Re: Re: New Member and ADSL Question

["Andy Laurence" <andy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Des Gibbons wrote:
>   If
>> you read the
>> support ticket I raised, you would be astonished!
>
> Go on then :)

Well, as you asked....

When I signed up, I asked if I could use my free web space with my domain
name.  They said I could, but I would need to change the IPStag of my
domain
name.  Not knowing what an IPStag was, I logged into my 123reg account, and
clicked on the "Change IPStag" icon.  When my domain was due to
expire last
month, they charged me over £50.  I wasn't sure why, so I raised the
following ticket:

"I seem to have been charged just over £50 for domain renewal. As far
as I
am aware, I pay my domain name renewal through 123-reg at under £10 for two
years. I'm not sure why I have been billed this. Could you please
clarify."

This was their (extremely helpful) response:

"You changed the IPStag to ours, this means that we will bill you for
the
renewals. This is when we have renewed the domain for you. "

Aside from the poor grammar, and sentences devoid of meaning, it gave me a
reason why I was charged.  I responded by saying they had offered this as a
solution, and I wasn't told I would be charged for this.  Their response?

"Dear Customer,

This is the standard renewal fee we charge for any uk domain as listed on
our web portal.

Regards,
Dave Tomlinson"

Not particularly helpful, as I'd be surprised if it wasn't a standard fee.
I asked my question again:

"Why was I not informed that changing the IPStag would incur
additional
costs?"

Their response really wound me up, as you can imagine:

"We have to assume you are aware of these things when requesting that
the
IPS tag be changed."

I didn't see why they made such an assumption, so I asked:

"I'm not quite sure why you "have to assume" that I am aware
of this. Surely
it can't be that difficult to say "changing the IPStag will fix your
issue,
but we will charge you for your domain"?"

Their response was no more helpful than the previous ones:

"We are sorry that you feel like this. the IPSTAG denotes complete
control
over the domain including billing. The name servers are just where the
domain is hosted.

This is standard information and is explained on the 123reg portal, I have
2
domains registered with them.

Please advise what you now want to do regarding this issue."

At no point did they try to resolve my problems, or issue any apology for
their actions.  They did not try to reassure me that service would be
better
in the future, and the only apology was for the way I felt.  I went on
trying to hint that maybe they should apologise, or perhaps let me transfer
my domain back, and refund my money, but their only answer was that I could
transfer out for no extra cost.

I should mention that I have snipped the comments above to remove other
details that are not relevant.  I should also mention that I've had an
email
>from
it.  Heads will roll.....

Cheers,
Andy
--
http://ha.andylaurence.co.uk
http://projects.andylaurence.co.uk