8 ms·

Ask HN: Namecheap jacked up the price on a domain name, can you explain?

• KomoD 4y ago
  Sounds like it's a premium domain or it's being sold through their marketplace
• xsc 4y ago
  What tld? It’s likely premium but they don’t get that info back until they call into the registry. Comparing prices between registrars is good practice as well.
  • n42 4y ago
    the TLD was "ID"; this was my guess but I was surprised they would quote me anything without checking the registry first
• groffee 4y ago
  Not saying this is what happened but if you search for a domain multiple times, then sometimes the service you're using will register it instead of you, then try to sell it to you at a jacked up price. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2326790 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2326790 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_front_running https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_front_running
  • quickthrower2 4y ago
    It would be fun to spam domain searches to cause them to register a bunch of shitty domains they can’t sell.
    • koolba 4y ago
      That doesn’t work because they don’t pay anything. They get to “taste” ownership of the domain for free.
      • quickthrower2 4y ago
        Ok, at least there must be limits, so it would act as a diluter and possibly make it uneconomic.
  • api 4y ago
    GoDaddy was once notorious for this. Don’t know if they still are.
    • simplotek 4y ago
      GoDaddy to me is synonym for actively sabotaging their customer's interests.
  • PedroBatista 4y ago
    Oh yeah, and you don't need to search it many times. Do the window shopping a couple times and "someone" will get the domain right away.
    • tennisflyi 4y ago
      I always search for my desired domain with the .wtf TLD and then browse to see if .media/.io/.dev is available.
      • egberts1 4y ago
        This is an excellent anti-pattern strategy to adopt when searching for a new but premium domain. No sense tripping up all the gTLD and registars’ mousetraps of shady jacked-up pricing scheme.
• tyingq 4y ago
  Not saying they are doing this, but what you're describing used to happen with shady registrars. It was called "domain tasting"[1] where there was a loophole path for registrars to squat a domain for a short period of time. That allowed them to dynamically sense interest in a domain, squat it, and mark up the price. I'd be very surprised if a big name like Namecheap were doing that today though. Probably just a coincidence that someone else bought it while you were deciding. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_tasting https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_tasting
  • roundandround 4y ago
    > I'd be very surprised if a big name like Namecheap were doing that today though. The risks with getting caught doing that intentionally are very high, but preventing any employee with access to lookup information, email addresses, etc, from selling it has been a very hard problem that most large names have admitted to failing at a few times.
• joshxyz 4y ago
  Namecheap is now a shit company to do business with. Also had the same experience, I even complained to their customer support about it. The cheap price is already in my cart then when i try to pay it, it doesnt proceed. Keep in mind this happened to me already over the course of many years, just as what other users have experienced.
  • not_your_mentat 4y ago
    Who do you use as a registrar and why did you choose them?
• jszymborski 4y ago
  If I had to guess, I'd probably say the XHR call that tells them when a domain is a premium domain wasn't resolving. Also kinda helps explain it not being in your cart.
• corobo 4y ago
  Sounds like a premium domain that they didn't know was premium until they checked the price for real rather than it being the standard tld price, at which time it cached and started showing the real price Guessing you tried to register a dictionary word on one of the new tlds? Been got by it too "Ah. That would be why this gem of a domain was still available"
• tmikaeld 4y ago
  I don't think this is malicious, registrars often have to use third party top domains like for example .tech which reserves common words as premium domains, but you are unable to see the price until you make a request for buying it. So in this case, Namecheap would show the default price, but when it tries to process it, they would receive the premium domain price - thus, since it's no long matching the cart price, they have to update it to reflect the actual price. I'm sure they could do this more informatively though, but they're not alone in not doing that..
• satoshiiii 4y ago
  When I asked why NameCHEAP still used their name, despite no longer being cheap, I was downvoted. It seemed as if I was implying that I could buy apples from Apple. Ironically, some people have been referring to OpenAI as ClosedAI lately. BTW, I am a Namecheap customer for 20 years now :D
  • hombre_fatal 4y ago
    Well, those people are right. Burger King isn’t a monarch either. It’s a boring complaint, and people are trying to a disabuse you of the idea that it’s not.
    • satoshiiii 4y ago
      Yeah but there is NameSilo selling cheaper domain names, almost half the price.
      • zhte415 4y ago
        When did Burger King start selling domain names, and does NameSilo handle trademarks?
    • simplotek 4y ago
      > It’s a boring complaint I disagree. If a company portrays itself explicitly or implicitly as offering low prices them it's more than fair when they jack up prices. Namecheap's own description is "Buy cheap domain names and enjoy 24/7 support." I do not understand why people feel the need to play the role of a corporate white knight and do their best to shield them from any criticism.
      • hombre_fatal 4y ago
        It's a response to people sperging out over silly things which isn't more acceptable just because it's a tech forum. FWIW, "quit whiteknighting for the megacorps", when someone rejects a comment that happens to slight a corporation, is just as tired as their complaint no matter how effective "down with teh corporations!1" is on social media. That makes as much sense as accusing someone of whiteknighting just because they happen to defend a female politician or whoever.
• MagicMoonlight 4y ago
  They don’t check whether it is available until the last second. They take it even further than this too, they’ll literally charge your card for a domain they haven’t even checked is available. Then they refund you after. It’s ridiculous.
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• mattbgates 4y ago
  I saw a premium domain listed for sale at $60 and went to grab it.. and when I tried to add it, it wouldn't let me. I emailed them and they said it was already taken. So why advertise a domain that is already taken? Definitely annoying.
• not_your_mentat 4y ago
  I stopped using GoDaddy because it seemed like they would squat the domains I'd search for, find, not buy immediately, and then come back to buy a day or two later. Maybe there's some innocent explanation of the behavior, but as a consumer the experience sure felt malicious. I wound up switching to NameCheap after that. It would be such a bummer if my brain wasn't just finding patterns that didn't really exist in the noise of consumerism and NameCheap started taking on dark patterns like this. Vetting and switching registrars is a headache.
• AntLoveSoda 4y ago
  FWIW, I had TERRIBLE experience with Namecheap. Somehow, they managed to mangle the email address attached to my account, and went into a "prove my identity" situation. Yet I couldn't, since the email on file isn't what I used (pro tip: yes, it was). After a run around with support, I switched to another provider. What's silly is the domains were for my own use only (some VPS servers). I frankly would never recommend Namecheap. Despite their popularity, they're terrible in my experience.
  • not_your_mentat 4y ago
    What did you witch to and why?
• Jarzis_Hossain 4y ago
  I want a free sub-domain name. Can anyone help me? pls
  • not_your_mentat 4y ago
    Buy a domain, add CNAME records to your heart's delight. :D