123reg.co.uk - avoid at all costs - read this

[jasdon11]

Ok, so here it is...

Bought a dropped .co.uk yesterday AM via 123reg.co.uk - got an email receipt and payment ref at 10.55am.
17.30 - checked with nominet (controls .co.uk) 'name available' - wierd!
Try calling (so called) customer support at 123reg, via their £0.50/min, premium rate phone number - "sorry, we are closed" bla bla, so sent email.

Today, Friday 11Aug06, check nominets whois, and WOW, it's been registered to a Peter Smith, address withheld. FYI, in the UK, Peter Smith is the equivilent of John Doe, right...call nominet - seems it was reg'd at 18.10hrs yesterday by Mr Peter Smith.

So, I email 123reg...twice...no answer. It only cost me £6.09 - for 2 years reg, but to me the name is worth thousands - so that's what I want. They took my dough, sent me confirmation, and then expect me to roll over - wrong guy!

Don't deal with 123reg - I've got 500 names with various registrars, had some issues but always got 'em sorted. This is the first time I've dealt with them and they're trying to fu*k me.

So, are they crooks, incompitent, stupid, or all three? Either way, I want the name they sold me, or compensation of four figures GBP.

For everyone out there, if you are thinking about using them 'cos they're cheap, (like I did), remember this thread.

Jas

Oh yeah, the name - it's golfmatch.co.uk

 

[Creature]

I think that a receipt for the money is different to confirmation of a registration. Really nice name but the dropcatch is a cut-throat, split-second lotto game imo. Just go for the next one. No doubt you will get a refund from 123-reg but you won't get anything else. Good luck anyway.

 

[Deleted member 70843]

Hmm i just got a name same kind of deal but i have the name in my account but cant change name servers.

 

[mulligan]

Avoid these jokers at all costs. I reged about 140 names with them over a period of 6 hours, paid for them, got reciepts, verification emails, they were in my account... 24 hours later they had 'un-registered' them all without notification. After I called them the told me it was a system glitch... Total a**holes..

This is the phone number for the parent company, Pipex - 44-115-9170000
They will tell you to call the paid premimum number but be persistent, ask to speak to a manager..

 

[Deleted member 70843]

if i dont get the name do i get my money back ?

 

[katherine]

Sorry to hear about that.
I now know they are not reliable and it's not just me.

Here is my experience with them posted on another forum:

After reading this thread I thought I would give 123-reg a try for my next .co.uk registrations.
First off their interface does not sound really great. Thinking to myself, nice-looking sites are not always the most reliable. Well, I register one .co.uk domain, so far so good.
However, when checking the Nominet whois DB I don't see the name yet. Let's wait for a while. Perhaps it's the credit card authorisation which takes time to complete.
Checking the day after. Nothing yet in the Nominet DB.
So I contacted them and I am still waiting for their reply (it was last Friday).

It's a good thing that I always check with the registry that my names are registered. Glitches sometimes occur. Just because a name is listed in your account does not mean it has been registered (the reverse is true too) or belongs to you.
Needless to say I am not impressed with 123-reg. They are cheap but maybe not so dependable.
Is this the British registerfly ?

BTW they did not bother to reply to my E-mail. I'm going to give them another chance to refund me. Otherwise I will initiate a charge back and it will cost them even more :greenupsetw:

 

[flybuzz]

thanks for info.

 

[Bill Roy]

Jasdon,

Take out a 'small claim' against them. Here in the UK the moment they took your money they entered into a contract with you to register the name for you. The fact that they acyt as your agent and present themselves as 'professionals' will go against them. Also, I should say that if the difference in time of registration was only a few minutes then a court might rule that it was part of the cut and thrust of the domain registration world. I do not think a court would accept that arguement when the time difference is 7 hours and 15 minutes.

To make a claim for damages you should either contact Mr. Peter Smith (if at all possible) and ask him what price he will accept for the domain (and remember the 60 day rule) or get several (3 preferably) valuations of the domain name from renouned bodies.

123reg.co.uk has not got a leg to stand on, they have not delivered the implied service, i.e. registering the name for you at time of payment, and as such you have faced financial loss.

By the way a very nice domain name.

 

[jasdon11]

Thanks guys - you have confirmed to me that 123reg apprear to be one of the notorious rogue registrars that are a cancer to our industry.

Happily in this case, I have no other domains with them, so they can't hold them to ransom when I pursue this - and I will pursue it!

Billbo - I will certainly look into the small claims position - thanks for the heads up.

The sad part of this is 123reg are physically the closest registrar to where I live - just a couple of hours drive away (may be handy). I've dealt with companies all over the globe with very little trouble, and nothing which didn't get sorted out swiftly - and I get this from the 'locals'...

 

[Creature]

I registered www.GreatService.co.uk today at 123 Reg.

I checked whois about 4 minutes later and it still showed as available.

Therefore as a precaution (5 minutes after Registering the name at 123 Reg)and having earlier read this thread, I decided to visit Godaddy and register it again just to be on the safe side.

A few minutes later I checked whois again. Godaddy registered the domain in my name and beat 123 Reg.

I conclude that 123 Reg is slow at submitting the name to Nominet.

 

[Bill Roy]

Jasdon it may be to your advantage to ask 'Creature' if he could forward details to you of his transaction just to give you extra ammunition in any court case.

Get as much as you can from others, then they will not be able to come up with lame excuses in court. Also it does not say anywhere on the 123reg site that there is a time delay or that they are on holiday or that they do not register at weekends (just some of the arguements they may try)!

Let us know how this develops please.

 

[jasdon11]

Creature - after I read your piece last night I reg'd another .co.uk at Gd, went to check at Nominets whois and it was done, pronto stylee!

Got an email from 123reg this AM

"Hi, whats the domain name?"

I've replied with the name.

Billbo - I'll see how the next 48hrs unfolds, if no joy I'll look at maybe asking to use info from others.

I'll let you know - Jas

 

[jasdon11]

Latest;

Had an email this morning from 123reg saying:

Hi

I’m afraid you were beaten to the domain name, I have refunded you accordingly.

So, I now have confirmation from Nominet on the time of registration to John Doe, sorry, Peter Smith.

Have given 123reg until COB 17Aug06 to 'retrieve' the name, or come up with compensation.

Billbo, I've been advised that Trading Standards should be my first port of call.

Until the next gripping installment...

Jas

 

[Creature]

Who is Peter Smith? Is he a well known domainer?

 

[fab]

Sorry to hear this,since I have been using them to register all of my .co.uk names.

 

[J2theIZZO]

Who is Peter Smith? Is he a well known domainer?

Yes, I know him..he is a Nominet member and also a TAG Holder.

 

[PRED]

Guys,
123-reg are notoriously bad & need public shaming.I have couple hundred with them. I have only stuck with them as for .co.uk theyare cheap & let you have instant page builder etc. Here are they're problems:
1/ If you try to reg a domain that is sitting there available. If it dropped some time ago (& you have no way of knowing) their system will take your money, put it in your control panel &you assume you have got it. Check the whois, 'when' they get it right it is almost instant.If it's not on whois in 40 mins, take it as red they haven't regged it.I have told them about their flawed system, they've done nothing
2/ If you try & reg a lot of names, ie. 10+ it has problems with that. Check all are in control panel & whois
3/Their so called customer service is shut on weekends. Try not to reg on a friday or you'll be sweating all weekend
4/ Their .eu reg system was a f*cking scandal. Well the whole .eu busines was a scandal! I paid application fees to pre-reg about 90 .eus. They fully refund the pre-reg fees if you don't get them, supposedly. I didn't get any & they then took money for registering them! Which also made me think i had got loads & was rich! I had to phone 5 times over 6 weeks & write to PiPEX mD twice to get the money back! They are arseholes! incidentally they took £2k from me! got back!
5/ I would advise people to never use them if you are a new customer/ If godaddy did a good price for .co.uk i would always use them as they are faultless. Aall registrars have their quirks & faults. I only regged with 123 for all the problems as it suits me with the packages, & i know their faults & limits now. I keep meaning to report them to trading standards.
Hope this helps. Guy

 

[Chelsea]

I paid application fees to pre-reg about 90 .eus. They fully refund the pre-reg fees if you don't get them, supposedly. I didn't get any & they then took money for registering them! Which also made me think i had got loads & was rich! I had to phone 5 times over 6 weeks & write to PiPEX mD twice to get the money back! They are arseholes! incidentally they took £2k from me! got back!

It was against the rules to charge for pre-registrations. So, why did you pre-register with them in the first place?

 

[PRED]

Hi,
They charged for pre-registration a £10 fee which was 'fully refundable' if you DIDN'T get the domain. It was the fairest deal I could find from a 'main' registratar, & taking into account the actual reg. fee which was one of the lowest. This wasn't illegal. There were many firms charging crazy prizes. I'm not sure even they were breaking the rules about pre-registration.
The point was they took the pre-reg fee as well as the reg fee becuase their system glitched. They're not fraudsters, just woefully incompetent & they need a big kick up the arse. Like I say, if godaddy reduced their .co.uk fee i would use them, as i think they are fantastic.
One good thing about 123-reg is they don't charge to transfer in or out & you can push free. So many charge for this, especially registrars with cheap .co.uks
Cheers, Guy

 

[Creature]

If godaddy did a good price for .co.uk i would always use them as they are faultless. Aall registrars have their quirks & faults. I only regged with 123 for all the problems as it suits me with the packages, & i know their faults & limits now. I keep meaning to report them to trading standards.
Hope this helps. Guy

Not faultless. Be careful at the renewal with a Godaddy .co.uk. Either set to Auto Renew of renew early to avoid a hefty admid charge. I find that if you delay your renewal, they like to impose an admin fee even before the Nominet renewal date.