Remember 365 selling to UK company Names.co.uk?
Well seemingly Names.co.uk like to overcharge their clients …
I already mentioned their pricing policy on co.uk transfers out, but they’ve since gone on to expand that to include com/net/org/info/biz domains. Don’t believe me?
Check out this screenshot from the Register365 / Namesco control panel (click to enlarge):
Or how about this invoice a client paid recently for the “right” to move his domain elsewhere (click to enlarge):
So in simple terms if you are NOT happy with their service and want to change provider you will get billed for changing YOUR domains to a new provider.
Aren’t they great?
Companies behaving in this manner give a bad name to the entire industry and really make me sick. While I may have had my differences with the previous owners of register365 I somehow doubt that they’d have stooped this low!
And to make matters all the more interesting ..
I’m getting reports from some clients that the charges are being imposed, while others are being told that they can leave without having to pay – what about the people who don’t question charges?
NB: Yes I have a vested interest in the hosting and domain industry and I don’t hide it. On the other hand I would never be interested in running a company that abused registrants in this manner – there are plenty of ways to make money, messing your clients about isn’t one of them
Unbelievable to be honest. They are not doing themselves any favours introducing tactics like this, if I was a customer of their’s I would be very offended considering it is a registrants right to move domains between registrars and costs the losing registrar nothing.
I’ve seen this myself and I agree it’s a disgraceful business practice especially as unlocking a domain only takes a few mouse clicks/less than 30 seconds to do, Correct me if I’m wrong Michele.
Although (as they have agreed to waive the unlocking fee for me), I’m far more concerned that Namesco decided to change my admin details to their details without my authorisation. Are they trying to hi-jack my domain? Again, Michele, if you are aware of any valid reason why they would do this, I’d love to know what it is, cause I can’t think of it. 🙂
I had a problem trying to transfer a domain but after some effort i seem to have been waived the fee after doing some research through ICANN
I quoted this from a secion of the ICANN guidelines.
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Registrars must provide the Registered Name Holder with the unique “AuthInfo” code within five (5) calendar days of the Registered Name Holder’s initial request if the Registrar does not provide facilities for the Registered Name Holder to generate and manage their own unique “AuthInfo” code.
Registrars may not employ any mechanism for complying with a Registered Name Holder’s request to obtain the applicable “AuthInfo Code” that is more restrictive than the mechanisms used for changing any aspect of the Registered Name Holder’s contact or name server information.
The Registrar of Record must not refuse to release an “AuthInfo Code” to the Registered Name Holder solely because there is a dispute between the Registered Name Holder and the Registrar over payment.
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Good luck but don’t pay this outrageous charge, ring them up and talk to the manager of the company and get it sorted.
I’d imagine that R365 customers from before the takeover could argue that they aren’t subject to these new Ts & Cs because they weren’t in place when they signed up.
I am so happy that my blog : http://www.JobsBlog.ie is proudly registered and hosted with Blacknight! 🙂
Namesco guys are gone nuts.
Keith
That might be a valid point, but how many people would be confident enough to challenge it?
Michele
George
I saw a few posts from their clients about whois data being switched and was also contacted directly by a few. I presumed at the time that the change was an administrative error, but I may have been mistaken
Michele
On topic:
We were reasonably happy with them at first but here come the tactical cost moves and this is a disgrace.
Slightly Off topic:
Namesco / R365 are moving their servers around. They deleted one of our accounts 3 days ago with 4 active websites on it. After many calls and anger it took 36 hours to get a response which was simply an email with a brief apology and “unfortunately we have no backups of your websites, hsphere broke it…” etc. Needless to say this has cost us bigtime.
I had €150 of these charges waived by challenging them. I moved EVERYTHING out in one swoop. I hsould blog about it.
Nasty and silly route for Namesco to go. On the upside, their description of the unlocking and transfer process is one of the simplest I’ve seen. They should keep that level of service and drop the profiteering. Though I’m sure they’ll claim they are covering admin costs, it looks typically automated so is there really any admin cost?
Andrew
If the domain is on their eNom account, which would appear to be the case for most of them, they can unlock domains and send the epp key details with a couple of clicks (or they could just automate the entire thing via the eNom api)
Michele
After this, I’m seriously considering moving from H365 (and yes, moving to Blacknight). I’ve just always thought, for some reason, thinking it’d be costly or a hassle… but I presume it’s pretty painless…
Speaking as an existing BK customer (thats Blacknight not Burger Kind 😉 ) – I have always found them painless to deal with.
Jaysis – must be nearly 7 years since I started dealing with Blacknight – has it been that long?
Pete – it’s probably about 7 years 🙂
Heh if I remember rightly it was that “Wall” based site 😉
Easyspace.com (a UK based registrar) used to charge existing customers a fee to CHANGE THEIR NAME SERVERS. It cannot be argued that this was to recoup any money they lost on registration because they were not below cost sellers.
Easyspace.com has since changed ownership, perhaps more than once, so their PR man might comment here that things have changed, but all large companies change ownership but that doesn’t clean their image.
I’m a former blacknight customer and moved to R365 a couple of years ago because they offered more for less – I went to the land of cheaper domains, more transfer, more disk space, unlimited databases etc. and paid less for it. It was a no-brainer at that time.
Now… domain prices have gone up, support has gone to the toilet, anything I have ordered since the takeover I have got a mail saying “What was this payment for?” – what is wrong with their systems? all sites will almost certainly be moved out of Ireland (not a huge issue for me as my sites are of global interest), control panels are now confusing (although that was never a strong point of R365 anyway) What next??
Only thing stopping me coming back with my tail between my legs is the limited databases. Something to think about??… 🙂
NOTE TO OP:
Just to make you aware here is the reason why you are charged to move your domain name and some other costs you may call ridiculous but they are not
1. If you change any information in the WHOIS information box you are liable to pay for another year of hosting/domain charges as they cannot freely change that information
2. If you change provider from one provider such as Register365 to anyone else you are liable to pay a transfer fee, while these are still expensive most companies give a decent discount for Transfer Rates.
That is all rant over
@Mark
I’ve no idea why you’re posting on an article I wrote 6 years ago ..
Anyway
1 – Changing whois information for .com domains doesn’t cost anything
2 – You pay a transfer fee to the new registrar NOT the old one
Thanks for your comment.
Michele