advice Autorenewal is scam or just business?

[Apprich]

Hello,

I need an advice for this annoying strategy in domain industry..

I've seen this in most of the registrars every time you register new domain they set it auto-renewal true with renewal fee is horrendous price. and if you happen to forget any domain on this registrar with your credit card bound to this website they charge you with their high price and no refund back.. and they call this as business.

Trying to understand whether is scam or shady way or just business way it is... do we have consumer rights against it?

Registrar forcing for auto-renewal and then auto-charging to credit card the price they want and if customer say i don't want to renew it just refund back money to credit card..

they refuse doing it and stating "Terms and Conditions, we cannot provide a refund on domain names as these are personalised items."

what is it personalized items? does it make it qualified non-refundable product?
where is the consumer rights? could i refund any product after certain days?

Please help me to understand this, and what can we do against this registrar that's not refunding money back to credit card.

thanks to all.

 

[golan]

You curse them when they auto renew your shitty names. You will thank them when get some really valuable domain in your portfolio which they auto renew.

 

[dirk]

^ this. I always keep autorenew on as I almost lost a LLL.com once Pricing should be ok if you're with a decent registrar.

 

[DNGear]

was it 1& 1? I was charged 200 usd for 5 .online domains due to auto renew on.
I should curse myself choosing 1&1.

 

[alcy]

if domainers forget turn stuff off then its not equivalent to being registrars fault

 

[Apprich]

was it 1& 1? I was charged 200 usd for 5 .online domains due to auto renew on.
I should curse myself choosing 1&1.

No, it's not 1&1 but does it matter which registrar.. most of them doing same.. currently charged $26 renewal for .com domain and many domains that i don't want to remember this.
And did you contact 1&1 to get money back?

 

[Apprich]

if domainers forget turn stuff off then its not equivalent to being registrars fault

My question is actually if it's legit or not... yes domainer or customer can forget this, but then go to registrar and say "Hey, i don't want to renew this domain or i don't want this product, please charge back the money you just got from me" isn't there internet consumer rights that i just want to return the product or service that i paid for?

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

was it 1& 1? I was charged 200 usd for 5 .online domains due to auto renew on.
I should curse myself choosing 1&1.

1and1 is not alone... Autorenewal is turned on by default with various registrars...
It can be disabled per multiple domains via https://contract.1and1.com

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

My question is actually if it's legit or not... yes domainer or customer can forget this, but then go to registrar and say "Hey, i don't want to renew this domain or i don't want this product, please charge back the money you just got from me" isn't there internet consumer rights that i just want to return the product or service that i paid for?

It is legit, because it is NOT hidden.
All users can clearly see this feature in their accounts and to switch it ON/OFF.

 

[d-e-x]

Both, scam and business

 

[Apprich]

It is legit, because it is NOT hidden.
All users can clearly see this feature in their accounts and to switch it ON/OFF.

is it legit not to refund back? if customer doesn't want to buy this service or product.. isn't there consumer rights to return back in certain days the product you paid for?

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Since 2008 my 1st rule/task with each registrar: to disable autorenewal.

Regarding "rights"...
Read Terms of your registrar...
If you use it - this automatically means that you ACCEPT it. So 100% LEGIT.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I mean clearly the companies do it because they only make money, or significant money, in that second year and beyond. I don't see it as a scam as long as the renewal status is really clear, and you can see that it is on, and can readily turn it off.

Personally I keep it off except for a very few domains that I would want to be sure to be renewed if I had a personal or health emergency and for those I leave auto renewal on.

Some companies also send you huge numbers of notices when domains are about to expire. I see that even if tiresome as a service. It really would be hard to let one lapse unless you were not in Internet contact for a long time.

 

[Name Trader]

was it 1& 1? I was charged 200 usd for 5 .online domains due to auto renew on.
I should curse myself choosing 1&1.

You should. You must be crazy to have used them at all.

 

[Name Trader]

My question is actually if it's legit or not... yes domainer or customer can forget this, but then go to registrar and say "Hey, i don't want to renew this domain or i don't want this product, please charge back the money you just got from me" isn't there internet consumer rights that i just want to return the product or service that i paid for?

It's perfectly legitimate. If you don't want to auto renew. You can easily remove it. Some people like it. Others hate it. The Registrar will be dammed if they do and dammed if they don't. I guess they err on the side of caution

 

[Name Trader]

is it legit not to refund back? if customer doesn't want to buy this service or product.. isn't there consumer rights to return back in certain days the product you paid for?

But they have opted in. They should opt out, if they don't want auto renewal.

 

[MapleDots]

I review my domains regularly and turn off auto renew on the ones I won't be renewing but leave it on the others just in case I get hit by a bus and cannot do it manually.

I renew my domains 3 months ahead manually so I never get surprised. I find if I transfer them from registrar to registrar I can get the best deals.

 

[Name Trader]

What I don't like is sometimes the registrar will change from not renew to renew without telling you. I think GoDaddy have done that in the past, although I didn't keep any evidence. But it's not a biggie for me. Coz I always transfer my domains out ASAP. At every registrar.

 

[creataweb]

Go to your Control Panel, disable Auto-Renewal, only use reputable registrars.

 

[Apprich]

What I don't like is sometimes the registrar will change from not renew to renew without telling you. I think GoDaddy have done that in the past, although I didn't keep any evidence. But it's not a biggie for me. Coz I always transfer my domains out ASAP. At every registrar.

In fact Godaddy would do refund for auto-renewed domain if you tell them you dont want this domain to be renewed. however not every registrar doing it.. and this is more like revenge of the registrar since we do register many domains with promotion.