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(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick

Thu, Sep 26th 2002 9:25am





Register.com's Forced Renewal Hurts Them

from the oops dept

Recently Register.com automatically opted-in people who registered domains through them into their SafeRenew program - which automatically tries to renew your domain registration when it's about to expire. The reasons they're doing this are pretty obvious - many people (especially these days) simply let old domain names expire rather than renew them. Register.com figured this might be a nice way to cut down on that churn - and they can easily (they thought) market it as a way to make sure no one accidentally loses their domain name. Some people, though, have been complaining about it. Now, Register.com is discovering that moves such as this have unintended consequences. Right now Register.com is blaming the SafeRenew program for a high number of chargeback charges from people reversing credit card charges they didn't agree to. They've now agreed to make the program "opt-in" only.

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  1.  
    identicon
    LittleW0lf, Sep 26th, 2002 @ 10:54am

    Dotster

    Dotster did the same thing, but unlike Register, at $5 a pop, I don't have a problem having them renew my address every time it expires, so long as they don't loose it. We'll see how long that lasts...

    Funny how register.com sent me a $35 renewal form shortly after Dotster sent me a "we've renewed your domain name for you," message. I thought register.com wasn't supposed to be doing that any more.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    identicon
    Rich Kulawiec, Sep 26th, 2002 @ 6:00pm

    This isn't new

    I'm looking at a note that I got from register©com on April 25, 2001,
    about a domain that was due to expire in June 2001© Near the top of the message,
    it mentions that register©com "offers" the following
    renewal features: „1¤ Quick Renew and „2¤ SafeRenew©
    It does not explain what „2¤ is, but says "see below"©
    Further down, it states "The domains above are
    enrolled in SafeRenew [©©©]" and says that a charge
    of $34©99 per name will be assessed unless the service is disabled©
    I actually got a couple more of these before I
    bothered to read far enough through the messages
    to pick up on this© I transferred all my domains
    away from register©com because of this sleazy
    tactic AND because register©com spams its own
    customers©

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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