question Any way to renew without paying extra

[etdwqop]

I've a .fr domain in Namecheap.My renewal is day after tomorrow .But still they are asking for $210 redemption fee.They are not even allowing to transfer out.
Any way to avoid paying this exorbitant amount.

 

[Rob Monster]

That sounds super crazy. What is the domain?

Their Terms of Service are fairly aggressive. You can see it here:

https://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/9916/2207/tlds-grace-periods

Since that is their published Terms of Service, they do have you by the balls, so to speak. However, it is a cruel injustice as their cost to renew is likely not high at this stage.

 

[etdwqop]

Since that is their published Terms of Service, they do have you by the balls, so to speak. However, it is a cruel injustice as their cost to renew is likely not high at this stage.

Most of the major .fr registrars take $10-55 recovery fee.Namecheap is asking for a whole $210.I asked them to point (before) 12 days renewal T&C in afnic (fr registry) and they failed to do so.(Though it may be true,I also couldn't find relevant information)
Website is niche affiliate site,hence cannot reveal.

 

[Gube]

Find an other registrar for your .fr domains with better ToS and prices.
I have some at Ovh for example, they have bad email support, but they answer the phone.

 

[Rob Monster]

Most of the major .fr registrars take $10-55 recovery fee.Namecheap is asking for a whole $210.I asked them to point (before) 12 days renewal T&C in afnic (fr registry) and they failed to do so.(Though it may be true,I also couldn't find relevant information)
Website is niche affiliate site,hence cannot reveal.

I am not sure if @namecheap can quote you a better rate as a courtesy but I suggest you let them know that their Draconian redemption fees are being discussed at NamePros, and include a link to this thread where they can defend their logic for requiring renewal more than 12 days before expiration. Peer companies like Hexonet would allow you to renew without penalty up to day 0 of expiry. Same story at Epik.com.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Namecheap have an official rep on NPs now who should be flagged in order to have the opportunity to respond:
@tamar

It sounds like they are following their ToS, which are clear (although many of us at our peril don't always read them). If competitors charge much less for redemption, it is appropriate that Namecheap at least take note of this, as in most things they are competitive.

I hope it gets resolved, @etdwqop. As always, thank you for the wealth of sound advice and information you provide, @Rob Monster.

Bob

 

[etdwqop]

Thanks Bob Hawkes for looping @tamar .Hope he will find a solution for a long time loyal customer of namecheap.

How Other major registrars handle .fr domain
Godaddy: Restoration charges AFTER expiry date : $80
Gandi: Restoration charges AFTER expiry date : $15
OVH : Couldn't find when they start charging but their activation charges are £59.99.
Mrdomain :Can be renewed up to the day of its expiration.After that €9,95

 

[cdboard]

Could this be a glitch? Did you ask them to manually renew it at the normal rate?


I went to renew a domain at namecheap, and there was a $300 premium renewal fee indicated in the cart.

I called support about it, and they said it was a glitch. they manually renewed it for regular price.

 

[etdwqop]

Could this be a glitch? Did you ask them to manually renew it at the normal rate?


I went to renew a domain at namecheap, and there was a $300 premium renewal fee indicated in the cart.

I called support about it, and they said it was a glitch. they manually renewed it for regular price.

Its not a glitch .I had chat with live support of Namecheap twice.Both of them pointed to namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/9916/2207/tlds-grace-periods .As if just by putting this somewhere resolves all their responsibility.
Most important thing is none of the major registrar do such type of renewal.Who in the sane mind will ever think that you have to do renewals BEFORE actual renewal date otherwise pay $210.
Namecheap puts themselves as leading alternative to major registrars and with this type of fine print I'm not sure what's the difference between them and others.
Hopefully someone from namecheap @tamar will resolve this issue before my actual date of expiration which is tomorrow (16 july).

 

[chandan]

cant u take auth code and transferout ?

 

[tamar]

Hi, at Namecheap we strive to work directly with registrars wherever possible to eliminate any extra fees. At this point, this is currently the policy of our upstream provider and hope that in time we can improve conditions to eliminate these fees for our customers.

 

[etdwqop]

cant u take auth code and transferout ?

they are not allowing that too!!

Hi, at Namecheap we strive to work directly with registrars wherever possible to eliminate any extra fees. At this point, this is currently the policy of our upstream provider and hope that in time we can improve conditions to eliminate these fees for our customers.

->But since I brought the domain from you, its your responsibility to give proper service to your customers.Saying you follow policy of our upstream provider is just wrong on so many levels.So basically you are following rules from where you are reselling instead of afnic(.fr authority registry).
->Also I should atleast be allowed to transfer out .Why can't you give me authorization codes ?
->$210 is exorbitant for renewing BEFORE due date.

 

[tamar]

We are beholden to our provider's policies at this time and as I said, hope to work directly with the registries themselves in the future to eliminate such inconveniences.

If you have a ticket number, please let me know and I'll have someone look into the specifics or your case and respond to the other questions.

 

[Recons.Com]

Hi, at Namecheap we strive to work directly with registrars wherever possible to eliminate any extra fees. At this point, this is currently the policy of our upstream provider and hope that in time we can improve conditions to eliminate these fees for our customers.

Worst excuse ever.

Ask @Rob Monster to share contacts of his "upstream provider", whatever it means, as apparently they don't charge ANY fees.

Also, regardless, of your ToS, it should be also illegal to enter a domain into redemption PRIOR to its expiration, as the person (entity) has paid and should have full right to use and renew for 365 days, not 353 days.

Transferring all my names away from NC right now.

 

[Rob Monster]

We are beholden to our provider's policies at this time and as I said, hope to work directly with the registries themselves in the future to eliminate such inconveniences.

If you have a ticket number, please let me know and I'll have someone look into the specifics or your case and respond to the other questions.

Hi @tamar

I looked into this one for the registrant. Here is your provider's info based on the domain name he provided me in confidence which I am sure you can verify:

status: REDEMPTION
pending: DELETE
hold: NO
holder-c: UO234-FRNIC
admin-c: DPDP3426-FRNIC
tech-c: DPDP3427-FRNIC
zone-c: NFC1-FRNIC
nsl-id: NSL185163-FRNIC
registrar: 1API GmbH
Expiry Date: 2019-07-16T12:56:02Z
created: 2018-07-16T12:56:02Z
last-update: 2019-07-06T21:21:43Z
deleted: 2019-07-06T21:21:43Z

This is presumably Hexonet:

https://www.1api.net/about-us

See their parameters:

https://wiki.hexonet.net/wiki/FR

There should be a cheap restore option here. I will check with Hexo.

 

[etdwqop]

Worst excuse ever.
Ask @Rob Monster to share contacts of his "upstream provider", whatever it seems, as apparently they don't charge ANY fees.
Also, regardless, of your ToS, it should be also illegal to enter a domain into redemption PRIOR to its expiration, as the person (entity) has paid and should have full right to use and renew for 365 days, not 353 days.
Transferring all my names away from NC right now.

Thanks for your reply!
Exactly my thoughts.
Why does such an established company be reselling domains in first place with such t&c?

We are beholden to our provider's policies at this time and as I said, hope to work directly with the registries themselves in the future to eliminate such inconveniences.
If you have a ticket number, please let me know and I'll have someone look into the specifics or your case and respond to the other questions.

I don't have ticket number since I had live chat on namecheap however you can dm me or mail me for further conversation.clearly there is something wrong somewhere.I'm still hoping you can solve this problem.

Hi @tamar
I looked into this one for the registrant. Here is your provider's info based on the domain name he provided me in confidence which I am sure you can verify:
status: REDEMPTION
pending: DELETE
hold: NO
holder-c: UO234-FRNIC
admin-c: DPDP3426-FRNIC
tech-c: DPDP3427-FRNIC
zone-c: NFC1-FRNIC
nsl-id: NSL185163-FRNIC
registrar: 1API GmbH
Expiry Date: 2019-07-16T12:56:02Z
created: 2018-07-16T12:56:02Z
last-update: 2019-07-06T21:21:43Z
deleted: 2019-07-06T21:21:43Z
This is presumably Hexonet:
1api.net/about-us
See their parameters:
wiki.hexonet.net/wiki/FR
There should be a cheap restore option here. I will check with Hexo.

Hey ,thank you so much for looking this info. and helping me out.Will wait for your reply.
So basically namepros community is helping me instead of Namecheap.

 

[Gube]

By the way, exonet restore fee is only 15€..
(I checked using their price lookup tool with a random .fr domain)
https://www.hexonet.net/price-lookup?lookup=dfsfsdfdf.fr

 

[Recons.Com]

By the way, exonet restore fee is only 15€..
(I checked using their price lookup tool with a random .fr domain)
https://www.hexonet.net/price-lookup?lookup=dfsfsdfdf.fr
Show attachment 123728

And then NameCHEAP adds modest cheap markup of just 195 on top of 15 and says they can't do anything because of hexonet

 

[tamar]

Just an FYI - we don't work with Exonet or Hexonet. We work with Enom.

Per Enom's policies, all .fr domains that are not renewed prior to expiration (as specified in the renewal email and on our .fr pages - one example is here: https://www.namecheap.com/support/k...x/9893/36/fr-domain-registration-requirements) fall into redemption. The cost is outlined here: https://www.enom.com/pricing.aspx?filter=2 (scroll down to see .fr).

At this point, the domain is in redemption, and there's nothing we can even do. Redemption means that we're in the position of paying the fee ourselves in order to get the domain back for you, which is why the cost is imposed as you see. It's not a choice we've made to charge this fee - we do hope in the future to eliminate the middleman (and if you've followed our company evolution in the past few years, you know we have made great progress on that front) to reduce or even remove these extraneous fees. But it is a process, and it isn't done overnight.

I apologize for the inconvenience here. I wish there was more I could do.

 

[etdwqop]

Just an FYI - we don't work with Exonet or Hexonet. We work with Enom.

Per Enom's policies, all .fr domains that are not renewed prior to expiration (as specified in the renewal email and on our .fr pages - one example is here: namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/9893/36/fr-domain-registration-requirements) fall into redemption. The cost is outlined here: enom.com/pricing.aspx?filter=2 (scroll down to see .fr).

At this point, the domain is in redemption, and there's nothing we can even do. Redemption means that we're in the position of paying the fee ourselves in order to get the domain back for you, which is why the cost is imposed as you see.

I apologize for the inconvenience here. I wish there was more I could do.

Again namecheap is doing what it does the best.Holding Information .Namecheap is reselling enom.That true.But they didn't tell that enom is reselling Hexonet. Thanks to @Rob Monster for pointing this out.

The chain is as follows (as far as I can understand.point me if I'm wrong): afnic-->hexonet-->enom-->namecheap.

Why on earth would they just not resell (which they shouldn't in first place considering their establishment) directly from Hexonet. They deliberately choose enom which has $250 restoration fees and $12.5 registration fees over Hexonet who has €17.5 restoration and €11.78 registration fees.I just wonder why.
If namecheap has directly sourced their domain from afnic or even from hexonet there won't be any "12 days before" rule.

It's not a choice we've made to charge this fee - we do hope in the future to eliminate the middleman (and if you've followed our company evolution in the past few years, you know we have made great progress on that front) to reduce or even remove these extraneous fees. But it is a process, and it isn't done overnight.

Namecheap choose to work with company with most evil t&c.they choose to abide by enom's absurd rules and now when it comes to giving proper service to their customer, Namecheap is saying they can't do anything we are just following instructions and I quote "though we want to improve conditions to eliminate these fees".Guess what,you can .just skip enom on reseller ladder or partner with a good company.If you are following instruction on an evil entity,It makes you equally evil.Your reputation will always be linked to enom if all you say is "we just follow them".You have to take responsibility because I'm your customer.Not enom's

Also please give some clarity on denying me authorization codes.