3 years free, was it worth it?

June 13, 2006 3:11 PM

In 2003, a post about 3 years of free web hosting, and almost 3 years later, the tribulations of cancelling aforementioned free web hosting. Full circle.
posted by brownpau to MetaFilter-Related at 3:11 PM (24 comments total)

I cannot tell you how often I cursed johnnydark's name during those 8 months.

Anyone else get fucked over by those people after taking advantage of that 'promotion'?
posted by dobbs at 3:35 PM on June 13, 2006

so, in three years you never wrestled with the control panel?
posted by quonsar at 3:45 PM on June 13, 2006

Fantastic.
posted by cortex at 3:49 PM on June 13, 2006

Yeah, I wrestled with it right after signing up. It was painfully slow and not intuitive in the slightest. (CP in the second link == control panel.)
posted by dobbs at 3:49 PM on June 13, 2006

They also wouldn't allow me to redirect the DNS on the domain that was purchased thru them. So, after paying $6 for it from them, I had to pay to immediately transfer it to another registrar so that I could use the fucking thing.

Can you tell I'm still sore about the whole thing?
posted by dobbs at 3:53 PM on June 13, 2006

Ive been happy with them.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 4:16 PM on June 13, 2006

Oh hell. Has it been three years already? I don't remember giving them a credit card number, but I guess I must have.
posted by yerfatma at 4:25 PM on June 13, 2006

Guess it was too good to be true. Shocking!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:31 PM on June 13, 2006

I didn't use them, so I'm having a hard time following, but:

If registering for the three years contract involved no credit card numbers and no other billing information, why would one need to "cancel" their contract? Couldn't you just point your DNS at your new server and be done with it?
posted by Bugbread at 4:33 PM on June 13, 2006

If registering for the three years contract involved no credit card numbers and no other billing information, why would one need to "cancel" their contract? Couldn't you just point your DNS at your new server and be done with it?

But noooooooo! Those fuckers at 1&1 referred my account that I had forgotten about to a collection agency. Instead of sending me an email saying my free time was expiring and to renew, or an invoice to renew. But nope. Straight to a slimy collection agency in the N.O.
posted by birdherder at 4:39 PM on June 13, 2006

Fucking hell. I wondered when those three years were up. All my account information is stuck on a drive in an old laptop that may or may not be readable, so I guess I'm shit out of luck. Good thing my credit's already fucked, I guess.
posted by IshmaelGraves at 5:01 PM on June 13, 2006

Errm ... wait a minute. If the free service was "launching" in November of 2003, how have they already started billing on 3-year free accounts in June of 2006? Am I missing something really obvious here?
posted by IshmaelGraves at 5:09 PM on June 13, 2006

They're getting a running start. Being pro-active. Forward momentum, etc.
posted by cortex at 5:34 PM on June 13, 2006

I completely forgot about it -- didn't remember if the term was one or many years so when the collection notice came I called and bitched them [the collection agency] out and paid them the $12.00. I think I got the dunning letter last winter.
posted by birdherder at 6:38 PM on June 13, 2006

I visited cancel.1and1.com and followed the prompts. I have been informed that my account has been cancelled as of 11/24/2006, when my contract with them expires.
posted by ajpresto at 6:49 PM on June 13, 2006 [1 favorite]

I think that over the last few years they've taken so much shit online that they've changed a lot of their policies. For instance, you can now change the nameservers, which you definitely could not when that freebie started. They also seem to have done away with the "you must give us a hard copy of a letter saying you want to cancel" policy.

As for why they have CC info, they required it to get the free account because the account only involved X amount of space/transfer and needed a way to bill you if you went over. (Yeah, they coulda capped it but they're assholes and didn't give that option for the free plan... at least not prior to signing up.)
posted by dobbs at 7:01 PM on June 13, 2006

Hrmm... when I signed up, I didn't have to give them a credit card number. That's the only reason I *did* sign up, because I was wary of being scammed down the road. Their domain registration policies wer bullshit though. :)
posted by antifuse at 3:23 AM on June 14, 2006

Worst. Webhost. Ever. suckers . . .
posted by fourcheesemac at 4:33 AM on June 14, 2006

I've had nothing but a good experience with 1and1. I almost never use their control panel (and don't have to), on the two occasions I've had a problem customer service responded quickly by email and phone and solved the problem in a snap. They automatically renew my domain for me each year and let me know a month in advance that they're doing it so I have the opportunity to tell them not to do so. In fact, the only major problem I've had with them is that AWStats doesn't install or work very well on their server setup.
posted by Captaintripps at 6:32 AM on June 14, 2006

Do you pay for your hosting with them Captaintripps? Because I have yet to see a response to the 10-20 emails I've sent to support.
posted by antifuse at 8:30 AM on June 14, 2006

Nope. I got in on the free plan as well.
posted by Captaintripps at 9:23 AM on June 14, 2006

i pay 1and1 about a billion dollars a month and it's nothing but contant pain and endless struggle.

antifuse: i get replies!. replies like this:

Thank you for contacting us.

I am not sure exactly what you are trying to do but if you make a search in GOOGLE you can find loads of articles to find the solution.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
posted by soma lkzx at 11:12 AM on June 14, 2006

Did you try telephoning?
posted by Captaintripps at 12:08 PM on June 14, 2006

Damn, the 3 years is up already? Oh well. I didn't give them a credit card. I can't even remember if I gave them a correct name and address. But if it's only $12 for the service (as birdherder mentions above) I don't mind paying that. They've been quite reliable for 3 years.
posted by sfenders at 12:27 PM on June 14, 2006