PJ Baldwin
Established Member
- Impact
- 112
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.
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.