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“Don't be tempted by 1&1's slick veneer. They don't care.”

Written on: 12/06/2012 by thisonly (1 review written)

I have hosted several websites with 1&1 over many years and, over the last two, have experienced a marked decline in standards. Their support people are in Jakarta and it is rare to speak to the same one twice, or for any of them to take personal control of an issue. I am confident that many simply fob you off with comments such as 'I will escalate this issue', which invariably means that you put the phone down and nothing happens. There is undoubtedly a cultural/language barrier too and, of the many, many conversations that I've had with their call centre staff, few have been easy and most have been challenging, with both of us being unclear about what the other meant. Sometimes the lines are poor too, so all in all a tricky and frustrating set up.

There are too many hopeless examples of their ineptitude to mention here but one broke the camel's back, when all of my sites disappeared for five full days. At that point I moved elsewhere, which was a costly and time consuming exercise but means now that I get real support, usually within minutes instead of days, as was the case with 1&1.

If you're tempted by their whizzo promotional stuff, take a step back and imagine what it's like to be completely alone when things go wrong. That's how it feels, believe me. They are impersonal, appear to care little about customer service and frequently answer questions that you didn't ask just to tick the box showing that they responded. It really is like banging your head against a wall - don't bother is my advice.

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