discuss NameCheap Price Glitch —Be Aware

[paghhky]

Today I was looking at registering a new domain at NameCheap.
I found an available domain that seemed viable and I was considering purchasing it.

It was only $4.88 for the first year. (it is **.link)

I took a screenshot of it with the snipping tool—like I do with all the domains that are appealing.
Then I check the availability of a similar domain and end up going back to the first one.

To my shock, the price had changed!
In what felt like only seconds, the price went from $4.88 to $130! And I have the proof, too!

I quickly went into my Pictures and opened up the screenshot I had taken to confirm that the price had been very low when I first saw it, and it was...
Has this happened to anyone else? Should I contact NameCheap and ask them how this could have happened? The screenshots show that they were taken just 3 minutes apart.


I feel as if their system just spiked the price up because it could tell I was interested in purchasing...

 

[AKS5]

Please check whois of this domain.... looks like the domain was already registered by someone else and was being sold as a premium domain. Sometimes namecheap(maybe other registrars as well) show a domain available for registration that is not, especially the non-.com ones, maybe due to some database issue.

Please do share your whois findings with us, thanks.

 

[Samer]

@tamar

 

[gilescoley]

Check at multiple registrars to make sure the name is available, sounds like this one may not have been available.

Did you check the WHOIS info before posting?

 

[h2o]

I have noticed this issue happen with multiple registrars - not just Namecheap. I don't think it is due to "price fraud" as you describe. When you search for a domain registrars like Namecheap need to query multiple databases at once at a fraction of a second as @AKS5 briefly eluded to. It looks like the way they are programed is that some premium registry names may default to the regular fee price sometimes instead of the actual premium price but if you do a subsequent search then the true price shows up. You can verify this by opening up multiple windows and trying different registrars one after another.

One time 101domain.com showed pp.com as being available. I was going to screenshot it for the novelty factor, but then I realized this issue is so common it's not even worth the effort.

 

[karmaco]

Please ammend your title— there was no fraud.

 

[paghhky]

Ok. Thanks for the responses. I'm noticing that sometimes NameCheap shows the default price for a domain and then after a second or two it will update to the actual price. I'm guessing it was just a glitch that the price didn't update correctly that one time.

 

[paghhky]

Please ammend your title— there was no fraud.

It doesn't let me edit the title anymore. Can we get a moderator or something to?
Maybe title should read "NameCheap Price Glitch —Be Aware"

 

[Nametree]

No fraud here - I think I've seen something similar happen at Namesilo, premium pricing on new TLDs doesn't always reflect until checkout.

 

[DomainsMaven]

Today I was looking at registering a new domain at NameCheap.
I found an available domain that seemed viable and I was considering purchasing it.

It was only $4.88 for the first year. (it is **.link)

I took a screenshot of it with the snipping tool—like I do with all the domains that are appealing.
Then I check the availability of a similar domain and end up going back to the first one.

To my shock, the price had changed!
In what felt like only seconds, the price went from $4.88 to $130! And I have the proof, too!

I quickly went into my Pictures and opened up the screenshot I had taken to confirm that the price had been very low when I first saw it, and it was...
Has this happened to anyone else? Should I contact NameCheap and ask them how this could have happened? The screenshots show that they were taken just 3 minutes apart.


I feel as if their system just spiked the price up because it could tell I was interested in purchasing...

New member, since Wednesday.

Forgive him/her. Still learning.

 

[paghhky]

New member, since Wednesday.

Forgive him/her. Still learning.

Appreciate it, Maven.
Would you perhaps know who I should contact to get the title changed?

 

[m1_abrams]

Please check whois of this domain.... looks like the domain was already registered by someone else and was being sold as a premium domain. Sometimes namecheap(maybe other registrars as well) show a domain available for registration that is not, especially the non-.com ones, maybe due to some database issue.

Please do share your whois findings with us, thanks.

AKS5 is right. It is highly improbable that this happened with that reputable of a registrar as quickly as it did.