Daylight robbery

It wasn’t long ago that I was responsible for developing and maintaining a large number of websites. Like everyone in this role I needed a domain registrar I could trust to be cheap, efficient and most of all keep me updated about upcoming renewals. At the time I had a lot of love for Freeparking. They didn’t (and still don’t) look like much, but at the time I started using them they were all these things. No surprise I carried on using them after I left my last job when registering some personal domains.

Imagine my horror today then when someone else emails me to notify my that the registration for oxymoronical.com had expired the day before. Freeparking hadn’t so much as whispered on the subject and would you look at that, I now have to pay a late registration fee.

To say I feel let down is an understatement. Not only have they over the years failed to even update their website beyond its only-just-working state but now they seem to be actively trying to rip people off. It’s a shame but I guess it is the push I need to move all my registrations to Dreamhost who have been nothing short of excellent when it comes to my hosting. Sadly of course I still have to renew the domain first, then wait 60 days before I can move it.

I particularly like how their support form has “I was not informed of an imminent renewal” as one of the options to choose from. Clearly this comes up quite a lot for them.

3 thoughts on “Daylight robbery”

  1. The fee’s $100 or something silly like that, isn’t it? Ridiculous.

    At least DreamHost will auto-renew a domain if you ask them to.

  2. Hm, I am always intrigued by the fact how many problems the non-German world seems to have with keeping their domains registered. Am I the only one whose domain providers just keep them registered and just send a bill every year? Honestly, I would not want to put up with the excitement of “will I remember to keep my personal blog connected or will somebody snag it when I am not looking”.

  3. Lee, thankfully it isn’t quite that bad, the late fee only equates to a years worth, but still a pain in the neck that should never happen.
    Fred, I agree that would be good. It’s entirely possible I’ve been stuck in the past with Freeparking, I started using them because they seemed good at the time, I wouldn’t be surprised if all the other registrars have moved on since Freeparking don’t seem to have.

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