Comments on: 123-Reg Problems – Approach with Care

By: Gavin Wilson

Gavin Wilson — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 16:36:05 +0000

I have just been billed by 123-reg for a couple of websites I no longer need. I’m probably not the first to be deceived by their automated website expiry notices into thinking that if I did nothing, they would automatically expire. Nothing could be further from the truth. The websites get automatically renewed if they have your credit card details.

My complaint, aside from the deceptive wording on the notice, is that it seems almost impossible to communicate in writing with 123-reg. Of course they send the customer lots of emails, but they make it almost impossible to send an email back. Just try finding an email address on their website which will enable you to query an unwarranted billing. I really don’t want to have to call one of their 0845 numbers.

By: Gary Eason

Gary Eason — Sun, 22 May 2011 08:34:58 +0000

I have the same problem as Dave Weiss: trying to use my domain name with Typepad. Cannot forward non-www version to www domain name. I have to say though, six of one and half a dozen of the other, why does Typepad insist on using only the “www.” version? I previously was with Tumblr which operates the other way round and 123-reg interfaced with that, no problem. They’re all as bad as each other and we poor punters are left scratching our heads that this 1980s creaky technology ever works at all …

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 15:21:09 +0000

I find it difficult to believe people are saying nice things about 123-reg. I had a number of websites on Supanames and then 123-reg took them over. Ever since then – after an unblemished track record of 10 years – I find that the regular problems with the self-same websites are because 123-reg are having texhnical problems. I have 3 websites on one ‘unlucky’ server – unlucky because it regularly goes offline for maintenance. Unfortunately that affects the MySql dbase and therefor the websites concerned. 123-reg NEVER tell you they are doing this. Further they do this at the weekends – so you cant even phone them up to ask what is going on. Never had an email from 123-reg telling me they have a problem – always comes as an unpleasant shock – and they never seem to report whats going on on System Status as they should..

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:24:38 +0000

I’ve read the comments here, but in my recent experience the 123-reg support has been very good…

Had a problem with my hosting, contacted customer support via the ‘my support page’, got a reply in 12 mins, sent another quiry, got a reply from a different person in 14 mins, my problem was solved in under 1 hour…

I’m actually very happy with 123-reg and no, I’m not an employee, member of the board etc etc

By: Darren

Darren — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:50:18 +0000

Further to the kind advise below, if you need to speak to anyone at 123-reg company, do as recommended and Call: London (0208) 5877558 – They do answer straight away and seemed very helpful!

By: Simon

Simon — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 12:05:31 +0000

Agree with most of the comments here. Support from 123-reg is non-existent. Support staff all go home after 5pm and over the weekend, even though on their support site, it says that “Day or night, we’re here to help”. You ask them a question and all they can say is thank you for your question .. blah blah blah with no real answer or solution. My websites has been down a few times already this month, with no warning, no explanations. At least, if they were going to do some work on their servers, you would expect them to have some courtesy of informing their customers. I am totally fed up and if it wasn’t for the fact that they are relatively cheap (as I pay about £15/year for linux value host), I’d be moving away right now.

Another gripe is that when your hosting packages come to be renewed, there is no way for you to cancel that renewal on your control panel. They then proceed to charge me without my consent. Absolutely unacceptable.

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:58:15 +0000

I have been with Supanames for over 10 years and they were a great company – right up until they were taken over by 123-reg.
Sincce then the problems come thick and fast. I have three sites on a dodgy server – this server has gone down “unexpectedly” three times – always over the weekend – and amazingly its back online Monday morning just before the phone lines open. I wouldnt mind so much but they deliberately keep quiet about it – no courtesy email – nothing on server status – and no apology when they finally reply to the support request.
They deserve to be horsewhipped for their selfishness.

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:20:30 +0000

I haven´t had problems with the hosting, but the propegation time to show the website is taking more than 48hrs.. a joke! I´m sick of having to look at the holding page.

For email, I would recommend Google Apps Standard Edition. 7GB free hosting, you just need to point your MX records to google, and they are hosting your emails within the hour for your domain.

You can even integrate it into outlook too. I do this with all my clients.

By: Neil

Neil — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:42:12 +0000

I have been charged £46.98 on my credit card from 123-reg. I did manage to speak to someone about this. They said that even they don’t have a record of this – I am certainly not paying for any services!

I am now trying to communicate using their “support” site – if there ever was a misnomer this is it. It is now 2 months later and I have complete silence. Occasionally they answer my question with a question (to which I have already given the answer several times – if they’d only read beyond the first line of the previous comment).

I’m considering the small claims court, since they seem to have done this sort of thing to several other people. Teach them a lesson.

By: Eleonora

Eleonora — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:39:17 +0000

Oh Lord. Please, anyone thinking of having anything to do with 123reg – AVOID! Type ’123reg customer service abysmal’ into Google and have a good look at what comes up!
I have two domain names with them and I just want to park them, they have refused my registration for this (that they offered me), with no explanation.
On asking for an explanation, in common with their customer service ‘answers’ to everything, they are sending me can’t be @ssed gobbledegook.
Now the guy has quoted policy section numbers at me and is saying they cannot be liable for spelling mistakes or names puchased in error.
What spelling mistakes?
What error of purchase?
I am completely baffled, and it seems that 123reg’s customer services operators are permanently baffled too.

By: rick

rick — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:10:42 +0000

I was recommended to 123reg by my friend, so i registered a domain name on my friends computer, paid for it through my paypal account. When i checked my email to get conformation didnt see anything, so i checked my paypal account the funds were taken, still no confirmation my friend open his 123reg account… what a nightmare its registered to my friends account spent an hour trying to find contact details eventually got a telephone number no response i wish i had read the reviews this company has a bad rep i dont know what to do as there seems to be no one to help resolve my issues a typical british company

By: Caroline

Caroline — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:08:47 +0000

I purchased an ecommerce site from this Company thinking by their building blocks logo it would be easy to use and upload. I’ve had it weeks now and have still not been able to get it published. Every time I get an answer from support I get a different person and I have purchased extra web hosting which cost £70, only to be told by another person I didn’t need it! I feel like pulling my hair out, all I want to do is to get online. I used to use a much more simple website and ecommerce with a different Company and it was very straightforward, and they didn’t charge me to answer my questions. Think I’m going to give up on this one and go back to them!

Not a happy bunny

By: Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:51:28 +0000

> Joe

I’ve seen this and nearly done the same thing myself. Its a very underhand way of conducting business if you ask me and very shortsighted as people are just going to go elsewhere. ~

Currently going through the support hell that is 123-reg I may well take my buisness elsewhere myself.

By: Chris Kernaghan

Chris Kernaghan — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:59:20 +0000

I too am having major, major issues with 123-reg and I can never seem to get in contact with them. Personally, I’ll be avoiding them in the future. I came across pixelinternet.co.uk once, don’t know how, but I use them all the time now. They’re prompt when I need to talk to them, but it’s very rare that I do. Give them a try.

Chris.

By: MattC

MattC — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 22:43:49 +0000

Joe, contact your credit card company, explain the problem and ask them to issue a chargeback against 123-reg.

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:39:43 +0000

I just had the most awful experience with 123-reg. I used their control panel to renew hosting for 3 of my websites. I had to unccheck 15 others on the first renew page then entered my details and hit submit. The system told me i had entered the wrong card details and to go back and resubmit them. Fair enough. I did so and hit submit again only to discover that their system had re-ticke the other 15 renew buttons for my other sites and processed a payment for £500 instead of £66. Having scrawled the internet trying to get a contact phone number(The site doesnt list one) I spoke to Beverley who refused to refund the payment saying it was my fault for hitting the submit button and that their system wont allow her to refund payments made for renewals?
NO acceptence of their system being at fault for automatically rechecking all the tick boxes when you do as they ask and hit their back button. Any advice gratefully accepted?

By: Mo Dini

Mo Dini — Mon, 11 May 2009 11:50:25 +0000

Its now May 2009. Issue still abound!

By: Colin Brown

Colin Brown — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:14:36 +0000

I quite simply wouldn’t do business with 123-reg, they have got to be the worst online hosting and registration company I’ve had the misfortune to deal with.

By: Sales Agent

Sales Agent — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 18:55:05 +0000

we bought a domain with 123-reg.com , the password went bye bye so we tryed to retrive it via there support, no luck, domain expired and we lost thousands,

By: mark hankins

mark hankins — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:19:58 +0000

We have the same nameserver problems with 123-reg on a regular basis. I phones them (20 minute wait) and was told there was no problem at their end, they blamed our hosting and network settings, which I know were correct because I set them myself. The sites concerned had been working fine, suddenly offline, our server was fine. You tell me?

I’ve sent watchdog (BBC programme) details of this from here;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/contact_computers.shtml

Feel free to do the same, I’m sick of this and am now moving my domains to moniker.

By: Dave Weiss

Dave Weiss — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:34:33 +0000

Here is something I tried to do that has been a complete nightmare!

1. Create a www subdomain and point it to a TypePad account subdomain with a a CNAME.
2. Forward the non-www of the domain to the www.

FUBAR!

You can do the CNAME, no problem, but try forwarding the non-www to www.

I have never seen anything like this, and I’ve worked with dozens of DNS servers, cPanel-like interfaces, registrars, etc.

How do these people stay in business?

By: Simon Lewis

Simon Lewis — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:55:40 +0000

What you need are geographical numbers they are often included in you mobile talk plan or even free. They can be found at http://www.saynoto0870.com

For 123-reg number 0871 230 9525
Call: Stoke on trent (01782) 605 399 – Number no longer in use!
Call: London (0208) 5877558 – Answered straight away

For Webfusion number 0871 230 9525
Call: Stoke on trent (01782) 605 800 – Number no longer in use!
Call: Free on 0800 031 7800 – technical support (option 2) gives 0845 130 6956
0800 are often not included in your mobile talk plan so use the geographical.

For Webfusion number 0845 130 6956 (technical support)
Call: Stoke on trent (01782) 605 800 – Number no longer in use!
Try calling: London (0208) 5877558 – (123reg) they are the same company

Regards
Simon

By: John W

John W — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 12:08:58 +0000

Moved my hosting to PipeTen. No problems with this.

Their support is spot on with only about a couple of hour turnaround in my experience.

By: Mark Anderson

Mark Anderson — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:38:05 +0000

Like Gill above, I just stumbled across this blog whilst looking for 123 reg phone number.

I purchased a domain through them last week and went to the site on Monday to purchase a hosting package. Thinking that I had better check that they supported the language first, I raised a ticket and backed it with an email the next morning – no response to either.
I have just phoned them – thank you Frazer, I did not see the number on their contact page – and got a very friendly and helpful girl who explained that they do not support php and have recommended their “sister site” webfusion.

I know that I sjould have looked online for areas such as this blog to check them out beforehand and I suppose I have learned a lesson in not doing so. But, have any of the above posters got an opinion on webfusion and whether I will have trouble now hosting my new domain with anyone other than a company 123 are happy with.

Best regards
Mark

By: Mike Hatch

Mike Hatch — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:01:46 +0000

Thsi company has organised itself to rip off the general public. They hide their identity under many company names such as GX Networks, Concentric, XO communications, and the latest is Pipex one Ltd. They cannot be contacted unless you ring a premimum line which keeps you holding forever at 10p per minute. They do not fall under the regulator Ofcom I have tried that and the consumer people only tell you to sue them through the courts. My advice to everyone is not to get involved with this company you will get your fingers burnt. Cheap to get you in, very expensive to get out. Be warned!!!!

By: john ward

john ward — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 11:02:24 +0000

You’re doing a great job. This site (along with the majority of ‘hosts’ on the web) is mis-selling under the Sale of Goods & Services legislation. My site notbornyesterday.org spends a great deal of time laughing at them, harrassing them and repporting themto the various bodies available. Sadly, most of these seemtpo be dead bodies.

One way to overcome the service problem is to send an email demanding a refund of charges,and then when they ignore it issue a winding-up order.

In the meantime, I will tell all interested people to avoid these villains like the bubonic plague they so clearly are.

Best

John Ward

By: acey

acey — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:22:35 +0000

Hi can anyone help me i have hosted my website onto 123 reg its showing in the manage my files but there is still the 123 reg homepage when i try and view my website how long does it generally take to go live?

By: Ashley Guest

Ashley Guest — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 11:21:38 +0000

I moved away from 123-reg last year. after problems changing my Name server. For some reason, for this particular domain, it just wouldn’t change and i had to raise a support ticket each time i needed it changed (now i know you don’t really need to change Nameservers that often, i just happed to change host 2 times last year) after about a million emails and phone calls, i gave up and moved my domains to another registtra.

The 0871 230 9525 is the best way to get support, however, it’s pot luck weather you get someone who actually knows what they’re talkin about!

By: Mark Rowe

Mark Rowe — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:58:06 +0000

thanks for this, I managed to find it in the end it seems that sites aren’t added instantly but take upto 48 hours. Fair enough seems to be up and running now.

By: Fraser Edwards

Fraser Edwards — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:54:41 +0000

The 123-reg telephone number is on their site here

http://www.123-reg.co.uk/contactUs.shtml

“Telephone us on 0871 230 9525. We’re here 9am – 7pm Monday to Friday. Calls cost 10p per minute from a BT landline. We sometimes get busy at peak times.”