Bad customer service at 1&1 Internet AG

Almost 1 1/2 years ago I got a DSL contract with 1&1. At that time, they had the best price for the fastest DSL, I found their €29.99 price for the package they call 3DSL, which includes Movies, flat-phone rate, and DSL very attractive. Now, 17 months down the line, I know this was the biggest mistake I have ever made in Germany when choosing a service provider. Not a week goes by where I do not encounter a problem. On a good week the DSL line stops working for a few hours, on a bad week the phone and DSL line are down for 3 days. I have a job that allows me to work from home a few days of the week, but I quickly learned that this would be impossible due to 1&1 unpredictable service. And to put some extra fudge on the chocolate cake, they charge you when you call their hotline for support, not that it helps. In the IT business, service levels are categorize from 1 to 3, depending on how complex the problem is. Service level support 1 employees are the ones you encounter whenever you call a hotline with a problem, they are suppose to Open up a ticket for the issue, and make sure that the product is configure correctly. If the issue is not configuration, then they are supposed to past the call to a Service level support 2 employee, who should have more knowledge of the back end side of the product, and if this person can not handle it, then there is Service level support 3, this would be your developer/programmer/ or someone with skills of the like. With 1&1 hotline, you do not even get Service level support 1, it is more like Service level support .04. These employees that I have encounter always have an excuse not to help you, the most common one being "our systems are down", and when you are not handed this excuse you are very likely to get sent on a wild goose chase that will lead to no where. Every Problem that I have experienced so far, has not been a user error, it has originated from their routing headquarters. The last issue, which happened Saturday of last week, and now is Thursday, someone at their headquarters has deleted my phone number from their database, and no one has been able to help me. I have spoken to different employees every single day since this happened, without getting the problem resolved. This is the worst service I have ever experienced in Germany. How can the government allow these people, to charge customers for a service that they hardly ever provide?

I conducted a survey in my company base in Frankfurt, to see which was the most reliable DSL provider. Out of 80 people, 61 have ARCOR, the rest have T-com, and they all vouch for the reliability and service of their respective provider. In conclusion, I can not wait for my two year contract to expire so I can switch to ARCOR or T-com. Please avoid 1&1, they give a whole new meaning to the word migraine.

Scogs has been using it for his e-mail for the last app. five years and has had problems with a downed server maybe four times. I have registered a website there but have not set it up yet, thanks for the warning.

Have you cancelled? If not, do it quickly as you are bound to the automatic contract extension.

I also with 1x1 (3 DSL, land.line by telekom) and haven't had any troubles so far. (only when I didn't set up the system correctly myself). I've phoned the helpline several times, they've always been helpful. I've changed to 1x1 full DSL now, hopefully I will not encounter the problems mentioned above!

Call 02602960 and ask to speak to Henning Ahlert. Henning is chief operations manager of 1&1 at their HQ in Montabaur. It might take an effort to get to him, and you might only get to his assistant, but if you explain your problem eloquently and have your case well prepared, you will find him very helpful, and if he agrees with your argument, exceedingly swift to escalate your problem(s) inside his organisation until they are resolved to your satisfaction. I did this last year when some Muppet in 1&1 messed up their global routing tables and isolated a number of other German providers from their services to over 7 million customers (including TT)

That's the best advice you could hope for. Forget all the idiots you've been talking too and the other idiots you would talk to, go straight to "The Man". Just remember that he isn't (or shouldn't be) one of the idiots you've been dealing with, so put on some sugar lipgloss and kiss his ass a little to get the situation resolved.

Its not just 1&1. We moved to dresden from berlin in August and it took 6 weks to get a telecom line and our DSL connection transfered.

It was like ebing in th UK during the early 90's.

My girlfriend called 1&1 3 times but we still did not have any net connection.

I called, spoke to a guy. he asked me several questions. I gave him the info and a little extra from the file connection log. He went quiet and eventualy said, I'll just ask.

He came back, said he knew what the problem was, my connection would be running from 14:00 the next day and it was.

I know people who worl for internet providers and you have to be lucky to either get someone who really knows what they are doing or someone with personality to ask when tey are not sure.

In call centres (in germany) this is rare. The staff are genraly poorly trained and under a lot of pressure to hit the SLA's. As such, they will just hangup on people, not help people and just give you any excuse.

However, they could also believe what they are telling you. The problem is, some of these poeple are being used by their firm as cheap workers and they are using the firm as a step in either the customer service or technical support field. This means we, the customer are the ones who have to put up with poor service.

We are going to change from 1&1 when our contract is up. I am already planning to have my computer upto date as I do not know just how long it will take. Should we decide to swap our phone provider...I may never see the internet 'not so superhighway but more fast country road' again.

Thank you all for the input and advice. York--thanks a mil for the contact.

Never had a problem in 3 years .

I had them as well for over a year with no problems, but then I started having major problems. After 9 months of emailing and calling back and forth - they had me so pissed off I also sought the "top man". Ended up with the same name above (Ahlert) and within a couple hours what no one was able to do in 9 months he (or his assistant) did. I was able to get my contract cancelled and ALL money refuned for the entire 9 months. It does pay to jump over all the arses and go straight to the top.

I don't think you should go "straight to the top". You need to try the traditional channels first, document your experiences (names help!) and show you've exhausted the intended route. I'm not a 1&1 customer. The problem I was addressing was a MAJOR German-wide issue, which the support lines I was calling simply could not understand, despite comments like "you are the n'th person to have that problem today, but before we continue, let's just check your browser settings", as they read verbatim from the "Dummies guide to Answering Stupid Customer Questions"...

I don't think I've ever moved in Germany, or changed ISP, or even just changed tarif with an ISP and had it go smoothly. And judging by the stories of friends and colleagues, I'm not alone.

Still the last big problem I had was also with 1&1, which resulted in my resolving never to use them again. Instead I signed up with GMX, who I only later found out is a subsidiary of 1&1.

I haven't yet had a problem with a dodgy connection, but can imagine that with the pitiful level of service you get from ISPs, that getting it fixed is likely to be quite an ordeal.

Typically you sign up for two years, and if you don't give notice within one (or two) months of then, your contract will be extended by one year. I'm keeping tabs on when my Mindestlaufzeit (minimum contract period) is up, and will then decide between switching to something else for less money, or letting sleeping dogs lie and sticking with a connection that at least works...

As I've suggested in earlier postings, when you sign up for a contract with a minimum term (phone, internet mobile, gas, electricity, etc) you should cancel the contract "from the earliest possible opportunity" immediately it starts, even if that opportunity is 2 years away. That way the cancellation is in, accepted and pending completion of the minimum term. If towards the end of the term you feel you are likely to continue, then simply cancel the cancellation, otherwise migrate to a different provider (or different contract with the same provider), almost always saving money from the earliest possible opportunity and not finding yourself bound in for additional years. Many providers (Telekom included) no longer feel bound to tell you that a better deal is available or to move you to a better deal automatically - they wait for you to find out yourself and hope they already extended you for a year on the old conditions before they do...

I agree with the OP - 1&1 is absolutely useless, just avoid them.
One of the packages they offered (this is a bit more than 6 months ago) looked very good to me - cheapest, fastest internet connection around, plus a phone flatrate via VoIP. I checked the availability in my area, found it to be available, and ordered the thing.

There was an automatic confirmation e-mail, but after that, I just waited and waited. I was very busy and hadn't moved in yet, so I didn't pursue the matter as much as I should have, maybe. But many weeks after the initial order, they send an e-mail saying "We are sorry to tell you that the deal you signed up for is not available in your area. Thanks." or something to that effect.

Turns out, they were offering VoIP on their website and basically _selling_ this, but they hadn't even managed to make the service available, and this wasn't just in "my area", this was larger parts (if not all) of Germany! Thus, the whole deal was of course not available anymore, and they had cancelled my order without informing me in due course. IIRC, there were some other problems, because although I wasn't very keen on getting a contract with them anymore, I did ask some questions, and I think they couldn't even guarantee that DSL was available via 1&1 where I live, despite the fact that I had checked and double-checked (talking to one of their hotline idiots), AND I live in a densely populated area very close to Nuremberg - this is not somewhere in the sticks!

All the while they were still offering all the services they apparently can't provide on their website. They accepted my order and promised to take care of this, and after weeks, they tell me its not even available where I live, something they should have known from the word go!
It usually takes a while to get this stuff sorted out, and thanks to them, I had to sign up for something new just days before I was to move in, and spent weeks offline. BUT, I chose ARCOR - and I have not once had a problem or anything negative to say about them. Good connection, good price, good service. They're the best.

But just wait until you DO have a problem that needs solving, or worse still want to cancel...

From what I have read on the net, hears from friends and my experience 1&1 are ok as long as you do not have any problems.

Once you have a problem they really come through as the usless bunch of poeple they really are.

As I said, to be fair to them, in the years we have been with them we have had around a total of 10 hours when we could not conect to the internet. Until we moved to Dresden and that was luck that the guy I spoke to was new enough to actualy think he should ask someone else.

In reference to this about ARCOR I can only say AMEN. ARCOR is great if you NEVER need help, otherwise God help you...especially if you don't speak German.

Paul

We moved recently from one part of Munich to another part not so far away. We decided to switch telecom providers from Arcor to 1&1. Arcor is not a bad service provider. While they didn't seem to provide us with everything we needed for a smooth DSL installation, we were able to clear things up relatively quickly over the phone. It is annoying to be forced to call a pay-to-call service but everything went smoothly for two years after we signed up.

We switched to 1&1 because they offered some free equipment and were slightly cheaper per month than Arcor. On a whim, and because there was nothing in the contract to indicate it might be difficult, we asked to keep our old phone number. Apparently, it is EXTREMLY complex to migrate a phone number from one residence to the next. Had we known, we wouldn't have asked them to do it. They tried for two months, during which time we received no indication (despite repeated inquiries) as to what was causing the delay. Finally they told us they couldn't transfer the phone number and that we would need to do it ourselves (how!?!) or get a new one. We asked for a new number, and within a few days, we had an appointment to hook up phone service.

Unfortunately, it appears that our starter kit has been shipped to our old address. While I sent them email indicating that it should be shipped to the new address, it appears this email went unread. They also have a "special" customer service line that's substantially more expensive than Arcor's. I have corresponded with them quite a few times by email in order to avoid the special customer service line. I've been living in Germany for a few years now and while my German is not great, I can usually write a German email that more or less makes sense.

In conclusion, if you are thinking about getting phone service in Germany or considering switching providers, you might choose someone other than 1&1.

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I suggest staying away from any service provider that goes through the phone line (i.e. DSL). The whole mess you are in is due to Deutsche Telekoms monopoly on the telecommunications infrastructure. No matter which provider you pick, whether it is T-Com, Arcor, Freenet, Alice, 1&1, etc., you will likely encounter trouble down the line because of it.

My suggestion is to always try cable services, such as Unitymedia or Kabel Deutschland. If they are not available in your area, you are SOL, and will have to deal with T-Com's Vulcan death grip on your phone line.

Kabel Deutschland isn't known for its great customer support and problem solving either.. Have a search..