Namecheap: "Sorry, we mistakenly deleted your domains... but you can recover them for just $688."

[PJ Baldwin]

You won't believe the nightmarish experience I've had with Namecheap over the past few days.

And to prove I'm not making this story up or misrepresenting anything, I'm providing screenshots of my online Chat Transcript and Support Ticket with their "customer service" team... linked at the bottom of this thread.

First of all, some background: For those of you who have never used Namecheap, they have an unusually aggressive policy of auto-renewing domains an entire month in advance (in contrast to most registrars which renew domains the day of or 1 day before expiration). I discovered this on August 28th when they auto-renewed my first Namecheap order from 11 months ago, which consisted of 8 "new gTLD" domains (.shop, .blog, .news, etc) for a total of $211. The problem, I argued, is that the only "notice" they sent me prior to doing this was confusing, at best, and arguably misleading.

Eventually (after an hour), Namecheap agreed to cancel this auto-renewal order placed by their system, based on the rationale I provided.

Everything was fine up to this point. I had made it clear to Namecheap that I only wanted the *AUTO-RENEWAL order* cancelled, and they confirmed that they would "reverse the domain RENEWALS with a refund", and more specifically "cancel the RENEWALS from Order #XYZ" (with #XYZ being the AUTO-RENEW order that extended the expiration dates by 12 months). I also made it clear to Namecheap (several times throughout the conversation) that I intended to transfer the domains to another registrar, as you can see in the chat transcript.

This is when things start to go awry...

The problem is that Namecheap didn't "reverse the renewals" as I clearly requested (and they clearly confirmed to me). Instead, they DELETED THE DOMAINS COMPLETELY, AND PLACED THEM INTO REDEMPTION AT THE REGISTRY-LEVEL, making them impossible to transfer.

Upon realizing this mistake they made, my first thought was "Wow, they REALLY f'ed this up", but since it was irrefutable (from the chat records) that this was THEIR mistake, and that I did NOT authorize deletion of the underlying domains, I assumed that they would willingly correct it (and apologize profusely for the inconvenience and downtime).

But oh was I wrong...

Despite telling me how sorry they were, and even acknowledging that this was their mistake, they ultimately decided that I should have to pay them $688 in fees to recover the domains THEY deleted without my authorization.

And it gets even better...

They said that for the troubles they caused me, instead of restoring the domains they deleted, they would issue me a prorated refund of $4.30 for the 1 month remaining on the *original* registration periods (which, by the way, is a small fraction of what Namecheap charges per month for these particular TLDs).

I couldn't believe it, and as I said in the support ticket, it's simply outrageous that they would expect a customer to PAY THEM nearly $700 to fix THEIR MISTAKE (if they have to pay registry fees to reinstate the domains, that's THEIR problem, not mine).

In the meantime, I've been unable to use these domains, since they are in redemption thanks to Namecheap's incompetence and refusal to fix to the problem. They've already caused me substantial time loss, frustration, and domain downtime — now they want to fleece me out of $688 to fix their mistake, and regain access to the domains I paid for (i.e. my property they stole).

I wanted to share this story with NamePros for several reasons:

(1) As a warning to domainers out there to avoid this registrar, since they clearly have no principles or integrity. You will also find that their prices are no longer "cheap" or even competitve with many other registrars.

(2) If there are any Namecheap managers/executives on this site, I would like an explanation of how you consider this to be acceptable practices/behavior by your registrar. So far, I've only been able to "chat" with low-level support staff due to your online-only customer service access (unlike other registrars that offer telephone-based support), so an explanation from someone higher-up the ladder would be appreciated.

(3) My next step is to take legal action against Namecheap over this, since the chat transcript (which I have a copy of in my Gmail account, digitally signed and sent by Namecheap) is irrefutable evidence that they wrongfully deleted my domains. Does anyone have suggestions on the best way to proceed with that? Keep in mind, this is a matter of principle now... I will do whatever it takes to hold Namecheap accountable for this.

Finally, imagine if this had happened to you and some of your valued domains. How would you feel about that?

Here are screenshots of the chat transcript and support ticket:

CHAT TRANSCRIPT

SUPPORT TICKET

(Notice how the rep who filed this ticket goes from saying "domain RENEWAL cancellation" in the chat, to just "domain cancellation" when he submitted this ticket. How convenient. If I hadn't saved the chat transcript, I have no doubt that Namecheap would have claimed I requested deletion of the domains themselves. They have no shame or integrity, and this is basically proof of that.)

(end of screenshots)

Thank you, and I look forward to hearing your opinions, advice, and feedback.

 

[PJ Baldwin]

Good for them they decided to solve this problem without charging you anything. $680 was rather an outrageous figure.

Personally, I've never had any bigger issues with Namecheap. And this is the first time I hear something this negative about them. That said, I agree with some of the others that you should let it go now and be glad that it didn't end worse. But that is your decision of course.

'Dude', thanks for the comment. There's no way it could have "ended worse" because I had the evidence to take legal action if necessary. All it did was save me the hassle of going that route. And yes, I'm glad about that because this has already wasted over 10 hours of my time.

With that said, I decided to "let it go" the second Namecheap agreed to restore the domains. I only posted this thread as an update to let people know they finally agreed to correct the mistake, following the story being published. I will reply to comments in this thread, but other than that I've already moved on.

 

[Bipul]

Glad you got your domains back.

 

[LUP]

why their responses are so stupid and blame the customer for their stupid actions

You have to find an attorney, I think there's a lot of help here

 

[MadAboutDomains]

Sounds like Namecheap. Very bad service, very rude in my experience. Avoid!!!!!!

 

[branding]

Namecheap's actions were indefensible... except for two users who chimed in at the same time and said virtually the same things, and even spell "favour" the same way. A remarkable coincidence to say the least.

They've made a mistake. They fixed it. That's all. It's a public forum. I think I can voice my opinion freely even if that doesn't support yours because you're emotional attached to the subject.

For the record. Since you mention it continuesly. I hardly use NC, don't know @pb and spell favour just like (probably) most of the world would, in correct English

 

[Kuffy]

Wasn't there some seo advantage in renewing your names before the last month of their life? Also, trying to renew it a month before expiry gives you a chance to top up your account if it has run a bit low,

 

[PJ Baldwin]

They've made a mistake. They fixed it. That's all. It's a public forum. I think I can voice my opinion freely even if that doesn't support yours because you're emotional attached to the subject.

For the record. Since you mention it continuesly. I hardly use NC, don't know @pb and spell favour just like (probably) most of the world would, in correct English

Fair enough.

 

[LUP]

namecheap should investigate their dumb staff who accidentally deleted a customer's domain

 

[PJ Baldwin]

Wasn't there some seo advantage in renewing your names before the last month of their life? Also, trying to renew it a month before expiry gives you a chance to top up your account if it has run a bit low,

If that were the case, other registrars would do it, but most of them (including the largest of them all, GoDaddy) auto-renew on the day of expiration or the day before, not an entire month in advance. If there's any benefit to auto-renewing 30 days in advance, it's most likely for the registrar not the customer (i.e. receiving funds sooner, increasing the chance of renewal, etc.).

Keep in mind, all registrars have a "grace period" following expiration (typically 25-30 days), and notify customers of insufficient funds (or expired CC) well in advance of the expiration/renewal date.

To be clear, Namecheap's policy is unusual, but it's not why I disputed the charge. The problem was that the "notice" was confusing/misleading. It gave me the impression that the domains would be auto-renewed 1 day before expiration, like most registrars, not a month in advance. Namecheap agreed with this and therefore made an exception. If the "notice" had been clear, I would not have disputed the charge (in fact, there would have been no need to since I would have been aware of the auto-renewal date, and thus I would have either disabled it in time or transferred the domain as I intended).

 

[Kuffy]

I don't think the one month seo advantage is relevant any more. I mentioned it more as a possible historic reason for the early renewal. I shouldn't really comment as I think I have only had one name registered with Namecheap, and I didn't feel comfortable with them, and I moved it out.

Actually their name is enough to put me off using them.

 

[tamar]

The issue was resolved and I believe the OP will be providing an update shortly.

 

[DN_Hunter]

I'm glad it worked out and Namecheap made things right.

 

[branding]

If there's any benefit to auto-renewing 30 days in advance, it's most likely for the registrar not the customer (i.e. receiving funds sooner, increasing the chance of renewal, etc.).

To add something constructive

The reason they try to charge you well before expiration is actually to protect the domain owner, endusers in special.

If there's something wrong with your payment method on file this will give you ample time to get it sorted without risking the domain to expire.

For us domainers, expired domains are usually not an issue. If you have a business running on the domain it can cause a lot of issues.

I agree 30 days could be shorter. 7-10 days should suffice, taking into account people are gone for a holiday etc.

 

[eyedomainous]

The lesson that should be learned, but won't;
Don't automatically auto-renew payments from customers.

Its illegal (despite the 'read the TOS' BS).
Auto-pay is the consumer's exclusive right to 'opt-in' to. Not the company's enforce.

 

[branding]

The lesson that should be learned, but won't;
Don't automatically auto-renew payments from customers.

Its illegal (despite the 'read the TOS' BS).
Auto-pay is the consumer's exclusive right to 'opt-in' to. Not the company's enforce.

I agree, that would be a domainers dream. Out of interest, what makes you think it's illegal to autorenew?

 

[eyedomainous]

^ I (successfully) legally challenged PayPal to stop it from auto-paying web (domain) services... one was auto-renewing, another taking my money a week before the (hosting) due date "for my convenience".

 

[pb]

^ I (successfully) legally challenged PayPal to stop it from auto-paying web (domain) services... one was auto-renewing, another taking my money a week before the (hosting) due date "for my convenience".

You can turn off any of those pre-authorised payments in the PayPal panel and the merchants won't have anything to say.

 

[7363824]

For the record, I am not a particular fan of namecheap, I find they aren't all that cheap and don't really provide any real value for the extra cost. That said, I have had a couple of domains with them on auto renew. And unless they changed the email they send in the last 6 months, they say straight up, "We will try to auto-renew your domain 30 days before it expires..."



That said it seems they were willing to refund the payment anyway as a "one-time exception" not because they admit to any wrongdoing to as a courtesy to a customer. But it also seems the rep did not realize the ramifications of doing so. IMO there was some blame on both sides.

Glad to see Namecheap stepped up and resolved the issue and there is a lesson to be learned in all of this for the OP and the rest of us too.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

When I start to use any registrar - my first task is to discover their panel and to configure all options...
But many registrants are not able even to delete their dropped domains from Sedo/Dan/Uni/Afternic etc.

 

[Grego85]

Am I too late to be in before Namecheap has someone come in and blame their "upstream provider"?

 

[Mr. Deleted]

You won't believe the nightmarish experience I've had with Namecheap over the past few days.

And to prove I'm not making this story up or misrepresenting anything, I'm providing screenshots of my online Chat Transcript and Support Ticket with their "customer service" team... linked at the bottom of this thread.

First of all, some background: For those of you who have never used Namecheap, they have an unusually aggressive policy of auto-renewing domains an entire month in advance (in contrast to most registrars which renew domains the day of or 1 day before expiration). I discovered this on August 28th when they auto-renewed my first Namecheap order from 11 months ago, which consisted of 8 "new gTLD" domains (.shop, .blog, .news, etc) for a total of $211. The problem, I argued, is that the only "notice" they sent me prior to doing this was confusing, at best, and arguably misleading.

Eventually (after an hour), Namecheap agreed to cancel this auto-renewal order placed by their system, based on the rationale I provided.

Everything was fine up to this point. I had made it clear to Namecheap that I only wanted the *AUTO-RENEWAL order* cancelled, and they confirmed that they would "reverse the domain RENEWALS with a refund", and more specifically "cancel the RENEWALS from Order #XYZ" (with #XYZ being the AUTO-RENEW order that extended the expiration dates by 12 months). I also made it clear to Namecheap (several times throughout the conversation) that I intended to transfer the domains to another registrar, as you can see in the chat transcript.

This is when things start to go awry...

The problem is that Namecheap didn't "reverse the renewals" as I clearly requested (and they clearly confirmed to me). Instead, they DELETED THE DOMAINS COMPLETELY, AND PLACED THEM INTO REDEMPTION AT THE REGISTRY-LEVEL, making them impossible to transfer.

Upon realizing this mistake they made, my first thought was "Wow, they REALLY f'ed this up", but since it was irrefutable (from the chat records) that this was THEIR mistake, and that I did NOT authorize deletion of the underlying domains, I assumed that they would willingly correct it (and apologize profusely for the inconvenience and downtime).

But oh was I wrong...

Despite telling me how sorry they were, and even acknowledging that this was their mistake, they ultimately decided that I should have to pay them $688 in fees to recover the domains THEY deleted without my authorization.

And it gets even better...

They said that for the troubles they caused me, instead of restoring the domains they deleted, they would issue me a prorated refund of $4.30 for the 1 month remaining on the *original* registration periods (which, by the way, is a small fraction of what Namecheap charges per month for these particular TLDs).

I couldn't believe it, and as I said in the support ticket, it's simply outrageous that they would expect a customer to PAY THEM nearly $700 to fix THEIR MISTAKE (if they have to pay registry fees to reinstate the domains, that's THEIR problem, not mine).

In the meantime, I've been unable to use these domains, since they are in redemption thanks to Namecheap's incompetence and refusal to fix to the problem. They've already caused me substantial time loss, frustration, and domain downtime — now they want to fleece me out of $688 to fix their mistake, and regain access to the domains I paid for (i.e. my property they stole).

I wanted to share this story with NamePros for several reasons:

(1) As a warning to domainers out there to avoid this registrar, since they clearly have no principles or integrity. You will also find that their prices are no longer "cheap" or even competitve with many other registrars.

(2) If there are any Namecheap managers/executives on this site, I would like an explanation of how you consider this to be acceptable practices/behavior by your registrar. So far, I've only been able to "chat" with low-level support staff due to your online-only customer service access (unlike other registrars that offer telephone-based support), so an explanation from someone higher-up the ladder would be appreciated.

(3) My next step is to take legal action against Namecheap over this, since the chat transcript (which I have a copy of in my Gmail account, digitally signed and sent by Namecheap) is irrefutable evidence that they wrongfully deleted my domains. Does anyone have suggestions on the best way to proceed with that? Keep in mind, this is a matter of principle now... I will do whatever it takes to hold Namecheap accountable for this.

Finally, imagine if this had happened to you and some of your valued domains. How would you feel about that?

Here are screenshots of the chat transcript and support ticket:

CHAT TRANSCRIPT

SUPPORT TICKET

(Notice how the rep who filed this ticket goes from saying "domain RENEWAL cancellation" in the chat, to just "domain cancellation" when he submitted this ticket. How convenient. If I hadn't saved the chat transcript, I have no doubt that Namecheap would have claimed I requested deletion of the domains themselves. They have no shame or integrity, and this is basically proof of that.)

(end of screenshots)

Thank you, and I look forward to hearing your opinions, advice, and feedback.

You should check my thread about how they handled the MY.PE domain (claiming to have ordered the transfer into my NC account but never did, letting it expire on GoDaddy)