Is this a scam or acceptable? Hosting/Domains
 

Was just helping a 70yo family member to work out why a hosting company was still charging him years after he'd cancelled his two domains and websites.

Turned out that despite everything else being cancelled, they were still charging him $12.99 for 'Domain Privacy' for each domain, so he was still paying $26 per year to protect domains which he had long-since cancelled. They refused to refund and said he would have had to cancel them off himself to stop them. Told them I was off to write bad reviews, the support guy said "I understand your concerns, but there's nothing I can do"

Company is called PowWeb

If the domain was cancelled properly I don't see how any registrar could continue charging for privacy services. Having said that, typically one renews a domain for a 12 month period and logically the privacy along with that. If I renewed a domain and privacy services and cancelled shortly after that, I wouldn't be expecting any pro-rata or other refund on the privacy any more than I'd be expecting that on the domain.

Brad

Thanks for your reply Brad. :thumbsup The domains/hosting had been cancelled a few years ago, but the domain privacy had still been auto-renewing each year. They said that the privacy has to be cancelled specifically or it will continue, regardless of whether you still have any active domains.

Yeah I can't even make sense of that logic. I would simply charge it back or make one more attempt at a refund before doing so.

Brad

The last payment was October 2015, is that too long ago to charge back?

They sent an email to remind him that they will be renewing again next month, that's what brought it to his attention. Apparently it's all cancelled off, we shall see.

Way too late to chargeback. You have 4 months to chargeback a visa or master card purchase.

You need to write into PowFuckYouUp and see if you can take it further.

both should have been cancelled at the same time...

Who'd keep an insurance and not have the domain! Wankers! Sorry to hear about your friends troubles WHP :(

There is logic, then there is the contract. No reason to argue the fine points.

Simply contact the owners/management of POWWEB. Send a direct email and place a phone call to ensure they received it. Keep it simple and brief. Do they really want to keep XXX amount of money from a 70 year old former client of theirs? Do they really want you on this persons behalf submit a chargeback request with the bank, and if needed a police report claiming theft by POWWEB?

Good luck!

A fast whois lookup on POWWEB, shows me Endurance. Alot of the brands Endurance claims to have share the same address. No promises for accuracy ...

The Endurance International Group, Inc.
10 Corporate Drive Suite 300
Burlington, MA 01803
+1.3604495900

wtf, who needs domain privacy without domains ?
domain privacy is add-on for domains.

There's a few companies out there where I'd imagine this is exactly the same. In a lot of cases the whois privacy you buy is a separate service and doesn't even need to be attached to a domain, it can lie unused until you allocate to a domain. It allows people to switch whois between domains.

I still have domains where whois privacy runs on a different timeline from the domain itself, so I can see how this might happen. Why you wouldn't cancel your only whois services at the same time as the domains I don't know but I'm guessing age plays a factor in this one.

PowWeb has been pulling shit like this for a very long time

TBh this sounds like a grey area loophole that the company is hiding behind, in order to continue to excuse why they're charging for privacy. In short, yeah scam, but scam of the worse kind in that it's not technically "illegal" just shady business practises.

its scummy but totally legal :2 cents::2 cents: