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.

 

[maxjohan]

That was very nice of them. Namecheap was always nice to me too until the whois charges. I made sincere efforts to resolve the issue to no success and I didn't want to issue a chargeback but I told them I didn't have the money for all the whois charges that I wasn't expecting and I would issue a chargeback if they couldn't give me a refund. Live support told me to "go ahead" so I did. It's an unfortunate situation and it is not helping either side.

I feel you man. But you mentioned that you charged back for three whoisguards? That's only $9! Do you happen to live in Bolivia? I don't understand how you can charge back such tiny amound. Chargebacks truly should be our last resort. I've lost $1000's to online gambling. And I've never made a chargeback.

Though, I guess you made a mistake here. And we all do.

 

[NameVisual]

I feel you man. But you mentioned that you charged back for three whoisguards? That's only $9! Do you happen to live in Bolivia? I don't understand how you can charge back such tiny amound. Chargebacks truly should be our last resort. I've lost $1000's to online gambling. And I've never made a chargeback.

Though, I guess you made a mistake here. And we all do.

No there were more but I didn't chargeback all of them, I just let it go on my credit card and I paid it all of in time. It was a lot of renewals.

Look at this screenshot:

https://www.screencast.com/t/Uka0Iae4Db

It does not say anything about the second year and that it's not free. It doesn't even say free for the first year only. And they conveniently offer no refunds for whois gaurd as other registrars do. It's a dishonest business practice.

 

[maxjohan]

It mentions 1-year subscription. Not lifetime subscription.

 

[maxjohan]

Besides, the problem is having a credit card instead of a debit card. With a debit card you can't get charged more than what's in your bank account.

 

[NameVisual]

Besides, the problem is having a credit card instead of a debit card. With a debit card you can't get charged more than what's in your bank account.

When I purchase a 2 year registration it still says FREE and there are no charges for the second year.

https://www.screencast.com/t/ZaO5vWv5rgX4

No disclaimers at the bottom of the page either. So a year later you are hit with a bunch of WhoIs gaurd charges.

Yes, a debit card would be better since Namecheap feels that they are entitled to your charge your credit card later when you're not expecting it. Imagine if you gave 50 or 100 renewals and are charged for WhoIs on each one.

 

[NameVisual]

So I went to log in my account and my username doesn't exist on the site. I thought they would have just locked the domains like they did last year so now I can't get in my account to finish transferring them.

It's war!

 

[NameVisual]

HeHe..... Sorry was skiing today and locked into my mobile phone. Those little buttons make typing a bit difficult.

I really don't have much more to add that has not already been said by you or the OP.

I think it's an unfortunate situation all the way around but a great topic to have on namePros so everyone can learn the consequences of a chargeback and how it might affect their relationship with their registrar.

I'm sure you will be happy to know that Namecheap deleted my username so I can't log in to finish transferring my domains. I had some that couldn't be transferred yet because they are less than 60 days old.

 

[NameVisual]

I'm not sure. Maybe NameVisual can answer this. I think he posted here to practice and strengthen his arguments against NameCheap. Trying to find out what might fly and what won't. He does admit to being stubborn though. Even when he's wrong I don't think there has been any meaningful dialog from him to NameCheap before he made these chargebacks. Just saying "No, I won't pay any money to you hijackers and ransomers. I'm going to make these chargebacks." is not meaningful dialog, in the context of the dispute. He doesn't see from his PoV that he has done anything wrong. But there is overwhelming evidence that he is in the wrong. We will see on the 19th Feb whether NameCheap will stick to their word this time. I think they have been way to generous with him. IMHO. He gives a bad reputation to all domainers. It's exactly because of people like this that Registrars have and need these strong chargeback policies.

Hey @stub, Namecheap deleted my username. Thanks for encouraging and supporting them to do this.

 

[MapleDots]

I'm sure you will be happy to know that Namecheap deleted my username.

@NameVisual

OMG, nothing could be further from how I feel. I would NEVER be glad that you lost any domains. In fact I am disappointed in how this turned out. I got a charge back on one of my businesses today and my TOS clearly states there is a $250 fee plus legal costs. I worked with the client and ended up charging him 50 bucks. We are both happy in how it turned out.

In your case.... happy is never a word I would use

 

[Bean]

You have to own up to your mistakes, simple as that.
What's unethical is you starting this thread in an attempt to discredit Namecheap for the mistakes you've made. Namecheap is one of the most reputable registrars around and their customer support is second to none.
Sorry to break it to you but you won't find many people here who'll side with you on this.

I think the problem is that you don't realize just how damaging chargebacks are to businesses, for you it's as simple as asking for a refund. For a company, however, instances of chargebacks never really go away, instead they accumulate, every single one leaves a permanent blemish on their credibility with the banks they deal with.

 

[Name Trader]

So I went to log in my account and my username doesn't exist on the site. I thought they would have just locked the domains like they did last year so now I can't get in my account to finish transferring them.

It's war!

You can't say you weren't forewarned. Although they didn't do a good job at explaining locking your domains meant losing your account. But you should have initiated the transfer of domains you wanted to complete by the deadline. Because you did know you would not have access to the domains after the deadline. Those that are in process already should complete though.

So where are you now? How many domains have you transferred already, how many are in transit, and how many remain locked at NameCheap. And how many of those still locked at NameCheap did you want to transfer out? You cannot say they haven't given ample time to transfer 100 domains. You can initiate that many in 1 day easily. How many of the 100 were .com and how many were nGTLDs/esoteric ccTLDs (at higher costs).

Just for the record. I never encouraged them to delete your username. I thought, like you, that you would still have access to your account, with the domains being locked. But, reading between the lines, I guess they don't want have any further business with you.

So what are you going to do from here on?

 

[NameVisual]

You can't say you weren't forewarned. Although they didn't do a good job at explaining locking your domains meant losing your account. But you should have initiated the transfer of domains you wanted to complete by the deadline. Because you did know you would not have access to the domains after the deadline. Those that are in process already should complete though.

So where are you now? How many domains have you transferred already, how many are in transit, and how many remain locked at NameCheap. And how many of those still locked at NameCheap did you want to transfer out? You cannot say they haven't given ample time to transfer 100 domains. You can initiate that many in 1 day easily. How many of the 100 were .com and how many were nGTLDs/esoteric ccTLDs (at higher costs).

Just for the record. I never encouraged them to delete your username. I thought, like you, that you would still have access to your account, with the domains being locked. But, reading between the lines, I guess they don't want have any further business with you.

So what are you going to do from here on?

Thank you! First, I should start over.

I admit I did not read the fine print, however on the order page there is no fine print or any disclaimers on the page.

MY MISTAKE

I am not a sophisticated buyer and they are taking advantage of that.

I will update this soon as I am communicating with financial institutions who are supporting me in this situation.

 

[NameVisual]

@NameVisual

OMG, nothing could be further from how I feel. I would NEVER be glad that you lost any domains. In fact I am disappointed in how this turned out. I got a charge back on one of my businesses today and my TOS clearly states there is a $250 fee plus legal costs. I worked with the client and ended up charging him 50 bucks. We are both happy in how it turned out.

In your case.... happy is never a word I would use

Thank you, I appreciate your support. I am also glad to hear that you came to a resolution with your customer.

For the past few days I have been trying to resolve this issue with Namecheap, as I tried to do last fall. No success. The only way they wanted to resolve this was for me to pay them or they would confiscate all of my domain names.

I was not expecting them to delete my username so I can't log in. Now I don't even have access to my support tickets. They did not warn me that they would delete my account.

As a business owner, I understand that you see this differently than I do. However, the whois renewal charges are not clear at all on the order page. It does say "1 year subscription FREE", it does not have any fine print saying something like please see TOS and there are no disclaimers anywhere on the page. If I order a domain for 2 years, it still says the same thing and they do not charge you for the second year at the time of the 2 year registration. They charge you a year later when the customer thinks the purchase is paid for. So if you someone has a lot of domain names like I do, that can add up to a lot of money on the credit card that the customer is not expecting.

There were a lot more WhoIs renewal fee's that I did not dispute that added up to quite a lot of money on my credit card.

I tried working with them then but they only wanted to charge me more money to resolve it, even after I warned them I was going to submit a chargeback. I was freaking out at the time about all the charges on my credit card and how I was going to pay them.

So in the past few days they told me in an email that they tried resolving this with me but how? They only wanted to charge me more money and threaten me. They have responded the same way now and once again, I warned them that I would take action but they still would not negotiate with me.

From a customers view, it is so wrong, at least to me. I have some domains that I could not transfer because they are less than 60 days old, some didn't have the unlock option for certain extensions like .com.se, .pro etc.

 

[NameVisual]

You have to own up to your mistakes, simple as that.
What's unethical is you starting this thread in an attempt to discredit Namecheap for the mistakes you've made. Namecheap is one of the most reputable registrars around and their customer support is second to none.
Sorry to break it to you but you won't find many people here who'll side with you on this.

I think the problem is that you don't realize just how damaging chargebacks are to businesses, for you it's as simple as asking for a refund. For a company, however, instances of chargebacks never really go away, instead they accumulate, every single one leaves a permanent blemish on their credibility with the banks they deal with.

I agree with some of what you said here but disagree on Namecheap being reputable. I am not saying they are not completely reputable but I feel I was tricked in to the WhoIs guard renewal fee's as they are not explained on the order.

https://www.screencast.com/t/Uka0Iae4Db

https://www.screencast.com/users/pu...lt/media/e84ea007-c0c1-4d2f-adde-d4c5640b1933

There is no fine print or disclaimers on the page and it does not say to read the TOS, any * character, nothing. It says 1 year subscription FREE, which is for the one year registration. An unsophisticated buyer can see that as it will be free for the registration renewal and they automatically turn on auto renewal for WhoIs without saying it is not free for the second year.

 

[NameVisual]

Here is their response for one of the domains I could not transfer:

Thank you for getting back to us.

According to ICANN's 'Policy on Transfer of Registrations Between Registrars' domains cannot be transferred within 60-days period after registration or previous transfer indeed. There is nothing to worry about as it is the common rule applied to the majority of domains.

However, it should not prevent the Auth code from being delivered to you.

You may get back to us after March 13, 2018 in order to obtain an up-to-date Auth code for your domain.

Should you have any queries in the meantime, please do not hesitate to get back to us.

------------------
Best regards,
Julia Litvinova
Namecheap Concierge Representative


So now they have deleted my account and I don't have anyway to transfer it after the 60 days.

 

[Bean]

I agree with some of what you said here but disagree on Namecheap being reputable. I am not saying they are not completely reputable but I feel I was tricked in to the WhoIs guard renewal fee's as they are not explained on the order.

https://www.screencast.com/t/Uka0Iae4Db

https://www.screencast.com/users/pu...lt/media/e84ea007-c0c1-4d2f-adde-d4c5640b1933

There is no fine print or disclaimers on the page and it does not say to read the TOS, any * character, nothing. It says 1 year subscription FREE, which is for the one year registration. An unsophisticated buyer can see that as it will be free for the registration renewal and they automatically turn on auto renewal for WhoIs without saying it is not free for the second year.

First off why would you assume anything when it comes to money potentially being taken automatically from your account?
That's just plain sloppiness on your part, it would've taken you only a few minutes to confirm via Namecheap live chat whether the WhoisGuard is permanently free.

Second, the screenshot you posted above clearly makes it even harder to assume that the subscription is free permanently.

First, it says '1 year subscription'.
Second, it has an 'auto-renew' button rather than an 'on/off' button.
Third, the price shows $2.88 crossed out.

Namecheap live chat is available 24/7 and personally I've never had to wait more than a few minutes to talk to a representative.

 

[Name Trader]

Thank you! First, I should start over.

I admit I did not read the fine print, however on the order page there is no fine print or any disclaimers on the page.

MY MISTAKE

I am not a sophisticated buyer and they are taking advantage of that.

I will update this soon as I am communicating with financial institutions who are supporting me in this situation.

Are you saying NameCheap never sent you any emails regarding these automatic renewals which included these charges for renewing whoisguard? I find that hard to believe. They stated in the conversations you posted on the first page, that they sent you those reminders. So you were fully aware before the charges were made to your credit card that they were going to bill for these whoisguard renewals. You haven't ever responded about that charge. It seems really strange that you never logged in and removed whoisguard renewals from your domains, so your credit card would not be charged.

 

[NameVisual]

Are you saying NameCheap never sent you any emails regarding these automatic renewals which included these charges for renewing whoisguard? I find that hard to believe. They stated in the conversations you posted on the first page, that they sent you those reminders. So you were fully aware before the charges were made to your credit card that they were going to bill for these whoisguard renewals. You haven't ever responded about that charge. It seems really strange that you never logged in and removed whoisguard renewals from your domains, so your credit card would not be charged.

I don't remember if I did or not, maybe I did. My mistake. I know when they put all the charges on my credit card that I contacted them, asked for a refund amd tried to resolve the charges.

 

[NameVisual]

I emailed Namecheap regarding the domains that are less than 60 days old that I couldn't transfer.

Their response:

We have to inform you that we will not be able to assist you in chats/tickets. Please note that any further communication must go through Namecheap Legal Department at [email protected].

This ticket and all the duplicate ones are being closed.

Thank you for understanding.

----------------
Kind regards,
Oksana Mo.
CFC Shift Leader
Risk Management Department
Namecheap, Inc.

Ticket Details
Ticket ID: ZJR-607-77000
Department: Risk Management
Type: Issue
Status: Closed
Priority: High

 

[NameVisual]

So now Namecheap has locked the domains that I unlocked and were in the process of transferring. The time frame they gave me to transfer out is now useless and it was a lie.