Angry SMEs hit out at troubled ISP

Customers of hosting company 1&1 Internet have been plagued by email difficulties.

1&1 sells services such as web-hosting, domains, servers and email to many small UK businesses. But customers have faced extended delays in receiving email, with one user complaining of a week-long outage.

1&1 said the problem was initially caused by a surge in incoming email, which caused delays. According to the ISP, this problem had been addressed by last Thursday morning.

However, further technical problems meant the disruption continued. 1&1 explained: "Following an important update to our mail server software and the subsequent restart of the mail servers, there have unfortunately been further delays in the delivery of incoming email." As of last Friday morning, it claimed the delay was two hours but added disruption would continue throughout the day.

One user affected by the disruption - Wendy McAuliffe, a director of public relations company Liberate Media - said: "Our business relies heavily on email correspondence, and to have a drastically reduced email service for an entire week is totally unacceptable. To date we have received no explanation or apology. We have had to put alternative measures in place with no assistance from 1&1 Internet."

1&1 refused to say whether it would offer compensation to its customers, saying it was concentrating on reducing the delays. It added that unhappy customers should contact its UK complaints department.

McAuliffe said 1&1 had made no attempt to contact her and its telephone lines were engaged for long periods. After finally making contact with the company last Friday morning, she was told 80 million emails were still queued.

According to 1&1, "several million" emails had been queued at the peak of the disruption. The company denied it had reached 80 million.

No other 1&1 services have been affected and the company said no email has been lost.

Richard Thurston writes for ZDNet UK