Ripped off by a domain registrar
 

Hello,

Ok guys, this is going to be quite long. But I had to take it out after 2 months of hassles. The company I am talking about is RegisterFly.com so bear that mind for the rest of your lives.

P.S. there may be mistakes in the text because I had no time to edit it, whatsoever.

I think I've waited enough time to give that crappy domain registrar time to respond so I am making it public. On March 27th and April 15th, I sent two, relatively small, payments through paypal so they will add it to my account. Both payments were "Status: Completed". Note, these are the second and the third payments sent by paypal. The first payment I sent was successful.

The second payment (March 27th) was on the amount of $20. The third payment was on the amount of $9.97. The reason behind sending the third payment was to indeed check that maybe something really went wrong the second time.

After a few days have passed, nothing had been added to my account. I sent an email to [email protected]. A week or two have passed, and still no answer. I left a trouble ticket on April 4th, 2002 and it is STILL "Status: assigned". I sent the third payment of $9.97 shortly and waited. Still nothing. Sent another email and waited. I have recorded 4 emails in a text files which I sent to [email protected]. None came back, meaning they were all delivered successfully. In the event, I have totally sent around 7-8 emails.

Here's the copy of the four email I have sent:
http://66.28.242.122/emails.txt

In the process, I have tried to reach Kevin Medina (The name from whois on registergfly.com) by phone (also from whois). I have been trying to reach him for 2.5 weeks in a row, but the secretary always kept saying "oh, he's just gone out for the day" or "he's out of the office" and I didn't even have a chance to talk to him. I kept calling but for the past week, whever I give a call, I get to their answering machine. So there's no point on trying to call again. I've wasted over $5 on those phone calls (calling card).

Right before one month had passed (from the day I sent the first payment), I filed a paypal buyer complaint. Unfortunately, after waiting for weeks, I received this letter from PayPal today:
(Note: I received two of such letters, for two different payments - $20 and $9.97)

http://66.28.242.122/paypal.txt

It is saying that it cannot resolve conflicts where intangible items are involved (services). So I guess those scumbags know that they can easily steal from customers paying by paypal.

Anyways, I came to the conclusion that my emails were ignored for such a ridiculously little amount ($30) so I decided to go to their Online Tech Support (live operator) for some hope. The first conversation occured on May 14, 2002. The following is the log (copy) of the conversation:

http://66.28.242.122/log1.txt

He told me to send an email to somebody in the name of tim shore ([email protected]). I sent the email on the spot, which returned the next day.

I went to online support again. This time I told him of the story and he gave his own registerfly support email and told me that it will be answered for sure. This was on May 18. Here's a log:

http://66.28.242.122/log2.txt

And I am still waiting.

In conclusion, I am stunned to what extent they can ignore their customers for $30. Is this really going to change their financial position by stealing from people who pay by paypal? Is it a scam or they are just SO busy to handle simple requests? I don't know what to do in this situation so I felt telling other people to beware of this company.

Any feedback/suggestions on further steps would be appreciated. Other stories are welcome as well.

-Dreamman

should've used OpenSRS.... you wouldn't be going through this.

Yeah OpenSRS rocks, I use them regularly and like their backend perl scripts. Minimum deposit is $250 though, but you at least know they will credit your acct. Been thinking of switching to enom recently... humm....

i've been using opensrs for two years now, and i would never, ever touch any other system. opensrs for life.

DUDE REGISTERFLY IS THE FUCKING DEVIL, nobody ever believe me when I warned them......

support is terrible and everything always FUCKS UP, can never ever get a hold of them, they dont have phone #'s

They do, but it's either the secretary is the only one in the office, or just that there's an answering machine 24/7 there.

I called and they were like some sort of Invester Information bullshit line...... no one I could ever talk to.... Corporate services or some crap....... The answering machine is fucking retarded. says "check our website for support"

I got to that one too. I wanted to try some other extensions but hung up. They also run some company called E-conceptualize (sp) or something.

Try calling 212-295-2153

See if you get the same anwering machine bullshit.
(It says to call from Mon-Fri, 9-5)
So try at these hours. I keep getting the machine even within these hours.

I've just received an update. PayPal has recovered my $9.97 (third payment) but not the second one for some reason. I've just received this email from them:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PayPal has concluded our investigation of the following Buyer
Complaint:

Case ID: 450712
Transaction Date: 04/15/02
Transaction Amount: $9.97
Seller's Email: [email protected]
Seller's Name: John Naruszewicz

Our investigation has determined that the seller is at fault, and we have

recovered your funds. Your account has been credited $9.97.
Please allow up to 5 days to see the adjustment on your account.
This
amount is the maximum we were able to recover.

We value your business and regret your recent experience. To avoid these

problems in the future, we recommend following the guidlines in our Security

Tips section:

http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...ention-outside

Sincerely,
Complaint Resolution Department

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm still wondering why they only succeeded to recover that amount only. I left a buyer complaint on the second amount ($20) earlier than the $9.97 amount. Really strange.

GOD DAMNIT I wish I would of seen this awhile ago argh@#$ Fucking bastards will be out on their asses IF I CAN DO IT!@#$

www.DotRegistrar.com rocks. Buy 'em in bulk and register names whenever you want. No problems - EVER. Plus you can use their "delete" feature to undo those domains that you registered last night when you were drunk. Gotta love that. :thumbsup

marzzo what's the max # of days you can use this function to undo a registration? 2 days?

Thanks

you have up to 3 days, 72 hours to fix your "typo" - it's nice to wake up in the morning and say "Shit, I guess I don't want bigharrycockeaters.com after all!"

:glugglug :1orglaugh :winkwink:

I wouln't think of using anything other than OpenSRS. Enom may be cheaper, but OpenSRS always works, and does everything properly and efficiently.
I tried enom once, but dont like their software at all.

hehehe thanks for your reply :-)

To be honest I haven't seen this option in another domain registrant ever. Very interesting one. I guess ICANN give this option to registrant companies, but most of them avoid to use.

DotRegistrar is the only one I've found that has this feature. I've used it plenty-o-times and it's paid for itself - well, not litterally... SSince you have "domain credits" in your account at all times it's nice to be able to register a domain on the fly without having to enter creditcard info every time.

I still have domains I haven't used but at least I had 3 days to think about 'em :Graucho