Beware of 1and1 Web Site Hosting Unless You're Very Hosting Savvy

It seems 1and1 - the webhost I've recommended for so long has completely dropped the ball. For the second time this year, a client of mine and a 1and1 customer has gone to upgrade their hosting account and unknowingly wiped out their website! The first time, I thought it was simply an accident of choosing the wrong package, but it seems that 1and1's backend assures that this will happen for everyone. What has happened is my client was on a Linux shared hosting account and when she went to upgrade for more features, the backend only offered her one option: an MS hosting account. Of course, you would say - so what? What's the difference? Well, MS hosting accounts do not have MySQL databases which means no Joomla support. It also means that 1and1 immediately removed ALL of her files and deleted her databases!

So, now I'm on the phones with 1and1 tech support (which seems to be based in India or Mexico or some 3rd world country) hollering, cajolling, spitting mad fury at these bozos to either recover everything or at least send me the last backup of the MySQL database so I can get her site back live ASAP on my server. I have a copy of her database, but it's about 3 weeks old and that means we'd lose her recent blog posts and some statistics. I don't want that.

As a result, I am no longer recommending 1and1 as a website host. This is a terrible fault with their service - knowing full well that the average person would have no clue what the difference between Linux and MS Hosting was. They don't even have a little pop-up warning that if you proceed with the upgrade, all your files and databases will be erased. Their support is trying to tell me that they can't recover the database, but they were able to do so back in May when this happened with another client. So, as you can see I have my hands full today pushing these bone heads to do what I know they can do.

I also sent a scathing email to both This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it last night. Here's what I sent:

Hello 1and1,

Once again, I'm forced to contact you to clean up a gigantic mistake you've made for one of my clients. This is the second time in two months that a client has innocently upgraded their hosting account from what is very obviously a Linux Shared hosting to an MS Shared hosting - thus wiping out the clients entire website and MySQL database.

I STRONGLY recommend you have your technical and sales team converge immediately to add warnings to your upgrade wizard in the control panel to prevent this issue from happening again. Not every one of your customers is savvy enough to realize what changing from Linux to MS means for their hosting - you offer no explanation that ALL their data will be wiped out nor do you give them a heads up to download their MySQL databases before you remove them.

I have personally been a customer for over two years, from the very beginning of your first "free hosting for 2 years" offer - (Customer ID: 6459459) and I have referred countless of my customers to your service - but you're making me look VERY bad here. Add to that the fact that I'll probably have to spend in excess of 8 hours putting my clients' website back online not to mention the possible lost business my client will suffer due to her website being down for at least the next 48 - 72 hours!

I want (my clients) account restored to its' exact state prior to her upgrade to the MS Hosting account and I want it done immediately.

This is a High Priority situation - I do NOT want an email back that I have to wait 30 days before moving back to a Linux hosting account - I need you to do precisely what I request.

* * * If you are unable to do so, I require you to Escalate this email to a supervisor and/or technical support person who can accomplish this immediately. If you do not, I will contact your supervisor and file a complaint. * * *

DO NOT MAKE ME WAIT 48 HOURS FOR A RESPONSE!!!

That was sent last night (September 17th, 2006) at 11:45pm and it is now 10:15am on the 18th with no response.

I do have to say that phone support was easy to get through to today. I've called twice already, and both times I got a real human in less than 5 minutes. However, once you get a human - it seems they have to put you back on hold ever time you ask a question. Not too great if your customer service staff doesn't know the answer to some basic questions.

I first spoke with Alson at 1and1 today and he was a sad excuse - he insisted that there is no possible way to get any of the data back and that it's the webmaster's responsibility to backup everything (which I did, but 1and1 assures that databases are backed up every 24 hours). I then asked Alson to transfer me to a supervisor. He put me on hold for nearly 10 minutes and then came back to say there were no supervisors there. No supervisors anywhere in the building at 8:00am Monday morning PST - when I'm guessing they're EST.

I knew I'd get nowhere with this guy, so I hung up and called back a few minutes later, after I had searched for the email that I got from 1and1 back in May of 2006 when this exact situation happened with another client. I was on vacation, so this client couldn't reach me. He had neglected to renew his domain - but he didn't realize it at first. He called 1and1 to ask why his website was down and they told him that his hosting account didn't qualify for any phone support - that he'd have to upgrade to get non-email support. So, he logs into the backend of his account and hits the upgrade button - of course, everything is wiped out until I get on the phone and start pushing.

Two whole days later, Shawn of 1and1 finally emails back that they did indeed find a copy of the database and had uploaded it so I could get my hands on it.

Once I had found that email, I called 1and1 for the second time and spoke with Edsel. Edsel was actually quite professional and despite not knowing much (yes, more listening to awful muzak while on hold) he came back and said that he would escalate the issue to the techies in charge of the databases and try to get them to give us a copy of the database.

Of course, I'm sure Edsel has been told in many staff meetings to not make promises, so he made sure I knew that there was no guarantee that a copy of the database could be retrieved. He said if they could find a copy, I'd have it within two hours. They now have ONE hour left!

If I don't hear from someone, I will call whomever I need to and push until I get a real live supervisor. I may call the sales department and let them know they may be seeing a massive loss in existing customers as I will be highly prolific in my distaste for their services. I may also google my head off until I find contact information for the real live President/CEO of 1and1 and get his attention.

As I discover more, I'll post again. In the meantime, keep your fingers crossed for my client!

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