I just received a message from customer service! Only it's 3 month's old. Really, that's how long it took to get a reply to an email support ticket. 3 months! And that's an improvement, at least they are answering support questions now... not very well, but it's a start.

My experience with domain registration: I host websites and registering domain names is part of the job. There was only one place to go for registration until the monopoly was broken about 1 1/2 years ago. As soon as I could, I tried other registrars, a little at a time. Prices slowly came down, but cost isn't always a factor. Customer service always is a factor though.

I've registered a few domains at Register.com, and have had to deal with them for my customers. It can sometimes be a nightmare to get anything done. Yes, the web interface is easy, as are most registrars, but it doesn't always work. Glitches in the systems I guess. Growing pains. Who knows. But it's unacceptable when there are tons of alternatives.

I mention deceptive tactics above as a con. Let me explain. One tactic is to send an invoice for the renewal of your domain... even if it's not registered with them! It looks like it's valid, and you remember that it's probably time to renew, but the fine print says that you are authorizing them to transfer the domain to their service. What does that mean? Well, if you had registered with someone like TuCows or any of the other registrars, and you were very happy with them, you would be leaving them to go to Register.com, all because you thought you had to renew by answering their deceptive mail. (there's probably a law against it, and I don't know if they stopped this practice, but it happened.... very bad).

Other 'deception' might also be seen as bad user interface (but I think the design is deliberate)
I use another registrar for most of mine and my customers domains. When I get a new customer that needs their domain renewed, I transfer the domain over to my current registrar. (This makes it easier to manage multiple domains.) The transfer process goes something like this: 1. Request transfer, 2)new registrar sends a special code to admin of domain at old registrar, 3)admin returns code to new registrar as proof of ownership, 4) new registrar contacts old registrar asking for the domain, 5)old registrar then sends their own email to admin to confirm the transfer. If all goes smoothly, this all takes about a week.

Register.com, however, when in the role of 'old registrar' sends a deceptive confirmation email. First, the email says "Confirmation of transfer". The email is very long and wordy (and we know how people don't read instructions) :) [they probably don't read long reviews either, so I should wrap it up]

Deep in the confirmation email from Register.com is says that the purpose of the email is not to confirm, but to tell you to go to a website to confirm. And they put a long url that you are supposed to click on to go to the website and jump through hoops. But wait... those who know about links in emails know that AOLers can't just click on a link in their email. No, they must either type in the long URL or copy/paste. so they don't make it that easy, and they should know better.

OK, now, we are on the website to confirm the transfer. It should be a simple click of a button, but you actually end up having to go through 2 or 3 pages of confirmations (clicking on 'confirm' on each page) before it will finally confirm. The old "confirm the previous confirmation" and this page will "confirm the confirmation of the previous confirmation of the confirmation of the original confirmation". If you don't read everything carefully, you can easily get mixed up. And if you mess it up, you've got to go through the whole process again. What should take a week can sometimes take a month.

Another deceptive ploy... just remembered. They were sending out the confimation emails Friday afternoon, and the emails said that they had to be confirmed within 48 hours. How convenient, with most businesses perhaps not checking their email over the weekend. By the time they get around to reading their emails Monday morning, the confirmation has already 'expired'.

I tried calling customer support and couldn't get through for a few days. I'd get the 'due to heavy call volume, we are unable to take your call, please call back later'. I finally got through to the phone cue and waited over an hour to tell them of the problems we were having. They claimed 'growing pains'.

And, no joke, and support ticket that I put in for one domain was answered 3 months later. That would be unacceptable even if they were a free service, but they also happen to be one of the more expensive ones.

Steer clear.


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