All, I apologize in advance for this being so long, but it's really just the tip of an awfully big ipower iceberg....so....here's a short, minor version of some issues I need help with. Thanks in advance.
I've had a nightmare year of terrible service with iPowerWeb. I've also got a few hundred domains registered through them. Now that many are at or nearing the expiration date, I'm trying to transfer them all away from iPower. Sounds simple enough, yes?
The first problem is that ipower can't, or won't, send me an accurate list of domains I've got registered to them. I've asked six times in the last couple of weeks, and all I get are excuses from their head of billing. I finally got a simple list of exactly 500 domains from them last week...bare names with no expiration dates. The problem is that their list is 70 - 80 domains different than my own list. Their list contains domains that aren't mine and/or that I registered at wild west when ipower didn't have it together enough to register them after a day or two...but that they still charged me for and list as registered through them (whois shows they aren't).
The problem I've got now, is that I've got domains expiring that I may want to keep, but I have no way of getting to them. Last April, knowing I wanted to let some domains expire, but also renew some, I wrote to ipower and asked them to not auto-renew any of my domains. They acknowledged that they wouldn't. However, on June 5, they renewed around 11 domains, which I didn't want. I wrote and told them to please not renew anymore...they sent me a form letter, and then another saying they would "cancel" or not auto-renew my domains. Of course, the next day, six more domains renewed..or at least they charged me for them. After I wrote them again, they claim they didn't charge me, but I need to check this since those domains show me as the owner with a new expiration date. I didn't think of this till just recenlty, but the twist in this is that I don't know if the domains they "renewed" were even theirs to renew...since they don't seem to have an accurate list. I'm now going through the domains they renewed without permission...and charged my card without permission, to see if they are even the registrar for them...or if I even own them.
Additionally, now that they again have "cancelled" my auto-renew, they are telling me I'm now not able to get to my own domains in order to unlock, change the DNS or anything...that only domains with auto-renew can be in their system and accessible by customers (it's called the CLS or central login system, where all domains per owner are grouped together). Which brings me back to getting a list, so I can at least tell them which domains to unlock for tfr...because they want me to tell them which domains to unlock, but they can't or won't give me their official list to use, check or whatever.
To make matters worse (and more confusing), I'm afraid some of the domains I tried to transfer from ipower, who claimed to be the registrar, were actually registered through another registrar. Since I'm also transferring domains from the other registrar (quite easily), I didn't even think to check if the domain names I thought were being transferred from ipower were being transferred from the other registrar (a tfr request doesn't care who the registrar is, it just sends the e-mail to the whois address on record). It's all very confusing, I know, but the bottom line is that ipower can't or won't give me a list of what they show as my domains registered through them....and thus, that I've been charged for....maybe when I didn't even register them through ipower.
There's so much more, but I'll make it short. No one in management will explain what's going on to me or or answer e-mail...except for the mail from ipower's billing department that just stalls or claims excuses for not getting a list to me...Here's the last e-mail from their head of billing two days ago:
"Attached is a partial list of domain names/expiration dates (I have also included where they are pointing). Keep in mind that with the amount of domain names this does take a good bit of time, and we have to balance the work we are doing on this with other customer issues. I am hoping to have a more detailed list within 24 to 48 hours."
Sincerely,
Raynelle Sibel
iPowerWeb"
Of course there was no "partial list" of my domains attached. And today is the second full day since she wrote it would take 24-48 hours to make a list of my domains I registered through them! So it's going on 10 days now, and no list...no way to check what is expiring...no way to check what they may have erroneously billed me for...and they use having to provide customer service to others as the reason they can't provide basic customer service to me! I just don't understand.
The legal questions:
1. Isn't it a reasonable for a customer to expect a registrar to know what domains are registered through them and be able to account for them?
2. How can I force them to list the domains they say I've registered through them...and the domains they have charged me for, as there are many they say they registered for me (and charged me) that weren't through them (for example they say antiquesforsale.biz was registered for me, but someone else registered it before they did for me...but they still show that they did registered ot...and charged me...the same with many other domains....either not mine or registsered through someone else..of course whois shows differently than ipower's records).
3. How can I make them account for bogus reg fees, or force them to prove the fees were refunded or charged back?
4. How can I make them give me access to my domains so I can transfer the ones I want before they expire?
More questions, but I've gone on long enough....you get the idea.
Can anyone help out (besides telling me how stupid I was for using ipower in the first place)?
Thanks.
I've had a nightmare year of terrible service with iPowerWeb. I've also got a few hundred domains registered through them. Now that many are at or nearing the expiration date, I'm trying to transfer them all away from iPower. Sounds simple enough, yes?
The first problem is that ipower can't, or won't, send me an accurate list of domains I've got registered to them. I've asked six times in the last couple of weeks, and all I get are excuses from their head of billing. I finally got a simple list of exactly 500 domains from them last week...bare names with no expiration dates. The problem is that their list is 70 - 80 domains different than my own list. Their list contains domains that aren't mine and/or that I registered at wild west when ipower didn't have it together enough to register them after a day or two...but that they still charged me for and list as registered through them (whois shows they aren't).
The problem I've got now, is that I've got domains expiring that I may want to keep, but I have no way of getting to them. Last April, knowing I wanted to let some domains expire, but also renew some, I wrote to ipower and asked them to not auto-renew any of my domains. They acknowledged that they wouldn't. However, on June 5, they renewed around 11 domains, which I didn't want. I wrote and told them to please not renew anymore...they sent me a form letter, and then another saying they would "cancel" or not auto-renew my domains. Of course, the next day, six more domains renewed..or at least they charged me for them. After I wrote them again, they claim they didn't charge me, but I need to check this since those domains show me as the owner with a new expiration date. I didn't think of this till just recenlty, but the twist in this is that I don't know if the domains they "renewed" were even theirs to renew...since they don't seem to have an accurate list. I'm now going through the domains they renewed without permission...and charged my card without permission, to see if they are even the registrar for them...or if I even own them.
Additionally, now that they again have "cancelled" my auto-renew, they are telling me I'm now not able to get to my own domains in order to unlock, change the DNS or anything...that only domains with auto-renew can be in their system and accessible by customers (it's called the CLS or central login system, where all domains per owner are grouped together). Which brings me back to getting a list, so I can at least tell them which domains to unlock for tfr...because they want me to tell them which domains to unlock, but they can't or won't give me their official list to use, check or whatever.
To make matters worse (and more confusing), I'm afraid some of the domains I tried to transfer from ipower, who claimed to be the registrar, were actually registered through another registrar. Since I'm also transferring domains from the other registrar (quite easily), I didn't even think to check if the domain names I thought were being transferred from ipower were being transferred from the other registrar (a tfr request doesn't care who the registrar is, it just sends the e-mail to the whois address on record). It's all very confusing, I know, but the bottom line is that ipower can't or won't give me a list of what they show as my domains registered through them....and thus, that I've been charged for....maybe when I didn't even register them through ipower.
There's so much more, but I'll make it short. No one in management will explain what's going on to me or or answer e-mail...except for the mail from ipower's billing department that just stalls or claims excuses for not getting a list to me...Here's the last e-mail from their head of billing two days ago:
"Attached is a partial list of domain names/expiration dates (I have also included where they are pointing). Keep in mind that with the amount of domain names this does take a good bit of time, and we have to balance the work we are doing on this with other customer issues. I am hoping to have a more detailed list within 24 to 48 hours."
Sincerely,
Raynelle Sibel
iPowerWeb"
Of course there was no "partial list" of my domains attached. And today is the second full day since she wrote it would take 24-48 hours to make a list of my domains I registered through them! So it's going on 10 days now, and no list...no way to check what is expiring...no way to check what they may have erroneously billed me for...and they use having to provide customer service to others as the reason they can't provide basic customer service to me! I just don't understand.
The legal questions:
1. Isn't it a reasonable for a customer to expect a registrar to know what domains are registered through them and be able to account for them?
2. How can I force them to list the domains they say I've registered through them...and the domains they have charged me for, as there are many they say they registered for me (and charged me) that weren't through them (for example they say antiquesforsale.biz was registered for me, but someone else registered it before they did for me...but they still show that they did registered ot...and charged me...the same with many other domains....either not mine or registsered through someone else..of course whois shows differently than ipower's records).
3. How can I make them account for bogus reg fees, or force them to prove the fees were refunded or charged back?
4. How can I make them give me access to my domains so I can transfer the ones I want before they expire?
More questions, but I've gone on long enough....you get the idea.
Can anyone help out (besides telling me how stupid I was for using ipower in the first place)?
Thanks.
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