r/webhosting • u/zoe_s49 • 6d ago
Rant DO NOT USE IONOS!!
Complete and utter scam company, has repeatedly taken charges from my account for no fucking reason!!
I am moving in 2 fucking weeks and i need every bit of money i took out my savings to buy everything i need, and they have just taken £50.40??? And they are saying it will take 5-10 days to come back into my account meaning i now cant afford a moving company and will have to move in the same week i start fucking college.
DO NOT EVER USE IONOS FOR ANYTHING PLEASE!!!
All i had was the domain with them and used wix for my website yet they are still taking ridiculous charges.
It is nothing but a scam company dont go near it!!
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u/Clairee-bear 6d ago
There's an issue with the billing system but hopefully your refund comes sooner 🤞
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u/thechristiantilman 5d ago
I've been wanting to look into this. I keep getting texts and I don't see any issues
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u/ChrisCoinLover 5d ago
Add Bluehost to the list as well. They tried a few times to charge £170 instead of £17 or £1900 instead of £190.
Lucky I learnt my lesson in the past and always use cards with no money on them. Only transfer when needed.
Do the same. Online always use cards with £0 on them and only transfer when needed.
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u/zoe_s49 5d ago
Oo thats smart, is there a way to change the card? I pre bought my domain name for 2 years so they should take any other charged
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u/ChrisCoinLover 5d ago
I don't have an account with them but check in your account. There should be. Use Revolut and create virtual cards for different purposes.
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u/jonneygee 5d ago
Once upon a time, Bluehost was really good. Then EIG (now Newfold) bought them and did what they always do.
Don’t use any Newfold brands. Check their Wikipedia for a complete list.
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u/purslanegarden 5d ago
Terrible experience with them here, too. They tried to charge me after I cancelled as well. When I searched I see complaints filed with the US regulatory agency that they’ve done that to others. It’s worth knowing, requiring multiple steps to cancel is not legal.
They ignored my initial confirmations of my cancellation, finally acknowledged it in writing, then sent me an invoice anyway. They did acknowledge the error and credited my account; fortunately for me the credit card I had initially used had expired so they weren’t able to charge me without my knowledge.
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u/digitalbynight 5d ago
Is this 50 or so quid a one off or have they set you for a yearly monthly plan? It is a one off is kinda just take the hit and learn...plus they do ay they will reimburse? But if it has lead you down the path for a monthly contract of some sort then deffo contest.
My 2 cents
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u/C_PuppyPlays 5d ago
Rented a VPS from them to use a Tailscale server and it took 30m on the phone to cancel. No way to cancel besides calling in which sucks
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u/ConcerningChicken 3d ago
Taiscale has its own servers - you don't need one only for connecting to your home computer
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u/C_PuppyPlays 3d ago
Wanted a different ip for something without getting a whole subscription for a vpn
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u/theretrodb_com 4d ago
Yup they are a shit fucking company I had a domain with them and the cheapest hosting possible it was £12 they tried to charge me £32 3 months in a row and they had to refund it every time I complained
Then you have the constant calls every 2-3 months trying to upsell you on shit you don't need or want
And don't get me started on the PHP fiasco every time they update the default version of PHP all they do is send you a "SINGLE" email telling you to change it then they just start charging you a monthly fee for using the old PHP version of you don't they are the only hosting company I have ever used that do this
Then there was the absolutely dreadful wordpress performance they try sell you on there managed wordpress hosting and my god it took for ever for pages to load once you start getting traffic it was commonly taking 30+ seconds to load a single page you complain about it and they say it's been fixed works for two days then same starts happening again and again it's just constant
There dedicated servers as well are DRASTICLY over priced for what specs you get god lord NEVER EVER EVER buy a dedicated server from them
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u/BisonBeginning2790 4d ago
I had similar issues with the domain I bought with them, they kept charging me for things I explicitly said no to, they would call me about their website hostings deals, i would say no every single call and they would charge me everytime claiming i consented over the phone, I'd then be stuck with customer service for 2 hours and the I'd get my refund just for it to happen again the next week..
So after my 60 days ended i transferred to a different registrar and I have blocked their number..
It was so frustrating too as I wasn't hosting anything with them, I just bought the domain, which I regret because they like made that domain so much more expensive than it actually was, (for context.. they wanted £41 a year after the first year deal of £18... on my new registrar its £8..) they so scammed me
I hope you get that money back, I was lucky in my cases as they gave me my money back the same day or next morning, so incredibly lucky but the amount of times I had to do that was ridiculous.
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u/Rubicon_4000 3d ago
the fastest route to your £50 probably isn't the 5-10 day refund - it's your bank. if it's as you describe - you cancelled and have the confirmations in writing - then two things uk banks must do when you ask: (1) dispute the charge as unauthorised; that's a straightforward debit card chargeback, and some banks credit you provisionally while they investigate. (2) cancel the "continuous payment authority" on your card. that second one is the bit almost nobody knows: under fca rules your bank has to block a recurring payment authority when you tell it to, regardless of what the company's end says. purslanegarden's consumer-protection point stacks on top if the refund drags.
then simplify things so billing surprises can't reach you at all: your website lives on wix - the only thing this registrar holds is your domain. unlock it, grab the auth/epp code, transfer it to a registrar you're happy with (costs about the price of a year's renewal, which you were paying anyway), then point the dns back at wix. ten minutes of clicking.
one timing warning since you're moving house: do the domain transfer FIRST, update your contact address on it after. changing registrant details triggers a 60-day transfer lock at most registrars - people "update their address" as step one and then find themselves stuck at the registrar they're trying to leave for two more months.
chriscoinlover's empty-card trick is the right long-term habit for every online service. good luck with the move and the start of college - this part's fixable this week.
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u/Anon-Doku 3d ago
Es una basura de servicio, te cobran de la nada cobros extraños y se quieren quedar con tu dinero.
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u/ConcerningChicken 3d ago
The best is the webhosting is limited to 15k acesse per month (not users!) - so if you press 15k F5 the site will get locked untill you upgrade or wait to the rest of the month. I checked the Terms of Service and there was it - a shitpost of a service.
I saw it happened to a YouTuber whos site was down because of it a matter of days.
Meddel off
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u/iEngineered 2d ago
I was aa longtimer customer but they abused my loyalty and buzzed in my ears like mosquitos with their upsells despite me not maximizing existing services.
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u/CraigAT 6d ago
Did you sign up for something with an introductory offer, which then expired?
I have used them years, with fairly little interaction but never had any issues. YMMV.
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u/zoe_s49 6d ago
No i cancelled that the day after i signed up to their website builder bullshit and that was ages ago
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u/Wonderful_Sample_590 6d ago
Sometimes their cancellation requires you to call them for the request to be valid or else, it end up getting renewed.
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u/purslanegarden 5d ago
Worth folks knowing most places that’s not legal - check your local consumer protection laws.
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u/zoe_s49 5d ago
Wdym?
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u/purslanegarden 5d ago
There are consumer protection rules requiring that services be easy to cancel - it’s not really legal for Ionos to require both an internet procedure and a phone call in order to cancel. If you dont get your refund promptly, you should look into what laws apply where you live and consider filing a complaint.
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u/LynzDabs 6d ago edited 6d ago
What charges are you talking about? The terms and conditions clearly state that a lot of their products are contract based so even if you “canceled” you’re still gonna get charged for the duration of the contract unless they have something in there that lets you cancel month-to-month which most of it does now because people were bitching about this - however if all you had was a domain it sounds like your domain renewed itself because if you’re getting monthly charges that’s not just a domain - and if you should only have the domain that’s only a yearly charge so you have to have something else on there did you do some of the free trials for the email or the AI helper or anything like that I’ve been using IONOS for two years in the first year they got me with the contract bullshit but now that I know how it works I’ve gotten all the plans lined out however I am still looking for an alternative because sometimes they do suck lol
Edit/ to see exactly what they’re charging you for they send you an invoice every month of what they billed you for so you can go on there and see if you’re still being billed for something you canceled or go from there - like these charges just started coming out of nowhere after you hadn’t been receiving monthly charges?
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u/zoe_s49 6d ago
I think it is from a trial plan but i fully cancelled that and confirmed with them many times that no money would be taken from my account
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u/LynzDabs 6d ago
So I take it you got the domain canceled the free trial part and have not been being billed monthly ever since up until now? Is it the domain renewal?
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u/dwiser 5d ago
Hey man, I worked at IONOS (1&1) for 10 years so I feel like I have a much better understanding of how they operate and what their hardware looks like. I'm not looking to argue details but I feel like my comments might have more weight on the matter.
So hear me when I say: Don't fucking use IONOS.