"It reminds me once again to get the best package with the right level of support, anything else just won't do."

What's unclear is what is a professional level - is the five days a norm in the industry or are the people doing better? Who are they? What do they cost? Is it better to make transitional arrangements so that you are not absent for the five days, but evidently in a process of change?

"Rather disappointingly, you may have noticed two days downtime"

I didn't, because I don't depend on your service at all, much as I enjoy it and benefit from it - my use is asynchronous and I would be more than happy to tolerate a five day break!

Be interested to hear how things have progressed as I'm considering taking a dedicated server with 123-reg due to bad service with 1and1 and don't want to be caught out again

I'm pleased to report that 123-reg successfully took responsibility of my domain name earlier this week. After managing to convince their DNS management team that whilst I was waiting for my domain name to be completely transferred, my website should continue to work (involving adding domain name records to their DNS server!) I have had no issues to report.

Their response time was sloppy, and there was no sense of trying to ensure that I, as a customer, received a dedicated service whilst waiting for 5 days.

That said, the online service that I am now in control of, through the Control Panel, is excellent. I have full, autonomous access to my domain name and reaping the benefits I sought the first time I looked at 123-reg.

I would use them again, but be VERY wary of what they can deliver when transferring domain names - it's a really scary time, the last thing you want is to find no support at the crucial moment.

good luck with your dedicated server service. I'm sure it will be fine. What issues exactly did you have with 1and1?

1&1 generally are great, when everything is working. When things go wrong it's a different matter. First off if you buy a package, tag you're it ... that is where you stay unless you up/down grade. SO as an example, when I signed up some 3 years ago I got a deal for a professional package at

I moved to 1and1 recently, but now wish I hadn't. Their support sucks the big one. After trying several attempts to get a straightforward answer to a query, and experiencing the delights of an Indian call center and their third world support staff with little grasp of English I have chosen to dump them. It was either move registrar or suffer stress-induced high blood pressure and hair loss.

I shall now be transferring all my stuff to 123-Reg.

I decided to create my first webpage on a paid for rather than free host, and decided to use 123-reg.co.uk.

Boy do I wish I hadn't. I signed up on the 22nd of April, and since then there have been problems with Sitebuilder, which has meant it takes over 3 minutes to load a page of empty content. They update their status page a couple of times a day to say "We are currently experiencing ongoing issues with the Site Builder system, this is causing problems logging into the package and viewing existing pages. We are working towards resolving this issue now and hope to have a resolution shortly.

Apologies for any inconvenience this may be causing."

However 10 days after the problem gave not resolved it. I gave up waiting on the phone after it rang for over 5 minutes without reply, and have emailed them 3 times just getting a standard "we are working on it" reply.

So my initial reaction to 123-reg.co.uk, is not to touch them with a bargepole, but I am only one person. I wonder how many others are having issues with them at the moment.

just come across your blog. 123reg are awful. I have always used godaddy for my domains but was recently suckered by an advert to 123reg. I purchased a .eu domain. And for the last 14 days it's been unusable. I cannot swich my named servers. I contacted their support people got a response after two atempts, and they said it would be resolved by the end of last week. And guess what... no it's still not working and now i get zero response from support!! It makes it even worse because I purchased a dedicated server to use with this address, which until it points at my ip I can't use it. Also the site is a community mental health website... so 123reg.... avoid at all cost. Pay a little more and use a more reputable company... like godaddy. Cheers D.

I successfully registered 4 .eu domains with 123-reg on 10th April. Now almost 2 months and 30 emails later I still do not have control of my domains and have not had the courtesy of a reply to a single email to explain why. A whois check confirms that the domains are mine. This is my first encounter with 123-reg. They came highly recommended but I can only speak as I find. Their customer service is nil and it would appear that they think that customers are just minor irritations that get in the way of the smooth running of the company

hi all

oops i just registered with 123reg sounds like i made a mistake does any one know how i take control of the web space without going through them?

thanks matthew

How do you mean, take control of the webspace?

Do you mean access to FTP space to upload your HTML pages and image files without having to use 123-reg's custom file uploader?

I simply use 123-reg to point domain names to my webserver where my websites are hosted elsewhere.

I registered 10 or so domains with 123-reg.co.uk sometime ago and had no reason for complain. There portal was quick and efficient.

However in May i decided to transfer two of my other domains to be with 123-reg.co.uk as they were cheaper and seemed good.

One domain transfered quickly and i had no problems. The other domain got lost in the system. A communication breakdown meant it got transfered from my old registrar to OpenSRS (tucows) of whome 123-reg is a reseller - but it never got transfered into the 123-reg tucows account. So now i had a domain who neither the old nor new (123-reg) registrars would accept as theirs.

Emails to 123-reg went either unanswered or took over a week to be answered - and the answers were always - "the domain was transfered successfully - please look at your portal". However my portal always said the transfer was unsuccessfull and didn't list the domain as being in my account.

Finally i resorted to the 50p a minute phone line - what a laugh - they just said - "sorry not our fault - contact you old registrar or tucows"
Contacting my old registrar (who had instant support and a free phone line) said that they no longer could do anything as the domain was in Tucows name.

So i resorted to phoning Tucows in Canada and they admitted there was a problem and sorted it out in a few hours. They then told me that i should never have been asked to phone them as an end customer and that 123-reg.co.uk should have sorted it out and phoned them if needed.

So in the end it seems that 123-reg.co.uk support sucks. Its slow, incorrect and damm unhelpful.

I am now considering moving the domains back to the old registrar - they might have been twice the price per domain but atleast they had 'instant' support. The only thing stopping me is i don't want to loose the domain again in the transfer back :-(

123 reg are absolute garbage. If you want a load of hassle, these are the people to be with.

They didn't even recognose my domain names that had been registered for 2 years after calling their 50 to 60p helpline number, saying they had been registered with soemone else. When they transferred some domain names from an old account they only did half the job, leaving some domain names on the exisitng "old" account.

After numerous emails and helpline calls, I have given an ulitmatum if they don't sort the account out today I'll be transferrring my domain names. I'd advise anyone else to do the same and not put up with such poor service.

Steer well clear.

Pipex
Portland Tower/Portland St
Manchester
M1 3LF
Telephone: 0161-242 5222

Thery are the parent/sistercompany or 123 reg. call then and give them what for - they don't charge 50p pe/ for a call

Hello was doing a search for help and found this site so glad I did as I am stuck been using 123 reg for ages and had no problem until I purchased a site builder from them now I am unable to preview or even give out my website domain name as it does not work ! it is not a new domain name though and I can point it at 123 homepage but not for my website as I do not know were to point it at as my domain name should be my website if that makes sence I just get a blank page and when I tried to change the domain name it says http:// without the wwww is not valid however my website name does not have the www. in it so I am really stuck have a website I can not preview or let others see !

I have emailed 123 reg 4 times in now 5 days and had no responce back so far I can not afford to ring there so called helpline at 50 p a minutue what am I supposed to do ?

I paid in good faith for a website however I am unable to even view it as the domain names seems not to work or point to the website or take over the domain website name it really is confusing and without any help from 123 I am really stuck !

Does anyone have a simular problem or offer any help to me thankyou Andrew

I setup up a website on 123 reg- what a nightmare.- went for the pro edition-

Finally, managed to get it published only to find out that they cover half of the front page with adverts. Had to re-jig the front page because of it.

They didn't say this when I ordered the package- I could understand if it was the free one.

what a bunch crooks-I am thinking of contact trading standards

here is the site: http://www.debtclear.org/

123 Reg changed their control panel and my old details didn't work, called the 0900 50p line but no-one answered (madness, who would be a Pipex shareholder when they are throwing away opportunities!!) Called Head Office Number who gave me 0870 909 8181 which is Pipex tech support, they couldn't help me and referred me back to the 0900 number but also gave me 0115 918 5138 but this number was not recognised! Found the number 0115 917 0000 who pointed me back to the 0900 number which rang out ho hum!! Only been a custimer for 7 years!

Update on 123 reg: after emailing them - they have removed the banner- phew!

regards

Sean

Can anyone please recommend a reliable dedicated server package which doesn't cost the earth?
I am into my 2nd month on a dedicated windows server package (1and1), great when it's running, fast excellent performance... like I said, as long as the server is running.
For no apparent reason the server just hangs and becomes unavailable, it is currently not being used for anything other than development testing (no live domains - only the occasional upload update/test), so traffic or stress/overloading is not an issue at all.
Bearing in mind that this server took over a week to configure and "test", I find it hard to believe reliability can be so poor.
Even worse is their technical support, I have not been offered any real solutions over the phone; all emails have taken days to receive a reply, I am still awaiting a reply to my last email, over two weeks later !!.
How a company so "successful" be so bad in certain areas of their business?
My site is almost development complete but I cannot trust my dedicated server to be available when I need it. I am seriously contemplating my alternatives.

I am currently locked of 123 reg for the third time without warning. I have called pipex but refuse to call the 0900 number. When i finally get back into my control panel i will move all my domains. But where to go next?

123-Reg Warning

This is a heads up warning to all of you that are considering committing yourself to any sort of dealings with 123-reg.

My saga started in March 2006, is still ongoing as of 22 October 2006 and is completely unresolved.

Unwittingly, in March 2006, I called on the services of 123-reg to pre-register many .eu domains on my behalf. In April 2006 I was informed that the majority of my chosen domains were unsuccessful and I would be getting a refund. I was disappointed with the failures but at least I knew I would be getting my money returned.

On 28 April 2006 I received many automated emails from 123-reg informing me that I could set up a credit account for the refunds and that this credit could be used to purchase any of the 123-reg services. I decided to take up this offer as I intended to purchase more domains, InstantSite Pro and web hosting packages.

Many weeks elapsed without any sign of the refund. Scores of emails later, 123-reg eventually apologised and informed me that they were doing their level best to satisfy the overwhelming demand in response to refunds on .eu domains. Stay calm, at least they have apologised for the outrageous delay.

During June 2006 credit finally started appearing on my account. However, by the end of June 2006 over £400 had still not been credited back to my account and so I demanded an explanation. After not getting any response to my many additional emails I decided to call on the assistance of the so called 'Consumer Champion' from the WebUser magazine. Unfortunately, WebUser did not take up my cause and never even acknowledged my complaint. I found this rather strange because 123-reg had been awarded best host 2006 by WebUser readers so one would have thought that WebUser themselves would have wanted to get to the bottom of my grievance.

On 3 August 2006 although I was still missing a lot of credit, I decided to purchase a domain with the credit facility I had with 123-reg. Unbelievable as it may seem I discovered that I could not purchase the domain with my credit facility. 123-reg agreed that it was a problem and it would be sorted within the week.

On 4 August 2006 123-reg and I disagreed as to what amount of money was showing on my credit account. According to my figures I was short by over £100.

On 8 August 2006 I was still unable to purchase domains with my credit facility that had been set up on 28 April 2006. The following day 123-reg told me that a bug sheet had now been raised and the problem would be resolved by the end of the week or early next week.

On 19 August 2006 in desperation I again contacted the 'Consumer Champion' of the WebUser magazine. Again they never acknowledged my communication.

On 23 August 2006 I was told by 123-reg that my problem was now being escalated to the Product Development Department.

On 5 September 2006 I was finally informed by 123-reg that I could now use my credit facility to purchase domains. It had now taken 123-reg five months for me to be able to use my credit facility that was agreed on 28 April 2006.

On 7 September 2006 a ticket was raised by 123-reg in order to sort out the £100 shortfall on my credit account.

On 24 September 2006 I eventually took the plunge and decided that I was now ready to purchase InstantSite Pro and web hosting packages with the funds that 123-reg held in my credit account. After all, 123-reg had somehow been voted 'best host for 2006' desite my traumas. Guess what? To my amazement, I discovered that I could not purchase InstantSite or web hosting packages with my credit facility that stood at over £300.

On 29 September 2006 after many emails on my behalf and weeks of investigation by 123-reg it was discovered that despite my instruction via email and by telephone, 123-reg had taken it upon themselves to issue some of the refunds back to my credit card. Okay so this explains the missing money but what did they not understand about "Put the refunds into my credit account"? Why oh why, put the majority of funds onto my credit account and then transfer some funds back to my card. Perhaps a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing?

On 19 October 2006 again after another batch of frustrating emails, 123-reg eventually informed me that they never intended credit accounts being used for anything other than domain purchases. I again complained to 123-reg by saying that their policy is the same as a bank telling me that I can only use my funds to purchase red hot chilly peppers and nothing else. They responded by saying that banks do actually place similar restrictions on funds by only allowing a withdrawal of £300 per day. What utter, utter tosh. Anyone can withdraw all of their funds immediately, granted not via a hole in the wall. Anyway, I didn't want £300 a day, all I wanted was to be able to purchase InstantSite Pro and a web hosting package. Surely no big deal really!!!

Conclusion (well not yet anyway): 123-reg has had my money on credit since 28 April 2006 and to date, on 22 October 2006 I am still unable to get at my funds to purchase anything other than red hot chilly peppers. So I guess I now need to purchase about 150 of the .co.uk type red hot chilly peppers to bring my credit balance to nil.

Oh by the way, to add insult to injury, I am now getting emails from 123-reg offering me a substantial discount if I purchase InstantSite Pro within 3 weeks of receiving their email. If only!!!

Be warned, be very warned about having any dealings whatsoever with 123-reg.

It really is a tale of woe for some of you guys isn't it?

I don't do anything other than buy my domain names through 123 reg... which are cheap as chips compared to a lot of others. My hosting is done at Pipeten (http://www.pipeten.co.uk) and their service is brilliant. The control panel is fully features and, wonder of wonders, you can have full access to your MySQL databases with a client like CocoaMySQL (on a Mac). This makes the entire thing worth the money, IMO.

With Windows server packages that allow database sites to run starting at about £6 a month, this is a good option for me. Currently I have a Windows account and a Linux multi-host account (at about £70 per year) which I am finding excellent. The tech support is instant, too, with online chat tools embedded in their web pages.

So, the message seems to be steer clear of 123-reg for hosting, but buying names from them (as long as you don't want to move them around later) seems OK. You get to point the domains at any DNS servers you want... so why move the names around?

I have good experience with Hostorange.

A

If you have a domain name at 123-reg, but point to a different server, how do email addresses work? Are they provided by 123-reg or by the host? I have a domain at 123-reg but I can't get an email address set up. I've abandoned InstantSite (within 7 days cooling off, so it should be OK)and am thinking of using MRSITE to build a web site, but the email address worries me as I do need one using the 123-reg domain name.

Hello.

You can do several things with the email addresses 123-reg -

1. (and probably the easiest) is set up Email forwarding to an email account that you have already got setup somewhere else... this could be Hotmail or Yahoo... or whatever. The real beauty is that you don't have any of the headaches of running a Mail server or paying for a mail service. I have a Gmail account set up for all my email, and therefore just point my domain name email, to the gmail account.

2. If you have a server hosted elsewhere, you could point the MX records to that machine and have it handle all your incoming mail. This gives you lots of control - but probably more hassle and expense than you need.

Having 123-reg forward your email to another email address is by far the best approach. Just be aware that you can only change the Reply-To address for your outgoing mail using a provider that allows you to select it, such as gmail, or set up a POP mail client like Outlook or Mail on the Mac to handle all your email (as opposed to webmail)

Hope this helps... keep asking if I can help you further.

J

I've used both easily and 123-reg and have had no problems with both. I'm also considering transferring the easily domains to 123-reg as they are cheaper and offer more features.

However, I'm very wary of the transfer process. 123-reg also doesn't seem to have any way of renewing for multiple years e.g. I bought 5 years and 10 year renewals on some domains with easily.

I heard there was a huge debacle with 123-reg and the new .eu domains.

I've not had a problem with 123-reg but then again, I've never needed any human intervention. The web interface allows you to do most things.

I'm toying with the idea of running my own DNS server for the easily domains so that I have sufficient control as an alternative to transferring.

I am a long time customer of 123-reg. Their service and prices are good for domain registration. I would never use their web hosting services, and they are pricey and do not have a good reputation.

My recommendation would be to use 123-reg for your domain registration only, and use a real webhosting company for your website/email. All you need to do is change the Nameservers in 123-reg to the ones provided by your webhosting company.

I've used Nethosted (nethosted.co.uk) for my webhosting and am happy with them, but there are plenty of other similar webhosts. The beauty of splitting the regestration and webhosting, is that in the event of problems with your webhosts, all you need do is sign up with a different webhosting outfit, and change the Nameservers in 123-reg's control panel.

My own site with some guidance on registration/webhosting is at www.cynara.co.uk
Kev

Any comments on 123reg's POP3 service?
I forward all my mails to several ntlworld accounts, but if on holiday for a week one of these can fill up. I am with orange broadband (another *** choice) and I don't trust their POP3 boxes

I did mail 123reg a while back about the size limit on their POP3 boxes, and seem to remember a figure being quoted, with also some reference to how the size can be increased. Having read this page, I am not a bit unsure whether I should or not use their POP3 service (I do have my domain/email address with them and forward to my other accounts)

3 weekends running now and 123reg emails are not being forwarded on within a reasonable amount of time

Come on 123, pull your finger out please

creating sub-domains is way better.

Godaddy UK domain name promo codes for a discount, these codes do not expire.
BRIL1: 10% off any order
BRIL3: 30% off .com domain names
Codes work on renewals, UK codes and US codes here:
http://brillantdeals.co.uk/godaddy-promo-coupon-codes/

The upshot is that the team have kindly pointed the sub-domain to the right server, and we are back online once again. Welcome back, campers!

Avoid the terrible hosting company '123-reg.co.uk' . If you bought hosting from them years ago, they will keep your debit card details (without permission) and take money out of your account willy nilly. The only way to cancel these automatic 'payments' (theft!) is to call them on a premium rate number.

I called them last week to cancel an old hosting package and was on hold for half an hour on their premium rate number before I hung up. Never got to speak to anyone.

Then I used their support site (a misnomer if ever there was one) to tell them I couldn't get through by phone to cancel and that I expressly forbid them to take money out of my account the following week. They replied, asking if I was sure, then closed the line of communication. So I got in touch again, telling them 'cancel the hosting, do not take money from my account and I do not give permission for you to hold my card details and never have'.

So guess what they did? They took £70 from my bank account today! I drove to the RBS and told them the story and they said they couldn't and wouldn't do anything. I argued with them for half an hour and they were completely unhelpful. I told them I did not believe that if you buy something from a company years ago, they can then take money out of your account illegally and the bank, the police, Trading Standards - nobody would help.

So I then spent then rest of the afternoon back on hold to 123-reg.co.uk on their premium rate number, got through and went mental. After they tried to say that it was my fault, I finally got them to remove my debit card details from their computer. They told me they'd send a refund request to their accounting department and I'll belive it when I see it.

The moral is: never deal with 123-reg.co.uk . Oh, and they DOUBLED their prices for all of their business customers in January for exactly the same service.

123-ripoff, more like!

I feel very strongly about 123 Reg as they took 4 payments from my account and denied it. The only way I got the money refunded was to go through my bank and as a result, 123 Reg has suspended my account and i've lost my prize domain name, as they won't let me into the control panel to transfer it over. - the result- I have lost a well marketed website that I spent a year building up.