DomeinWinkel / DomainWinkel warning

[atlas]

DomeinWinkel / DomainWinkel invoices you for a domain renewal 30 days prior to the date of renewal.

Even if you decided NOT to renew the domain, you are required to pay the invoice for the domain renewal.

From support:
"Since we use a month's notice for all our services, this invoice must still be paid."

So long as you have an unpaid invoice, they refuse to transfer any domains out of your account.

Requiring payment of an invoice for renewal when you are not renewing seems like sharp practice to me. They are pocketing money for a service that you have not requested and do not want.

This is the registrar to which CatchTiger domains go when caught.

 

[jasman]

Thanks for the warning. I always think companies who have hidden charges like this are so short-sighted. Yes they may get a few £ extra in the short term but at the expense of losing customers who would have paid them much more in the long term.

Namecheap did something like this to me. I had forgotten to renew one of my .com domains and to renew it they were demanding $200 claiming it was in redemption period. However it didn't say redemption period in the whois and it appeared from the expiry date that they had renewed it anyway. I refused to pay the $200 and they kept the domain for themselves. Needless to say I moved my portfolio of domains to another registrar.

But in your case, I think you can pay Nominet a fee to take control of a domain directly yourself and then you can move it onto another tag, can't you? Not sure if you can do that with multiple domains for the one fee. But if the fee was not too much I think I would do that even if it meant paying more, just on principle and to stop them having any more money off me.

 

[diablo]

DomeinWinkel / DomainWinkel invoices you for a domain renewal 30 days prior to the date of renewal.

Even if you decided NOT to renew the domain, you are required to pay the invoice for the domain renewal.

From support:
"Since we use a month's notice for all our services, this invoice must still be paid."

So long as you have an unpaid invoice, they refuse to transfer any domains out of your account.

Requiring payment of an invoice for renewal when you are not renewing seems like sharp practice to me. They are pocketing money for a service that you have not requested and do not want.

This is the registrar to which CatchTiger domains go when caught.

I would take this to Nominet to see what they have to say.

 

[ukbackorder]

So long as you have an unpaid invoice, they refuse to transfer any domains out of your account.

Surely this can't be legal? I would definitely speak to nominet about registrars taking payments for domains and then keeping them.
https://www.nominet.uk/complaints/#registrar

 

[webber]

Honestly, from what I am reading, I don't think they did anything wrong.
An invoice for the renewal was issued 30 days before expiry on a domain that had auto-renewal enabled, presumably by default and in accordance with their registration t&c, and they refuse to offer any additional support/services until that invoice is paid/account balance is brought to 0, a practice which I have seen with a lot of online services.
The transfer of the domain could be considered such additional support because they don't have an automated process for tag changes, it's done manually by the support team.
You are bound by the agreement with Catchtiger/Domeinwinkel and their t&c.
You might be able to use Nominet's transfer service for £12, but if I remember correctly the registrant is not updated automatically by CT/DW so this might not work.
But I would just pay the renewal and remember not to leave the domain with them any more than necessary.
Personally I ask their support team to release any domain the same day that it was caught – I have it saved as a canned message. Their admin interface is terrible so I just don't want to deal with them at all.

 

[LCHappy]

The transfer of the domain could be considered such additional support because they don't have an automated process for tag changes, it's done manually by the support team.

But surely if the first invoice when the name was registered was for services for 12 months, then he would be entitled to 12 months support. As it stands, it looks like @atlas is only getting 11 months.

Pay Nominet the £12's and whip the rest of your names out. It's the same price to re-tag one name as it is to take 500 names - £12 for all at the same time (£10+vat).

 

[webber]

I'm sure the issue was resolved and this is just a heads-up from Jeff, but I would go further and recommend you move your domains from Domeinwinkel as soon as they have been caught.

 

[ukbackorder]

You are bound by the agreement with Catchtiger/Domeinwinkel and their t&c.

This is a common misconception. If the T&C contained a clause to kidnap your firstborn would you be bound by it? I know that's an extreme case but t&c are not the be-all and end-all. However I agree that if they say about the silly renewal rule there it's probably not going to raise the same problems as stealing children But how can they justify keeping *other* domains that have already been paid for? I think nominet would take a very dim view of this as they even mention specific complaints about registrars refusing to release/transfer domains. I have banned people in the past for non-payment but they have always had other domains, already paid for, transferred to them at the time of banning.

 

[diablo]

You are bound by the agreement with Catchtiger/Domeinwinkel and their t&c.

This isn't the case at all. You are not bound to any contract terms judged to be unfair - and any reasonable person would deem such a term unfair. That's why it needs to be brought to the attention of Nominet.

 

[webber]

If the T&C contained a clause to kidnap your firstborn would you be bound by it?

 

[atlas]

Thank you for all of the comments and suggestions!

As @webber pointed out, it turns out that they keep the domains you register in their own name, so you cannot just transfer it out via Nominet.

This is great advice:

Personally I ask their support team to release any domain the same day that it was caught – I have it saved as a canned message. Their admin interface is terrible so I just don't want to deal with them at all.

 

[jasman]

Is the keeping of the domains in their own name (not the real registrant's name) against Nominet's rules?

 

[atlas]

They keep escalating about charging me for NOT renewing a domain. Here is the latest email I received for the domain I did not renew -

Despite serveral [sic] payment reminders, I regret to note that you still have multiple outstanding invoices of which the payment dates are long past due. It concerns the following invoices:

Invoice number Invoice date To pay incl. VAT Fine incl. VAT
DW30025XXX 26-12-2021 €36,92 €18,15

I request and, if necessary, demand you to pay the total amount of €36,92 within five days by sending the payment to bank account number NL57 RABO 0159 4759 53 in the name of Domeinwinkel. Please include your client number and the relevant invoice numbers. Meanwhile your domain(s) have been blocked.

If you fail to meet this demand you will be considered in default, and the matter will be placed in the hands of a debt collection agency or a bailiff.

You will bear all judicial and extrajudicial costs arising from the implementation of these measures. Moreover, contractual and legal interest rates will go into effect from the date you are considered in default.

Subject to all rights and defenses.

 

[aZooZa]

What nonsense. I've never heard of such lunacy. Apart from here:

https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.domeinwinkel.nl

Good luck with the bailiff schlepping from NL > CA too.

Definitely one for Nominet I think, Jeff.