1 & 1 Hosting Problems


	1 & 1 Web Hosting Problems www.oldcopper.org www.oldcopper.org.uk Regrettably, it was impossible to navigate this site using the top and side bars from 30th March until 18th April. This is was caused by technicians at the 1&1 web host helpdesk who were unable to sort out the hosting of two websites at one time using Front Page software. Attempts were made to solve the problems and involved 13 extremely frustrating phone calls and 21 emails to the help desk in The Philippines together with letters to the UK and German headquarters. (I saw your postings about 1 and 1 hosting. We used them here in the US for our site and had much the same experience as you. I just wanted to get my hands on someone after a while and show them how I really felt..... W .T. USA. ) The new host for the website is excellent but attempts to cancel the 1&1 'Business' website plan have been totally ignored. Despite website visits, telephone calls and a recorded delivery letter to the head office in England, a further direct debit has been taken from my Visa account. Barclaycard had refused to cancel the direct debit, saying that it was up to 1&1 to do so. Beware of adding direct debit mandates to credit cards! (Added 17th November 2007) This record follows attempts to prevent two websites overwriting each other when loaded. Initially the pages were OK but the copyright notices in the headers became corrupted and caused significant misunderstandings. A simple problem? The results show 1 & 1 totally incapable of resolving it. · It shows that their helpdesk has no system for maintaining a record of clients’ problems, · No quality control and feedback system that might ensure clients are kept happy, · No consistency of approach, · An infuriating lack of continuity, · A strong tendency to refer again to irrelevant FAQ sheets before understanding the actual problem each time a new contact is made, · There are no technicians with experience in establishing multiple websites using Front Page software, · The use of the 1 & 1 Netviewer software to access and modify my computer by one technician resulted in complete failure of my web uploading systems. · 1 & 1 have failed to accept responsibility for rectifying this situation. 9^th March Technician ‘A’ 24min. 2 9th March Technician ‘B’ 7min. 2 9^th – 26^th March – tried to overcome the problems. 2 26th March Technician ‘C’ 13min. 2 27th March Technician ‘D’ 13min. 2 27th March Telephone 1min. 2 28th March Technician ‘E’ 10min. 2 28th March Email reply from Antonio Gilos after telephone call 2 28th March Email 3 28th March Email Reply from Ebenezer Camio. 3 29th March Email 3 29th March Email Reply from Wellie Abian. 3 30^th March Email 4 30^th March Email Reply from Romeo Projemo. 4 30th March Technician ‘G’ 71min. 5 31^st March Technician ‘H’ 38min. 5 1^st April Email 5 2^nd April Email Reply from Jonathan Pilla. 6 2^nd April Technician ‘Madeline’ 22min. 6 2^nd April Telephone 1min. 7 2^nd April Technician ‘Charlie’ 73min. 7 4^th April email 7 4^th April email reply from Jonathan Pilla. 7 4^th April email 8 4^th April email reply from James Levi Pangilinan. 8 4^th April Letter 8 6^th April 10 Email 7^th April 10 Email 7^th April 10 Email reply 8^th April 11 Email 8^th April 11 Email 8^th April 17.37pm.. 11 15th April 10.00h BST. 11 15th April email 23.18. 11 16th April email reply from Jon Vonnieda, 02.49. 12 16th April Telephone 1min. 12 16th April email 07.39. 12 19th April Still No Action – website transferred. 13 9^th March Technician ‘A’ 24min www.oldcopper.org and www.oldcopper.org.uk websites were up and running well. Reported that the copyright notices were overwriting each other – advised to use FAQs to sort out the problem. FAQs did not provide the required information. 9th March Technician ‘B’ 7min Reported that information did not cover the problem – advised to keep looking! 9^th – 26^th March – tried to overcome the problems 26th March Technician ‘C’ 13min Reported that information did not cover the problem – advised to keep trying! 27th March Technician ‘D’ 13min Reported again that FAQ information did not cover the problem of hosting existing rather than new multiple websites – advised to keep looking! 27th March Telephone 1min All lines are busy. Please try later. Good Bye 28th March Technician ‘E’ 10min Technician new to case – offered to send more relevant FAQ references. Instead sent links to pages for FP 2003, not FP 2002 that I had already seen. 28th March Email reply from Antonio Gilos after telephone call Dear Vin Callcut, (Customer ID: 6857607) Thank you for contacting us. Please refer to the link provided for the instructions. http://faq.oneandone.co.uk/website_building/fpe_frontpage_extensions/front_page_extensions_with_microsoft_hosting/5.html If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us. Sincerely, Antonio Gilos Technical Support 1&1 Internet 28th March Email Dear Antonio, Thank you for your email. As discussed at the time, that was not the information that I wanted. I am using Front Page 2002, not 2003. I had already printed out and tried implementing the correct pages for FP 2002. I still fail to understand how it applies to an existing sub-web. After eight requests for help, it seems a good idea to look for a hosting organisation that will be more helpful. Vin Callcut 28th March Email Reply from Ebenezer Camio Dear Vin Callcut, (Customer ID: 6857607) Thank you for contacting us. Here are the steps for Frontpage 2002: http://faq.1and1.com/frontpage_extensions/frontpage_extensions_for_ms_ho sting_packages/6.html Please be guided to correct the current problem. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us. Sincerely, Ebenezer Camino Technical Support 1&1 Internet 29th March Email That information is again useless. I have said several times that I have already printed out the pages and tried to get the ideas to work using the html script with existing webs without success. http://www.oldcopper.org/ home page now includes this note of apology to website readers: 'Regrettably, the full functions of these websites are not always available. For the last two months the Front Page Extensions have not been operating fully. The web host helpdesk at One & One has not been able to solve the problems despite nine telephone calls and four emails.' http://www.oldcopper.org.uk/ home page is still deleted because of absence of one & one support. I will make arrangements to transfer hosting elsewhere as soon as possible. Vin Callcut 29th March Email Reply from Wellie Abian Dear Vin Callcut, (Customer ID: 6857607) Thank you for contacting us. I suggest that you recreate the links & the navigational bars of the site & republish. Frontpage extensions are ok here on our end. That normally solves the problem. If it still doesn't work then please specify what areas in your website are you having problems with. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us. Sincerely, Wellie Abian Technical Support 1&1 Internet 30^th March Email I have done as requested and you will see the chaos result. Urgent Attention needed. http://www.oldcopper.org/ The main site 'Oldcopper.org' index.html has been overwritten. http://www.oldcopper.org.uk/ The subweb home page does not show. http://www.oldcopper.org/ The Oldcopper Website Link Bar should show – Page header plus: © Vin Callcut 2004-7. Small extracts may be used with acknowledgement to 'Oldcopper Website'. http://www.oldcopper.org.uk/ No page shows. The Oldcopper UK Website Link Bar should show – page header plus: © 2004-7. Small extracts of the archives may be used with acknowledgement to 'Broseley Local History Society' as appropriate. This message should now show on both home pages: Regrettably, the full functions of these websites are not always available. For the last two months the Front Page Extensions have not been operating fully. The web host helpdesk at One & One has not been able to solve the problems despite nine telephone calls and five emails. 30^th March Email Reply from Romeo Projemo Dear Vin Callcut, (Customer ID: 6857607) Thank you for contacting us. We would like to apologize for the duration it took us to reply back to your email, as much as we strive to respond to all emails within 24 hours. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this issue has caused on you. For further assistance much better if you will contact our Technical Support line 0870 24 11 247. We are open 24/7, so you can call us any time you want. In this way we can verify which is the correct page in your website. And we can have a discussion about your concern while you are in the phone with the Technical Support. Once again we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this issue has caused on you. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us. Sincerely, Roland Projemo Technical Support 1&1 Internet 30th March Technician ‘G’ 71min Reported that information did not cover the problem. Technician used the 1&1 netviewer system to access my PC and convert Front Page directory to be headed ‘http://oldcopper.org’, changed the file structure by adding directories for each of the two webs. She then asked me to load the websites into the new directories, convert them to individual websites, upload them and then ring back for further instructions regarding commissioning. 31^st March Technician ‘H’ 38min Rang back for the next stage instructions. Technician could not help, saying individual websites were already visible. He ignored the fact that the borders had gone and navigation was still impossible due to the absence of navigation bars under the header and in sidebars. 1^st April Email RE: C70684935 - 1&1 Internet Support Urgent Customer ID: 6857607 Case No 70925436 Telephone 01952 882508 Urgent Attention needed. I have now wasted a vast number of hours trying to get my two websites back working and my patience is exhausted. This message will stay on home pages and may be seen by 40,000 visitors/month until I can start work again: 'Regrettably, the full functions of these websites are not now available. For the last two months the Front Page Extensions have not been operating fully. The web host Technical Helpdesk at One & One has not been able to solve the problems despite ten telephone calls and six emails.' A lady on the Technical helpdesk on Saturday 30th March usefully rectified some of the problems, rewrote and re-installed the 'default.asp' file and asked me to copy files to web directories and then to telephone again so that the directories could be converted to websites. This I did. When I phoned in on Sunday to ask for this to be done the Technical assistant did not have a record of the problems of the last two months and could not understand the situation. He suggested modifying again the 'default.asp' but I cannot now find it in the directories as it is hidden. He did not have the same capability to see and modify files as needed. This was yet another hour of telephone time wasted. The main 'Oldcopper.org' and subweb 'Oldcopper.org.uk' websites still both open with the subweb home page. There is a copy of the subweb home page in the main directory but this does not show when the webs are opened. While the main 'Oldcopper.org' and subsidiary 'Oldcopper.org.uk' websites can now be found, all the header and navigation bars have vanished. The helpdesk could not rectify this problem. Likewise the two different copyright sentences have vanished. I have managed to reinstate the header and sidebar spaces but the navigation bars do not show. I cannot now see or modify the file structures on my home PC and the helpdesk assistant could not facilitate that. Many of the photos do not now show and I will have to reinstate them. http://www.oldcopper.org/ The main 'Oldcopper' site 'Oldcopper.org' home page 'index.html' does not appear. Cannot see borders, derived, fpclass, overlay, private. Themes, vti_cnf or vti_pvt http://www.oldcopper.org.uk/ The OldcopperUK Website - Link Bar should show - page header plus: (c) 2004-7. Small extracts of the archives may be used with acknowledgement to 'Broseley Local History Society' as appropriate. Oldcopper.org copyright notice should be '(c) 2004-7. Small extracts of the archives may be used with acknowledgement to 'Oldcopper.org website'. If these problems are not rectified tomorrow I will take the matter much further. Vin Callcut 2^nd April Email Reply from Jonathan Pilla Dear Vin Callcut, (Customer ID: 6857607) Thank you for contacting us. We would like to apologize for the duration it took us to reply back to your email, as much as we strive to respond to all emails within 24 hour. We really like to help about your query, please feel free to call us, in that we could locate and check on what exact files is missing and which of the 2 websites have the errors. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us. Sincerely, Jonathan Pilla Technical Support 1&1 Internet 2^nd April Technician ‘Madeline’ 22min Explained situation She had no access to the email New case No 70974649 Disable, re-enable in ten minutes then ring back in three hours. Oldcopper.org index page unobtainable. No Page headers No navigation bars under headers No navigation bars at sides No navigation structure visible on my PC 12.05pm – re-published website – no improvements 7.15pm - re-published website – no changes 2^nd April Telephone 1min All lines are busy. Please try later. Good Bye 2^nd April Technician ‘Charlie’ 73min One header recovered. No further progress possible in accessing oldcopper.org home page or reinstalling other headers and navigation bars. Supervisor no help. Advised to back up and republish. I was astonished that chaos caused by the helpdesk could not be sorted out due to lack of training in software. 4^th April email Case No 70925436 and others Customer ID: 6857607 I was astonished when Charlie told me after consultation with his line manager that no further help could be given. The big websites ‘oldcopper.org’ and ‘oldcopper.org.uk’ were in usable state when I first started asking for minor help with the header copyright notice. Now they are both useless non-navigable shambles. I have not been able to obtain other help quickly in our small town so will have to bring in an expert at significant expense. I am advised that I can claim damages because of your incompetence based on the large number of hours that I have spent, the cost to the 40,00 users per month and the cost of repairs. Please confirm that the address for service of legal documents in UK should be: UK Headquarters 1&1 Internet Limited The Nova Building Herschel Street Slough SL1 1XS Vin Callcut Tel +44 1952 882508 Oldcopper.org index page unobtainable. No Page headers No navigation bars under headers No navigation bars at sides No navigation structure visible on my PC 4^th April email reply from Jonathan Pilla Dear Vin Callcut, (Customer ID: 6857607) Thank you for contacting us. In your first email, you said that you cannot log in to the frontpage to edit or manage your domain name, oldcopper.org and oldcopper.org.uk but when I checked it again and try to log in to frontpage, I was already log in to your frontpage. The fact here that we cannot actually determine which of the two domain names have the errors. You could call us so that we could rectify and resolve your issue. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us. Sincerely, Jonathan Pilla Technical Support 1&1 Internet 4^th April email Jonathan, I have called more than ten times and faxed seven times to try to get the errors put right and they only get worse. Each time I have said that the correct home page for www.oldcopper.org is 'index.html', not 'home.html' . Last time I called I was told by Charley that it was impossible to find and correct the situation. Why should I waste yet another 15min in the queue and up to an hour with the 'technician' for the situation to just get worse again? · Oldcopper.org index page unobtainable. · No Page headers · No navigation bars under headers · No navigation bars at sides · No navigation structure visible on my PC Vin Callcut 4^th April email reply from James Levi Pangilinan Dear Vin Callcut, (Customer ID: 6857607) Thank you for contacting us. Here is a link you can visit for instructions on how to use FrontPage with multiple domains. (http://faq.oneandone.co.uk/website_building/fpe_frontpage_extensions/fro nt_page_extensions_with_microsoft_hosting/4.html ) (http://faq.oneandone.co.uk/website_building/fpe_frontpage_extensions/fro nt_page_extensions_with_microsoft_hosting/11.html ) If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us. Sincerely, James Levi Pangilinan Technical Support 1&1 Internet 4^th April Letter UK Headquarters 1&1 Internet Limited The Nova Building Herschel Street Slough SL1 1XS Telephone: 0870 24 11 247 Fax: 08450 762205 RE: C70684935 - 1&1 Internet Support Urgent Customer ID: 6857607 Case No 70925436 Telephone 01952 882508 Urgent Attention needed. I have now wasted a vast number of hours trying to get my two websites back working and my patience is exhausted. This message will stay on home pages and may be seen by 40,000 visitors/month until I can start work again: ‘Regrettably, the full functions of these websites are not now available. For the last two months the Front Page Extensions have not been operating fully. The web host Technical Helpdesk at One & One has not been able to solve the problems despite ten telephone calls and six emails.’ A lady on the Technical helpdesk on Saturday 30^th March usefully rectified some of the problems, rewrote and re-installed the ‘default.asp’ file and asked me to copy files to web directories and then to telephone again so that the directories could be converted to websites. This I did. When I phoned in on Sunday to ask for this to be done the Technical assistant did not have any record of the problems of the last two months and could not understand the situation. He suggested modifying again the ‘default.asp’ but I cannot now find it in the directories. He did not have the same capability to see and modify files as needed. This was yet another hour of telephone time wasted. The main ‘Oldcopper.org’ and subweb ‘Oldcopper.org.uk’ websites still both open with the subweb home page. There is a copy of the subweb home page in the main directory but this does not show when the webs are opened. While the main ‘Oldcopper.org’ and subsidiary ‘Oldcopper.org.uk’ websites can now be found, all the header and navigation bars have vanished. The helpdesk could not rectify this problem. Likewise the two different copyright sentences have vanished. I have managed to reinstate the header and sidebar spaces but the navigation bars do not show. I cannot now see or modify the file structures on my home PC and the helpdesk assistant could not facilitate that. Many of the photos do not now show and I will have to reinstate them. http://www.oldcopper.org/ The main ‘Oldcopper’ site 'Oldcopper.org' home page ‘index.html’ does not appear. http://www.oldcopper.org.uk/ The OldcopperUK Website Link Bar should show - page header plus: © 2004-7. Small extracts of the archives may be used with acknowledgement to 'Broseley Local History Society' as appropriate. Oldcopper.org copyright notice should be ‘© 2004-7. Small extracts of the archives may be used with acknowledgement to ‘Oldcopper.org website’. No reply received to date. 6^th April As advised I converted folders to websites – locked out of both when they demanded fresh passwords be provided by host – could not access, edit or publish. Trying to publish from the original Front Page back up also fails with the same message: ‘You do not have permission to do this operation. Ask your website administrator to change your permissions and then try again or log on with a user account that has this permission. To log on with a different user account click OK.’ Email 7^th April In the 'oldcopper.org website the folder 'oldcopperorg' has been converted to a website for www.oldcopper.org The folder 'copperorguk' has now been converted to a website for www.oldcopper.org.uk Access is now denied - new passwords required from yourselves. Please supply the new passwords. It is not now possible to see the file 'default.asp'. Could you therefore please find it and point the website 'oldcopper.org' at the home page 'oldcopper.org.index.html' in the folder. Thank you. Vin Callcut Email 7^th April Second sending after 31 hours. An early reply would be appreciated. -----Original Message----- From: Vin Callcut [mailto:vin@onetel.net] Sent: 07 April 2007 03:11 To: support@1and1.co.uk Subject: RE: C70684935 - 1&1 Internet Support Urgent In the 'oldcopper.org website the folder 'oldcopperorg' has been converted to a website for www.oldcopper.org. The folder 'copperorguk' has now been converted to a website for www.oldcopper.org.uk. Access is now denied - new passwords required from yourselves. Please supply the new passwords. It is not now possible to see the file 'default.asp' Could you therefore please find it and point the website 'oldcopper.org' at the home page 'oldcopper.org.index.html' in the folder. Thank you. Vin Callcut Email reply 8^th April Dear Tony Charles, (Customer ID: 14241262)- not me!! Thank you for contacting us. I am now escalating this case to our second level department i had try to check eveything in here and I cant find anything that will enbale you to enter again a new password This is because it wont ask for a password after you had converted the folder to web. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us. Sincerely, Joey Sanders Rocha Technical Support 1&1 Internet Email 8^th April Reply should have been addressed to: Vin Callcut, (Customer ID: 6857607) and help solve the month-long problems with oldopper.org and oldcopper.org.uk. Vin Callcut Email 8^th April 17.37pm Urgent action still required. The websites www.oldcopper.org and www.oldcopper.org.uk will not upload since they were converted from files. They demand individual passwords and none of the previous ones allow access or upload. That is why there is a problem with access on the host site. Having carried out your instructions to convert the directories to individual websites, I cannot get access, edit or upload without new passwords that the program says are to be supplied by yourselves. It is still not now possible to see the file 'default.asp'. Could you therefore please find it and point the website 'oldcopper.org' at the home page 'oldcopper.org.index.html' in the folder. Thank you. Vin Callcut, (Customer ID: 6857607) 15th April 10.00h BST No reply yet arrived. 15th April email 23.18 Since there seems no chance of getting my two website to run on your hosting, please reset the site to host only 'www.oldcopper.org' using as homepage 'oldcopper.org.index.html as the home page effective immediately. Thank you, Vin Callcut 16th April email reply from Jon Vonnieda, 02.49 Dear Vin Callcut, (Customer ID: 6857607) Thank you for contacting us. What changes were done recently? It looks as though it published fine from my end. Try clearing out your cache files. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us. Sincerely, Jon Vonnieda Technical Support 1&1 Internet (Useless replies Dept?) 16th April Telephone 1min All lines are busy. Please try later. Good Bye. 16th April email 07.39 Dear Jon, If you looked at the records you would see that I have been trying to get the website right since the 9th March. As a result of actions by 1&1 technicians the site has had no navigation facilities since 26th March. The two new site directories have been converted to individual websites as advised. Now I cannot access my two websites to edit or upload them. They demand the use of new passwords that should be but have not been supplied by yourselves. Many Front Page files are now hidden from me so that I cannot delete and replace the corrupted ones. · Oldcopper.org index page unobtainable within the web. · No Page headers · No navigation bars under headers · No navigation bars at sides · No navigation structure visible on my PC · Now no access to my ‘default.asp’ file. · There are no copyright notices visible at all. · The 40,000 users per month are now unable to navigate the sites. · I have lost many hours of productive work while trying to implement recommendations. I repeat: Since there seems no chance of getting my two website to run on your hosting, please reset the site to host only one, 'www.oldcopper.org' using as homepage 'oldcopper.org.index.html as the home page, effective immediately. Thank you, Vin Callcut 19th April Still No Action – website transferred Websites transferred to Intellitech I.T. Solutions Ltd. (UK). Attempts to cancel website account but retain domain names. 27th August - 1&1 website 'Change Account Status' pages go round and round without allowing any changes. E-mail message sent: ‘Please cancel business website contract but retain registration for domains with effect from 31st August 2007. Thanks, Vin Callcut.' 31st August - Still no reply. Telephoned Accounts Dept. 'We can only act on instructions through the accounts pages. I'll email you a link - (to the page that you cannot use!). No such email yet received. Letter sent to the Company Secretary by Recorded Delivery. 31^st August 2007 The Company Secretary, 1&1 Internet Limited The Nova Building Herschel Street Slough SL1 1XS Dear Sir, Re websites ‘oldcopper.org’ and ‘oldcopper.org.uk’ Account No xxxxxx This confirms my email of the 27^th August that has not been acknowledged. ‘Please cancel business website contract but retain registration for domains with effect from 31st August 2007. The domain has been useless for months since your technical help staff were totally unable to host two domains on one website. The domain registrations have not yet been transferred so should be retained as the only part of the account. Problems with the Technical Help staff have included: Incompetence in sorting out structural problems when Front Page software is being used. Lack of fluency in English language for UK reception. No records kept to maintain customer service topic continuity. Long and expensive waiting times for calls to be answered and no access to a nominated contact. Yours, Vin Callcut Recorded Delivery signature recorded 1st September but no action from 1 & 1. Next half year payment debited from my Barclaycard on 22nd October.

The Company Secretary,

Re websites ‘oldcopper.org’ and ‘oldcopper.org.uk’