I registered a good domain (imo), made the mistake of doing it with 1and1.com
Used hostgator for years, used namecheap for years, godaddy for years, liquidweb... 0 problems in years, ever.
I registered 1 domain with 1&1, had the account for months, company CC got billed etc..
all fine.
Then out of the blue the account gets locked and it says to contact support.
I contact them, after 7 calls, I got nothing.
1st they said it was a billing issue and gave me a 2nd number to call.
2nd number said it wasn't a billing issue it was security issue, gave me a 3rd number.
3rd number connects me to a guy named Dave from Security (wouldn't give Dave a job as unpaid intern doing starbucks runs for mcdonalds but whatever) who from his answering tone was already like, yeah I get calls a lot and provide 0 answers just like my other collegues.
Dave from 1&1 was special guy, he wanted to lie but couln't really do it for the company.
1&1 Dave said my account was locked and could never be reactivated (we all know that's BS of course) because I didn't send an ID after their request, I then pointed out I sent 1&1 an Id, he then switched the excuse to "ID was sent too late, that's the reason", I point out I sent the email soon after their contact, he then switched to "Yeah but we terminated business with your European country" I pointed out that's nonsense since 1 you did business for months, 2 you switched your reason 3 times already and 3 we signed a contract prior to your newly invented policy, so he then changed to a 4TH excuse saying my name was fake!
I point out to him I sent an ID and will send any other documents he wants, he then proceeds to go into a loop where he repeats "Sir there's nothing I can do about it, there's nothing I can do about it etc" I point out they were confiscating a good domain and giving me no options or reasons, that my only way to get some answer would be a lawyer and asked for Dave's name to know who I was speaking to (I agreed to them regitering calls btw) 1&1 Dave said he can't and once I say the word lawyer he immediately hang up and ran for the hills.
My options:
1) I will be sending a letter to ICANN and provide proof, including transparent access to my laptop, I'm willing to send the laptop in.
2) I will after that get a lawyer to try and get them to act like a decent company, but most importantly want to do a PR run until it's common knowledge that this company is an outright leader in internet scams.
I wish I had googled their name next to scam before registering. I'm sure The Verge or any other tech outlet would love to have the story of a crooked Domain registrar confiscating my domain. My name also happens to get clicks easy so it'll be popcorn time for every webmaster out there.
If any of you want to do a class action lawsuit as well add yourselves to the list below and I'll get in touch.
I'm posting this on different forums as well.
Currently giving them a 7 days window to fix things with account 356185840, after that the steps above get rolled as outlined.
It's no surprise this company went public on the stock exchange and was forced to go back to being private, it's very hard to hide a scam from investors, they tend to google more than I did.
Thanks for your time and suggestions.
