A little over a year ago, I decided to give Register.com a try and so I registered a domain with them at a special rate. I own/manage a lot of websites for myself and clients, so any chance to save money and find alternative to Godaddy (where most of my domain registration business is conducted) is welcome. Not that I’ve experienced any problems with GoDaddy aside from the slowly increasing renewal prices and dwindling promo codes, but any smart business person knows not to put their entire supply chain in one basket. I had hoped to that Register.com would be that alternative source of inexpensive domain registration.
During the year, I received little to no email contact from Register, which makes me happy as I hate redundant email marketing. It wasn’t until the 60 day renewal mark that I got a notice reminding me of my domains expiration date. Another one followed at the 30-day and at the 7th day prior to my domains expiration. I checked the renewal process after receiving the 30 day expiration and was shocked to see the cost of renewing a single domain name through register.com : $38.00 ! No discounts in the emails, no apology for taking my initial registration of $1 (plus ICANN fees) and multiplying 38 times to over 3 times the industry standard rate of $12.
A few days after discovering this rate, I called in to Register.com to prepare to transfer out my domain name (getting the authorization codes), fearing it would be a difficult process and wanted to start early. After explaining to the Register.com rep my situation and discussing with him the onerous $38 domain renewal fee, I was informed that I could get a special discount for only $9.99. I explained that I wanted to think about it, as the regular price of $38 or more would come back, and I didn’t want to have to burn 30 mins of my time when renewals come around to maybe get a discount. I was told that a note would be made in my account for the discount and I requested and received the domain authorization code via email. Please note this was exactly two weeks prior to my domain renewal date (November 4th)
The registration date came, and that is when my Register.com Domain Registration Nightmare began…..
My first move was to call into Register.com on the renewal date and review the procedure with them, sand actually had every intention of just renewing for the $9.99. I mentioned how I called two weeks prior and was offered the discount renewal, however, was informed that there were no notes on the account. Feeling the squeeze, I spent some time discussing the business, why the rate was so high, the Register.com company, and general website business, I was again offered the discount rate, but only after saying I was going to transfer to Godaddy. The lady was nice and seemed to be based in the US, but bearing the burden of this reoccurring every year, I committed to transferring to GoDaddy . This phone call took just over 30 minutes, including hold time.
Immediately after getting off the phone with Register, I logged into GoDaddy and transferred my domain name, plus renewed a soon to be expired domain. The total cost for a transfer and two 1 year .com renewals was only $21.18, including the extra ICANN domain fees. This order/transfer has a receipt time stamp Nov 4, 2014 at 10:53 AM. I was pleased and eager to work on websites and make money for the rest of the day. That was until I got alerted of transfer denied by Register.com.
Many emails from register.com saying transfer cancelled, transfer accepted,and more noise.
With 9 more email notices and a couple 30+ minute phone calls spanning over 2 days, Register.com was giving 1 & 1 Internet a run for their money as worst domain registration companies I have ever dealt with. I have the domain transferred to Godaddy now. Register.com claimed that they had issues with the registrar codes. They gave me a new one. Didn’t work. Then we conferenced GoDaddy , didn’t work. All rejected from Register.com – two days back and forth, not until I messaged them
“Why are you keeping my website hostage?”
that it took to transfer a domain out of Register.com’s clutches
Can you risk that? What if I only had a lunch break to work on this?
I wasn’t even going to write this review of Register.com as I have a million other things on my plate to do, I was going to put it in the back burner of all the other bad companies I’ve dealt with. But here is the kicker. They charged me after sending a cancellation letter. It’s still there, on my statement, processing, and indisputable (I can’t charge it back):
Register.com Charge After Cancellation
Card Statement – GoDaddy Transfer cleared
This is why our economy is so messed. Why do we have to waste our resources fighting slimy corporations that just push through the meat grinder called “customer service” until we give up? It’s inefficient. It is my belief that Register.com purposefully set this system up to increase profits through unscrupulous means. I feel many large corporations do this, intentionally, knowing it is more profitable to service customers in such a manner.
Who to Use For Domain Registration
If you are ever looking to get new website domains or transfer existing domains, I suggest you try a company besides just Godaddy. I used them for most of my domains only, haven’t tried their hosting in years, or any of their other website services. I do know when I’ve transferred I haven’t had any issues and I got my first website domain with them over 10 years ago. American customer service and and somewhat reasonable prices (have been creeping up), so I started searching around and found a couple different domain registration companies.
One that I recommend is Name Cheap (Low Regular Prices, good new customer deals):
Please share this. Even if you don’t have a website as it deals with many companies we know and use. You can make a difference. Let me know if you’ve used Register.com and would like to Review them as well, especially if you have experienced issues transferring domains from them.
*****UPDATE
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