I have a simple complaint:
Existing customers upgraded to the top hosting service are paying 16.99 a month.
However, if you’re a new customer you get EXACTLY THE SAME SERVICE for only 9.99 a month

When I queried this with the complaints department they could/would not help me because “that was the way their billing system worked”
They also said that there was no escalation beyond the complaints department (which I find a little hard to believe!)

To me this seems somewhat discriminatory towards existing (loyal) customers who are being essentially ripped off every month because of inflexibility in the 1&1′s billing system

What’s most frustrating is that there’s no way to explain to anybody (who can actually do something about it) that there’s a problem – this is a actually a problem with 1&1 UK, but I’d imagine the same “billing systems” apply globally – and you can see my desperation if I can only find this method to contact anyone senior at 1&1 even if they are in the US.

This would seem to be something that 1&1′s senior management team need to address to come up with an escalation solution if there are complaints that the complaints team are unable to resolve.

I think that your post did shed some good light on 1and1 because I personally did have a negative image due to reviews.

Also, another frustratingly annoying issue, is 1and1 doesn’t allow you to purchase dedicated server/hosting packages as an International customer. With offices in Dublin, and a house in Germany, I am still not allowed (by 1and1) to have a dedicated server in Europe. My company has 10 million customers. And we need to expand into Europe, however 1and1 has not to this date after 100 emails explained WHY I cannot subscribe to their services from North America. Every one of their competitors is more than willing to sell you their services. 1and1 doesn’t want business I suppose. They are making it VERY difficult to be a customer. All I want is to be a customer. I give up. I’ll take my 40 dedicated server order to another company.

It is just plain insulting to call the NUMEROUS and EXHAUSTIVE comments from THOUSANDS of those effected “financially skewed” and is in lock and step with the rest of the company’s apparent apathetic attitude toward customer service. Oh how I wish I could send this executive to collection for his depleted service to his customers.

Please don’t insult us by a) pretending that you are surprised by the negative tidal wave, b) that you are going to “talk” to your staff, and c) that your staff will change one damn bit.

@Alex, what do you need more the Online marketing director commented here and bring you help on you issues. Waiting your email.

As to the Phillipines support question, we own the call center – it is not outsourced to a 3rd party (like some companies do.) They are trained, but only in 1st level basic suport issues -which are by far the most common. There is a convenience of the timezone which allows us better coverage for both US (west coast) and international customers.

I do not know if we always take the time to explain what happened. I think what is far more important and practical is to focus on fixing an issue and making sure it doesn’t happen again. To generalize that we simply do not care about customers is a GROSS misrepresentation. Some companies do not even have phone support. Like other large hosts, we invest heavily in our support systems and in growing our reps knowledge and skill. Do mistakes sometimes happen? Sure, this is true of any host. Is there room for improvement – always! This is also true of any host.

It is not worth arguing about whether negative comments are mostly old and possible biased. I have watched the trends for 4 years, and we obviously have a difference of opinion. I know we have come a long way since entering the US, I also know that happy customers far far out number unhappy ones – you just don’t hear from the happy ones as much online – thus the online court of public opinon will alwaays be skewed. If you think review sites are 100% unbiased, I don’t know what I could say to convince you otherwise.

Everyone is certainly welcome to their opinion. My purpose in granting the interview to Googlelady, was not to still up bad emotions and flaming, but rather to just present another viewpoint. I personally like the what this site is trying to present to its readers, and wanted to help – even if some people choose other hosts.

Alex, although I may not always have time to post responses here, and work in another department, I hope I can help resolve any issues you might still have.