Page 3 - I've been robbed by iRegistrations.com

I'm sorry if I sound like an heartless jerk, but that's what you all get for not reading the Terms and Conditions. It says the rules in there and by signing up with websites like this, you are agreeing to them, as outlines numerous times through sites. The little checkboxes that say "I agree to the terms and conditions" are not there for games, people. READ the terms and conditions. I feel bad that you guys all got ripped off, but hopefully this will teach you all to read before you agree to things. Whether you're buying a new car, taking a loan from a bank, or purchasing off the internet - READ READ READ READ the statements you are agreeing to before agreeing. If you don't read them, you deserve to be taken for as much money as possible. That is how these companies thrive and the only way to defeat them isn't to file chargebacks or post on the Internet - it's to take your business elsewhere when you see something fishy in their terms.

They did nothing illegal by offering a trial service with automatic renewal. It's a common practice and does not make them a fraud or a bad company. It makes you a bad consumer for saying OK to it without understanding it.

Don't file complaints when you made the mistake. Just suck it up, admit you agreed to something without understanding it, take responsibility and pay the money you lost.

I believe Adrastea0413 must have spent a lot of time reading all the huge documentation before signing up anything. But ironically, Adrastea0413 didn't even read this short thread well enough to learn that iRegs didn't send any notification nor invoices to its customers (in fact, iRegs billed its customers without they knowing it at all), and change the name server settings of its customers' domain names without their permission, and somehow managed to prevent its customers to login their accounts to check things over.... or, Adrastea0413 takes all these also as "common practices"?

1. Yes, I do read the "huge documentation" before signing up for anything.
2. I read this short thread. However, where did iRegs every say they WOULD send you any invoices? Have you ever gotten an advertisement in a magazine that says something to the affect of "Receive 12 free issues of TV Guide" or go to Best Buy and when the cashier says "Would you like 6 free months of Sports Illustrated or Entertainment Weekly?" And read the card they give with the fine print. "Your credit card will be automatically charged after the free trial has expired. If you wish to cancel this trial or subscription, you may do so at any time by..." iRegs said the same exact thing, you were just too hasty to see it.



When you go ahead and cancel your credit card or refute charges via chargeback, they have every right to take away your access to their systems, take the domains you purchased, and change any nameservers because you "warranted that your use of their services is not going to subject them to any claims" including credit card chargeback claims. You broke the rules first, they did what they agreed to do. They have a dispute resolution process outlined in the Terms and Conditions that you went ahead and ignored and took things into your own hands, breaking the agreement. You lost out legally.

I assure you, these ARE common business practices and are perfectly legal. It certainly won't be the last time someone tries these things with you, so be prepared. Pay the money you lost here and leave knowing for next time what kinds of things you should look for when you sign up for a service.

You haven't read it right my friend. iRegs had changed my name server settings several times long before I knew or did anything about the extra billings, and iRegs even changed my account settings and continued billing me after I had cancelled the services and sent them complaints.

I always believe that to appropriately notify the customers being billed IS the common business practice, I have dozens of various paid accounts on the Internet, and none of them has ever billed me without my knowledge. In fact, the commom case would be two to four confirmation emails per payment, I guess they are all stupid and vain in Adrastea0413's point of view.

I wonder if Adrastea0413 has ever heard about terms like "hidden charges" or "fair trade". If I'm buying a house, I'm certainly supposed to go through everything concerning the deal, but when I am paying $6, my reasonable expectation is that the vendor makes it clear if there is any, and how much is the extra charges.

Are the nameservers owned and operated by you?
What kind of account settings did iRegs change?

You WERE appropriately notified. You agreed to the notification. "Confirmation" emails for your payments are a CONVENIENCE, certainly not a requirement. If you are making ANY purchase whatsoever from a SERVICE provider of any kind, you should go through everything concerning your purchase. What part of "iRegistrations will charge you $6.95 for search engine submission and $6.95 for hosting and will be renewed monthly unless you tell us otherwise" is "hidden" or "unfair"? Right there, in black and white, it was made known to you. Nothing was hidden whatsoever. When you sign up for an account on iRegs "I have read, understood, and agree to the full terms and conditions." with TWO links.. "ACCEPT" and "DECLINE", one of which you must click on to continue. Which, obviously, by being able to create an account, you DID click on the link that said "accept". Why did you say "I have read, understood, and agree to the FULL terms and conditions" if you didn't read them?

Both my domains' NS were set to sedoparking.com, but iRegs people changed them back to their servers TWICE. I figured it out later that they might felt it too risky to charge me for "hosting services" while my domains were parked elsewhere. And that was why they also managed to keep me from logging in my account. I don't call them thieves for nothing.

Actually Best Buy got in some hot water for exactly this because their cashiers were verbally telling customers that they wouldn't be charged. These "free" gimmicks are the biggest scam-by-deception schemes around.

I've read through some of these discount site agreements myself from previous threads in this forum and they bury the catch in paragraph 40 out of 69 paragraphs of obfuscated ramble. One should not need legal counsel for daily transactions, IMHO. The people that think up these deceptive agreements need to be run out of town with the lawyer they rode in on. </rant>.

While I'm sure many people failed to uncheck the "additional services" that were by default turned on when they signed up for the cheap deal, I was one of those who made sure to uncheck every one of them in the control panel immediately after my account was activated.

When I was shocked at why they'd suddenly billed me and sent them a support ticket demanding an explanation, I only got a reply after weeks later, after I'd posted another 2 tickets at least.

And you know what they said?

The iregistrations guy alleged that I'd NEVER cancelled those "additional services". He told me I could log into the control panel and check - the services were still "active".

At this point of time, I was fuming. I didn't have to log in again to know that they'd probably done some monkey business behind their back (or at least their system is programmed to do so?).

Basically what I'm trying to say is, immediately after I signed up, I followed the instructions given on how to "deactivate" the "additional services", and even saw a screen telling me "You have opted out (or "chosen not to subscribe to" or something - I can't remember the exact wording now cos that was close to a year ago!) of blahblah service". Then later on, it miraculously got reactivated again. Only god knows by who.

After all, I can't prove over on my end that I DID log in to the control panel at so-and-so point of time and I DID click on the additional service section and ensured that I unsubscribed from it right? And they can change THEIR records at any time to say that "look, you never did this".

Whichever way, they win.

So, yes, while they do get to trick the majority of non-TOS-reading customers the traditional way (i.e. don't read the TOS carefully and you're screwed), in which case such customers do deserve to get duped, they are also tricking the remaining TOS-reading customers in a much more despicable, underhanded way.

Edit: In any case, it wouldn't make sense for the non-TOS-reading customers to complain, cos legally they don't have a case (since the terms were stated in the TOS which they had agreed to upon payment).

It does make sense for other customers to complain, though, if they realised something else was happening behind their back which they'd never done or agreed to or whatever (like for example, a customer like me who'd ensured that she'd deactivated all the "additional services" but was still charged for them). And I think that may be the case for those customers who are reacting to what iregistrations did.

I agree with you, sherika. Maybe we people who failed to read TOS carefully don't have the full right to complain about iRegs here. But to tell the truth, I felt GOOD when charging back my money. I paid the price for my carelessness -I lost the two domain names and I had to change my credit card number. But I also punished iRegs for its creeping tricks behind my back -changing my DNS settings, not letting me log in my account..., etc. It's fair after all, wasn't it?