NameCheap

[RJ]

Thread is for reviews of NameCheap

 

[azureash]

Issues with Support

I've used Namecheap for a few years now, for a number of domains (and client domains). Overall I have been happy; however, today I had a support issue that left me scratching my head.

I have a Yahoo email address that is associated with my Namecheap account. There has never, to my knowledge, been any issue with that. However, today I attempted to log in, but couldn't seem to get my password correct for some reason. Rather than risk getting the 24-hour lockout for 3 failed attempts, I used the reset password feature. This feature (for anyone unfamiliar) is supposed to send a link to reset the password to the associated email account, based either on the email address, username, or domain name.

After I submitted my request, I waited for the email. It didn't come. I then went back and tried the other methods (by domain and by username.) I waited some more, but no message arrived. I checked my inbox, my spam folder, etc. No dice.

I contacted Namecheap via the support chat and was connected with an associate. I relayed my issue, and was told that there was a problem with Yahoo email accounts that caused a delay for password reset emails. When I asked how long the delay was, I was told it could be several hours, but no one could really say for sure.

I then asked for the associate to forward the link to another email address, in this case, one associated with a domain in the account. The associate said it was impossible to do so, and that the best she could do was to change the email associated with the account.

Now, this might have seemed like a decent alternative to her, but it really doesn't fly. The only other email accounts I have are either Yahoo accounts or accounts associated with domains hosted by Namecheap. Obviously, there's no point using a different Yahoo account. It also doesn't make sense to use an account associated with a domain hosted by Namecheap, as any technical issues with the domain (and hence the DNS and MX records) would be likely to impact my ability to send and receive email through the account.

I mentioned this catch-22 to the associate, but she was unable to offer any alternatives, and could not (or would not) pass me to a manager or someone empowered to just forward me the reset link. Instead she reminded me that Namecheap does not offer phone support (sadly, even GoDaddy offers phone support, terrible as it is), and suggested I file a ticket and then wait for a response.

At this point I have been waiting for over 6 hours and there is still no password reset email. I am left feeling frustrated with the delay, and dismayed by the seeming lack of knowledge on the support line. I am also annoyed that the associate kept insisting that Namecheap supports Yahoo email accounts when they obviously don't (at least not to a level where their site and services are usable.)

 

[Kate]

You shouldn't use a free service like yahoo for important stuff, because you will lose mail to spam controls, and make it easier for domain thieves to hijack your account. You have little control over it.
Instead use a domain name of your own for E-mail addresses.

 

[Tribulatio]

I would strongly second sdsinc's advice - and even go one step further: go for a professional email service such as fastmail.fm or pobox.com (the last one has a top antispam control): you can even set up mail with your own domain name there. And benefit from security features you wouldn't find with Yahoo or similar services. I know several people whose Yahoo or Gmail account was taken control of by scammers - the last one today, actually!

 

[Erdy]

Namecheap marketplace has a problem you might know if you have ever tried selling domains there. They only let you list domains for sale for up to 90 days. After that you need to manually re-list the domain which is too much pain if you have a lot of domains.

Their commission is 10%. They could be a good alternative to sedo and godaddy which charge 15%. So I contacted namecheap again and somebody from their development team has written back to me saying they will make permanent listings possible.

I'm looking forward to that. Unlike godaddy, namecheap marketplace is fully automated. When you sell a domain you don't push it because it is pushed automatically. Some time ago they redesigned their site and the listing pages look really nice now which is good if you forward your domain to that page.

 

[allan3139]

One of my favourite bands.

 

[BamBum]

namecheap.com sucks

The bad story for me started last month, on 4 august i succesfully transferred my domain (eg: s-article.com) from some registrar to namecheap.com (did this so i can manage the dns servers from there). I've also buyed hosting package from namecheap.com and for a time things went fine. Some weeks later i decided to upgrade my hosting account to a VPS and after i had several talks with namecheap.com support team i've made the order. Things didn't happened as we discussed and my site went down so i decided to move it to another hosting and since i wasn't able to use the VPS from namecheap.com at all, due to their technical problems, so i requested my money back.

From this point things started to be very ugly, short story is that i received my money back but namecheap.com banned my account and also removed the dns servers which i've set for s-article.com and the very bad part namecheap.com simple changed the owner of my domain and is not me anymore is them. I never gave them the accept to do that, i never wanted this to happen.

I've already tried to talk with namecheap staff but they said i didn't respect their upgrade policy (things related to hosting package) and therefore they closed my account even if the part with domain is a separate thing for which i paid.

I have and i can provide any data is needed to prove that the domain s-article.com is in fact my domain and namecheap.com abusively took it couple weeks ago.

I've made complains to icann.com and enom.com and they resolution is to to talk with namecheap to get my domain back. As it seems, in case namecheap don't have a special relation with them, any registrar can change the owner of a domain and unless you're ready to start a process via a court law, you're the "loser"

Conclusion

1. icann sucks
2. enom sucks
3. never move your domain to namecheap, they can get it from you and there is no straight way to get it back

 

[tupungato]

What's with uptime recently? Namecheap has been down a few times in past several weeks, especially between 9:00-10:30 UTC. Right now it has been down for about 40 minutes. At least that's what I'm seeing:

Hold on there, cowboy!

We’ve slowed things down so you don’t get stampeded by folks trying to save a few bucks.

Just refresh the page shortly and the deals will magically appear again.

 

[hs.Gabriel]

Maybe they are under a DDoS attack. Not sure though.

In the last days, there were 2 major DDoS attacks.

 

[usernamex]

@tupungato - they extended MYDD and it will be over in another hour, unless they extend it again due to the outage.
https://www.namepros.com/threads/mo...ransfer-domain-to-namecheap-for-3-98.1067830/

 

[tupungato]

And here I am, with funds deposited to NameCheap's wallet and domains dropping at this very moment...

 

[tupungato]

Error 502 Ray ID: 3f7c5742ddf22acd • 2018-03-07 10:22:26 UTC
Bad gateway

Error 502 Ray ID: 3f7c5a54eb862acd • 2018-03-07 10:24:32 UTC
Bad gateway

 

[hs.Gabriel]

It's back up now.

 

[tupungato]

It's back up now, it finds domain names correctly, but adding them to shopping cart is impossible.

 

[hs.Gabriel]

It's back up now, it finds domain names correctly, but adding them to shopping cart is impossible.

Yup, I just trying registering one, and couldn't do it. Went with NameSilo instead.

 

[VaibhavA]

It still shows internal server error to me.

 

[Ali Azam]

I am getting the below error when I try to use the bulk-option to transfer:

Error 524 Ray ID: 3f7c98c31ae128de • 2018-03-07 11:08:49 UTC
A timeout occurred​

 

[VaibhavA]

Namecheap giving transfers of .ai for free today

https://www.namecheap.com/domains/registration/cctld/ai.aspx

 

[Ali Azam]

We can track the status of the 'emergency maintenance' which is still going on by visiting the below link:

https://status.namecheap.com/archives/36818