you?

On January 28, I received another “reminder” that my invoice was unpaid. It stated:

We recently contacted you regarding a declined payment and have not yet heard back from you.

Well, they had heard back from me on several occasions, and had chosen to ignore me.  I forwarded it to everyone at 1and1, again with complete documentation of the situation.

On February 13, my account was locked due to the unpaid invoice.  This renders my entire portfolio inaccessible, denying me access to the DNS settings for all 250+ domains, even those that are fully paid without any question.  I sent a complaint to David Rubel.

He never responded.

More in the next post.

Well, I received an invoice on January 8 for all of the domains that had expired during the time 1and1 was unable to provide me access to the domains.  In other words, I had no way of canceling the ones I did not want.  I had the list from Seller of what he said was in the contract, but I had not yet been able to verify anything because 1and1 still had the domains lost in their system somewhere, unable to complete the transfer.

So, the domains showed up in my account January 8, right?  WRONG!  When I received the invoice, I was understandably upset.  I sent the following message:

From: Brian Gothard
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 10:39 PM
To: ’1&1 Internet Inc.’; ‘support@1and1.com’; ‘transfer@1and1.com’; ‘redemption@1and1.com’
Subject: RE: Your invoice #XXXXXXXXX of 01/08/2009
Importance: High

Two things:

1)  I do not intend to renew some of these domains, so DO NOT automatically charge my account.  I have not authorized any automatic charges with regards to these domains, and do not intend to.  This is your official notice.

I will renew the domains I want to keep on an individual basis, manually.
You ARE NOT authorized to charge me for these domains.

2)  You have sent an invoice, but the domains are not accessible under my Control Panel, so I still have no control over them.  I find it interesting that the invoice is dated yesterday, but the domains are still not under my account.

It has taken over a month to complete the transfer, and I still cannot access the domains.  I am absolutely unimpressed with 1and1.

I will repeat that you are not authorized to automatically charge me for ANYTHING.  I intend to transfer the domains I want away from 1and1 as quickly as possible based on your atrocious customer service, and others I will allow to expire.

Of course, you will have to GIVE ME ACCESS TO THE DOMAINS before I can do ANYTHING!

Not very diplomatic, I agree, but I think it makes a point, and obviously points out that I have no ability to access the domains.

To further prove their incompetence, here is the reply I received:

From: billing@1and1.com [mailto:billing@1and1.com]
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2009 8:30 AM
To: Brian Gothard
Subject: CXXXXXXXXX – 1&1 Internet Inc. Billing RE: Your invoice #XXXXXXXXX of 01/08/2009

Dear Brian Gothard, (Cust:XXXXXXXX)

Thank you for contacting us.

All domains automatically renew per the terms and conditions you agreed to.

If you wish to cancel your domains please visit https://cancel.1and1.com and use your Customer ID and password to login.

At the end of the process you will need to activate your request. In order to do so, you will receive an e-mail message with a special link which you will need to click to complete the process.

If you do not receive the e-mail with the confirmation link e-mail within a few hours of completing the cancellation, please notify us ASAP.

Please note that if you do not receive this e-mail and click on the link within (7) seven days of the request, your cancellation request will not complete and your services will remain active.

Any refund will be based on our refund policy per the terms and conditions of your account and will be processed within 14 days of your cancellation requests effective date.

If you have any further questions do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely
David Rubel
Billing Department
1&1 Internet Inc.

Notice this is from David Rubel, Billing Manager.  Does it appear he even attempted to read the email?  Not to me.  He blames me for not canceling the domains according to their terms and conditions, and gives me directions for using a system that still does not have my domains in it!  Is this incompetence, apathy, or purposeful dishonesty?

On January 10, in an attempt to proactively fix this problem, I sent a message to all of the 1and1 email addresses that I had a complete explanation of the situation and two lists:  one list of the domains I wanted to keep from their invoice, and one list of the domains I did not want.  There were 21 domains on the invoice.  I wanted to keep four and drop the rest.  I also pointed out that I STILL did not have any access to the domains in my account.

I received no reply at all, so on the afternoon of January 12, I sent it all again, with an additional request for information.  I also canceled the PayPal agreement that would allow them to automatically charge me for the invoice.

The next message I received from 1and1 was January 13.  It was a notification that their attempt to debit my PayPal account had failed.  Of course it did.  They were trying to charge me for a fraudulent invoice that they had not yet fixed.

I forwarded that message back to all the 1and1 addresses with another explanation of the situation and request for correction.  I also pointed out that I STILL did not have access to the domains in my account.

Next post, I actually tried to call.  Read on.

In November of 2008, I purchased a bulk lot of 270+ domain names from a 1and1 client.  I am going to call him Seller to protect the innocent.  I had never done business with 1and1 before, so I had no idea of the nightmare I was about to get involved in.  If I knew then what I know now, I would have run as far and as fast as I could away from 1and1.  Any benefit I get from that purchase will forever be tainted by their ineptitude.

On December 8, 2008, Seller faxed the appropriate Transfer Request Form, supplied by 1and1, to their Transfers Department.

On December 10, Seller received an email acknowledging the request, along with a promise that the transfer would be completed within 24 hours.  It was not.

Seller contacted them again when there was no transfer or further communication from 1and1, and on December 18, he received this message:

From: <transfer@1and1.com>
To: Seller
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2008 1:29 PM
Subject: Re: CXXXXXXXXX Contract Move

Dear Seller, (Customer ID: XXXXXXXX)

Thank you for contacting us.

We currently experiencing an issue with the contract moves. Our
administrators are working on resolving this issue as quickly as
possible. We will send you an email with updates shortly.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

–
Sincerely,
Employee Name Removed
Transfers Department
1&1 Internet

Seller contacted them again on Monday, and received this reply:

From: <transfer@1and1.com>
To: Seller
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2008 8:36 AM
Subject: CXXXXXXXXX

Dear Seller, (Customer ID: XXXXXXXX)

Thank you for contacting us.

I apologize for the delay in moving your contract over, but we had an
issue with our ability to perform certain tasks within our system.

We will be performing the move today, but before we do that, I would
have to ask that you back up all of your webspace data and any e-mails.

Once you have done this, please let me know and we will begin the move.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

–
Sincerely,
Employee Name Removed
Transfers Department
1&1 Internet

Seller told them to go ahead and do what he had asked on multiple occasions for them to do.

On December 30, I sent the following message

From: “Brian Gothard”
To: <president@1and1.com>
Cc: <transfer@1and1.com>; <support@1and1.com>; <complaints@1and1.com>; Seller
Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 8:22 PM
Subject: FW: CXXXXXXXXX

Dear Sir or Madame,

As a technology consultant, I regularly recommend web services to my clients.  I am expanding my services to include more web related products and have been researching and evaluating providers for several months.

1and1 has failed miserably.

The inability of your company to complete the transfer referenced in the thread below in a reasonable amount of time has left me with a very bad impression of your service.

I fully understand how much impact software systems problems can have on a normal business.  That is my job: to address and correct issues with technology.  I can commiserate with your situation.  But this process was started on December 9, according to Employee Name Removed.

Even accounting for the holidays that is 12 normal business days.  That seems an unreasonable amount of time to me to perform something that ties directly to your core business process.  This is a simple transfer from one customer number to another.
No matter how extensive or convoluted your processes are, this cannot possibly require that much time to complete.
Keep in mind that Mr. Seller has been having extensive problems managing the domains for several weeks prior to this.  It seems your entire system is insufficient for your business.

My customer number is XXXXXXXX.  Please address this situation with your employees and let me know when I can expect some results.

Respectfully,
Brian Gothard
Technology Consultant

http://BrianGothard.com

The president account bounced, of course.  I didn’t really expect it to land, but I had to try.  More importantly; I never received a response from anyone at 1and1.  Not even an acknowledgment.

After several more days with no further information from 1and1, Seller called them.  Here is what he sent me:

From: Seller
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 2:44 PM
To: Brian Gothard
Subject: FYI: Re: CXXXXXXXXX – Follow Up..

Brian,

I just spoke with Dave at 1and1. He is a manager at 1and1. He confirmed to me that they have moved some of the domains to your account. The move will finish tomorrow.

Regards,

Seller

That is David Rubel.  Remember that name; he is the Billing Manager and he comes up quite often.  Notice he confirms that some of the domains have already been moved. That is an outright lie, as proven by the email Seller received the following day:

From: <redemption@1and1.com>
To: “Seller” Seller
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 12:47 PM
Subject: CXXXXXXXXX contract move

Dear Seller, (Customer ID: XXXXXXXX)

Thank you for contacting us.

We are currently having issues with our contracts not moving correctly.
We are working on resolving the issue as quickly as possible. What we can do for you is transfer the domains into another contract but this requires you to back up all of your information. If this is something that you would be interested in, email us back and we can start that process for you. We will be sending you an update via email once we have this issue resolved.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
–
Sincerely,
Employee Name Removed
Transfers Department
1&1 Internet

Seller replied immediately that they should just perform the transfer as requested.

So, as of January 8, we have several 1and1 employees admitting that they cannot accomplish the transfer, and that the domains are still not accessible by either Seller or myself.  That is a full month during which 1and1 was unable to provide any administrative interface to their customer.  No way to manage or control any of these 270+ domains.

The domains were not actually transferred until January 15, but I will continue the details in my next post.