I woke up this morning, found out that my lastproxy site was down, and so are all of my other websites hosted on the same accounts. I was so upset and got on the phone right away to call 1and1.
The lady from 1and1 responded politely about the status of my account, saying that the “admin” had decided to move my account to a different server. I was so mad and angry at the moment, but I tried to keep my temper down. I demanded for an explanation from the 1and1 side - as I haven’t received any advanced notice or emails from them about the usage of my site. The lady put me on hold for about 40 minutes (!) and got back after talking to her supervisor and the “admin” guy, saying that they have had put my account back on, but the “admin” would send me an email afterwards explaining the situation. Fine. An hour after that, I received a somewhat threatening email from them:
Dear Nhat Le, (Customer ID: 91XXXXXX)
Recently we have noticed that your web site(s) is consuming a
disproportionate amount of server resources. Because of this, we have
had to move your account off of the shared hosting server to an
auxilliary server. We now request that you consider purchasing a Managed
or other Dedicated Server in order to continue hosting with 1&1
Internet.The decision to move your account was made by the system administrators
in order to improve the quality of service for the rest of our clients
on the shared server from which you were previously hosted.[Why I wasnt’ notified in advanced? You managed to always charge me my money way before I even know about it, so why can’t you let me know in advanced?] The
resources consumed by your account threatened the ability of that server
to capably operate as as a shared host, so it was required that your
account be moved in order to mitigate server load. [By “mitigating”, you mean hacking into my files and disabled it? I will consider to take more actions on this too.]Though we could move
your site back to the original shared hosting server, it is not
recommended. Your account activity has demonstrated that your site
deserves its own server to better suit its performance needs. [Yeah, I’m moving off right now to my own VPS. Thank you!]Please visit 1and1.com to review the server products we offer. You will
have one (1) month to make a decision and migrate your account over to a
1&1 server or another host provider. [I’m taking action now! And read my lips, I’m not buying anything from 1and1 ever again] You can choose to return your
account back to the shared server, provided that you take steps to
reduce the load generated by your websites. If the account has to be
moved off the shared server system again you will only have the option
of purchasing a dedicated server account to continue hosting with 1&1
Internet.Please reply to this email promptly. Further questions/comments should
be directed to admin@1and1.com.Thank you for your compliance in this matter.
–
Sincerely,
John A. Fernandez
Customer Compliance Operative
1&1 Internet Inc.
Internet.
So they decided to automatically move my site off to a difference server even before notifying me. That’s a pretty stupid and bold move that 1and1 mase. Frankly, I’ve been happy with hosting with them (I’m a 3+ years customer, have recommended 1and1 to friends too). After yesterday when my files got hacked into and today with the closing down of my site, 1and1 just suddenly become a crook now.
I did call them up a week ago asking them SPECIFICALLY about the CPU USAGE POLICY, they told me that anything happened, they would let me know ASAP. I still had the email confirmed my talk with the guy from the support staff. So much for such a promise. You just broke it, 1and1. I really want to file a BBB compliant on 1and1’s reckless business practice. After all this mess has settled down, that’s the action I would take to show 1and1 how to treat customers.
Their advertising scheme is too good to be true: my current business plan got 1Tb transfer - that’s a boat load of bandwidth that a huge, huge (mega) site would take a month. And if your site is that popular, you should be on your own dedicated server already. 1and1 is basically offering the same service for 1/10 of the price of a good dedicated system. The deal is just too good to be true. So the catch is when your site got a little popular, they will FORCE you to upgrade by threatening to close down your site. This is really their business practice. They spend money on flashy, multi-page ads on magazines and at the same time, squeeze hard-earned money on the little webmaster guy who got hooked. 1and1 means they one big bad crook company against one of you.
The only thing that would cause me big trouble is transferring all of my domains to Godaddy. That will be a big pain in the neck as I have about 15 domains hosted on my 1and1 account. What a mess they are causing me. I just wasted my day for all of this non-sense.
My take on this: watch out for 1and1. And don’t sign up with them if you want to do serious hosting. Get a VPS or dedicated instead!
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It’s a typical scenario these days, specially with the large discount providers. I think it’s sad that you more and more often see sites being closed, moved or suspended due to the ISP chosing to do so.
Specially the cases where the customers are promissed unlimited bandwidth, and banned for consuming too much bandwidth, are stupid.
Regarding your specific situation, at least they could have contacted you before they took action.