May 8, 200818 yr I noticed the other day in my 1&1 admin panel that my account only had 2 SQL Databases available for use, when I thought the business package I had bought included 50. When I emailed them about this I received a reply stating that I must have been looking at their .com site instead of .co.uk as only the US customers receive 50 SQL Databases with the Business Packages whilst we here in the UK only get 2! I am furious about this. What the hell is the difference? It's the same goddam package and the servers are probably in Germany! Anyone fancy joining me on a petition?
May 8, 200818 yr Yes! I'm always up for a bit of corpora-bashing! I have one of my clients sites hosted with con&con, and they keep effing well spamming me with this offer and that offer. Their support is slow and grouchy, and their prices are sky high. As soon as the package runs out, I'm moving it elsewhere. Let me know when you have that petition up and running...
May 8, 200818 yr When I emailed them about this I received a reply stating that I must have been looking at their .com site instead of .co.uk as only the US customers receive 50 SQL Databases with the Business Packages whilst we here in the UK only get 2! Even if you were looking at the .com, unless they specifically stated that it's for US-only customers, then I would have thought they would have to give you what you saw and signed up for. It's not your fault you saw the .com site rather than the .co.uk one. Do you have any kind of receipt or invoice which states what you were signing up for?
May 9, 200818 yr Con&Con I love it!!!! I'm also with these money-grabbing shoddy service lying sackings of.... well you know! As soon as I get settled into my new home I'll be rectifying this! Bring-on a petition my way - anything to annoy them (not that they read anything - it's all automated vague waffle from them). I like really slagging them off and insulting them when I reply to an appalling 'support' email - I know they never read them and all I get is another auto-generated vague email with links to the FAQ - but it's good therapy! Being not too shabby with words - I've really laid into them - it's great therapy like when Robert De Niro shoots the pillow in the film Analyze This!
May 13, 200818 yr Author If you hate being ripped off (or just hate 1&1) please sign the petition below and help stop UK customers being taken for a ride! 1&1 Petition
May 13, 200818 yr Author Here's how the numbers break down! USA Customers Beginner Package: 10 Databases for $3.99 p/m (~£2.05) Home Package: 25 Databases for $4.99 p/m (~£2.57) Business Package: 50 Databases for $9.99 p/m (~£5.14) Developer Package: 100 Databases for $19.99 p/m (~£10.28) UK Customers Beginner Package: 0 Databases for £1.99 p/m (~$3.88) Home Package: 0 Databases for £4.99 p/m (~$9.71) Business Package: 2 Databases for £10.56 p/m (~$20.54) Business Pro Package: 8 Databases for £14.99 p/m (~$29.16) Developer Package: 15 Databases for £29.36 p/m (~$57.11) On average we are paying twice as much as our US counterparts and 3 times as much for the Developer package! Oh and just for the record...the UK 1&1 slogan which is emblazoned on their site is "1&1 – The Webhost You Can Trust "
May 14, 200818 yr Here's how the numbers break down! USA Customers Beginner Package: 10 Databases for $3.99 p/m (~£2.05) Home Package: 25 Databases for $4.99 p/m (~£2.57) Business Package: 50 Databases for $9.99 p/m (~£5.14) Developer Package: 100 Databases for $19.99 p/m (~£10.28) UK Customers Beginner Package: 0 Databases for £1.99 p/m (~$3.88) Home Package: 0 Databases for £4.99 p/m (~$9.71) Business Package: 2 Databases for £10.56 p/m (~$20.54) Business Pro Package: 8 Databases for £14.99 p/m (~$29.16) Developer Package: 15 Databases for £29.36 p/m (~$57.11) On average we are paying twice as much as our US counterparts and 3 times as much for the Developer package! Oh and just for the record...the UK 1&1 slogan which is emblazoned on their site is "1&1 – The Webhost You Can Trust " Dude, I support you all the way, but having lived in the US for 12 years, and moving over here and having to deal with all the conversion stuff, I must remind you that we earn in pounds here, which kinda means we have a rip off, but what can I say that's life. It's just like thinking that an Apple Mac Pro only costs half of what we have to pay here in the UK compaired to if we lived in the US but still earned in pounds... hope that all made sense.
May 15, 200818 yr Ooooh ein and ein bashing! The UK price is a lot higher because they study the market well and know darned well the UK customers will just upgrade when they need more - market forces and all that. There's much more competition for US web hosting so they adjust pricing for that market only to attract those type of customers. And then they have to feed their huge UK marketing budget for all those full page magazine ads, and with what's left over they run their heldesk in the Phillipines where they only pay a pittance for staff. Clearly a profit, rather than customer, motivated company.
May 15, 200818 yr I think their slogan should be "Hosting at Popular Prices" "But you're over-priced - I thought you said they were popular?" "Well we like them!"
May 15, 200818 yr I don't doubt that this company (like most hosting companies) is crap, but I wonder about the legitimacy of your issues. I'm sure someone said something about charging different prices to different EU countries was a legal issue, but I can't find that now. My thought is that things do cost different prices in different countries to adjust for "market forces" as bluedreamer says. Even within the EU, if you try buying clothes there's a huge label with the price in Euros for different countries. Same currency, still a different price. I think the issue with 1&1 is more that it is not possible to obtain the same level of service, i.e. the same product, even if you do pay the adjusted price. So packages, which have the same name, don't provide the same things. This is a huge transparency issue as obviously people will assume they are the same, whether they look at the US or UK website, they will pay the UK price and assume they have bought whatever they read the package contains - as Aled Mann did. I just think that the best thing that will happen is they will change the package names or add another package that is ridiculously expensive which matches the US top package. Perhaps, if you complain enough about it and mention petitions and trading standards and such, they will let you out of the contract so you can move over to a good web host.
May 15, 200818 yr I don't doubt that this company (like most hosting companies) is crap, but I wonder about the legitimacy of your issues. I'm sure someone said something about charging different prices to different EU countries was a legal issue, but I can't find that now. Twas I ma soeur (That might be French for sister!) It's just EU regulation and all that jazz have been changing. Do you remember anything about the row over not being able to buy cheap flights from, say, Munich to London if you were in the UK when trying to buy? That's what they tried changing. I think the flight one got round it by saying that for "security" measures they couldn't process credit cards not registered in that country or something - I lost track of what happened. I was just saying that, because it is hosted in Germany and not physically delivered to the UK or subject to any fees (not that I know anything about the hosting business ) then they might be breaking an EU directive if they prevented UK citizens from getting the same price as say an Italian could get it for. My only issue with 1&1 is their appalling customer service and the fact that they say you can use this and that without problems in their advertising and then deep in the FAQs it says you can't and in another place says you might be able to and their Customer Service (auto-generated) always quotes an irrelevant part of the FAQ and, despite their advertising, says they don't support anything pretty much! Here's my first ever proper post on WDF! Eris knows a heap load more than me - I'm mostly just ranting and, when I move in 3 weeks time ( ) I've got my eye on a great host!!!
May 15, 200818 yr I have no experience of them, but was once with a host which was similarly awful. My only point was meant to be: go get em, but make sure you're coming at them from the best angle to get what you want. I don't know EU rules, would be interesting to find out though. I'm pretty damn certain using the same package names in different countries to mean different things is baaad though!
May 15, 200818 yr Even if you were looking at the .com, unless they specifically stated that it's for US-only customers, then I would have thought they would have to give you what you saw and signed up for. It's not your fault you saw the .com site rather than the .co.uk one. Do you have any kind of receipt or invoice which states what you were signing up for? We tried to bluff 1&1 a couple of months back cos we needed a bog-standard cheapo Windows VPS (didn't matter what country it was in) and 1&1 US seemed to be the cheapest whereas the UK site is actually quite pricey. So we tried signing up with a fake American address and we got through all the signup process, and received a confirmation email saying that they'd let us know when it was ready to use. The following morning we received an email from their 'fraud prevention' team (or money-grabbing b@stards team) informing us that we'd been busted and would have to sign up through their UK outfit. Can't blame us for trying though...
May 15, 200818 yr Forgive me is this is a stupid question but... why not just use a different host if they dislike their services?
May 15, 200818 yr Forgive me is this is a stupid question but... why not just use a different host if they dislike their services? It's a fair question! In my defence I signed-up on a cheapy deal pretty much on a whim. If you see the massive overhaul my site's going under you'd understand I'm in no rush to switch. But I do have a very friendly, very knowledgeable and seemingly user-friendly and feature-packed host in mind for the new site. I don't know the name of it or how much it is - now that's the power of good customer service!
May 15, 200818 yr If you're thinking of switching, I'd definitely recommend Site5. I have a referral link somewhere too...
May 16, 200818 yr I have a site with 1&1 and my client opt'ed for their SimpleSEO package. Even after she has emailed and wrote to them to cancel the 3.99 a month or w/e it is they are still charging her! Would never go with them again!
May 28, 200818 yr I use 1&1 but only for my .UK domains, because theyre cheap - BUT - I got a letter from Nominet with a bill for £90 for a domain i cancelled in 2006 last month, but 1&1 didnt TOTALLY cancel, they just removed their tag!!! Tut tut 1&1! I have a large package with DreamHost for hosting...
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