So I got a notice from Domain Registry of America that a website I registered years ago needed renewal. Now, I don’t even run the website anymore (long story…blogsite started by me and a friend after 9/11. I got frustrated and disillusioned and quit, he still runs it,) but it’s still in my name. So, as a favor to my friend, I went ahead and renewed the domain name, figuring I’d just recoup the money from him later.
So I paid.
Well sir, I am now getting follow-up emails from DROA saying they can’t renew it because the people I have it registered with (not the same company. Fuck!) have a “registrar lock” on it. The email then provides me with instructions on removing the lock and transferring to DROA.
:smack:
OK, yes, I’m a sucker. I totally got snowed. But, in my defense, I couldn’t remember who the heck I registered the domain with all those years ago, and when I asked my friend if he thought it was time for renewal, he said, “Um, could be.” Still, my fault. I know.
But it blows. I’m wondering what I should do. DROA has billed the renewal to my credit card, but services, such as they are, have not been rendered. So am I out $40 (a slap on the wrist in terms of the possible consequences of financial inattention on the internet,) or should I try to get the charge reversed? I should say that I’m very hesitant to just shrug and have the domain name transferred, because of what I consider to be essentially dishonest poaching on the part of DROA.
Just like me, going off half-cocked. I just called DROA’s customer service, and they say they are refunding my charge. So everything is A-OK for now. Stay tuned for further rants, however, if the reversal doesn’t show up on my credit statement.
The fact you paid by credit card (and this especially applies if it was a Visa card) almost guarantees you won’t have to pay the charge if it was for something you agreed to but didn’t get. (Product, service, etc). It you don’t get the refund, dispute it. Chances are, even if you technically should pay, Visa (or whatever card issuer) isn’t going to waste time and resources investigating $40. Unethical, and illegal if to do if the mistake was yours alone, but if you paid and didn’t get what you paid for, that would be the next step, IMO.
Quick side question (not to hijack) how much is a domain name these days? Not something with the bandwith of the SDMB, but a personal site for under 1k hits/month?
The OP admittedly got snowed. What he got charged for was only domain renewal, not hosting. They’re two separate things.
Anyone that pays over $15 to register a domain name is stupid or just got whoosed like this person. Most places you can get them $8-15/year. You pay for the webhosting separately. This company makes money and gets away with tricking people by hoping they forget who they’re registered with. The fact that registrars now lock their domains and make it really hard to transfer is evidence of how long this sort of thing has been happening.
Where the problem comes is that if his domain had not been locked, and it actually transferred over, he’d be stuck paying $40/year to keep it instead of $15, and it would probably be a bloody nightmare to get it transferred back to a cheaper registrar. I had a friend that I was managing a domain for, and transferred ownership to him. He, not knowing better, fell for this exact same scam only his got transferred. Now he’s stuck paying out the butt for his registration every year because it’s too much of a pain to change.