Last month, Namecheap allowed me buy¹ a .love domain name for $9.98, and then seemingly intercepted the hand-off to me in order to re-classify the domain as a "premium" domain and kindly re-offer it to me for only $1,950.
I've never experienced anything like it. I remain horrified about all the times I've recommended Namecheap in the past.
¹ By "buy", I mean that I received an email confirming the $10.16 charge (including ICANN fees) with transaction and approval IDs.
Premium domains are classified as premium by registrys. A registry owns a TLD, such as .love[1], and tells the registrars (Namecheap, GoDaddy, Cloudflare, etc) that it's premium either when they try and register it, or they keep an updated text file of them usually. ICANN decides which registrys own which TLDs.
When Namecheap tried to register your domain, they were told by Merchant Law Group LLP[2] that the domain you (the registrant) want is actually premium, and the real cost of it is $1,950. I assume Namecheap simply used the current normal price, and when they find out it's premium, they update the cost.
While we're on the topic, it might interest you to know that ICANN actually has regulations preventing registrys, such as Verisign (.com, .net, etc) and Merchant Law Group LLP (.love), from changing the price of renewal from normal to premium. This is to prevent something like, a registry letting a registrar let you buy your TLD for $7.99, but then the registry arbitrarily tells the registrar "the domain is now premium and the renewal cost is $2,000."
Normally this would be prevented via ICANN regulations (that registrys agree to, otherwise they lose their TLDs), except there is a stipulation. The registrant (that's you, or whoever is buying the domain), can voluntarily forgo and surrender these rights in a written statement. Coincidentally, all the registrars (Namecheap, GoDaddy, etc) have this written stipulation in their contracts, that you must to agree to in order to be able to purchase a domain. This means that registrys can arbitrarily change an already registered domains status from non-premium to premium.
The real question is why do the registrars do this for the registrys? They are supposed to be separate companies and entities entirely and prevent things like this from happening. I imagine it's because registrys can pick and choose which registrars are able to sell their TLD. So if a registrar refuses to add this in their agreement with you, then the registry simply denies the TLD request by the registrar.
> Normally this would be prevented via ICANN regulations (that registrys agree to, otherwise they lose their TLDs), except there is a stipulation. The registrant (that's you, or whoever is buying the domain), can voluntarily forgo and surrender these rights in a written statement.
Could you cite the language in the Base ICANN registry agreement that allows registrants to waive the need for "clear and conspicuous" disclosure of the renewal price at time of initial registration?
> Coincidentally, all the registrars (Namecheap, GoDaddy, etc) have this written stipulation in their contracts, that you must to agree to in order to be able to purchase a domain.
Likewise, could you cite a registration agreement that waives the need for "clear and conspicuous" disclosure of the renewal price?
> I imagine it's because registrys can pick and choose which registrars are able to sell their TLD. So if a registrar refuses to add this in their agreement with you, then the registry simply denies the TLD request by the registrar.
The Base ICANN Registry Agreement doesn't allow registries to "pick and choose" registrars, see 2.9(a): "Registry Operator must provide non-discriminatory access to Registry Services to all ICANN accredited registrars that enter into and are in compliance with the registry-registrar agreement for the TLD; provided that Registry Operator may establish non-discriminatory criteria for qualification to register names in the TLD that are reasonably related to the proper functioning of the TLD. Registry Operator must use a uniform non-discriminatory agreement with all registrars authorized to register names in the TLD (the “Registry-Registrar Agreement”)."
I think you may be misunderstanding the registrant right I'm talking about. ICANN regulations state that a registry cannot arbitrarily change a domain status from non-premium to premium and start charging a renewal price of thousands versus the normal usual price that's tens of dollars.
The ICANN Registry Agreement[1] sets the rules and regulations that a Registry has to abide by in order to be able to apply for the rights to a TLD. Section 2.10(c) states that the Registry must charge a renewal price that is the same as they charge every other domain registration on the same TLD. Meaning that they can't suddenly decide your domain is premium after you've already registered it. The renewal price must always be the normal common price.
But, further down the section you'll see that
>"2.10(c) shall not apply for..."
>"The parties acknowledge that the purpose of this Section 2.10(c) is to prohibit abusive and/or discriminatory Renewal Pricing practices imposed by Registry Operator without the written consent of the applicable registrant at the time of the initial registration of the domain and this Section 2.10(c) will be interpreted broadly to prohibit such practices."
In summary, the point of this section is so that unless you explicitly agree to it in written statement, Registries cannot change your domain status from non-premium to premium after you've already had it registered as non-premium.
However, Registries have bypassed this section by (speculation here) requiring Registrars to have Registrants waive these rights granted by ICANN, otherwise Registries simply deny access to their TLD.
I believe all of the Registrars have this hidden somewhere in their agreements last I checked. Here's Cloudflare as an example. Their Domain Registration Agreement[2] Section 8.6. You agree to waive section 2.10(c) by allowing variable and non-uniform renewal pricing.
The relevant text, which was elided from your quote, is (emphasis added):
"The foregoing requirements of this Section 2.10(c) shall not apply for (i) purposes of determining Renewal Pricing if the registrar has provided Registry Operator with documentation that demonstrates that the applicable registrant expressly agreed in its registration agreement with registrar to higher Renewal Pricing at the time of the initial registration of the domain name following clear and conspicuous disclosure of such Renewal Pricing to such registrant,"
So the registrant can waive the right to uniform renewal pricing via text in the registration agreement, but only if there is "clear and conspicuous disclosure" of the renewal pricing. You haven't cited any text that would waive away this disclosure requirement.
The issue isn't with disclosure, as it's up to the registrant to read the contracts they agree to, and it's clearly disclosed in every agreement. You also don't waive the right to disclosure, you waive the right to uniform renewal pricing, but the point is that it's supposed to be optional for the registrant.
Registrants aren't given the option, Registrars force them to agree to a contract that waives this right.
That's extremely frustrating. Unclear if that's the fault of Namecheap or the .love registry (Merchant Law Group LLP[1]), and whether it was intentional deception or just incompetence. In any case, domain registrants deserve better than that.
If you're already building on AWS or Google Cloud, you should use Route 53 or Cloud Domains, respectively, so you can leverage your existing IAM policies and avoid putting trust in other organizations unnecessarily.
From another perspective, decoupling your domain from your cloud host means if things go wrong with your hosting you can still migrate to another host with a DNS change. I feel like I'd be more likely to have an issue with a hosting provider than a DNS registrar, but maybe that's a bad assumption.
Sounds like Amazon's relationship with Square. For the use cases they havent had their own engineers write integrations with their primary payment processor to cover, lean on the work of a payments focused company.
I use them too. Great customer service with a real and competent person on the line right away. Decided to go with them after some searching. I was getting off Google and they had an actual office and pictures of the people who worked there on their website. Some of their marketing is a bit corny but have had great service over the past few years.
support isn't that good if you ask me. when I had a problem with my account and they couldn't resolve it, it took quite some time to get my domain back under control.
My limitation for domains is SRS, I need to be able to redirect email to my inbox without paying for an additional service and without emails arriving as spam because of DMARC. Because of this I ended up at Google, which I don't really like because of their nonexistent support.
Dynadot is who I use, prices are just as cheap as NameCheap, but they have a much better website and allow you to "name taste" - return the domain name within 72 hours if you change your mind for a refund.
I've been using PorkBun for a couple of years now. It reminds me of Namecheap in their earlier years. A much simpler UI, great support and decent/fair prices.
Used to talk to the guy that founded them, he was a stand up chap. Great to see they're still around. They used to be a ResellerClub/DirectI reseller but like me (also ran a registrar) they were moving away due to the crappy service being provided.
I used to love Namecheap but I went to login after not needing to for some time and they had automatically turned on 2FA and they had an old phone number on file which made it impossible to login. I had to contact them to turn it off and spend some time to be able to finally access my account and it left a bad impression. I’ve since started using porkbun and will transfer everything to them. They used to be great but their interface has changed horribly and I just don’t like them anymore or want to use them with all the changes they’ve made.
I've never experienced anything like it. I remain horrified about all the times I've recommended Namecheap in the past.
¹ By "buy", I mean that I received an email confirming the $10.16 charge (including ICANN fees) with transaction and approval IDs.