I manage a lot of domains for clients. For one client, I was asked to take over all of their existing domains and hosting and have been doing that for going on 3 years. One of the companies they previously registered with was 1 & 1 Hosting.
Last month, three of their 1 & 1 domains came up in my calendar as requiring renewal. I dutifully logged into the domain control panel and saw that the client had set-up automatic billing and there were no notices from the company. Cool beans…all handled.
Coincidentally, and a week later, I was ready to deploy a new website using one of those domains. I wanted to update the nameservers, so I logged back in to the 1&1 Hosting Control panel only to discover that all 3 domains had expired and the account was cancelled.
Furious - I called the company. Here’s a snippet of several phone and e-mail support conversations over the next few days:
Why was it cancelled? Payment had not been made in the past two years for the domains.
Why weren’t we notified of the problem? You were notified through your contact e-mail address.
We never received any notices. You were notified through your contact e-mail address.
Why didn’t you call to resolve the issue? You were notified through your contact e-mail address.
What is the billing problem? Incorrect credit information.
Why wasn’t there a notice on the account control panel? You were notified through your contact e-mail address.
To sum this all up, we ended up paying the outstanding amount PLUS a “Domain Redemption” fee to re-claim the domain before it was returned for public use.
- What kind of company shows such disregard for their customer service that they don’t do everything in their power to resolve a billing issue?
- Furthermore, what kind of company demands billing addresses and phone numbers and then relies totally on spammy e-mail to communicate all customer issues without one follow-up call?
Answer: The kind of company I no longer do business with. I moved the offending domains away from 1& 1 Hosting to another registrar.
As a post script in irony, the website being deployed was to advertise and sell a book about superior customer service.
33 years ago this morning, I was waiting for a bus in a cold and windy parking lot. You see, I was on the first part of the journey to my great adventure with the U.S. Air Force. It was a bittersweet start as the girl I loved had come along to see me off and our future was uncertain.