Tag Archives: Fraud

1and1 Incompetence, Part 10

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The saga of 1nd1′s incompetence continues unabated.

I was actually excited yesterday to find that my account had been unlocked, allowing me access for the first time in several weeks to my DNS settings.

I should be more careful about those optimistic tendencies when it comes to 1and1.

Today I received my latest  invoice.  Not only are they charging me for domains that I canceled and I have all of the confirmations proving it, but they added all of the domains I have been complaining about for four months now.

That means there are TWO invoices in my account for the exact same identical fraudulent charges.  Not only have they not fixed the one I have submitted complaints about over twenty times, but they have now created a brand new fraudulent invoice with the same domains!

Just how many times does a customer have to complain and submit iron clad proof of their mistakes to get someone at 1and1 to actually fix a problem?

I cannot answer that question.  I have sent them lists, signed faxes, corrected invoices, complaints and I am posting it here for the world to see, and they still cannot get their act together.

Just how much incompetence can one company exhibit?

If I were anyone in management at 1and1, I would be absolutely embarassed that a situation this cut and dried could go on this long, and generate this much negative publicity.

1and1 is incompetent.

1and1 is dishonest.

1and1 is the worst company I have ever dealt with.

I challenge anyone at 1and1 to answer my claims that they are completely incompetent.

I have to go now and generate ANOTHER correction request for this latest invoice, but when i get that done, I am going to post about even more problems with their cancellation system.  They will deny transfers to another registrar even on domains that you cancel!  Then they still bill you for them!

1and1 Incompetence, Part 9

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Well, I let a week go by after Brett Neally promised to fix my account.  I should not be surprised that absolutely nothing has changed.

My account is still locked.

There is still a late fee showing in my account for a fraudulent invoice.

That invoice still has not been corrected to reflect the changes that I have submitted beginning on January 10 to dozens of 1and1 employees by fax and email.

One more instance of deception, incompetence, and atrocious customer service from 1and1.

1and1 Incompetence, Part 8

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My continuing battle with 1and1′s fraudulent activities…

After creating all of those posts yesterday, I sent a notice to all of those 1and1 email addresses inviting them to visit this blog and read all about it.  It appears that struck a nerve with at least one 1and1 employee.  Here is what I received today:

Dear Brian Gothard, (Cust: XXXXXXXX)

Thank you for contacting us.

The balance that was released to collections was for the January invoice and not for the invoice that was refunded.

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

–
Sincerely
Brett Neally
Billing Department
1&1 Internet Inc.

Of course, since he was responding to an email I sent that said exactly that, I replied:

Yeah, that’s what I SAID!

The January invoice IS FRAUD!

FIX IT!

His response:

Dear Brian Gothard, (Cust: XXXXXXXX)

Thank you for contacting us.

I’ve looked extensively through your case history and this is what we are willing to do. You previously sent an email with a PDF attachment for domains you wanted to cancel. Please reply back to this email with that list as plain text. We will then forward a case to have those domains removed from your account. We will then pull the balance from NCO financial and wipe it from our systems. I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused and we will work to try to resolve this issue.

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

–
Sincerely
Brett Neally
Billing Department
1&1 Internet Inc.

And my retort:

This is the 17th time I have submitted this exact same list.  By fax, by email, as an attachment, with and without signatures, to David Rubel, Damien Son, John Keefer, Complaints, Support, Billing, the BBB, the FTC, and whoever else I could find.  It is even posted several times at http://RippedOffConsumers.org.

But I will jump through yet another hoop.

And by the way, the way you phrased your response offends me.  I should hope you would be willing to correct your own errors.  I did not create this problem, 1and1 did, by screwing up the transfer for over a month in the first place and not granting me the ability to cancel these domains until almost a month later, then refusing to fix it in a reasonable time frame.  As you see below, I have been trying to get this fixed since January 10.  Your fellow employees have lied to me and given me the runaround for 2 1/2 months.  So thank you for being willing to do what should have been done in January.  I hope you mean it.

Then I pasted the January 10 email that I sent trying to fix this that included exactly the text list he is now requesting.  Remember, I have sent that same list over twenty times, in half a dozen formats.  Damion Son even made me print, sign, and fax it several weeks ago.  But now they need ANOTHER copy of it, even after he “looked extensively through your case history”.

I am not slamming Mr. Neally, yet.  He seems to genuinely want to make me go away.  I don’t get the impression he is actually sorry it happened, or even surprised, just that he wants me to shut up and go away.

And finally, at 2:18 PM CST today, I received this:

Dear Brian Gothard, (Cust: XXXXXXXX)

Thank you for contacting us.

Thank you for replying with this information. A case has been escalated to remove the account and balance from NCO financial. Please allow a few business days for this balance to be removed. I apologize it has take so long to resolve this issue.

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

–
Sincerely
Brett Neally
Billing Department
1&1 Internet Inc.

Now, that appears promising.  It is ironic that as I was reading this email message my phone rang.  Caller ID said NCO Financial.  I let the machine get it.

Mr. Neally has made promises that I only half expect to happen, just based on history.  I will have to wait and see.

But, as of right now:

1) My account is still locked, denying me access to the 235 domains I still have registered there that were never in question. (I now make sure to move them to a competent registrar before they expire.)

His message does not address when my account will once again be made available to me.

2) The January invoice has still not been credited, revised, or removed.  It still shows as “Payment declined”.

When I faxed the signed invoice corrections at Damion Son’s request the credit was issued within hours.  I will let you know.

3) There is still a Late Fee of $18.95 showing on my account.

Although every email message I get has some form of apology in it, I do not feel apologized to, if you know what I mean.  I feel more like they are apologizing for getting caught than out of any real concern for the hours I have spent trying to get them to correct their own errors.  Please excuse my language, but I do not feel like anyone at 1and1 gives a damn about me or the problems they have caused.

I understand that companies make mistakes.  It cannot be helped.  But when they first of all refuse to acknowledge the error, then try to blame it on the customer, then continue to antagonize that customer at every turn, that company does not deserve to be in business.

1and1 is just not reliable, ethical, or competent.

1and1 Incompetence, Part 7

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I received a message today that my account had been turned over to a collection agency.

I have still not received a reply to my repeated emails and faxes asking why they did not follow up as Damion Son promised when I faxed the signed documentation over two weeks ago.

Once again, 1and1 is proving that they care absolutely nothing about their customers, and do not have the ability to provide even marginally competent service.

Please, please spread this around.

Do not let those you care about get robbed and violated by 1and1.

Stand up now and fight back!

1and1 Incompetence, Part 6

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From my last post, Damion Son, supposedly “upper management” according to david Rubel, asked for the list of domains to refund, although i had sent it a dozen times already.  I sent it again.

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.

1and1 Incompetence, Part 4

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

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!

1and1 Incompetence, Part 2

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Remember from my last post that 1and1 personnel admitted at 12:47 PM on January 8, that the domains still had not been transferred?

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.

1and1 Incompetence, Part 1

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This is the first in a series of articles outlining the incompetence, dishonesty, and outright fraud I have been subjected to by 1and1.  1and1 claims to provide web hosting and domain name services.  What they actually provide are headaches and heartaches and very little else.

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 Review: Dishonesty, Fraud, and Atrocious Customer Service

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1and1 is the worst company I have ever dealt with.  1and1 is incompetent, dishonest, and participates in fraudulent activities against their customers.  Their internal systems are unreliable, regularly broken, and they are either unwilling or unable to correct their own errors after they occur.

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.

Sick and Tired of Getting Ripped Off?

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If you are like me, you are fed up with being treated unfairly by big companies.  Once upon a time, the customer was always right.  Businesses realized that only by satisfying their clients could they hope to grow and prosper.

Smart companies still operate that way today, but there are those which have made it their practice to treat their customers like garbage.

Disposable clientele.

They believe that if that customer is not happy and decides to leave, they will just pick up another one or three to replace them.  And sadly, many times that is true.  With thousands of new people getting on line every day, it is not difficult to replace a customer or two.

But what these impersonal monoliths do not realize is that there are those of us out here who will not simply take their crap and move on.  We choose to warn others of our bad experiences.

We choose to stand up and fight.  We choose to spread our stories far and wide in the hopes that someone else can avoid repeating our mistakes.

For that purpose, I have established this website as a digital soap box.  I have a handful of customer service nightmares of my own to post here, and I will be partnering with other consumer advocacy sites to bring you more comprehensive information, but I want to hear your stories.

I am offering you a place to voice your complaint and strike a blow against unfair practices, bad customer service, and in some cases outright fraud. I will also be providing how to articles and links to resources where you can initiate effective consumer complaints, such as the Federal Trade Commission, your State Attorney General, various Better Business Bureaus and the like.

What can you or I do as one person?  Very little.

What can you AND I do, along with a few hundred thousand like minded individuals who are sick of being pushed around?  We can spread the word about these companies who choose to mistreat their customers and convince others to avoid putting themselves in the same situation.

Together, we can strike a blow against indifference and bring customer service back!

This site is in its infancy.  I am still working on a lot of the functionality, including the submission form, but you can submit your story for possible inclusion through our Contact Us page.  Make sure to include as much detail as possible, and be prepared to back up your claims.  I am not interested in undocumented bashing, because that does not do any good.  I want dates, names, and specific details.  Don’t worry if you are not a writer.  Submit your story and I will edit it for clarity.  I may need to contact you for more information before publishing. So, go ahead, click here to submit your story.

Make sure to bookmark the site and come back often to check up on the latest warnings.