7 ms·

Knowing first hand google support I will stick to namecheap ...

Karunamon 12y ago
+1. As much as I like the idea of managing everything from one place, Google's propensity to have crap-tier support and their other propensity to drop services with little warning means I've got no desire to even try this.
- EarthLaunch 12y ago
  I hadn't considered Google's lack of commitment to their non-core services, but that's a good point. Over the years I've consolidated at Namecheap while several other providers shut down. For me, domains are a long-term service.
  - fargolime 12y ago
    I'll stick with NameCheap. All else being equal, I prefer the vendor whose core business is the service I'm seeking. They can neither drop the service nor quintuple the price (a la Google AppEngine). Same reason I use DropBox.
- markdown 12y ago
  Their support is as good as mine. If you pay me, I'll take your call at any hour. Otherwise, fuck off. I recently had an issue with Google Apps, and contacted them via email for support. I received a phone call almost immediately and the issue was resolved in minutes. I live in Fiji.
ArtDev 12y ago
Google has the worst customer support I have ever seen. I once had to transfer a domain for a client that Google had registered with Godaddy. Google blamed Godaddy and Godaddy blamed Google. What a nightmare.
- nhayden 12y ago
  Same experience, I spent probably over an hour trying to get a domain off Google where Google went through GoDaddy. Wasn't able to make it work, gave up. Tried again a year or two later and did it after maybe 45 minutes.
libria 12y ago
They normally have a complete lack of presence in terms of support options, but at least this time they list some: The Google Domains Support Team is available every day from 6am to 9pm PT. Chat with us Email us Call us Generate PIN https://domains.google.com/registrar#contactus&chp=contactus https://domains.google.com/registrar#contactus&chp=contactus
brianmartinek 12y ago
+1 Shitty Google support is the reason I won't even consider this as an option for my domains
- larrys 12y ago
  Also an issue is what ends up becoming benign neglect after the new shiny ball is no longer fun. That actually is my biggest concern. Example is google voice which is frozen in time.
  - icelancer 12y ago
    >Example is google voice which is frozen in time. No kidding. The integration with Google Hangouts has been a disaster, and me moving to iOS has made it even worse. Of course, there are no good competitors, so I'm stuck in the holding pattern just hoping some of the ridiculous issues get fixed.
    - Chevalier 12y ago
      As a long-time Google Voice user, I've been pretty happy with Hangouts integration. Texts, VoIP, cross-platform use... could still use invisibility and a (much) better set of "stickers," but I'm otherwise pretty happy with it and Google ecosystem integration. Admittedly, I'm on a Galaxy Note right now and can't attest to the iPhone experience. GVoice used to have ATROCIOUS call quality that seems to have been ameliorated by Hangouts. Calls within the US and Canada are still free, voicemail service is second to none, and I'm extremely happy with the texting integration with Hangouts. What else do we want?
      - icelancer 12y ago
        Here's a simple thing: I want to SMS a friend. I type in their name in my Hangouts OSX app. It brings up their GTalk interface. No. I want to SMS. In iOS texting or Android texting, all I need to do is search the name (obviously) to call/SMS. In Hangouts I need to know the person's number, so what I do is open the Google Voice app (which is deprecated), search their name, copy/paste their number into Hangouts, and SMS them. Ridiculous. EDIT: Also, the OSX Hangouts app crashes about every 2 hours with no error message. This is a "known issue" of varying types on Google's site, but customer service with them, well, you know how that is.
hayksaakian 12y ago
With first hand experience: - if you are paying google on an ongoing basis for something (adwords for example) they are very pro active with support. - if you are using a free product, expect 0 or less support - if you are receiving money from google, expect active hostility.
- Someone1234 12y ago
  This is partly why they should add "premium" support to the Play Store for developers. Right now their free support for their almost free developer accounts (one time $25 is "free" in this context) is just atrociously bad, and the only way to fix it is to fund more human support personnel. If I was a developer bringing in several thousand a year on the Play Store, I'd happily shell out $99/year for better support. I imagine I am not alone in that.
  - fatihpense 12y ago
    I agree. Both devs and Google earn money from Play Store& Admob. Right now with their intelligent algorithms, Google behaves as only devs are earning something.
  - hrjet 12y ago
    > If I was a developer bringing in several thousand a year on the Play Store ... you would be automatically paying Google with $300 for every thousand of sales. $99 would be redundant.
- 27182818284 12y ago
  This has been very much my experience. With paid products I had a Google representative actually on the phone and then following up after to make sure I was set. That payment part is key, and not unexpected given the HUGE number of unpaid people using their service.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
charlesdm 12y ago
I've been using Namecheap consistently for more than 8 years, in combination with Gandi. Never had any issues. Recently, I had to contact support for a failed payment (obscure domain extension, some address verification error), and the experience was great. I got it fixed in less than 5 minutes by contacting their live support. Will keep using them. Their name doesn't do them justice, they are an A player in the domain space.
- mindcrime 12y ago
  I have limited experience with Namemcheap, but my most recent experience was not exactly a positive one. Backstory: I have five .io domains, three that I registered with Gandi, and two with Namecheap. When the expiration period for the Gandi ones was coming up, I got an email saying "the domains expire on xx/xx/xxxx, renew by then if you want them to stay active. If you don't renew, you can renew then any time up to 90 days after the expiration date". As it happens, I let the three with Gandi expire, and then logged into their dashboard, renewed them about 60 days after the expiration date, end of story. Compare: I accidentally let the two I had registered with Namecheap expire. "OK" I figured, "not a big deal, they probably have some kind of grace period as well." No. I got an email saying "these domains expired and you cannot renew them through your Namecheap account. You can contact support and they might be able to help you renew them." So, I contact support and they write back and say "we'll try, but it's going to cost $XXX.XX (somewhere around $250, if memory serves) to renew". OK, to be fair, I did let the domains expire, so I guess I deserve what I get. But the experience renewing an expired domain with Gandi was so much better than what it was with Namecheap, that I've basically written Namecheap off as a registrar to use in the future.
  - venomsnake 12y ago
    Question - were the namecheap domains *.eu ?
    - mindcrime 12y ago
      No, all the domains in question were .io. The first few .io domains I registered, I used Gandi, then I thought I might switch to namecheap since they were, well, cheaper. Now, I think I'll stick to Gandi.
MichaelApproved 12y ago
I like everything about namecheap, except the name. I hate having to mention their company name to a customer who I'm managing the domain for. It sounds like I'm using a discount service from the bottom of the barrel when that's really not how the company operates. It would be nice if I could refer to a parent company with a more appealing name.
- gesman 12y ago
  I actually agree re:name, but besides that - everything else seems to be pretty solid with namecheap.
- gtaylor 12y ago
  Maybe they could rename to Nameaffordable. Amusingly enough, Googling for "nameaffordable" does, in fact, show Namecheap (for me): http://i.imgur.com/BCV8aXG.png http://i.imgur.com/BCV8aXG.png I've been using Namecheap for a few years, and have (for the most part) been pretty happy. Their SSL certificate service is super clunky, but the domain stuff is decent.
- Someone1234 12y ago
  Funny you should mention that. At my previous employer I needed to buy some domains and our current registrar was simply horrifyingly terrible (like $30 per sub-domain, yes you read that right: sub-domain. Bad support. Payment issues. Their website had issues in general) so when they asked me for alternatives I gave them NameCheap, and the biggest sticking point was the name (and how it didn't sound professional). We did eventually go with NameCheap and had no issues. But the name definitely does them more harm than good for business users.
  - torbit 12y ago
    godaddy sounds worse. They even sexualize their commercials.
    - adventured 12y ago
      It is fascinating that people look past that, it's far worse than Name+Cheap. I imagine it's due to the very large brand recognition they now possess. When Google first launched and I tried referring friends to use it, as a superior search service to AltaVista et al., friends would give me a look of "what the hell?" due to the name. Back then it wasn't uncommon to see media stories referencing Google's childish / baby sounding name, and how it was a ridiculous name for a service, and that the logo made it come across even worse.
tedchs 12y ago
Google Domains includes phone support.
rschapman 12y ago
My experience with namecheap has been considerably different. Their website for managing my domains never seems to work right and 2 factor auth seems to barely work sometimes. I'm looking forward to moving away from namecheap if it means a better management interface experience.

+1. As much as I like the idea of managing everything from one place, Google's propensity to have crap-tier support and their other propensity to drop services with little warning means I've got no desire to even try this.

EarthLaunch 12y ago
I hadn't considered Google's lack of commitment to their non-core services, but that's a good point. Over the years I've consolidated at Namecheap while several other providers shut down. For me, domains are a long-term service.
- fargolime 12y ago
  I'll stick with NameCheap. All else being equal, I prefer the vendor whose core business is the service I'm seeking. They can neither drop the service nor quintuple the price (a la Google AppEngine). Same reason I use DropBox.
markdown 12y ago
Their support is as good as mine. If you pay me, I'll take your call at any hour. Otherwise, fuck off. I recently had an issue with Google Apps, and contacted them via email for support. I received a phone call almost immediately and the issue was resolved in minutes. I live in Fiji.

ArtDev 12y ago

Google has the worst customer support I have ever seen. I once had to transfer a domain for a client that Google had registered with Godaddy. Google blamed Godaddy and Godaddy blamed Google. What a nightmare.

nhayden 12y ago
Same experience, I spent probably over an hour trying to get a domain off Google where Google went through GoDaddy. Wasn't able to make it work, gave up. Tried again a year or two later and did it after maybe 45 minutes.

libria 12y ago

They normally have a complete lack of presence in terms of support options, but at least this time they list some: The Google Domains Support Team is available every day from 6am to 9pm PT. Chat with us Email us Call us Generate PIN https://domains.google.com/registrar#contactus&chp=contactus https://domains.google.com/registrar#contactus&chp=contactus

brianmartinek 12y ago

+1 Shitty Google support is the reason I won't even consider this as an option for my domains

larrys 12y ago
Also an issue is what ends up becoming benign neglect after the new shiny ball is no longer fun. That actually is my biggest concern. Example is google voice which is frozen in time.
- icelancer 12y ago
  >Example is google voice which is frozen in time. No kidding. The integration with Google Hangouts has been a disaster, and me moving to iOS has made it even worse. Of course, there are no good competitors, so I'm stuck in the holding pattern just hoping some of the ridiculous issues get fixed.
  - Chevalier 12y ago
    As a long-time Google Voice user, I've been pretty happy with Hangouts integration. Texts, VoIP, cross-platform use... could still use invisibility and a (much) better set of "stickers," but I'm otherwise pretty happy with it and Google ecosystem integration. Admittedly, I'm on a Galaxy Note right now and can't attest to the iPhone experience. GVoice used to have ATROCIOUS call quality that seems to have been ameliorated by Hangouts. Calls within the US and Canada are still free, voicemail service is second to none, and I'm extremely happy with the texting integration with Hangouts. What else do we want?
    - icelancer 12y ago
      Here's a simple thing: I want to SMS a friend. I type in their name in my Hangouts OSX app. It brings up their GTalk interface. No. I want to SMS. In iOS texting or Android texting, all I need to do is search the name (obviously) to call/SMS. In Hangouts I need to know the person's number, so what I do is open the Google Voice app (which is deprecated), search their name, copy/paste their number into Hangouts, and SMS them. Ridiculous. EDIT: Also, the OSX Hangouts app crashes about every 2 hours with no error message. This is a "known issue" of varying types on Google's site, but customer service with them, well, you know how that is.

hayksaakian 12y ago

With first hand experience: - if you are paying google on an ongoing basis for something (adwords for example) they are very pro active with support. - if you are using a free product, expect 0 or less support - if you are receiving money from google, expect active hostility.

Someone1234 12y ago
This is partly why they should add "premium" support to the Play Store for developers. Right now their free support for their almost free developer accounts (one time $25 is "free" in this context) is just atrociously bad, and the only way to fix it is to fund more human support personnel. If I was a developer bringing in several thousand a year on the Play Store, I'd happily shell out $99/year for better support. I imagine I am not alone in that.
- fatihpense 12y ago
  I agree. Both devs and Google earn money from Play Store& Admob. Right now with their intelligent algorithms, Google behaves as only devs are earning something.
- hrjet 12y ago
  > If I was a developer bringing in several thousand a year on the Play Store ... you would be automatically paying Google with $300 for every thousand of sales. $99 would be redundant.
27182818284 12y ago
This has been very much my experience. With paid products I had a Google representative actually on the phone and then following up after to make sure I was set. That payment part is key, and not unexpected given the HUGE number of unpaid people using their service.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

charlesdm 12y ago

I've been using Namecheap consistently for more than 8 years, in combination with Gandi. Never had any issues. Recently, I had to contact support for a failed payment (obscure domain extension, some address verification error), and the experience was great. I got it fixed in less than 5 minutes by contacting their live support. Will keep using them. Their name doesn't do them justice, they are an A player in the domain space.

mindcrime 12y ago
I have limited experience with Namemcheap, but my most recent experience was not exactly a positive one. Backstory: I have five .io domains, three that I registered with Gandi, and two with Namecheap. When the expiration period for the Gandi ones was coming up, I got an email saying "the domains expire on xx/xx/xxxx, renew by then if you want them to stay active. If you don't renew, you can renew then any time up to 90 days after the expiration date". As it happens, I let the three with Gandi expire, and then logged into their dashboard, renewed them about 60 days after the expiration date, end of story. Compare: I accidentally let the two I had registered with Namecheap expire. "OK" I figured, "not a big deal, they probably have some kind of grace period as well." No. I got an email saying "these domains expired and you cannot renew them through your Namecheap account. You can contact support and they might be able to help you renew them." So, I contact support and they write back and say "we'll try, but it's going to cost $XXX.XX (somewhere around $250, if memory serves) to renew". OK, to be fair, I did let the domains expire, so I guess I deserve what I get. But the experience renewing an expired domain with Gandi was so much better than what it was with Namecheap, that I've basically written Namecheap off as a registrar to use in the future.
- venomsnake 12y ago
  Question - were the namecheap domains *.eu ?
  - mindcrime 12y ago
    No, all the domains in question were .io. The first few .io domains I registered, I used Gandi, then I thought I might switch to namecheap since they were, well, cheaper. Now, I think I'll stick to Gandi.

MichaelApproved 12y ago

I like everything about namecheap, except the name. I hate having to mention their company name to a customer who I'm managing the domain for. It sounds like I'm using a discount service from the bottom of the barrel when that's really not how the company operates. It would be nice if I could refer to a parent company with a more appealing name.

gesman 12y ago
I actually agree re:name, but besides that - everything else seems to be pretty solid with namecheap.
gtaylor 12y ago
Maybe they could rename to Nameaffordable. Amusingly enough, Googling for "nameaffordable" does, in fact, show Namecheap (for me): http://i.imgur.com/BCV8aXG.png http://i.imgur.com/BCV8aXG.png I've been using Namecheap for a few years, and have (for the most part) been pretty happy. Their SSL certificate service is super clunky, but the domain stuff is decent.
Someone1234 12y ago
Funny you should mention that. At my previous employer I needed to buy some domains and our current registrar was simply horrifyingly terrible (like $30 per sub-domain, yes you read that right: sub-domain. Bad support. Payment issues. Their website had issues in general) so when they asked me for alternatives I gave them NameCheap, and the biggest sticking point was the name (and how it didn't sound professional). We did eventually go with NameCheap and had no issues. But the name definitely does them more harm than good for business users.
- torbit 12y ago
  godaddy sounds worse. They even sexualize their commercials.
  - adventured 12y ago
    It is fascinating that people look past that, it's far worse than Name+Cheap. I imagine it's due to the very large brand recognition they now possess. When Google first launched and I tried referring friends to use it, as a superior search service to AltaVista et al., friends would give me a look of "what the hell?" due to the name. Back then it wasn't uncommon to see media stories referencing Google's childish / baby sounding name, and how it was a ridiculous name for a service, and that the logo made it come across even worse.

tedchs 12y ago

Google Domains includes phone support.

rschapman 12y ago

My experience with namecheap has been considerably different. Their website for managing my domains never seems to work right and 2 factor auth seems to barely work sometimes. I'm looking forward to moving away from namecheap if it means a better management interface experience.