Yahoo Domains 15-day Pre-Billing *WATCH OUT!

[readyman]

This is a warning to everyone who purchased domains with Yahoo.

One year ago I purchased a bunch of domains with Yahoo Domains. It was my understanding that the domains would automatically renew after 52 weeks. Today I looked ay my credit card account and saw that I was charged for 52 domains at 9.95 each... 15 days BEFORE I purchased them!

I keep a spreadsheet with all my domains and when they expired so I did not think to check my email from Yahoo. It turns out that they sent me emails with the incorrect renewal dates. I just got off the phone with Yahoo and they state that in their TOS says they do this. I read it the best that I could and I did not find anything (it is also a huge TOS so I am sure I could have missed it if it was there). They do this "to protect me from the domain from being taken by someone else." But a domain isn't released until it expires and there is also like a 2 month redemption period as well right? I went back to their site and viewed this page:

http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/sbiz/billing/billing-12.html

That says they are supposed to bill one year from purchase... I may be wrong, but they are not supposed to charge 15 days before I purchased the domain right? Do you guys know of any other registrars that resort to this tactic? My matter has been escallated to their next level of support.

 

[mgt]

It seems like I remember them doing that to me to but my renewal dates were staggered, so I was able to prevent that and drop most of the ones I didn't want before they renewed. I try to remember to turn off auto renew if the option is available. I feel your pain!

 

[ahtum]

take care guys with the auto-renew thingy it`s a big scam . sorry for you readyman.

 

[AGS]

Let me ofer some good advice.

With credit cards it is worthwhile getting the number changed approx every 9 months.

To do this report the card as lost, ask them to block the card and reissue you with a new card and number.

This means that anything you may have subscribed for ages ago that you might have forgotten about and do no want to resubscribe to they will not be able to nail you.

And any ones that you do want to keep trust me they will contact you by telephone/email to let you know that the payment did not go through. If you want to you simply give them the new CC number.
This means that you will never be duped by unscroupulous companys.

Trust me this works and I have personally saved myself from getting nailed many times now.

The only downside is you have no card for a few days but hell it's worth it.

 

[fab]

What are the auto-renewal dates for other registrars?

Usually I turned it off for sure, just curious.

 

[Paddy]

Let me ofer some good advice.

With credit cards it is worthwhile getting the number changed approx every 9 months.

To do this report the card as lost, ask them to block the card and reissue you with a new card and number.

This means that anything you may have subscribed for ages ago that you might have forgotten about and do no want to resubscribe to they will not be able to nail you.

And any ones that you do want to keep trust me they will contact you by telephone/email to let you know that the payment did not go through. If you want to you simply give them the new CC number.
This means that you will never be duped by unscroupulous companys.

Trust me this works and I have personally saved myself from getting nailed many times now.

The only downside is you have no card for a few days but hell it's worth it.

I was thinking that this might be a good practice Thanks for confirming it so.

 

[Ronald Regging]

I don't think Yahoo allows you to turn auto-renewal off. I think this is wrong. If you don't want the domains threaten to do a chargeback on all of them, because you were not made aware of this pre-billing and there was no option to turn auto-renewing off. This may make them change their tune. I'm a big fan of chargebacks. These big companies setup arcane policies that no one but them knows about and then expect you to bend over... This happened to me with a hosting company I used to use. I canceled my hosting, so a few months later they emailed me and offered me a deal if I came back. They said they would waive the setup fee and give me the first month of hosting free, so I went through the signup process and entered in the promotion code. A few days later I get charged for, you guessed it, the setup fee and first month of hosting... After numerous exchanges where they admitted there was an error, but due to their accounting/processing? it could take upto 30 days for my refund to be credited... Why should I wait 30 days to get a refund of money they never had a right to take to begin with? So I did a chargeback and canceled my hosting account.

 

[Dave_Z]

Be aware that domain providers can change their terms at will. So if their auto
renew was set to take effect on the day it expires, they might change it to
let it do so 15 days or even 2 months before.

This has been said before, but I'm going to repeat it: read the fine prints. It's
an absolute necessity nowadays, there's just no excuse not to do so.

Speaking of fine print, here's the one in question:

http://order.sbs.yahoo.com/sbs/tos/domain_tos.html (for all products purchased
since 8/17/2004)

5. AUTOMATIC RENEWAL

Unless Yahoo! provides notice otherwise, this Service and Agreement will automatically be renewed and you will be billed as described in Section 4. If Yahoo! initially registers your domain name on your behalf, Yahoo! will automatically renew your domain name on an annual basis prior to the expiration of your domain name's initial registration period. In order to ensure that domains are renewed in a timely manner without an interruption of service, each domain billed through Yahoo will be renewed 15 days prior to each annual anniversary (multi-year domains will be renewed 15 days prior to the end of the last year).

On the side, I've read somewhere here and in WHT that there are credit card
providers who now either create "prepaid" credit cards (or something like that)
and issue new ones after fulfilling a certain condition. There's also another set
who allow you to set limits for autobilling.

 

[fonzie_007]

Let me ofer some good advice.

With credit cards it is worthwhile getting the number changed approx every 9 months.

To do this report the card as lost, ask them to block the card and reissue you with a new card and number.

I am not sure about UK residents, but doing this in the US may adversely affect your credit rating. Just and FYI. www.vip.cc for more credit info.

About Yahoo domains... The old saying goes: you get what you pay for... It took me trying to save a few bucks using GD to find out saving a few bucks now may cost me a whole lot later. Now I'm doing nearly all of my business at Moniker. Live and learn...

 

[AGS]

I am not sure about UK residents, but doing this in the US may adversely affect your credit rating. Just and FYI. www.vip.cc for more credit info.

I can't see how it can matey. People lose cards all the time.
All you are doing is getting a new number, all other details (credit limit etc) remain the same.

But maybe it is different in the USA so I cannot really comment.

I have done this reguarly and can sleep a little safer at night knowing I have considerably less chance of getting fooked up the bum by a company that have my CC details on their records to abuse.

 

[fonzie_007]

If you state your credit card is stolen or lost, your credit can be affected. It can be more difficult to get credit because some of the credit services put a fraud alert on your account. I know from personal experience when someone stole my CC. It made life difficult for the next 6 months.

 

[readyman]

Be aware that domain providers can change their terms at will. So if their auto
renew was set to take effect on the day it expires, they might change it to
let it do so 15 days or even 2 months before.

This has been said before, but I'm going to repeat it: read the fine prints. It's
an absolute necessity nowadays, there's just no excuse not to do so.

Speaking of fine print, here's the one in question:

http://order.sbs.yahoo.com/sbs/tos/domain_tos.html (for all products purchased
since 8/17/2004)

Thanks for pointing this out. No wonder I couldn't find it in the TOS because I was looking at:

http://order.sbs.yahoo.com/sbs/tos/yahoo_smallbiz_tos_new.html

From http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/tos/index.php

Yahoo! Domains (purchased prior to 8/17/2004)

and to view

Yahoo! Small Business Terms of Service (for all products purchased since 8/17/2004) as the domains were purchased 07/05.

I noticed in that TOS it doesn't mention anything in regards to a 15 renewal policy (at least I think). Yahoo is Yahoo though and I am sure I am still out of my money. I am just wondering if I have any grounds on my argument with them about the policy, as I am trying to get my money back (or at least some) from them.

Thank you very much for all of your replies everyone

 

[Dave_Z]

I am just wondering if I have any grounds on my argument with them about the policy, as I am trying to get my money back (or at least some) from them.

Nowadays it's not a matter of what's right and what's wrong. It's a matter of
understanding what you're getting into.

It's BS, but it's reality. Read the fine prints, ask questions, then make up your
mind whether you want to do business with that provider or not.

You could try arguing with them, even ask for a supervisor or manager. Hope
for the best, but expect the worst.

 

[sker]

I started off with yahoo domains. I knew every trick on yahoo's trick book because i got caught everytime.

Long story short.

Buy domains with yahoo.com for $2.99 then cancel your credit card.

After a year transfer them away to your favourite registrar. Transfering is not a hassle at all with yahoo.

The best domain practice with yahoo is buy domains for 2 yrs then transfer them away.

They don't have "Auto-Renew Off" service but you can cancel the service by clicking domain individually. this is pain in the tail. worth doing for $2.99

V

 

[Ronald Regging]

Yahoo doesn't have a Push feature though. This almost cost me my first DN sale, because it was within the first 60 days so I couldn't transfer it. But it was a sizable sale, so I gave up my Yahoo account, which I used for like 5 years for email. Wasn't happy about that.