Is 123reg the worst internet host out there?

andyandy

anthropomorphic ape
andyandy
Joined
Apr 30, 2006
Messages
8,377
I started a thread must have been over a year ago, asking for advice on web hosting, well i ended up choosing 123reg.co.uk - they were quite cheap and looked ok....

well they are dreadful - they had over 1 week constant downtime - which knocked the site out of google for weeks on end, but refused to give any service refund.

Then they have an auto-renewal which stores your credit card and just takes money out without any direct affirmation....so my Instant-traffic service was up for renewal, I didn't want to renew, went to the website on the day it expired, to find they had already taken out the money for another year. Well, you would presume any decent company would refund that upon being contacted the same day. Nope. Not one bit. They genuinely don't give a toss that i don't want the service.

So, is this par for the course in the murky world of the internet, or are 123reg genuinely just a crap company?

Oh, and where are the best/most influential review sites so i can warn other people to be wary of this them?

Grrrr.....:mad:
 
Goodness, just checked out some of the other reviews here:

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews92855.html

looks like i'm not the only one....

The company is a joke. I emailed their support to cancel a hosting package (as the price had more than doubled in two years) yet they refused to accept cancellation this way... even the secured log-in section was not good enough to cancel the hosting according to one Farhan (the customer service rep handling my case), I replied by saying I could never get through on the 10p a minute helpline as after 15 minutes of waiting each time I rang no-one answered, and I got sick of listening to the woman ...
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I have had four domains registered with this company, which wasn't too bad to start off with. One of the domains, which was on special offer when I first bought it, expired after one year and after not having used it I decided I would not renew it. Then I received a large bill for a renewal - 123-reg had stored my credit card details and automatically renewed the domain "for my convenience" without my authorisation or permission.
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The poorest site I have ever done business with. I am sure this was a good idea at its inception BUT its execution leaves a lot to be desired. It is the most frustrating web hoster I have used and you would have to be an IT geek to use its support mechanisms.

When you try to cancel they send you round in circles. It took 30 minutes at my expense to cancel this package.
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RUBBISH
Changed my login details without telling me in any way. so could not upload files for weeks.
Cancelling hosting is a NIGHTMARE. the process of climbing Everest would be easier.
Even if you move your hosting and they know you no longer have hosting with them THEY STILL CHARGE YOU

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY...YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
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And so on......seems like a bunch of crooks are in charge....
 
If you started a thread asking for advice on hosting, I'm fairly certain I would have recommended 1and1. Perhaps in future you'll listen to my advice. :D
 
I've used Bluehost several times in the past for my websites and they've been pretty reliable and easy to deal with. Right now SkepticsRock is hosted on Shellfusion - they provide both the UNIX shell for our IRC server, and the hosting for the website.
 
Thanks for the alternative recommendations.....when my web hosting expires i'll look into both of them. I've already removed my credit card details from the site so they won't be getting any more money from me. Seems a pretty dumb business strategy - slash and term short termism, sure you might get a few extra quid today, but you're sacrificing years worth of future payments.....

i'd like to call my credit card company and see if i can block payment - but they are still my current web-hosts and domain name registers - and reading accounts from other people online, if you try and contest any charges they simply block your access to your account. Seem like real cowboys.

oh well, i'll chalk it up to experience :)
 
rwinslow said:
Hi there Andy. I work in 123-reg support.

Sorry thongs have not worked well for you.

Can you email me, richard.winslow@123-reg.co.uk your username and a phone number so I can check out your renewal?

Thanks. Richard.
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How many companies would make this offer on a forum? I am sure I have read many threads here that mention bad experiences, but I cannot recall any posts like the above.
 
I think you'd have a hard time finding a worse internet host than, for example, geocities. A week's downtime is trumped by existence failure. Not that there was that much good content there, but I do miss a few useful sites.
 
I think this is a lesson for everyone. Before making any major purchase do a search to find reviews. They are becoming more common.

123-reg's reputation is in tatters. It will require a lot of work for them to repair it. In the meantime they could lose many customers.

Thanks for your PM rwinslow.
 
rwinslow said:
Hi there Andy. I work in 123-reg support.

Sorry thongs have not worked well for you.

Can you email me, richard.winslow@123-reg.co.uk your username and a phone number so I can check out your renewal?

Thanks. Richard.
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Thanks Richard - i will do, though i've already been told by 3 separate customer service that they won't give any refund, who immediately afterwards closed the support threads i'd started. The last one even suggested that if i had a complaint i needed to write to them with it!

so i'm not holding out much hope. There are some dreadful reviews stacking up for 123reg - they seem only interested in making as much as they can as quickly as they can...and sod the consequences down the line.
 
rjh01 said:
I think this is a lesson for everyone. Before making any major purchase do a search to find reviews. They are becoming more common.

123-reg's reputation is in tatters. It will require a lot of work for them to repair it. In the meantime they could lose many customers.
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It's fair comment - though i did look online and at the time their reviews didn't seem too bad....oh well :(

Just scrolling through the 200+ mostly negative reviews on Review Centre, they nearly all start to really kick in with serious disputes over auto-renewal around September 2009. Lots of people saying they've been over-billed, lots saying they've been refused refunds, lots even saying that the set their accounts to manual renewal or expire, and had money taken out anyway.

Management are either on a short term bonus binge whilst screwing the company, a bunch of crooks or complete morons. I wonder which one....
 
Just an update - Richard has contacted me and said that they will refund the auto-payment, which is good! So there are at least some decent people working there....:)
 
rwinslow said:
Sorry thongs have not worked well for you.
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I dunno. Thongs work out great for me!

BTW just to avoid any misunderstandings, I believe that in the US thongs are called "slippers". ;)
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If you're looking at moving hosts, I can recommend 34sp.com. I've used them for all my own sites for seven or eight years and never had cause to complain. Their tech support is great - I once sent them a support email on a Sunday morning and got a very helpful reply only six hours later that completely solved the problem.
My experience with 123reg is limited, but in line with others' experiences. One of my web design clients has her site hosted on 123reg - last year, I was trying to install a well-known ecommerce program on her site and hit problems that I figured could be related to their server software. So I contacted support with a detailed description of what was happening and asking about their server setup; five days later, I got back a standard, useless "Have you searched the FAQs?" reply.
 
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