I've been robbed by iRegistrations.com

Could somebody please tell me who has the jurisdiction to stop and punish iRegistrations?

I registered two $5.95 domains with iRegistrations.com, one .com(5/23) and one .org(6/3), and brought myself a nightmare. I didn't find it until 9/20 that iRegistrations had billed my credit cards for at least four times: 7/2, 7/23, 8/1, 9/20, each time for $39.98!

I filed a chargeback to each credit card bank (unfortunately, I used different cards to reg the two names), and sent an e-mail to iRegistrations.com to ask them for explanation(9/20).

There was no reply, and some days later, I found I could no longer login both my domain accounts at iRegistrations.com, and when I checked the WHOIS, I was surprised to find that iRegistrations had taken the .com domain back, the registrar was eNom (!!), and 'iRegistrations Credit Control' became the registrant, as for the .org, it simply turned out 'no match'.

To put everything together, I found that if you change the name servers and cancel the hosting service of your domain name with iRegistrations, they would change them back later and when you try to login the domain account again, you would receive an error mwssage. If you contact them for the problem like I did, they would reply in a week or so, telling you "It works perfectly to me." You would try again, and it works, so you modify the NS and hosting options again, and this is beyond their toleraance, they decide to punish such a stubbon coustomer, and the domain name would be locked and go to iRegistrations Credit Control, thus months after you registered it, you are no longer the legal owner of the domain name.

In the meantime, they would still keep billing your credit card, once a month, $19.99 each domain name, including those they have taken away from you. If you try to contact them via e-mails, you can only do it on their website, and there would be no reply nor any records.

The most ironic thing is, when I tried to reg my third domain names with iRregistrations earlier, they wouldn't take my credit card, for it's issued in Taiwan! But later when they were stealing from me, it never bothered them at all.

I have submitted an InterNIC Registrar Problem Report, and reported it to the ACCC, please tell me what else can I do now?



And for the .ORG:

Hey, those guys are in the same city as me.

Have you charged back all of the payments? If you have then you really have never paid for the domain. But there is no way they should keep charging you for the domain and charge you that much in the first place.

What you have done thus far is about all you can do. The ACCC are there to investigate things like this and about the only people you are able to deal with.

The banks haven't got back to me yet, and even if I do have my money back, don't forget that I still paid for the registration fees, I'm just taking back the money which they billed me for no reason.

JFYR, they are now selling this cash cow on eBay UK.

I've had a similar experince to you, imp, with iRegistrations. There is a lot of complaints on the internet about them, according to the Google search i did.

I did get a reply from Peter Jacobs when I emailed URL, but he was very curt, telling me that all the charges were clearly explained during the signup process!

Other people I have read about have continued to have their credit cards debited even after they turned off the options for web hosting in their account!

So i have cancelled the credit card that i used to make the iregistration purchases - it's the only way you can be sure you wont get any more charges. I expect they'll steal back my domain names now, the way they did yours - as it has happened to others too. I don't know what to do about this, but if anyone has any ideas (like some sort of class action for instance) please post them here!

I have done every single thing I can to stop them, I reported to InterNIC, ACCC, even eNom (iRegistrations is an eNom reseller, and all eNom did was forwarding my e-mail to iRegistrations!), and posted on every forum I knew.

I have also changed my credit card number, and charged back every payment they stole from me. I don't care losing my domain names, and would be more than happy to see iRegistrations goes out of the business.

I agree. Having read about others who are in the same boat as you and I with this mob, something needs to be done! I hope we can get our money charged back via the bank, but since there was 'fine print' that technically allowed iRegistrations to steal money from our credit cards I'm not all that hopeful.

I'd like to take back what I wrote previously, as since then I have had a reply from iRegistrations saying that since I had not used the Search Engine Submission facility or the Hosting facility, they would credit the $39.98 back to my credit card account - and they have now done this. Thanks!

I, too, have had problems with iregistrations. First, my domain never got propagated to their name servers. Whois says I registered it but that it is not transferable (probably not during the first 60 days). I enabled the free 30 days of web hosting but was never able to get it working, even by ip address. I was able to login and use their control panel (which is extensive) and I was able to upload files, but when I tried to load a page, it never worked.

I have written to them 3 times asking for info and have only gotten automatic responses saying "we will get back to shortly." I canceled the free hosting well within my 30 days and dread to see what will happen on 19Nov when the hosting charge is due to appear if I hadn't canceled.

I'm hoping for the best, but when I try to go to the site today, it says "The connection was refused when attempting to contact URL" Hope this doesn't mean they've taken the money and run!

Hi all.
I have the same problem of you. I bought 2 domains 6 months ago with I registration.com. After the first month I saw in my credit card online check, they take 38$ for their nice extra service (never used). With Visa I had this money back in 1week, and never ask them somethings. Then I try to transfer away domains and what appends ? Nothing it's 2 months I ask for the biz domains code...with no answer. Anyone can tell me any suggestion ?
Thx for your time.
Best personal regards.
Umberto

ops I forgot: I cant login into control panel since some days too.But forward of domain still works

Change your credit card number, as the domain names, I doubt iRegistrations would ever give them back to you. Check the WHOIS and see if you are still the owner of the two domain names.

you are damm right. They change the owner of the 2 domains . Merda. Ok thx a lot for your information. I 'm checking also the credit card..but for now is all ok. Anyone can tell me what I can do against them ?
Thx for any help
Regards

umbertoitaly, have you written an email to Peter Jacobs, who owns and runs iRegistrations.com?

You can write to URL or URL

Because if you simply had your your credit card transaction(s) reversed without explanation then of course they will take back ownership of your domains until you pay what you owe them by some other means.

Unless you log into each of your accounts and turn off the Hosting and Search Engine Submission options within the first 30 days, iRegistrations are legally allowed to debit your credit card each month. That's what their fine print says. It may not be ethical - but it is there in (albeit very small) black & white.

If you can no longer log into your accounts to do this, write an email explaining your situation and asking nicely if they wouldn't mind refunding any amounts paid and cancelling those extra services, since you did not understand the conditions when you signed up and have not used the extra services. This worked for me.

It's always more effective to write nice (but firm) emails rather than angry ones. (It may also be to your advantage to explain that since English is not your first language - and please forgive the assumption here, in case I am wrong - that you did not understand the terms.)

Apart from that, do change your credit card number as well if you are at all concerned that their system may continue to debit your card account each month - others have reported that this conrtinued to happen even after the exta services were cancelled - so better to be on the safe side and cancel that card.

Hawkish was right, I had to changed two of my credit cards to stop them.

According to my own experiences, iRegistrations wouldn't let you log in your account anytime you want, even if you don't owe them a cent. It's a trick to keep their customers from changing the settings or finding out what has happened. You would have to write to them and one week later, they would reply and tell you there's nothing wrong with their system, so you try again, and surprisingly find that you can log in again.

I doubt iRegistrations would have one single happy customer.

Hi Hawkish thx for your good support. I want to explain my trouble better. I bought 2 domains. Tried to buy them with same credit card and give me error. So I used 2 different. Then I can manage all info and setting. Then I asked them if I can transfer them other domains (I have about 30 .com domains) and they said not yet. The credit card I used finished to be valid in jun 03 - I find the renew of free service with my "new" credit card. (I was able to disable all free service after this first trouble). So they dont ask me as many other internet company to give them the new credit card number and date , but they take money without my permission. I agree with you when you say I have to disable "free service", but due to my connection I 'm not sure to recieve the whole terms and condition when I sign the contract. I mean I dont know if there are 10 pages to read or 3 of term and condition, how I know it (I hope you understand) . So my lucky is that the 2 domains are for myself and not for some customer of mine (like the other 30). I will wait for 1 year and then I will buy them again from someother place..This is in my opinion, a principle issue and not more. I give you 6 $ I 'm the owener of domain. Stop - I spoke with my credit card company and they give me back the free service money 39 $ because I explain them the trouble. But I want that iregistration stop to sell domain. I want that no one will buy something from them.
I wrote to nic.biz - I will write to icann.org I dont want trouble for other people. They take some money from me...but my visa company take back money from them (and this is the reason why I cant login because credit card say stop ) but if they take some money to 10,000 people this is a thieft.
I hope to be clear also if my english is not so good.
Maybe we can send a big email with all name and all domain with this information so Iregistrations will loose money and customers. I dont thik I will stop this "games" until I can take my domain (it's my surname !).
So if someone want to share trouble and go ahead please let me know. Write here and we can search the right way to stop this company.
Ciao all.
Umberto

ps. I recieve the first answer from nic.biz. I will go on with them, maybe they can stop Iregistration to sell biz domain