1&1 Scam, Shady, Disorganized Internet

On February 26th, I made the mistake of signing up with 1&1 for their just a domain name. The amount was paid via PayPal.

On March 25th (approximately) I received an email informing me about an upcoming charge of 14.97. 

I removed PayPal as the payment option and cancelled the whole contract and account. I contacted a customer service agent. The only option to contact them is via phone. 

A phone service agent told me that they will remove the false charge. 

Maybe a month later I received a payment reminder. Already a little bit aggravated I contacted the support again and after a long, long wait I was told once more I should not worry, the account was already cancelled prior to the due date of the false charge and the invoice will be cancelled. I had to wait a long time as the agent had to check with someone else. 

I also replied to their email and they replied back: "This account is already cancelled". 

Today I received a message from them threatening to give the "case" to a collection agency. 

I am on hold now with support agent no. 3 who tells me that the invoice should have been cancelled and is not correct. By now I already know that a promise of their support agents does not impress the billing department too much. 

The support agent does not allow me to record the call and without consent, it is illegal in IL to record a call. In the time that I am waiting on hold, I was already able to file a complaint with the BBB and post a review there. 

The most impressive thing about 1 & 1 is the number of similar complaints. The offer is not all that special and I do not recommend to anyone to go there. 

Over 500 billing complaints filed with the BBB as of today ...

My agent no 3 just confirmed the invoice is cancelled (yay, for the 3rd time) and came back with a case ID that I should use if the billing department or a collection agency comes after me. So that I can prove that since March 28th I have been promised that they cancel the invoice that is referring to an account that has been cancelled prior to the date of the false charge. 

Does that mean that agent no 3 is more honest than agents 1 and 2 and knows he cannot make this false charge go away?

My main reason for filing this complaint is the stupidity 1&1 is showing. Twice, a supervisor was involved, 3 agents and I lost about 3 hours of my lifetime. Just imagine the unnecessary costs for 1&1 who are obviously not able to synchronise with their billing department. 

Not to speak of lost turnover for me never in my live buying anything from them again and warning everyone via my review blog.