ALPNAMES.COM - WARNING! WILL DELETE YOUR DOMAINS & HIKE PRICES WITHOUT NOTICE.

As someone who has experience with almost every major registrar out there, I am very unhappy with my AlpNames.com experience. Here's why:

1. They raised their .COM renewal fees from $8.75 to $15.00 with NO warning, NO email, NO reminder or alert. A few days prior I renewed a few domains at $8.75, a couple days later I add expired domains to my cart to renew, they're all set at $15.00 each. Dozens of them.

2. They will DELETE DOMAINS from your account OR CHARGE YOU a $60 Recovery fee, a DAY BEFORE the deadline date they specified in their emails when the domain expired! For example: "You must renew domain before the 3rd or it may be unable to recover!" , Ok fine, then on the 2nd, not the 3rd, they're all deleted or a 60 recovery fee is slapped on them. And I checked time-zones, that had nothing to do with it, they were clear in all time-zones!

3. Slow responses for support. I've contacted their support regarding the price hike, then about the domains being deleted before their due time, going on 4 days still waiting for response on time-sensitive/urgent issue.

4. Lastly, Visa doesn't seem to like this company as they're always blocking payment to them. I had to call my bank several times.

I was introduced to AlpNames because of the transfer promo a couple years ago, without issues which is why I didn't transfer out, $8.75 was reasonable so I paid back the savings to them AND THEM some, renewed my domains (HUNDREDS) for 2+ years with them AFTER promo and was going to again, NOT NOW.

If you have names with AlpNames, again, they hiked .com renewals up from $8.75 to $15.00, so if you have dozens or hundreds of domains to renew and you're not looking for an unpleasant surprise during renewal time, here's your fair warning which they won't give. And they lock your domains so you can't transfer out after expiry date and they may just delete your domains or put them in grace period early. Enjoy.

 

i also got there due to their 5$ transfr promo

renewed few ... transfered more out... but never had single issue

 

This is happening to me right now,they give no option to pay all gateways are closed,I will be losing some good domains ,if icann or verisign don't step in then this whole industry it f------ bullsh*t

 

Glad I never used 'em. Hope you get it sorted out.

 

ok I just checked.. I have like 40 names left.. most will drop.

that being said... couldn't find auto renew... do they have it? how to remove it in bulk?
I checked their support help db... and it talks about some toggle on off once you clicked on name.... but I don't see it.. hmmmmm weird..

and yes, like u say they did jackup price to $15. which sucks.

however, upto few months ago.. I was able to transfer out tens of .com after expiry.. like up to day -30... and no extra fee... unless this too they changed recently if thats what you mean.

thanks!

 

An Epik customer is reporting challenges with accessing AlpNames.

In the meantime, I am at ICANN in Kobe and will try to track down someone from Alpnames. Apparently Robert Posnett from Alpnames is here.

I did also put a question to the ICANN Registrar Stakeholder Group just now.

If anyone is still having issues with Alpnames, you can email me at [email protected] and will try to coordinate with Alpnames.

Thanks.
Rob

 

The AlpNames website completely shut down.

I understand that sometimes there are problems but they must always inform the clients. Right now I do not know if they are going to return or we lost everything.

Thanks to Rob Monster from Epik we have an opportunity.

 

If someone needs to login to your account, I find this address.
apal516804.myorderbox.com

 

Their current website access problem is apparently related to a security certificate.

Re date I suspect the issue the OP had re date was that they go by their time zone not yours.

I have used customer support several times without issue.

I have transferred out without issue or cost.

It is surprising that they are not competitive in .com pricing but they are not alone in that.

To answer your question @alcy I don't think they do have autorenew or maybe I have it somehow always off. I have had many expire and it just happens after reminders they are expiring.

When transferring out there is no automatic way to approve and eliminate 5 day wait, but when I contacted customer service they approved it.

Bob

 

Thanks for your reply. The problem is that we can not renew the service for 5 days. we choose this message: All payment gateways are currently under maintenance, please contact support help desk.

It used to take 1 or 2 days to respond, but now it's 4 days, and without any response.

I believe that they eliminated the certificate to prevent access to the website.

 

thanks @Bob Hawkes
I actually confirmed htis info through whois.com
as they have identical panels.
alpnames didn't respond my email yet

I was logged in there on 9th without issues last time

now its weekend and if they are having temp issues then probably no one is there to fix it

some registrars may just close shop overnite for no reason.. I am sure it can happen. but I hardly see alpnames as one of those. without 1000s clients.. and many 1000s names regged there.

so there is no reason imo to sensationalize this matter.

 

They have a bad reputation for other stuff so you're really taking chances with those shady registrars.
All those 'promos' are gonna cost you.

 

Keep track of your names, don't wait until the last minute/after expiry to attempt to move them. You will avoid yourself a lot of headache.

On the surface Alpnames seems shady. I took advantage of their promos, but have since move all but a handful out of there.

Their communication is horrible, the domains go on lockdown on renewal if the price has changed because backend systems don't understand how to process it, thus triggering a long back and forth between support.

But as Bob says, they will get things resolved. I have never been cheated by them.

 

Wow this is unbelievable.

Alpnames used to be trustworthy and people said they were one of the safer registrars...

...And now out of the blue... this. Reminds me of pheenix. Sadly, I do have a few names at alpnames.....

 

well alpnames was never in top most popular or common names..like dyna or gd... it just became more popular with 5usd promo...most here never heard of it b4..and likely never would

 

I wanted to stress that I am not defending (other than stating my personal experience) or promoting Alpnames or any other registrar (I use 10 different registrars personally). It is just headings like this bother me. I think it is important to let people know about price increases and services down, but the OP title is very sensationalistic.

We should be concerned when registrars are down, for any reason, and I am glad that the ever helpful @Rob Monster has kindly offered to see if he can contact the CEO of Alp at the ICANN meeting. But we should not jump to conclusions.

Re price increase on renewal, I was somewhat surprised when I checked just now to note that 23 out of 43 registrars covered by TLD-LIst now show .com renewal at $15 or more, including some names we know and use a lot. I am not sure if renewals have edged up, or if that was always the situation. Anyway just stating that a $15 renewal while higher than in past at that registrar seems in about the middle of the pack.

I also agree with the person who posted that it is always best to decide and renew well in advance.

But my main point is throughout NPs to urge us to be less sensationalistic in thread titles and statements. Just my mission....

Thanks for reading,

Bob

 

agreed
sensationalism = trolling
there is no need or point to it unless there is 100% proof for it

 

This is related to ALL LogicBoxes registrars.

 

I have Reseller account at AlpNames a few years already...
High xxx domains were regged/transferred... and were no significant problems...
Periodical issues with SSL certs are happening at many companies...

 

You may try to DM @AlpNames

 

The problem is that they disabled the payment gateways
Even if fix the page, cannot make payments to renew

 

You may transfer-out your domains...
This will be even cheaper than renewing them.

 

Transfer from LogicBoxes registrars is possible up to ~36 days after Expiration Date.

 

I believe they disable access to the authorization code after the domain expires. Therefore, do yourself a favor and get the codes now before expiration. The codes still work after expiration (before drop), you just don't have access to them.

 

I thought so too at first.. because of the screen that pops over the options/code.. but all you gotta do is click cancel or later at that point.. and your back to picking options.. including clicking the secret code link

Jurgen was right.. its upto -36 days to get your code and transfer out

so the problem isn't really there with alpnames.

the problem is more (1) when alpnames goes from 9$ to 15$ for renewal without notice.
and (2) when its now been down couple days... without notice

as I said before no one here would probably even know about alpnames had it not been for their $5 promo 1-2 years back.

I did just use the alt link someone gave above to login and get the 25 codes for all names I own there.. of which I probably will keep maybe 15... so I think I'll go ahead and end my biz with them here... not because I believe they shut down without notice for good.. but because I don't like the two things I mentioned above. I guess even if they do shutdown (hyphotiteically speaking) we can still transfer out names if we have code and its unlocked in whois.

though honestly I've no cluie what happens to names at a registrar.. if one shuts down... or if there is some icann rules protecting names.. so people can at least transfer out... for say X days or months after shutdown... maybe @Rob Monster knows this... I would imagine the people who registered those names are somehow protected for their "property". or I hope... never happened to me before so I do not know.