Two years ago when I decided to give Van Steelandt Photography a place on the web I was referred to 1and1 web hosting by a friend. From the start I had nothing but problems and extremely poor customer service from this company. So at my first opportunity I switched to a new host. I transferred everything, or so I thought. It turns out my domain registration is still held by 1and1. The registration expired yesterday. With no warning, no reminder, no heads up from the company, my website has disappeared and been locked by 1and1. If I want my domain back I have to sign up for another account with a company I do not want to do business with and pay for them to unlock it and reregister it. Plus I have to wait a week while they decide if they are going to undo all of this. I am angry!!

Lesson learned; only do business with those people who want you to be successful. You can get a real feel for a company by their web presence. Make sure any contact you have with a company has a personal feel. People should address you your name and not your account number. When you receive emails from web based companies they should be sent from a real person who gives you their name and contact information. Contact the company by phone at least once. Make sure you can get phone help when needed.

Hope this saves someone some of the hassle that I am dealing with.

D.