WARNING re strato-hosting.co.uk - Bad Company

Hello There,
If you are thinking of using or are already are using Strato Hosting to register or host your domains, please read this post as it will save you lots of money and hassle.

This is my first ever post on Web Hosting Reviews and my first ever post to draw attention to a bad domain registration company.

I want to warn you, my fellow domain registrars, so you can avoid the hassle that i'm currently going through with strato-hosting.co.uk.

I have approx 100 domain names registered with 6 different hosts. So im no amateur to the domain game.

I recently queried an outstanding payment notice I received from strato-hosting.co.uk because it appeared that they were trying to charge me for 2 domain names that were no longer registered with them. Bear in mind that I have paid every strato-hosting.co.uk invoice faithfully and reliably for over 2 years.

Anyway, even though i was in communication with Strato Hosting they took it upon themselves to lock my entire account inc all other domains that i had already paid for and also prevent me from paying the outstanding amount which was approx £12. They then referred my outstanding invoice of £12 to a dodgy German debt collection agency called Intrum Justitia (intrum.com) who immediately slapped $40 euros onto the invoice of £12 for the rotten dis-service of sending me a threatening letter which in essence said 'According to German Law you are ordered to pay Intrum Justitia and Strato' or else.

So there you go, the example above is how NOT to treat customers, i.e. increase their invoice 300% and threaten them for the pleasure.
AVOID STRATO HOSTING AT ALL COSTS!!! They are a TERRIBLE and cold company to do business with.

This message is the consequence for the their terrible customer service. Take heed.

Transfer all of your domains away from Strato Hosting ASAP.

Biggest Pro: Free software give aways
Biggest Con: VERY BAD customer service and contract is terrible

STRATO - the one to avoid

If I could score a MINUS figure for Strato I would!

Beware anyone hosting with these con-artists.

I was ushered over to Strato when Lycos stopped their hosting. At the time I was led to believe it was an automatic transfer of the domain which was untrue which resulted in numerous issues before my site was up an running. My initial experience with so called Customer Service was a joke as none were native English speakers. When I tried to cancel soon after taking out the contract I was told I could not.

Now 12 months later when I have tried yet again to cancel they want full payment for another year as I did not give them the required 30 days notice (which I was not aware of). This is despite my telling them by email at the time I would not renew because of my initial experience - apparently as I did not receive confirmation of this request then it is not valid - work that one out!

Maybe I should have read all the small print but as they have never sent me a copy of the contract despite numerous requests that would be difficult. Anyway, when signing up something like this should have been highlighted.

I have just had a lovely phone call from Strato - NOT! The Customer Service Agent was rude and abrupt, and when I asked to speak to a supervisor I was advised he was German and didn't speak English. They are trying to make out they have a UK presence but no English speaking Supervisor?? That is ridiculous. Anyway, if I don’t pay my bill then they will hand the amount to a debt collection agency. Nice friendly company this!

Also, not sure if anyone else has noticed this, but we are being charged VAT at 19%. Surely if there is a Strato UK we should be billed at the UK rate which is back to 17.5%

Biggest Pro: There isn't one
Biggest Con: The entire company is a con

CON-MEN

I phoned up Strato to cancel the web-hosting contract only to find out that I have to pay them for another whole year. If you sign up with these con-artists they will give you a contract where you cannot cancel within 30 days of the "renewal" date. I didn't even know it was automatic renewal, and I certainly didn't know about the 30 day "agreement" for cancellation. It was obviously part of the small-print.

I now have web-hosting that I wanted to cancel today, that I have to pay for another whole year.

I was ushered into this contract with Strato by Lycos when Lycos wound up their web hosting business. It seemed OK at first. As time went by they got worse. They removed most of the free images without notification, causing the shock of my website looking much less attractive the next time I visited it. Instead they offered their customers a special offer with Fotolia. To get the special offer, which is only 5 free images, you have to give Fotolia your mobile phone number so they can send you a "promotional code" by text message. Obviously they do this so they can spam you with sales calls and messages afterwards. I had to decline this worthless offer.

After this episode I started building Google Sites, which is 10 times better. Use Google instead of this rubbish. By now though I had unwittingly drifted into my "cancellation period", so now these con-artists have my money for another year. The bank won't help, I'm stuck...

Biggest Pro: My wallet is lighter to carry around......
Biggest Con: These people are con-artists

Domain got stuck in a pickle

I was a customer of Lycos, which was very decent albeit a little overpriced. They had to stop their services, and practically forced users like me to move to STRATO.

The disaster started once the domain was moved to STRATO, I then wanted to just park it there, and use a hosting plan I already owned.

However, upon looking around for the name servers settings and even calling customer service, I found out that it is not possible to do so! The only possibility is to forward to an address. This means my domain is stuck in a pickle, since I can't effectively use it, and all this while i'm paying for the pickle i'm in!

Bad choice, bad idea... BEWARE OF THE STRATO PICKLE

Biggest Pro: None that I found
Biggest Con: No name server options for parked domains!