PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE THREAD Before you purchase! You've been warned!
There is so much BS in this thread about the difficulties with 1and1.com... I've had them for years and yea their CS sucks, but transferring to and fro is easy. Even canceling is EASY and you don't need to write, email, fax, anything to do it. I have no idea where people get this BS from. Read for yourself how easy it is...
http://faq.1and1.com/package/cancel/2.html
Easy as pie!
Now for all the BS...
Be careful with 1and1 they make it difficult for you to NOT to renew your name next year... a lot of hoops to say. "do not renew" (look it up)
Also they are very quick to send to your renewal payment to their own collection agency. (my cc expired and a month after my domain expired with 1and1 i get a notice my payment has gone to collections.. nice.)
They are not like godaddy which lets your name expire... without the "collection agency" coming after you.
It may be free now but you may pay more in the end in the hassle and crap 1and1 pulls.... good luck.
To those of you who have had bad experiences with 1and1, please consider going to this thread and giving your recommendation on a good domain name registrar.
But for those of you who are looking for a steady registrar and aren't looking to hop from registrar to registrar, 1and1 is a good fit. Other have noted challenges in trying to cancel their packages, but if that's not your intention you should be good to go.
------->>> FEEDBACK
1&1 customer support is beyond bad
I've had around a dozen domain names registered with 1&1. For a while, they were the cheapest reputable registrar (@ $5.99/yr) which is why I stayed with them. If you never need to contact their customer support and if you never cancel, you're fine with them.
However, because of a series of really poorly handled support and cancellation issues, I will never use 1&1 again. The final straw came in Feb 2010 when I canceled a domain name which was about to auto-renew. I sent them the cancellation authorization fax (you're required to fax them a signed form for any cancellations), did the online cancellation process, received a cancellation confirmation e-mail - all before the cancellation date. As an extra precaution, and because of the large number of cancellation complaints I've read about in various forums, I changed my Credit Card info to an expired Visa gift card with $0 balance. I absolutely did not want to be charged anything by 1&1 for that month under any circumstances.
And, of course, they still managed to screw up the domain cancellation, renew it anyway, and then attempted to bill my invalid credit card - which was declined. I then received an e-mail demanding prompt attention to my new outstanding balance as well as an invoice showing $8.99 owed. I spoke with a customer service rep on the phone, and while they acknowledged that 1) I had properly canceled the domain name before it expired, and 2) that their auto-renewal and CC billing was done in error, they still were requiring me to reenter a valid credit card and then were going to place a charge for the domain name renewal (the one I had canceled!) on that credit card. Then, they said, they'd credit me $8.99 once the payment was in their system. This was absurd, but they were unwilling and just outright refusing to handle it any other way.
I restored my correct credit card info with them online. They promptly billed me $8.99. They did not, however, promptly refund that money to me. It took 3 more weeks, during which time I placed several support phone calls to 1&1 and lodging formal case complaints to get the owed refund. After 2 weeks of waiting for the refund, I told the unaccommodating support person that I would simply tell my credit card company that the charge was unauthorized and in dispute, which puts the charge on hold until the dispute is resolved. This is what I'd normally do (and have done in the past) with any mistaken credit card charge. The 1&1 support rep told me, "You really don't want to do that. That will just make things worse for you." WTH. If I disputed the $8.99 charge with my credit card company, 1&1 would forward the bogus charge to their collections agency and I'd have a much bigger and costlier problem. Eventually I got my money back, but their support/billing department incompetence and their inability to satisfactorily resolve their own mistake was unacceptable.
5 or 6 years ago, we had a leased Windows Server with 1&1 costing ~$125/mo (~$1500 per year). When we first signed up, we requested an additional IP address for the box (which they allowed and charged for,) and wanted all the IPs to be numbered consecutively. They refused to allow this - we could only be given non-consecutive, IP addresses. This request would have taken their technical staff 1 minute to set up when they were setting up the server in the first place. We were buying a $1500/year product from them, and they absolutely refused this simple request. It literally would have taken them 1 minute to set up.
1&1 support polices are draconian. They have their procedures and refuse to deviate in the slightest to accommodate valid customer issues or screw-ups on their part. Even elevating to top level support managers gets you nowhere.
I will never use 1&1 again.
Caveat Emptor
STAY AWAY - STAY FAR AWAY from 1and1! - many have been burned!!!!!
I have moved my web site from 1&1 to a different provider before my account expired. They disabled the account without even asking me. When I discovered that later, I thought I wouldn't even have to call and cancel the renewal. A few months later, they sent me a bill for the new period which ended up in a collection agency. Even though my account was still disabled -- i. e. they were not providing any services to me at all! Now I don't even want to get a free domain from them. So if you are going to deal with them -- keep an eye on those ****ers.
It makes me feel better to hear that I wasn't the only one sent to collections. They kept my domain name for years since I wasn't going to pay the slimey dogs...
* First year of registration on a .com domain for free Offer limited to one .com domain per customer for the first year. For each additional .com domain that you order, you will be billed at the regular price of $8.99/year per domain. After the first free regular price applies.
* Offer applies to new Instant Domain packages or new domains added to your account.
* Offer valid through May 31st, 2010.
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