Below is an email that I wrote to Mr Daniel Bromely of 1and1 internet. I was advised by 1and1 call centre staff that Mr Bromley was the billing customer service manager, though as it turns out this information was not correct, and Mr Bromley is in actual fact merely a lowly billing department team leader unable to exercise any discretion or flex ability outside of his narrow scope of authority.

Billing team leader, Mr Bromley, didn't actually read this email at all by the time I actually spoke with him some five days after sending it. However his billing team assured me in several telephone conversations that they were raising the issue with Mr Bromley. When I finallyspoke with him his attitude was curt to the point of being aggressive and downright rude.

From: Simon Jones <#######@#######.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 17:14:19 +0000
To: <billing@1and1.co.uk>
Subject: Attention of Daniel Brome

Dear Mr Bromley,

With reference to the account number #######, I write to bitterly complain about the abysmal service and customer care I have received from 1and1 internet.

Basically the complaint is and has been ongoing for some time. Despite the claims of 1and1 internet I did try to cancel the auto renew on the domain sarahshomecrafts.com, however for reasons that it seems no one is able to explain, faxes that were sent requesting this were never actioned and the domain was automatically renewed.

I called 1and1 internet and made my displeasure very clear, I also am aware that .com domains can be 'unregistered' within a short time after registration, however because "management is not customer facing" I was never able to get to anyone who was able to make a managerial decision to simply unrenew the domain as requested. Instead I was told I had to pay and when I failed to do so 1and1 froze and locked my account. The net result is that I now have to pay expenses to BFS financial services.

The lunacy of all of this is that 1and1 have, as a result of their pig headed and inflexible attitude, lost my custom on all other domain names. This may not seem like the end of the world and indeed as one of your customer service representatives said "This is hardly big money is it, so why should we care." However the 1and1 business model is based upon volume, and though you might not care, you will have managed to lose my custom based upon my experience with regard to the sarahshomecrafts.com domain name.

I am stunned that a little good sense and flexibility couldn't have been used in this case. Indeed had that of been the case 1and1 internet would have kept my custom for all of my other domains. As it is I have already transferred away some of my domains to another provider and depending on the outcome of this email I will transfer all of my customers domain names (54 in total) away from 1and1 internet at the end of their billing cycle. These accounts are separate to the one I mention here.

I have been a 1and1 customer for a few years now and have on the whole enjoyed an acceptable service. Though when there are problems the call centre is often not up to scratch and certainly the complaints procedure is terrible. Often times I am simply cut off by call centre operators when the call moves outside the bounds of anything that is easy to deal with.

I would hope that you will bring this ugly matter to a rapid conclusion and simply remove the sarahshomecrafts.com domain from my account and unlock my account so it may be used once more. Should you decide to not do this then I will of course pay the renewal and the fee's attached to that, but as a result 1and1 will lose my custom, and more importantly all my associated customers custom, for good.

I sincerely hope that at long last good sense will prevail in this matter. Should you wish to discuss this matter with me you can call me after 11am on #### ### ####, asking for Simon Jones.

I will also update the below website to reflect the contents of this email and any action taken thereof.

Kind regards

Simon Jones

 

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who he is, isn't and some of his more obscure work, click here.