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Ask HN: My domain registrar rug-pulled me for $3000 [fixed]

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Re: Ask HN: My domain registrar rug-pulled me for $3000 [fixed]

#51

Post by anigbrowl »

fckgw wrote: post #46
joshstrange wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the OP has a pretty good case for this being an unauthorized charge. Additionally, as someone who has been on the receiving end of chargebacks a number of times I can tell you merchants have a higher burden of proof in things like this. Even submitting perfect evidence can get ruled in favor of the cardholder.

Wouldn't the merchant's proof be the two emails they sent regarding the upcoming renewal with charges listed?

If they sent an email saying or clearly implying it would renew at $38 and the following 2 emails didn't have any clear warning about price changes in the subject line, I think OP would be quite justified in having assumed they were just empty reminders.

Re: Ask HN: My domain registrar rug-pulled me for $3000 [fixed]

#52

Post by gruez »

ceejayoz wrote: post #35
gruez wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Amazon will tell you the price 7 days before it auto-renews and then jack the price up 100x three days before it renews? Yeah probably? [edit: no, see below] You go on amazon 7 days before renewal, check your subscriptions, see it's $10. 7 days later it's no longer sold by amazon and the only other seller selling it is a scalper that charges $30. The only difference the order of magnitude, not whether price changes…

No, that's not what happens. They lock in a price when they alert you to the upcoming delivery round. https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=... > The price of the item may decrease or increase between deliveries, but will never be higher than the price shown in your reminder email. I sometimes get "item available" cancelations for this reason. The items are always available, just not at that pri…

Thanks for the correction.

Re: Ask HN: My domain registrar rug-pulled me for $3000 [fixed]

#53

Post by joshstrange »

fckgw wrote: post #46
joshstrange wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the OP has a pretty good case for this being an unauthorized charge. Additionally, as someone who has been on the receiving end of chargebacks a number of times I can tell you merchants have a higher burden of proof in things like this. Even submitting perfect evidence can get ruled in favor of the cardholder.

Wouldn't the merchant's proof be the two emails they sent regarding the upcoming renewal with charges listed?

Perhaps? Chargebacks are a completely black box though and the entity that makes the decision is the cardholder's issuer so they often rule in favor of the cardholder if there is even a chance they are right (in my experience).

I've had what I thought was bullet-proof evidence before and lost an appeal (as a merchant).

Re: Ask HN: My domain registrar rug-pulled me for $3000 [fixed]

#54

Post by dlcarrier »

You are paying for a domain on a gTLD, which is owned by an organization that can charge whatever it wants, and thousands to tens of thousands a year isn't uncommon. Your registrar is only charging tens of dollars a year for their services and they aren't involved in the price hike.

ICANN started selling gTLDs in 2012 and they are not cheap, costing hundreds of thousands to procure, plus tens to hundreds of thousands a year to maintain, which is why prices for domains on that gTLD are usually pricey, too.

There's probably not much you can do, as you need to dispute with the owner of the gTLD, not the registrar, but in the future I recommend switching to either a traditional TLD (e.g. .com, .org, .net, etc.) for the lowest price or a country code (e.g. .io .tv .gg, etc.) which is usually pricier than a traditional TLD but much cheaper than a gTLD.

Re: Ask HN: My domain registrar rug-pulled me for $3000 [fixed]

#55

Post by shrinks99 »

james_pm wrote: post #38

I work at Tucows Domains/Hover and we're digging in on what happened here. I've reached out to the OP already via email. tl;dr our support team didn't handle this well at all and we've already issued a full refund. We are still looking into where the price mismatch found its way into the picture, but that domain is a tiered price domain but it is also "legacy" priced meaning it should renew at something very close to…

For anyone reading the thread, they did do this! Had a nice call with James too, which I appreciate.

It looks like the situation is actually more complex and interesting than "The registry rug-pulled me". My .sexy domain price was increased by the owners of .sexy (to $3000) since I bought it 6 years ago BUT in Hover's system it was supposed to retain the legacy price of $38 as it had for the past few years. Something went wrong between Hover and the registry where the legacy price wasn't honoured and as such, it bumped to $3000 on renewal. Apparently support really flubbed this one and we both agreed that going the "post on HN" route for customer service isn't exactly a win on their part.

The money has been refunded and I've been assured they're looking into the bug. Will probably do a follow up blog post!

Re: Ask HN: My domain registrar rug-pulled me for $3000 [fixed]

#56

Post by wjnc »

fckgw wrote: post #49
wjnc wrote: post #5

Register a complaint with the creditcard company with proof of last years $38, the auto renew message with price of $38 and the amount they put on your card. Pretty clear and cut? You can’t offer X and then take Y. It’s Hovers problem what the price behind the door is. Did you read the ToS? The ToS states they renew at prices mentioned on the website. I can find .xyz to renew at $19.99. Now get your screenshots and g…

What does .xyz TLD have to do with this? The TLD is .sexy

You're right. Those are 2999.99 according to their site. According to the Wayback Machine they've been priced that way since at least 2024 [1]

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20240111120913/https://www.hover...

Re: Ask HN: My domain registrar rug-pulled me for $3000 [fixed]

#57

Post by andreidbr »

I am a Hover user for my personal website, on a .com domain. I've been extremely way of using any of the customized TLDs since I heard about these sort of massive hikes. I agree that the communication could have been much better on Hover side, especially with such a huge increase.

Re: Ask HN: My domain registrar rug-pulled me for $3000 [fixed]

#58

Post by tonymet »

dlcarrier wrote: post #54

You are paying for a domain on a gTLD, which is owned by an organization that can charge whatever it wants, and thousands to tens of thousands a year isn't uncommon. Your registrar is only charging tens of dollars a year for their services and they aren't involved in the price hike. ICANN started selling gTLDs in 2012 and they are not cheap, costing hundreds of thousands to procure, plus tens to hundreds of thousands…

Not exactly. We’re a common law country, and there is an implied covenant of good faith. It’s for a judge to decide if this price change counts as good faith. OP should file a complaint and let a judge decide.

Re: Ask HN: My domain registrar rug-pulled me for $3000 [fixed]

#59

Post by dlcarrier »

tonymet wrote: post #58
dlcarrier wrote: post #54

You are paying for a domain on a gTLD, which is owned by an organization that can charge whatever it wants, and thousands to tens of thousands a year isn't uncommon. Your registrar is only charging tens of dollars a year for their services and they aren't involved in the price hike. ICANN started selling gTLDs in 2012 and they are not cheap, costing hundreds of thousands to procure, plus tens to hundreds of thousands…

Not exactly. We’re a common law country, and there is an implied covenant of good faith. It’s for a judge to decide if this price change counts as good faith. OP should file a complaint and let a judge decide.

Are you in the Cayman Islands? It looks like that's where the owner of the gTLD, Internet Naming Co., is based. Did you mean commonwealth or common law? Either way, their pricing is in line with other gTLD providers and there's no sign that they didn't violate any territory's regulations or ICANN policy, so there's not really any reason for a judge to rule against the gTLD provider.

A method for a more likely success to contact the gTLD provider and ask if a cancellation is possible.

Edit: It looks like the registrar got in contact with shrinks99 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49099021#49100427) who qualified for grandfathered price that was accidentally not applied.

Re: Ask HN: My domain registrar rug-pulled me for $3000 [fixed]

#60

Post by tonymet »

dlcarrier wrote: post #59
tonymet wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not exactly. We’re a common law country, and there is an implied covenant of good faith. It’s for a judge to decide if this price change counts as good faith. OP should file a complaint and let a judge decide.

Are you in the Cayman Islands? It looks like that's where the owner of the gTLD, Internet Naming Co., is based. Did you mean commonwealth or common law? Either way, their pricing is in line with other gTLD providers and there's no sign that they didn't violate any territory's regulations or ICANN policy, so there's not really any reason for a judge to rule against the gTLD provider. A method for a more likely success…

common law. and both the registrar and the gtld have american entities you can bring to court. otherwise they wouldn't be collecting revenue.
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