so, I paid 123-reg to renew a .co domain name that was regsitered with them well before the expiry date. 30 days later, it dropped.. I notice a little while later as I assumed it was all OK and it was FTR! I submit a support case and 3 days later, they just report that they're investigating - the domain is still FTR. I registered it with godaddy to save someone else getting it (it's not a biggie, just my name) and 123-REG are still not getting back to me about it. I've now asked for a refund and they're still just coming back at me with "we're investigating". Never in all my days have I experienced such incompetence and a total lack of desire to fix the situation. If anyone is thinking about using 123-REG, steer well clear if you value your domains!
Same happened to me, on two separate occasions now. both I admit were 7 days from deletion but it's No excuse when other domains on the same renewal ticket were renewed. One I got Nominet to put on hold for seven days while 123-reg took six days to finally renew. The other I've only just realised wasn't renewed despite getting the confirmation from 123-reg
I reported this some years ago on acorn. They turned around and told me the post code (which were on a few hundred other domains) were invalid thus my renewals and new regs wouldn't process. Nominet confirmed my PC were fine. Co-incidentally one of the names around 5 years later is still FTR and they never refunded either.