Mymotech

Once upon a time I needed to register a domain. And in my innocence I decided that Godaddy was for wusses and I needed something a little more geeky to register my domains on. Enter Registerfly. They seemed pretty cool and stuff and they also had some cool discounts on domain registrations. Awesome.

Over the next year I registered some 25 domains with Registerfly, because that is how I roll. (most of them $.60 .info domains meant for a small amount of blackhat SEO burnin’ and churnin’. Strictly for educational purposes mind you.)

Of course, in the ensuing time period I’ve had to recommend a registrar to many friends, and I have always recommended Registerfly even though the internet is littered with bad reviews of their service. link link link

Well, two days ago I was finally stung by the registerfly. I needed a new domain name. It was a good one, one that someone else could swoop in at any moment and take because it was awesome. So I registered it right away. All things looked good. I received a confirmation email from Registerfly and I was stoked. We all know that DNS propogation can take a while but what was strange is that the domain that I registered was still showing as available on Godaddy and Registerfly. That was not a good sign. I emailed support, and asked why this was. I have still never received an answer. The next day the registration fee was charged to my credit card, so now I had paid for a domain and been charged but the domain was not registered. This is a bad situation to be in.
Looking for a more direct solution to my problem I initiated a Live Chat with one of their helpful support staff. To their credit I did not have to wait to terribly long to chat with Brandon. He was helpful and polite. After a long wait while he researched the issue, he came back with this.

brandon: We apologize for your inconvenience.
brandon: But we are experiencing some techncail issues with registrations from a couple of days.
brandon: Your registration order also couldn’t pass through
brandon: What I can do is that I’ll refund you for failed attempt.
brandon: and you may register it after some time.
brandon: When the issues have been resolved
mymotech: Are you able to give a timeframe for when these issues will be resolved
brandon: Im sure it will be done in the next 48 hours.
mymotech: so you are saying that I will need to wait 48 hours, then re-register the domain?
mymotech: and in the meantime you will refund my original registration?
mymotech: hello?
brandon: yes sir,

So obviously problem solved right? Well not exactly. As a result of my experience so far I was hiding from Brandon the fact that I was not going to register any more domains with Registerfly because in my mind they were now not trustworthy. I also knew that the refund would probably be applied as a credit to my Registerfly account. This was not an optimal outcome for me since I never want to use them again. I wanted them to refund my credit card.

brandon: I’ve noted down your credentials and you will be refunded in your registerfly account within next 12 hours or so
mymotech: In what form will the refund come?
brandon: It will be refunded in your registerfly QuickCheckout Account
mymotech: that is not a good option for me, what are other alternatives?
brandon: then while regsitering the domain , you may pay from your quick checkout account.
brandon: Im sorry, do you have a problem with that?
mymotech: I would prefer not to carry a balance on my registerfly account
mymotech: it confuses bookkepping
brandon: Ok I can understand that
brandon: So what I suggest is that you generate a ticket addressing 3rd Level Support
brandon: explaining your problem
brandon: because I dont have authority to refund to other than registerfly account.

Well this was a surprising turn. I decided to press the issue.

mymotech: Brandon, it would be easier for me to dispute the charge on my credit card
mymotech: While you have been polite and helpful this is not my idea of a good time
mymotech: and I am not excited about submitting another ticket
mymotech: Please summon the authority to resolve this now, I would be very thankful
brandon: Sir I can understand your problem.
brandon: But kindly try to understand mine too.\
brandon: I dont have the facility to generate ticket on your behalf
brandon: Im sure your problem will be solved
brandon: but 3rdLevel Support personnel can do that
mymotech: Brandon, I guess I am envisioning the “run around” here

So, my only recourse was to submit another email ticket, but this time calling upon the powers of 3rd level support. I was not excited. I did submit the ticket and I was even helpful enough to include the chat log with Brandon in the ticket so that when my prayer is answered the 3rd level support gods will know what I am talking about.

Conclusion: Registerfly errored badly by not registering a domain when they said they did, and charging my credit card anyway. Three separate attempts to get the issue resolved have left the status of the problem unresolved and in the meantime the domain has been registered by someone else. What an amazing series of events. In my opinion, it is without a doubt one of the worst occurrences of customer service on the net.