1&1 is a big domain registrar and web hosting service, and they are celebrating their 20th anniversary in 2008.To attract attention, they have taken out full page ads in computer magazines offering a “50% off Everything*” sale.
The company has been known for low priced domains, typically $5.99 a year. They just went up to $6.99, but given that they are having a 50% off sale, this would still be a quite a deal. But the ad says that domains are $6.12 during the half price sale. Huh?
Maybe the answer is that asterisk after the word “everything.” Usually that means that not everything is really on sale. That is not the case here.
*MOUSE PRINT:
They are only giving you 50% off the first three months of the services they sell by the year. With that kind of logic, a supermarket could advertise 50% off eggs, but in the fine print say that the discount only applies to three of the 12 eggs in the carton.
One has to wonder if this company’s real name is 1&1 = 3.
I guess they might be having quite a few angry customers. What a way to celebrate!
Not that I see that many people will try but after 3 mos. can it be cancelled with no penalties?
I have tried to work with this company and they are the worst for tech support or to get billing issues worked out, it took me several months to find a phone number for them and then still had a hard time getting my billing fixed(I have since dropped their service). This company does EVERYTHING on line so if your internet fails or your computer crashed there is no way to contact them until they send you a nasty letter. Not my first pick for web hosting, and the price does start out low but you will eventually be paying in excess of 20+ dollars every three months for their service.
So just to get the math straight. Half of a quarter is an eighth, or 12.5%, or 75% less (37.5/50) than they advertize with. This is simple deceit.
A lot of domain registrars and web hosting companies pull a similar scam. They’ll advertise FREE DOMAIN NAME in huge bold print, with that teensy weensy little * after it … FREE if you prepay for a year of web hosting. Give me my reliable $8.20 a year registrar any day!
1&1 is not bad (for most people.)
Do you really think there are any deals that don’t have some conditions? Come on, get real. After all, at least you still get the 90 day Guarantee, and you’re not stuck in a 2 year or 3 year contract. 1&1 is no worse than any other sale/bargain driven company. No matter how you do the math, big players like 1and1 are good because the competition they create makes other hosting and domain companies offer consumers more for less…so even if you don’t use 1&1 as your registrar or web host, you are probably benefiting from them being in the maket.
Ummm, GD Richards, how could you not find their #? 1&1 publishes their phone number on their website, and in their ads:
http://order.1and1.com/xml/order/Contact
This page shows #s and emails for General Support and also for billing.)
Andrea, you really want something for nothing? Free domains with the purchase of hosting does not sound like a scam to me. Unless of course you are looking only for freebies so you can scam something from the company making the offering. Don’t you think it reasonable that companies with freebies/trials would try to protect themselves from scamming consumers?
By all means everyone read the mouse (fine) print in any special offer, but just because there is fine print doesn’t mean it’s not a good deal. Even non-special offers have T&Cs and fine print. These should be read carefully too!
I’ve been a 1&1 domain customer for several years and must have been grandfathered in with a good deal because I’m paying a decent rate. However, every time they send me an e-mail (including the 50% deal) I look at what they offer and think…well, there’s another scam or useless product that I have no use for.
So why don’t I switch? I’ve been to several other places and they all seem just as bad or much higher priced.
And I agree that it took me forever to figure out how to get hold of their customer support team. Every 3 months or so, my e-mail seems to stop working and I need to contact them to reset something. That’s a pain, but once I contact them, they are pretty responsive.
If I were Consumer Reports, I would probably rank them as very average overall (price/products/service.)
RS, with any problems I’d try Dreamhost – it’s $10.00 a month always (no discount at start), same money back guarantee, nearly double the overall features, and good support to boot.
I had tried their service stating that the first month was free, and could
cancel at any time. After about an hour, and seeing what they offered, I
sent a letter of cancelation, and spoke directly to someone about it.
They charged me for the year, and I spent over four months with TONS of
aggravation trying to get them to refund my money, and finally said I was
going to sue them, and they did release my money.