And yet, they are trying to bill me! For what, I wonder, since there is no indication anywhere in my account of actual current charges!

April 30, 2009 3:03 AM:

Dear Brian Gothard,

We recently contacted you regarding a declined payment or an expired credit/debit card and have not yet heard back from you. Our records indicate that there is an unpaid balance in your 1&1 customer account: KXXXXXXXX

A recent payment may not have gone through due to a simple error, such as an expired credit card or incorrect settings in your PayPal account.

Please update or correct your billing information in your 1&1 Control Panel within the next 7 days to avoid any downtime of your package.

In order to do this, please go to https://admin.1and1.com

1. Log in to the Control Panel with your customer ID or a domain name from one of your packages and your password.

2. On the ‘Account’ page, click on ‘User Settings’ > ‘Payment Method’ and select the payment method that you are currently using.

If you are using a credit card, select ‘Credit Card’ and proceed as follows:

Check that your payment details are correct. If they are correct as is or if you re-enter the same credit card details, please send a reply to this e-mail confirming that you have checked the current information and no update on your part is required. We will then charge the outstanding balance to your credit/debit card.

If your payment details are incorrect or outdated, please update your information and click on ‘Save’. There is no need to contact 1&1 as a new debit will be attempted automatically.

If you are using a PayPal account, please select PayPal and then click ‘Go to PayPal’.

Log into your PayPal account and verify your data under ‘My Account Profile’.

Please make sure to update your information in the next 7 days to avoid downtime. If we do not receive full payment in 7 days, we will freeze your 1&1 package(s) in accordance with our terms and conditions. If your package(s) are frozen it may take up to 1 business day to reactivate them once the matter is resolved.

Please be aware that if this matter is not resolved, you may be sent to a debt collection agency. If the account is sent to a debt collection agency an $18.95 charge will be added to the unpaid balance.

For further details, please find attached a payment reminder note in PDF. It can be opened and printed with the help of the Acrobat Reader. Click here to download Acrobat Reader:

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html

If you have any questions, you can e-mail us at 1&1 Internet Inc. 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 assist you in clarifying any questions you may have.

Sincerely,

Your 1&1 Team
1&1 Internet Inc.
www.1and1.com

And I forwarded it to my list of a dozen or so email addresses at 1and1 with the following reply:

And this is my reminder that once again you have not followed through on your promises.

There is still not a VALID, CORRECT invoice in my account available for payment.

There is no indication in my account that any additional credits have been issued.

There is still a Late Fee showing in my account.

There has, in fact, been absolutely no change in the two weeks since I was promised a resolution, proving that you never intended to do anything more than convince me to give you a credit card so you could STEAL money from me.

1and1 is once again proving my point that you cannot be trusted with any automatic access to my payment accounts.

This message states that you “have not yet heard back from” me. Well, you have heard from me repeatedly and loudly. You just choose to ignore me.

You are still proving either your incompetence or your larceny.

And since you still cannot get your act together and supply me with a valid invoice, I expect any day for my account to lock up again, once again denying me access to that which I legally own.

ANY limits placed on my access to my completely paid domains will be fully documented to support my case against 1and1 for breach of duty, breach of trust and breach of contract.

I suggest you familiarize yourself with:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-breach-of-trust.htm

http://www.yourdictionary.com/law/breach-of-contract

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Breach+of+contract

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breach_of_duty_in_English_law

That is the short list. I am sure there are plenty of angles. You have done such an atrocious job of handling this problem that the hard part will be deciding which direction to come in from.

I am sick of useless promises and lies.

Is there a single competent person in your Billing Department?

Brian Gothard

Stay tuned for further developments!

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!

The response below is typical of your “customer service”. Blame the customer and play stupid. I will try to make this as simple as possible.

This is a copy of the domains on the invoice you claim you will not be issuing a refund for.

Please address each individual line item with the exact reason the referenced Cancellation ID was not completed as your system confirmed it would be. I will be happy to provide each individual confirmation email sent by your system if you cannot find them. I kept copies.

Also explain why, if the cancellations were not completed as your system confirmed, the domains are no longer in my account, and are currently in “Redemption Period” status? I unlocked them, but all transfer requests are being denied.

Does ICANN need to look into that?

Also please explain how you were able to renew domains that were transferred to a competent registrar prior to the dates you claim to have renewed them. The transfers of 4gclick.com, broadcastyoursite.com, businesspressroom.com, and obamalies.org to GoDaddy all completed on March 15. How exactly were you able to renew the domains AFTER they were transferred?

Please also note that that is 7 days from the date the transfers were requested, when ICANN requires you to accept it within 5 days. I will be issuing individual complaints on those.

As for the domains with no Cancellation ID listed, please explain why over twenty requests by email and fax beginning on January 10 have not been sufficient to result in the cancellation of those domains. I received responses from Damion Son, David Rubel, and Brett Neally confirming that the signed faxes were received, and I have dozens of emails proving the same.

Those domains were fraudulently charged to my account in January for expirations in December, during a period of time when 1and1 denied me any means of canceling those domains, again in contravention of ICANN policy. I had absolutely no access to nor control of my domains for 7 ½ weeks. If I keep getting the runaround I will issue individual complaints to ICANN about each of those, also. That would be 277 complaints, but I am almost willing to do it already after the way I have been treated.

Do you truly want to continue providing more proof of your incompetence? Do you want me to continue to issue complaints to the Federal Trade Commission, Better Business Bureau, and ICANN?

Do you want me to join the growing number of people calling for a class action lawsuit regarding your unethical business practices?

Or would someone with at least a little bit of common sense like to take over and get to the bottom of this? I have done nothing wrong. I have made every attempt to explain your errors and get them fixed, and you keep blaming me for your incompetence.

Here it is as simply as I can present it:

(Spreadsheet moved to external page.  Click to view Summary of Fraudulent 1and1 Charges.)

I do not want to hear from Damion Son, David Rubel or Brett Neally. I want to hear from their boss, whoever that may be. Or are you afraid you will get fired for creating this mess in the first place?

I Hate 1and1

Brian Gothard

http://RippedOffConsumers.org

—–Original Message—–
From: complaints@1and1.com [mailto:complaints@1and1.com]
Sent: Thursday, April 09, 2009 1:56 PM
To: Brian Gothard
Subject: C127942769 Re: Public Challenge Issued – Prove Me Wrong

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

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

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.

1and1 provides web hosting and domain name services.  I have no experience with their web hosting, but a Google search for “1and1 reviews” turns up hundreds of very bad reviews.  The good ones are obviously boilerplate garbage supplied by the company itself for affiliates to use.  They are absolutely incapable of basic domain name services, as this series of posts will prove without a doubt, and their billing department is obviously designed to steal money from their clients.  Either that or they are so incompetent as to give that impression.

I have been trying for over three months to get my account straight with them, and they continue to stonewall me.  When I receive a response, they act like it is a brand new problem, even though I have submitted dozens of pages of documentation on over twenty occasions proving that the errors are theirs.  But most of the time they just ignore my requests for answers.  Their customer service is unresponsive most times, and antagonistic at others.

Even after all of the clearly documented evidence of their failures, they continue to keep me locked out of my account and refuse to provide access to services which are fully paid.

I continue to email and fax their Billing Department and “upper management” at least twice weekly, and they continue to act in an unprofessional and unethical manner.

As a lowly customer, we are not allowed to actually communicate with anyone in “upper management” so I am posting the full details of my complaint here in hopes that anyone at 1and1 with any modicum of care for the customer will find it and realize how incompetent and dishonest their employees are.

Please read the following series of posts before considering using 1and1.  I have made some strong accusations and claims here, and I intend to back every one of them up with facts and documentation.

Personally, I intend to avoid them like the plague after I get the existing mess straightened out.