NameCheap.com

[NameVisual]

I own over 100 domain names at Namecheap,com and last year I issued a few charge backs that I tried to resolve with customer support. They are trying to charge me $200 per charge back and they attempted to hijack all my domain names.

I got them to unlock all my domain names that they tried to steal and they told me I couldn't use any of their services until I paid their ransom demand.

I thought it was resolved after I told them I was not paying their ransom and that charging for a charge back is very unethical.

In the last week, I starting receiving more threatening emails informing me to not use their service and after my domains expire, I would have to transfer them out. They didn't like my response to their threat so they are now saying I have to transfer all domain names out by tomorrow or they will once again hijack them from me.

What is everyone's thoughts on this?

Do I need to hire a domain name attorney?

Thank you.

 

[MapleDots]

That is where the law will come in and you will have to get legal representation.

That is where my advice comes in..... take it..... it's far cheaper than legal representation.

Call someone in charge and hammer out an amicable agreement. You don't have to like it but it will be the cheapest scenario moving forward.

 

[NameVisual]

That is where the law will come in and you will have to get legal representation.

That is where my advice comes in..... take it..... it's far cheaper than legal representation.

Call someone in charge and hammer out an amicable agreement.

Thank you, I have tried to resolve this with them and tried even before the chargebacks.

 

[MapleDots]

Thank you, I have tried to resolve this with them and tried even before the chargebacks.

Direct them here.... they will be more than willing to come to an amicable conclusion knowing it is being discussed here. Thats your one ace in the hole.

Good luck

 

[NameVisual]

Direct them here.... they will be more than willing to come to an amicable conclusion knowing it is being discussed here. Thats your one ace in the hole.

Good luck

Thank you. I have invited them to reply here and they just informed me that they won't and will only discuss it on Namecheap.

--------------------------------------


I am inviting you to respond to my thread at NamePros.com regarding your unethical behavior.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/namecheap-com.1065454/#post-6572210
Helpdesk: https://support.namecheap.com/index.php?

Tatiana T.
8:54 PM (4 minutes ago)

to me

Dear Mike,

Thank you for contacting Namecheap Support and for providing us with the link.

We totally understand how much this situation upsets you, meanwhile, we have to ask you to update already existing ticket with our Risk Management department to proceed the further negotiation of this case. Also, we would like to specify that we are going to communicate this case only via official channels of communication and our correspondence via ticket system is considered to be the one.

Please let us draw your attention to the fact that, according to our last update, you were informed that neither your account nor any of the domain names in your account are locked.

In case there are additional questions, you are always welcome to get back to us.


Regards,
Tatiana T.
Customer Support


Ticket Details
Ticket ID: JNS-378-16655
Department: Domain Feedback
Type: Issue
Status: Awaiting Client Response
Priority: High

Helpdesk: https://support.namecheap.com/index.php?


Sales <[email protected]>
8:58 PM (2 minutes ago)

to NameCheap.com

Tatiana,

Yes you informed me that the account is not locked at this moment. However, you have threatened to lock it at midnight and hijack all my domain names that I have already paid for.

 

[NoBS]

Chargebacks are often associated with fraud. For whatever reasons they might put restrictions on your account until they are satisfied your not a threat to their business. Maybe there is a risk you will initiate chargebacks on everything you purchased, costing them hundreds, and all chargeback fees might add up causing their bank/payment provider to increase their transaction/merchant fees (eg 50 cents per sale vs 35 cents) costing them thousands more.

 

[NoBS]

Also if you ever transferred in any domains, they might asses there is a higher risk these could be stolen if chargebacks happen. Registrars have needed to harden up over the last decade and can have a complex set of process in place to mitigate risks.

 

[Name Trader]

Thanks! I never wanted to submit a charge back and I tried to resolve this with customer service but they didn't want to work something out. I even told them I would submit a charge back if it wasn't resolved and they told me to go ahead.

I think they tried to work something out with you but you weren't listening when they offered to halve the chargeback fee to $100 per incident. Which would have made the total chargeback 588.46/2=294.23. The numbers are slightly off, from 3 incidents of $200 = $600. But I'm supposing this is the correct maths?

And what about their renewal notices they sent you. You did not get any of those also? Why not?

Personally. I think you are toast with NameCheap at this point. You'll not get any of your domains back, if they are still transfer prohibited. If the whois of ChineseCigars,com is typical, they are not transfer prohibited at this point. They are transferable. But it still has WhoisGuard protected. So you would need to remove the whoisguard protection first before unlocking the domain and getting the transfer code from NameCheap. If that is successful, then I would suggest transferring as many domains as possible to NameSilo before your account is locked tight again. If this is not successful, Then I would accept their offer of $100 per incident before tomorrow when they told you your account would be locked tight again. Provided the offer is still on the table.

I'm sorry to be the bringer of this bad news to you. But I see I'm not the only one. I hope you still have time to get a satisfactory agreement out of NameCheap before their deadline of tomorrow. They are entitled to make these charges under their ToS. And they will be making the full $200 charge per incident. Not the compromise they offered, which you did not accept (yet). You are the one in the wrong here. You had a chance to remove the whoisguard when they sent you the renewal notices for each domain. Which you simply ignored. They have done everything by the book which they could possibly have done. And you simply have refused their compromise. Which in my view was a generous compromise offered.

Best of luck with removing whoisguard from your domains and hopefully you will get the auth code. With that you can setup a transfer to NameSilo. You should check the whois after unlocking the domain to make sure it's status is not Transfer Prohibited. Once the transfer in place at NameSilo. I doubt, although it might still be possible for them, that they would block the transfer. But if it was me, not NameCheap. I would do everything in my powers to block these transfers, and try to f*ck you over. You are in the wrong here. The safest route would be to pay the $100 per incident and thus rectify your standings with NameCheap. But that offer will probably be off the table if they see you successfully being able to transfer domains away from them. With the intent of you not paying their chargeback fee.

 

[anantj]

I felt misled when they advertise whois gaurd is free. With Namesilo, they give it to you free for the whole time.

Namecheap is not Namesilo. And NC, afaik, always states that privacy is free only for the first year.

 

[anantj]

This was their response after I found out that they locked all my domains and didn't give me due process of law.

What according to you is the due process of law in this case? IANAL but pretty sure the due process of the law here will be their Terms of Service.

Per our check, you have previously contacted our Support Team with the request to cancel automatic renewal and the renewal was canceled as a *one-time exception*. You were asked to double-check the status of this option for the rest of your domain names. It is our understanding that you did not disable Auto-Renew despite the kind suggestion made.

So even after this warning, why did you not disable the auto renew of the whois guard?

We’re also sending out notices about an upcoming auto-renewal to your account email address (the emails are sent on the 25th of each month containing information about the products that will be auto-renewed within the next calendar month) to make sure that no domain names are auto-renewed without your authorization. You can also find these notices under the Unread Messages section in your account at https://ap.www.namecheap.com/dashboard/messages/inbox

Why exactly did you ignore these auto-renewal notices?

As you can read in the email above, they demanded a ransom so I could have my domain names back. This is extortion.

No. This is not ransom. This is a fee that is explicitly stated in the ToS and in reaction your own screwup.

Mistakes or not, I tried to resolve it with them before the chargebacks but they wouldn't give me a refund like GoDaddy or Namesilo would have. We as customers have the legal right to issue a chargeback without being threatened or extorted.

Why do you have this entitlement? Why should they refund you for a mistake you made?

 

[NameVisual]

I think they tried to work something out with you but you weren't listening when they offered to halve the chargeback fee to $100 per incident. Which would have made the total chargeback 588.46/2=294.23. The numbers are slightly off, from 3 incidents of $200 = $600. But I'm supposing this is the correct maths?

And what about their renewal notices they sent you. You did not get any of those also? Why not?

Personally. I think you are toast with NameCheap at this point. You'll not get any of your domains back, if they are still transfer prohibited. If the whois of ChineseCigars,com is typical, they are not transfer prohibited at this point. They are transferable. But it still has WhoisGuard protected. So you would need to remove the whoisguard protection first before unlocking the domain and getting the transfer code from NameCheap. If that is successful, then I would suggest transferring as many domains as possible to NameSilo before your account is locked tight again. If this is not successful, Then I would accept their offer of $100 per incident before tomorrow when they told you your account would be locked tight again. Provided the offer is still on the table.

I'm sorry to be the bringer of this bad news to you. But I see I'm not the only one. I hope you still have time to get a satisfactory agreement out of NameCheap before their deadline of tomorrow. They are entitled to make these charges under their ToS. And they will be making the full $200 charge per incident. Not the compromise they offered, which you did not accept (yet). You are the one in the wrong here. You had a chance to remove the whoisguard when they sent you the renewal notices for each domain. Which you simply ignored. They have done everything by the book which they could possibly have done. And you simply have refused their compromise. Which in my view was a generous compromise offered.

Best of luck with removing whoisguard from your domains and hopefully you will get the auth code. With that you can setup a transfer to NameSilo. You should check the whois after unlocking the domain to make sure it's status is not Transfer Prohibited. Once the transfer in place at NameSilo. I doubt, although it might still be possible for them, that they would block the transfer. But if it was me, not NameCheap. I would do everything in my powers to block these transfers, and try to f*ck you over. You are in the wrong here. The safest route would be to pay the $100 per incident and thus rectify your standings with NameCheap. But that offer will probably be off the table if they see you successfully being able to transfer domains away from them. With the intent of you not paying their chargeback fee.

Thank you for your input but I disagree. It's a good business policy to say that the customer is always right.

There is no way I am paying them $100 per chargeback and pay them their ransom demand.

I never said I didn't make any mistakes but I think they are making some mistakes also. TOS don't always hold up in court and the actual laws supersedes a TOS agreement.

 

[NameVisual]

What according to you is the due process of law in this case? IANAL but pretty sure the due process of the law here will be their Terms of Service.


So even after this warning, why did you not disable the auto renew of the whois guard?



Why exactly did you ignore these auto-renewal notices?


No. This is not ransom. This is a fee that is explicitly stated in the ToS and in reaction your own screwup.


Why do you have this entitlement? Why should they refund you for a mistake you made?

Thanks, I appreciate your comment and views on the situation. However, I am not going to get into a long debate with other members here. I'm just looking for some opinions and I appreciate yours.

 

[Name Trader]

Thank you for your input but I disagree. It's a good business policy to say that the customer is always right.

There is no way I am paying them $100 per chargeback and pay them their ransom demand.

I never said I didn't make any mistakes but I think they are making some mistakes also. TOS don't always hold up in court and the actual laws supersedes a TOS agreement.

OK. I given you 2 alternative methods on how to proceed from here. The safest is to pay them the $100 per incident (3 total I believe and after a discount of 50%). The other method is much more sneaky. It might or might not work. Until you try it. And the deadline of tomorrow is fast approaching. So you need to be quick. You should remember it also takes some time to start a transfer to NameSilo. Usually it takes about 2 or 3 hours, in my opinion.

OK. This is not a ransom demand. They are charging you a chargeback fee. Which they are entitled to by law (ToS) or you challenge their decision in a court of law. We'll see what tomorrow brings before we judge whether you or I have the best solution As I've said before. I wish you the best but fear the worst outcome (losing all your domains).

 

[NameVisual]

OK. I given you 2 alternative methods on how to proceed from here. The safest is to pay them the $100 per incident (3 total I believe and after a discount of 50%). The other method is much more sneaky. It might or might not work. Until you try it. And the deadline of tomorrow is fast approaching. So you need to be quick. You should remember it also takes some time to start a transfer to NameSilo. Usually it takes about 2 or 3 hours, in my opinion.

OK. This is not a ransom demand. They are charging you a chargeback fee. Which they are entitled to by law (ToS) or you challenge their decision in a court of law. We'll see what tomorrow brings before we judge whether you or I have the best solution As I've said before. I wish you the best but fear the worst outcome (losing all your domains).

To me it's a ransom demand and it's unethical for a business to charge a customer a fee for doing what the banks allow us to do. Why would I pay Namecheap $200 for a $9 chargeback? That's ridiculous.

I can see how a chargeback can be frustrating for a business too so I can understand their frustration. However, I made every attempt to resolve this with customer service and I even told them I would issue a chargeback if they didn't give me a refund but they didn't want to. Who knows, maybe this is profitable for them. Why wouldn't they have just given me a refund if a chargeback is so bad? Makes no sense. They try to charge someone $200 and if they don't pay, they hijack all their domains and resell them.

 

[MapleDots]

Dear Mike,

Thank you for contacting Namecheap Support and for providing us with the link.

We totally understand how much this situation upsets you, meanwhile, we have to ask you to update already existing ticket with our Risk Management department to proceed the further negotiation of this case. Also, we would like to specify that we are going to communicate this case only via official channels of communication and our correspondence via ticket system is considered to be the one.

Please let us draw your attention to the fact that, according to our last update, you were informed that neither your account nor any of the domain names in your account are locked.

In case there are additional questions, you are always welcome to get back to us.


Regards,
Tatiana T.
Customer Support


Ticket Details
Ticket ID: JNS-378-16655
Department: Domain Feedback
Type: Issue
Status: Awaiting Client Response
Priority: High

Please let us draw your attention to the fact that, according to our last update, you were informed that neither your account nor any of the domain names in your account are locked.

 

[MapleDots]

That should give you some comfort

 

[Name Trader]

To me it's a ransom demand and it's unethical for a business to charge a customer a fee for doing what the banks allow us to do. Why would I pay Namecheap $200 for a $9 chargeback? That's ridiculous.

I can see how a chargeback can be frustrating for a business too so I can understand their frustration. However, I made every attempt to resolve this with customer service and I even told them I would issue a chargeback if they didn't give me a refund but they didn't want to. Who knows, maybe this is profitable for them. Why wouldn't they have just given me a refund if a chargeback is so bad? Makes no sense. They try to charge someone $200 and if they don't pay, they hijack all their domains and resell them.

I think what you have failed to realize is that a chargeback affects a Registrar in many different ways. I don't have a complete list, but first and foremost is their credit rating with their bank can go down (worsen) which will incur higher fees for every single transaction going forward. This could dwarf the meagre $200/chargeback they were asking in restitution.

I also I don't think that simply refusing to pay the $200, which they then suggested a compromise of $100, which you also you refused to pay. This cannot be considered as any kind of negotiating position on your behalf. What was your compromise? Nothing. Instead you charge them as being ransomers. That is not a negotiation. And lets be clear here. You failed to remove the whoisguard after seeing it on your renewal notices. Which you ignored. And then you call them ransomers? I think it's a bit much on your part. You were the one primarily in the wrong here. Not NameCheap. And you expect to get away with this shocking behavior, scott free?

Has the transfer deadline passed yet? I don't live in the US, so I cannot be sure of the exact time set for the deadline. How many of your domains have you managed to transfer away before the deadline? All, any, none? Please keep us informed what happens after the deadline has reached. And what your next steps will be?

 

[anantj]

Why would I pay Namecheap $200 for a $9 chargeback?

You're mistaken on this aspect. A chargeback costs the business much more than just the principle amount. Card providers infact penalize the business for chargebacks and do not merely deduct the transaction amount.

For example, Paypal charges a chargeback fees on the seller/business according to the fees laid out in the following table: https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees#chargeback-fees
As you can see, if a merchant is at the receiving end of a chargeback, they will be charged this fees on top of the amount that was chargedback. Different providers have different fees and it is not merely the $9 you paid for the domain. A chargeback also impacts the sellers standing with the payment processors. Too many chargebacks can trigger a block on the payment processing which has a huge impact on legit businesses.

Read more about Mastercard's chargeback rules here - https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/about-mastercard/what-we-do/rules.html
Also had documents outlining excessive chargeback rules on businesses.

 

[NameVisual]

Please let us draw your attention to the fact that, according to our last update, you were informed that neither your account nor any of the domain names in your account are locked.

True, at the moment they are not but, if I don't transfer them out in their time frame, they will be.

They also changed their demands and time frames, once again. Ridiculous.

 

[NameVisual]

You're mistaken on this aspect. A chargeback costs the business much more than just the principle amount. Card providers infact penalize the business for chargebacks and do not merely deduct the transaction amount.

For example, Paypal charges a chargeback fees on the seller/business according to the fees laid out in the following table: https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees#chargeback-fees
As you can see, if a merchant is at the receiving end of a chargeback, they will be charged this fees on top of the amount that was chargedback. Different providers have different fees and it is not merely the $9 you paid for the domain. A chargeback also impacts the sellers standing with the payment processors. Too many chargebacks can trigger a block on the payment processing which has a huge impact on legit businesses.

Read more about Mastercard's chargeback rules here - https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/about-mastercard/what-we-do/rules.html
Also had documents outlining excessive chargeback rules on businesses.

I understand all that but what I don't understand is I tried to get a refund and resolve this with customer support but they didn't care. I told them I would issue a chargeback and they said to go ahead, so that pretty much frustrated me so I went ahead and did like they told me to.

 

[NameVisual]

I think what you have failed to realize is that a chargeback affects a Registrar in many different ways. I don't have a complete list, but first and foremost is their credit rating with their bank can go down (worsen) which will incur higher fees for every single transaction going forward. This could dwarf the meagre $200/chargeback they were asking in restitution.

I also I don't think that simply refusing to pay the $200, which they then suggested a compromise of $100, which you also you refused to pay. This cannot be considered as any kind of negotiating position on your behalf. What was your compromise? Nothing. Instead you charge them as being ransomers. That is not a negotiation. And lets be clear here. You failed to remove the whoisguard after seeing it on your renewal notices. Which you ignored. And then you call them ransomers? I think it's a bit much on your part. You were the one primarily in the wrong here. Not NameCheap. And you expect to get away with this shocking behavior, scott free?

Has the transfer deadline passed yet? I don't live in the US, so I cannot be sure of the exact time set for the deadline. How many of your domains have you managed to transfer away before the deadline? All, any, none? Please keep us informed what happens after the deadline has reached. And what your next steps will be?

Yes, you are right about all that. However, I tried to get a refund and resolve this with customer support but they didn't care. I told them I would issue a chargeback and they said to go ahead, so that pretty much frustrated me. They were not willing to resolve the transactions so I went ahead and submitted the chargeback like they told me to.

Honestly, I did not know that a chargeback was this serious to a business and if I did, I would have thought 3 or 4 times before doing it because I already thought twice about it. At the time, the customer support acted like they didn't care about chargebacks.