1&1 (1and1.com) - Terrible customer service experience...

Previously I worked in Aerospace as an engineer.  I was repeatedly getting screwed in one way or another by my employers.  I assumed it was bad luck or somehow I was doing something that setup the right conditions to get hosed.  Then after my last layoff in Oct. 2009 I found that almost everyone felt that they'd been screwed by either their current or a previous employer and many were glad to be leaving the company for another position.

Then I started working in Internet Marketing and bought a number of garbage ebooks, software programs that promised automated this and that but weren't automated at all, and in general getting junk or bad customer service when I paid good money for a product or service.  It's easy for your business to fail when you get screwed too often since we are all on a very  limited budget when we first start.

Many people won't file complaints or nasty reviews because they feel they may need a vendor again later or may eventually want to partner with them.  Well I've decided that it's time to start calling it like I see it.  If everyone did the same the bad actors would feel the pain of their misdeeds in days not years and we would all get treated better for it.

Just my 2 cents...  On to the rant...

I was tired of getting gouged by an old hosting service for my domain registration. So I decided to look around. I'd had a bad experience with GoDaddy locking me out of my first domain. (Long story short there were privacy guards on it that prevented me from transferring the domain and I couldn't stop paying for the privacy guard without verification. What they had on file was bad data - that I'd entered before creating my LLC without realizing it would be problem and there was no warning that this was important data versus extraneous data they collect. The privacy lock kept me from transferring my domain to a cheaper registrar for almost a month.)

A lot of the internet marketing material I've read over the past couple of years mentioned GoDaddy and 1&1 (1and1.com) as their registrars. Well the only reason I can come up with for anyone recommending either is their affiliate programs. GoDaddy was overpriced. And I recently transferred a domain to 1&1 and my site points to one of their promotional pages instead of my site because their form won't let me change the name servers.

So the domain transfer went through fairly fast once I got around to notifying them I was accepting the change as the domain admin of record - something they all require. They didn't keep the current Name Servers on record (most won't) and they didn't mention anything in the email about making that change manually. So when the change happened I was busy and missed it for a couple of days.

The site makes me money though so after a couple of days I noticed that the revenue had dropped and not come back up. So I went to change the DNS settings - specifically the Name Servers which tell the broader internet where to find my site. I found the correct form, I added the correct information, the information was valid and accurate, but the form refused to accept the new Name Servers. So I called Tech Support and this is where the real fun begins.

Do you enjoy on-hold music?

Do you enjoy on-hold music? I ask because if you call 1&1's tech support you will get the privilege of listening to at least 25 minutes of it before talking to anyone at all.

After the 1st 25 minutes of being on-hold...

After the 1st 25 minutes of being on hold I got a tech support person who asked me what error I was getting from the 1&1 form. I read it to him from the screen. I then, upon his request, repeated it to him word for word 3 more times. He wasn't familiar with it and apparently thought I couldn't read so he asked me to download a screen viewing client so he could see it for himself.

The download kept stalling and after about 20 minutes of trying the screen viewing tool finally worked and he was able to read the error for himself. And low and behold I can read and the error still made no sense. The error simply stated that 1&1 couldn't guarantee all functionality - email, etc. - if I changed the default settings. This really ought to be a warning not an error.

Finally, after I've been on the phone for over an hour the 1&1 tech support says he's stumped and will escalate the issue. This I liked until he couldn't give a firm time frame for when the level 2 support would handle the issue. He did, however, say that I should receive an email just as soon as level 2 support sees my ticket and begins working on it.

Several hours later, I get to listen to more 1&1 on-hold muzak...

So several hours go by and I still haven't seen an email stating that 1&1 has begun to work on the issue. I mean honestly it should be done almost as soon as they read the email - enter 2 fields into a database then contact me. (I'm not interested in waiting until they debug the form and get it working correctly. They need to just enter the data and fix the form on their time not debug the form while my money making site is down.)

So since several hours have gone by, this seems pretty simple to me and 1&1 still hasn't contacted me I call them back. I get the privilege of an additional 25 (or more) minutes of muzak to listen to before tech support answers the phone. The woman on the phone this time grills me for several pieces of before I'm even allowed to ask my question.

My question to 1&1 is simple and I have a reference number to provide her. Why isn't this fixed yet? It's 2 fields in a DB enter them manually and fix the form on your own time. "Well it hasn't been 24 hours yet, you will just have to wait. The admin is working as fast as he can." First, the original tech support made no mention of a 24 hour window. Second, I'm writing this at nearly the 24 hour mark and no email has arrived. The Name Servers and IP still point to the 1and1.com servers. My site is still down and this is still costing me money and 1&1 doesn't seem to be in any hurry to fix it.

I have no confidence that 1&1 will fix this in a timely manner.  Primarily because of the tone and quality of my conversations with tech support.  Also, resolving this in a timely manner would mean it's already fixed and I'm not writing this.  This is simple and shouldn't take 24 hours to fix.  And frankly, any decent quality control on the web design should have caught the Name Server error.

Some might say - wait your turn in line and they will get to you.  Well I have 2 points:

1. It takes 25+ minutes on hold to talk to someone at 1&1 and roughly 24 hours have passed since I made my error known.  All they have to do is enter 2 fields into a DB.  How long is it going to take to fix the next problem I have?  How many times will I have to call tech support and how long will I wait on hold?
2. In high school I worked at Taco Bell.  If someone had a simple order - just a drink or a single taco - then they were moved to the front of the line.  No one likes waiting even a couple of minutes for something so simple and quick even if there are 20 people in line ahead of them.  It also means that employees time isn't taken up with small order people asking "where's my order?" and that the people in line with big orders aren't crowded as they wait.  Everyone is happier and the food gets out faster.  My problem has a simple 2 minute fix and should have moved to the front of the line unless they have hundreds of these little fixes to implement.

http://www.internic.net/problem_reports/   (Helpful Hints)

http://reports.internic.net/cgi/registrars/problem-report.cgi   (File a complaint)