123-reg NEW Warning - scam £40 provider admin charge

[Pred]

I have just logged into 123 and looked in my renewals
they are now showing a £40 'provider admin charge' against every expired domain

and I mean every domain, even if became suspended yesterday and has 3+ months life left in it

this phantom charge (which they say is costs borne to them) and is the provider charging them?


they also have this charge against domains I have asked in past to be dleeted and are still shwoing even though not even regged from last year!

have sent a rocket ticket and will be tagchanging all domains away today if not resolved immediately

shame is can't move to monster as they have high charges if not autorenewed straight away

may have to just get resolved and get my own tag which was a new years resolution this year and am very long overdue doing

how much is it roughly to pay nominet per year again for a tag, all in?

cheers

nb: all 123-reg members make sure you login and see renewals and what I'm talking about

no emails received from 123 about this

 

[viceroy]

Try UK-Cheapest, have never had a problem with them and they don't charge for that... And they're really easy to work with

PS, not affiliated to them in any way, just been asking for stuff above and beyond the usual and they have been really good.

 

[Pred]

no notifications received,
nothing in t and c when i joined as far as aware

at bottom of list says this:
Please note - If you wish to renew any of the expired domains shown above, an additional provider admin charge is payable to get the domain out of redemption. This fee is the amount123-reg itself is charged to recover a domain while in the redemption period.

which I'm pretty sure is false

further to that just got an email from nominet saying this list needs renewing, renew at your registrar as will be suspended soon
most are that recently expired and have 2 and half months + to run!
not even suspended in whois
and up to just a few days ago could renew as normal up to almost 3 months into expiry
i have took screenshots


I will tagchange out anyway but concerned for others too and joe public

if this is as irregular as I'm thinking on a number of fronts is trading standards way to go?

what is everyone else seeing in their account management?

 

[dropcycle]

I have a domain that expired 3 days ago and they want £40.00 to renew it. Luckily I was going to let it drop anyway…

I also have domains that dropped several months ago that they also want £40.00 to ‘renew’

This fee is the amount123-reg itself is charged to recover a domain while in the redemption period.

which I'm pretty sure is an outright lie

As a TAG holder I can confirm that registrars are not charged a redemption fee.

 

[Pred]

As a TAG holder I can confirm that registrars are not charged a redemption fee.

thanks dude

yep i have been with 123 for what must be 8 years or so, uk2 before that
i last renewed a domain few days ago

whatever this game is it has been sneaked in back door with no notice, no new terms and conditions being asked to sign and basically a fairytale

my domains aren't even in redemption, just need renewing

webfusion/123 just reg through nominet as a registrar, there is no third party anyway


I think this is a clear case of breaking the law and think trading standards and other s will have to be informed to stop this practice

I may give nominet a call also to confirm our thoughts and to see 'if' they are prepared to do anything
although they too seem more interested in ways just to make more money
being a 'non-profit' and all

 

[Pred]

well, 123 are in some shit I think

surprisingly I spoke to nominet and they actually sounded shocked and confirmed what we had said

they have escalated and want me to send screenshots

 

[CatchDrop]

Think Monsters charge would be £4 + VAT if all renewed at the same time by phone / email

 

[Pred]

thanks for input but theres bigger issues about what registar to transfer to lol

btw 123 reg response:

Dear Guy,

Thank you for contacting 123-reg on the 1st May 2012.

I have checked this for you and I have deleted the domains that have been already transferred away from 123-reg.
Now in your control panel none of the remaining domains show any £40 extra charge.

If we can be of any further help with regard to this or any other matter, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,

Adriana
123-reg



--------------------------------------------

my response:

thanks
can you explain why this happened?
as if this has been done for any other customers this is a breach of a number of laws
I have already spoken to nominet and was the first time I have ever heard anyone sounding shocked at the other end
clearly as nominet and other tagholders have confirmed your statement about 'Please note - If you wish to renew any of the expired domains shown above, an additional provider admin charge is payable to get the domain out of redemption. This fee is the amount123-reg itself is charged to recover a domain while in the redemption period.'

beinga clear falsehood and untrue

they have escalated the matter and asked me to send screenshots, which I have

 

[Pred]

Think Monsters charge would be £4 + VAT if all renewed at the same time by phone / email

pretty sure dm have their own charges for domains that have expired

even though my prob solved and hopefully everyone elses at 123, this may be the kick up the arse I need to get my tag
was a new years resolution, for more years than I care to remeber lol

end of day all registars are dreaming up ways to sting customers for more cash, by hook or by crook

 

[Pred]

ok,
last one from 123:

Dear Guy,

Thank you for contacting 123-reg on the 1st May 2012.

We have just updated our systems today and we have introduced some new features.
Because those domain names should not have been in your account,
that payment of 40 pounds appeared listed there in error.

We do not charge our customers such a fee for renewing expired .co.uk domain names.

I apologize for this issue and I can assure you that my colleagues
have been informed of this and they will fix it in the next few days.

If we can be of any further help with regard to this or any other matter, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,

Adriana
123-reg



so hopefully, shouldn't be showing for anyone anymore
and if any have expired and long gone, send them a ticket and they will delete

edit: do CHECK your renewal section as they still have the wording about provider charge at bottom and have just changed the £40 to £0 next to each one! LOL

 

[newguy]

Sounds like a nightmare. UK2.net has some of the same issues. You cannot let a domain expire for instance. They require you to email them 30 days before is it due to expire to let them you don't want to renew. Also, if you want to move away within 2 years there's an admin fee. Same if you want control of advanced DNS settings.

 

[Pred]

do what I did tagchange all uk2 domains away to 123....LOL

jokes aside, I will give the 123 support girl credit, Adriana
she was excellent, did her job well
not her fault

also nominet staff as ever, always top drawer
whatever I say about the corps

anyway, that's sorted I think
when I get my tag we will ahve to have a beer lol, sometime in 2050 j/k

'big balls' moves onto his next nightmare of the day LOL

 

[sdsinc]

Those registrars bugs are very annoying and downright scary from a security point of view: just because a name is listed in your account doesn't mean it even exists.
I just cannot imagine the mess in their accounts. Unless the data is available from Nominet they wouldn't even know their 'inventory'.

 

[webfusion]

Hello,

My name is Nerys and I work for 123 Reg.

I would like to offer you my apologies for any concern this has caused to you. 123-Reg do not charge a redemption fee for .uk domain names. There have been a few updates in the control panel, which unfortunately have caused this error. We are working hard to have the error resolved as soon as possible. Once the error is resolved all invoices will update automatically and show just the correct renewal charge.

I would like to offer assurances to anyone who has seen this charge that although the charge is shown on the invoice, it is not charged, the payment amount will be for the standard renewal price only.

Pred - I would like to thank you for updating this thread with the information you were provided from our support team.

Regards,

Nerys

 

[Pred]

thanks for assurances Nerys, appreciated
I've edited a few of my rants

 

[pete]

Hi Nerys.

Which domains does the "provider admin charge" apply to?

Pete

 

[rwinslow]

What do extra fees apply to?

Hi there. I work with Nerys over here at 123-reg.

A .com domain name that expires has in most cases a grace period of 45 days in which it can be renewed without additional charges, right now 123-reg does not charge an admin fee to renew within this period (though our site may show this currently in the control panel, as we are working on this page today, sorry...).

After 45 days, the domain goes to redemption period. To recover a domain from redemption incurs a fee from Verisign, I think $25. The reseller providers we use then charge an additional fee to 123-reg, going anywhere from $25 to $80. We then convert this to £, round up to an easy figure considering exchange rates and pass that on to our customers. .com with one of our providers is charged by us for £40.

Until recently, all recovery of domains from redemption would be done manually by the customer calling support, the domain likely would not be listed and many customers can be confused, not seeing the domain at all in the renewals list.

Yesterday, along with allowing multi-year renewals and registrations for .uk domain names we launched the ability for customers to also renew domains automatically from redemption for some extensions which support this, as well as allowing bulk ordering from our control panel.

Three major projects went live, all which I hope will offer more options and services to our customers.

I have another three major domain projects expected in the next couple of months, as well as some exciting changes for 123-reg.co.uk.

All feedback, suggestions, concerns and ideas can be discussed on the boards, or you can email me directly as well ([email protected]).

 

[123reg_suck]

123reg.co.uk have also charged me £40 admin fee to renew a clients .org domain which they say went into 'redemption' period. The domain is one that no one else would possibly want, so my client asked for it to expire so they register it in another country that has lower fees. After doing a whois check, it was found that 123reg.co.uk had renewed the domain themselves without permission until 2013. The domain should have been available on the open market by this time, but they still had the domain in what they called a 'redemption' period, so they could then charge this extortionate fee.

I am pretty sure that this type of activity by 123reg.co.uk is illegal, at the very least it’s a very dishonest way of doing business.

A second .com domain that I wished to expire anyway also had this £40 redemption fee. I checked with whois what happened, the same thing, 123reg.co.uk had renewed it a further year without permission when it should have been dropped onto the open market.

Without doubt, 123reg.co.uk are SCAMMING their clients. I have since moved all my domains to www.domainmonster.com who do not have any hidden admin fee's, and will not renew the domain without consent.

STAY AWAY from 123reg.co.uk everyone... this is a company that has a bad way of doing business. They may not scam us with .uk domains, because they know we will make a complaint to Nominet, whilst complaining to USA would be more difficult.

Definitely report this illegal activity to Trading Standards. I hope they are forced to pay all their clients back this illegal £40 fee.

 

[Bailey]

Unfortunately the practice you mention is pretty prevelant in regards to Gtlds. The biggest service in the world 'Godaddy' have a similar catch in-place. And I know many others do also

 

[123reg_suck]

Unfortunately the practice you mention is pretty prevelant in regards to Gtlds. The biggest service in the world 'Godaddy' have a similar catch in-place. And I know many others do also

If enough clients who have been scammed this way report this activity to Trading Standards (if the company is UK based), then maybe we will put a stop to this type of dishonest activity by them.

Technically, they are Cybersquatting on domains and using the silly term 'redemption', when domains should have been back on the open market. Not legal!

You state that it's "pretty prevelant", but that does not make it right or legal in the UK. 123reg.co.uk are UK based, so should be subject to UK laws in the way they do business. US based company's may get away with it, but we should try and complain about the UK based ones here whenever anyone gets this type of problem as is seen with 123reg.co.uk.

I suggest going to http://reports.internic.net/cgi/registrars/problem-report.cgi to make a complaint for .com .org domains, and also complain to Trading standards about 123reg.co.uk's Cybersquatting.