I may be out $4000 at SnapNames! Any advice would be greatly appreciated

[Dorkside]

I've had a very hectic few hours and I'm coming to the realization that I may be out $4000 at SnapNames. I'm looking for advice on the situation, even if you think I'm out of luck and down $4000 with SnapNames.

Let me explain what happened as best I can. I have a list of hundreds of domains that I keep on my Pending Orders list with SnapNames. I check it daily to see if any of the domains I'm interested in are pending deletion and then I decide if I want to keep the backorder or delete it from my list. I've done it this way since I first became a customer with SnapNames in 2006.

In that time, they've always given a few days notice from the time a domain is shown and is being pending deletion to the time the auction begins and you can no longer remove the domain from the list.

In the past, I've had domains in my pending list that were NOT registered to anyone. These do not get caught and do not go to auction as they cannot drop because they were not registered to anyone. I've had these domains in my list for years without issue. Until last night.

SnapNames charged my account for 56 domains (at $69 a pop, for a total of $3,864) that were NOT previously registered to anyone and had not been for some time, and many I believe have never been registered.

Now, maybe you think I'm stupid for having domains not registered in my pending delete list but SnapNames has never charged me for a domain that was not registered in the past (over 6 years as a customer) and now they've charged $69 a domain for 56 such domains all at once.

What's worse (and really makes me upset) is that they charged all $3,864 to my credit card automatically, less than 12 hours after they acquired the domains. In the past, SnapNames has ALWAYS given me a few days to settle payments on my own (I prefer to use Paypal) and they've never automatically charged a credit card like before.

I sent an e-mail to customer support this morning and still haven't gotten a response. I just got off the phone with their customer support, who were completely unhelpful, and it was suggested that I try calling them again tomorrow during their regular business hours.

So I'm hoping the community can offer me some advice. Or am I out of luck on this?

Please, any insight would be welcomed and thank you to anyone who took the time to read this post.

 

[Shane]

That's insane. If they weren't dropped - don't pay. I'd try talking to SnapNames and if they don't listen I'd call your credit card company and cancel payment. 4 grand instead of 56*reg fee is worth fighting over. Good luck.

 

[NameYourself]

Occasionally there have been names that cycle around from a previous years drop and get caught a year later but they were always good names that I wanted before, hence why they were on my list in the first place. I guess it is up to the customer to keep the list pruned of past names you dont want anymore. Im not sure why you would put available names on the backorder list to begin with though, what would be the purpose of doing so? The point to snap backordering in the first place is to monitor and catch names when they become available. I remember Adam posted a warning thread about this type of circumstance in the past because it happened him too.

 

[DomainsInc]

they should really only charge reg fee as these domains weren't actually snapped but just registered.

 

[airmax]

It doesn't make sense if these names were dropping, they would automatically be in quence to be caught, just like any other dropping domain. Unless you caught a niche portfolio that happend to drop all on the same day. Doesn't make sense how all these random unregistered names would all be charged on the same day, unless there was a glitch in the system, the $69 fee really is for the technology to catch the domain right when it drops. Not to take an unregistered name, and register it. Unless they saw this lapse in their code, and fixed it, and made a lot of billings doing so.

 

[ilovedomains]

When you talk to them tell them your calling the credit card company to do a chargeback if they dont reverse it. Getting a charge out of the blue like this is a pretty good reason to request one, and it goes on their credit record when they get complaints like this.

I had a similar experience with a crooked hosting company years ago and never expected to win, but wound up getting 3k returned. They dont have the power over your credit card they would like you to think they have.

 

[NameYourself]

or needed a way to boost revenues.. scan for all available but backordered names and put them through the system. You alone just made them 3k profit. Technically if they were available for 1 millisecond 1 hour or 1 decade they were caught. The thing to find out is did this happen to anyone else at the same time, were they all regged through the same registrar or at multiple catch partners? If they were all put through 1 registrar that would be interesting to know. Are you sure they werent regged, tasted and deleted.. that could get them on the drop lists even if not regged for a full year. Can you give us a few examples of names on the list that this happened with?

 

[Dorkside]

Thanks for the replies everyone, I'm still trying to deal with this issue.

 

[Theo]

Read this.

 

[A D]

Occasionally there have been names that cycle around from a previous years drop and get caught a year later but they were always good names that I wanted before, hence why they were on my list in the first place. I guess it is up to the customer to keep the list pruned of past names you dont want anymore. Im not sure why you would put available names on the backorder list to begin with though, what would be the purpose of doing so? The point to snap backordering in the first place is to monitor and catch names when they become available. I remember Adam posted a warning thread about this type of circumstance in the past because it happened him too.

In my case, it was kinda my fault, I backordered some domains and didnt't delete them from my backorders at pool.
You need to make sure you delete them regularly which I do now.

I also once added a group of names to backorder and they regged 3 that were available thatr I missed when checking and charged me $60 to reg them, again my error.

So I have learned to check with places i backorder domains with regularly and clean them up.

Sorry you had this issue, I feel your pain.

I am off to clean out my backorders again now

I will also do todays video on this topic on theartofthename.com, this may indirectly put pressure on them to fix you up.

Adam Dicker

 

[A D]

http://theartofthename.com/domain-backordering-can-be-a-costly-mistake/

Video Done, except I made a mistake and said your issue was with Pool.com like mine was.

I corrected it under the video... will try and edit or add to the video now.

Adam Dicker

 

[Seraphim]

I had this problem a few years back, as I accidentally entered in some misspelled domains (that were available for registration). They billed me for them immediately at $70 each, but then later fixed the issue for me (I didn't have to pay anything). Sound advice by Adam. I know now to watch my backorders list like a hawk.

 

[sdiggles]

If they don't fix the situation and you feel like they violated the terms or the charge was unauthorized, you can dispute the charge with your bank or credit card. I've done it before and they fight on your behalf. If they charged an Amex you're in good shape - they always give you the money back and fight the other company. But, this all depends on if it was bogus in some way or just your mistake. That's my two cents.

 

[jstewart]

Call them, they should be able to correct this for you quickly. Escalate quickly, I don't know what the tasting period allowed is, but they are going to have to eat their allotment on this one.

If they don't, well, I think you have a community behind you.

This seems like a shady business practice.

It IS a shady business practice if they don't correct it.

Simply put, Business is built on trust. If they fix it, I don't blame anyone but they may want to review why this happened without so much a phone call.

 

[dvdrip]

@Dorkside
As I wrote in my post, I wouldn't hold my breath for a proper reply from Snapnames.
They made an announcement about the new support and the new hours but the reply in 24-48 hours and their feedback is non-existent.
Threaten them with a charge back. That might get their attention.
Then after 7 days just do the charge back and let your credit card deal with them.

I couple of weeks after this issue was resolved and after I had cancelled my charge back, snapnames closed my account without any reason given.
I asked why and after a couple of days of clueless support replies I was told that I had done a charge back and they didn't like that.
I explained that it had been a month and I had no reply from them when I did it and I also told them that I had cancelled the charge back.
They said ok and reopened my account.

Read this.

 

[dvdrip]

It seems that snapnames found a way to make some money out of nothing.
Are all these domains registered on one registrar?
Ask them to delete them all and you will pay for the deletion fee.
That would be just north of 11 bucks.

 

[Dorkside]

Just a follow-up for anyone who's curious, they've offered to charge me $15 a domain for all 56 domains and credit the difference to my account rather than refund my credit card. This is not what I was hoping for, but it seems to be the best offer that they will make me and I seem to be low on options at this point.

I hope this can serve as a cautionary tale to anyone who uses SnapNames: make certain that you do not have any readily available domains in your pending deletion list as they're willing to auto-bill you $69 for a domain that you could have registered through Moniker for $9.59. Remember, I've had such domains on my list with them for much of the last 6 years without issue until this week.

I want to thanks everyone who took the time to read this thread and especially thank the people who posted and Adam for creating a video to draw attention to this issue.

 

[Theo]

Personally, if that happened and at this scale, I'd file a chargeback especially since it's evident they are now batch processing ancient 'domain watch' lists. Luckily, it was only 1 such charge in my case. I am now the "proud" owner of ****TheCloud.com

 

[katherine]

they've offered to charge me $15 a domain for all 56 domains

This is the backorder commission due to the registrars perhaps ?

Remember, I've had such domains on my list with them for much of the last 6 years without issue until this week.

And then they woke up Or made changes to their scripts... I seem to remember a similar story involving Pool years ago.

 

[copper]

Now, it's done, look at the bright side.

$840 is MUCH better than $3,864