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Forgot to pay my domain for a year and now I have to spend £2200 ($3000) if I want to get it back

I guess this is a cautionary tale.

I was recently having issues with my Gmail account that’s tied to my Epik ( a domain registrar ) account, so when I was supposed to renew my domain, I didn’t receive any e-mails about it. When I decided to randomly check on my website, it seemed to be down. So I checked Epik and a domain that usually cost £15 a year to renew now cost £400 to renew as it was expired.

As a teenager who does not have £400 to spend on a domain, I decided to just wait until the domain fully expired and buy it for a cheaper price.

After some time, the domain fully expired and GoDaddy decided to buy it as soon as it did, and charged me £2,225 to renew the domain. I don’t understand how a price that large is justified, considering that my website gets barely any visitors and I basically only use the domain for hosting stuff. No idea how hiking prices this much is legal

kitnaht , (edited )

Sorry, but chalk this up to lesson learned. It’s almost always been this way. Domain squatters will do this all the time. In fact, some domain registrars will use you searching their site for an ‘available’ domain, and if you don’t buy it up right away – will buy it and hike the price and sit on it for years in order to lock it down, knowing you wanted it.

btw, Namecheap says Sunglocto dot com is like $10 - so just register a .com. Not through that Epik piece of shit that you used before. Legit, use Namecheap; they’ve never done me wrong and have been my registrar for more than a decade now.

hddsx ,

Time to register that domain before OP gets it…

mal3oon ,

Gohddzsx?

hddsx ,

I prefer to be called daddy. Godaddy

iAmTheTot ,

Have also had good experience using namecheap for years.

sturlabragason ,

Thirded for Namecheap.

hddsx ,

I mean, I use namecheap. I’m thinking about throwing one of my domains onto cloudfare just in case.

If you don’t like namecheap, some people have been suggesting porkbun or something.

jqubed ,
@jqubed@lemmy.world avatar

I had this happen with NameCheap. I’m not sure if they bought it or someone else, but it stayed registered with them. Whoever bought it has held it for a couple years, put up a fake website to look like they were using it, but took it down after a year when I didn’t bite on buying it. Current status shows it’s pending deletion finally for abuse or non-payment. I keep checking to see when I can nab it again.

homesweethomeMrL ,

It happens with anyone. Bots track expirations and snatch them so that they can ransom them back to you for thousands - exactly as in OPs example.

AUTO RENEW. Auto-renew. Auto-renew is the way. The solution to this problem is Auto-renew.

jqubed ,
@jqubed@lemmy.world avatar

Yes, I just didn’t realize that auto-renew doesn’t work with PayPal on NameCheap and had lazily set it up with PayPal when I got it because I didn’t want to go get my wallet. Lesson learned!

gofsckyourself ,

Namecheap is alright, but Cloudflare only charges at cost with no markup.

something_random_tho ,

Then they make you use them for DNS. May or may not be a big deal, but the reason it’s at cost is to act as a loss leader to get you exposed to and buying their other products.

gofsckyourself ,

Their free services are extremely useful and you can’t find that anywhere else. I’ve used them for years with hundreds of domains and never paid them a single dime.

explore_broaden ,

Yeah this is why I don’t use cloudflare, I have my domains on porkbun.

lemmyvore ,

Namecheap has extra rules if you want to use an API (minimum money spent with them, minimum of domains managed with them etc.) — GoDaddy style.

Keep that in mind, if you need an API (for DDNS or for obtaining wildcard TLS certificates) you’ll have to use a separate service for DNS.

chiisana ,
@chiisana@lemmy.chiisana.net avatar

You really should have separate services for registration, DNS and hosting. That way you’re not held hostage by a single provider.

kitnaht , (edited )

DDNS with Namecheap is as simple as hitting a URL with a /GET request from the IP you want it to point to. No limitations. No special requirements.

morriscox ,

So search for a lot of domains at random to cost them some money?

kitnaht ,

Absolutely. But I think it might be more advanced than that. They might have some sort of analytics that measures how long people stay on the page, etc to inform their purchasing decisions.

Cornpop ,

That’s a horrible domain name anyways. .xyz is trash, the name itself is long, hard to pronounce and sounds like gibberish. Time for an upgrade.

LunarLoony ,
@LunarLoony@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

That’s the second time I’ve seen someone cast xyz in a negative light. What’s wrong with it? (Genuine question, in case it needs saying)

NateNate60 ,

It’s just a hallmark of “I bought the cheapest domain name TLD available”.

That’s not necessarily bad if all you need is something to get the job done, but there is a stereotype associated with it.

crank0271 ,

The Boost Mobile of gTLDs

NateNate60 ,

Nothing wrong with Boost Mobile, or any other discount telecom provider either. It’s not like the phone signals taste different lmao

twei ,

What about “The ZipoApps of gTLDs”?

LunarLoony ,
@LunarLoony@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Fair enough. I got one because it was the cheapest domain… though reading some of the other replies, I probably shouldn’t try to do anything like email with it!

funkless_eck ,

.top is cheap right now and much easier to make into a phrase

MeThisGuy ,

bottom.or.top

VonReposti ,

I simply don’t get why domain squatting is legal. On my ccTLD it is absolutely illegal meaning you have to forfeit the domain if you don’t use it anymore.

kitnaht ,

Just because you don’t have a website up at [XYZ].com doesn’t mean you’re not using it. You could have a domain controller on the back end doing file services, or you could be using it for network auth, etc. Not all .coms exist for the purpose of putting up a website.

VonReposti ,

Neither do .dk domains, but in order to determine use the courts will have to be involved. I haven’t heard about a lot of those cases, but I’d guess you can prove use against the person who wants to take the domain. If I have a domain called firstnamelastname.dk it’d be pretty easy to show that I got a mail address at [email protected] that’s in use.

TexasDrunk ,

Yep. I have one registered for professional email. I don’t host anything else.

wesker ,
@wesker@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I own 8 domains. Only one has HTTP/S ports open. The rest are for email and other services.

towerful ,

Other services will be reflected by active DNS records.

If the only DNS record points to a “Buy this domain” webpage, I think it’s fair to argue that is misuse.
Doubley so if it turns out many unrelated domains are owned by and point to the same webpage, and it’s just doing a js hostname thing to make it seem relevant to the current address

wesker ,
@wesker@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

That’s fair.

TCB13 ,
@TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

I believe most regulated ccTLDs (not the ones sold to the higher bigger) actually do that.

TCB13 ,
@TCB13@lemmy.world avatar

After some time, the domain fully expired and GoDaddy decided to buy it as soon as it did,

Oh yeah, that’s what happens when you pick scammy domain registrars. It is very possible that Epik auctioned your domain (after wall they kept it after the expiry date and payed fees) and then GoDaddy snatched it. This is what usually happens.

kautau ,

Not just scammy

Epik is an American domain registrar and web hostingcompany known for providing services to alt-tech websites that host far-right, neo-Nazi, and other extremist materials.https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/mobile-html/Epik#cite_note-1 It has been described as a “safehaven for the extreme right” because of its willingness to provide services to far-right websites that have been denied service by other Internet service providers.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epik

I’m in no way surprised at what they did, and in fact only surprised that it wasn’t them that bought the expired domain, but instead was godaddy

brbposting ,

Great to know, wouldn’t wanna be associated with someone who seems to specialize in far-right businesses.

Interesting, had to check and see: 4chan is registered with Cloudflare.

A part of me would rather these baby Hitlers operating in the open in case it’s harder for the FBI to follow them around the dark web. Downside is clearnet makes it easier for low-braincell nazis to communicate. Woulda thought we’d have socially stomped out extremism by now so doing it technologically wouldn’t be necessary…

Alas.

cygnus ,
@cygnus@lemmy.ca avatar

This happened to me years ago (the .com of my full name). I kept checking in at expiry date for 3 years and they eventually let it expire, so I bought it back for normal price.

BinaryUnit ,
@BinaryUnit@lemmy.world avatar

This ☝️it happened to me and to a close friend, if you are reselient and can wait it is possible to but it back at regular price

brbposting ,

Hopefully it’s not a common last name + a first name that suddenly became popular, could imagine it getting scooped by someone else.

femtech ,

I’m glad I don’t care about the domain name. Just something easy to remember but I can always change it and tell the fam.

hddsx ,

It’s important if you’re building a brand, or if you’re dumb like me and run your own email server

kitnaht ,

Luckily for me I don’t need many email addresses and zoho will do something like 5 for free on your domain. Do you dislike running the email server? I don’t mind all the normal day-to-day upkeep of things, but is email some special kind of hell or something?

hddsx ,

I like running my email server, because I justify it with my use cases.

If you like to spend time conversing with support about why your IP is on a blacklist, or why your email is being sent to spam (or outright rejected - I’m looking at you Microsoft), and then trying to increase your domain and IP reputations, be my guest.

Otherwise, a service is generally best

lemmyvore ,

If I ever changed my email domains I’d have to go change a lot of online accounts.

foggy ,

Hahaha. I purposely got a jibberish .xyz domain. If they ever ask for more than the $9.99 a year they can pound sand.

Perhyte ,

If you don’t mind using a gibberish .xyz domain, why not an 1.111B class? ([6-9 digits].xyz for $0.99/year)

helenslunch ,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

They don’t really care. They’re fishing for “whales”. Those who forgot to renew their domain or something but desperately need it back. Businesses, likely.

lemmyvore ,

Or people who use it for email and basically have their online identity tied to them.

ludw ,

Time to grab sungloc.to instead?

possiblylinux127 ,

You can file a complaint if they just squat on it. Godaddy is terrible

gofsckyourself ,

I’ve always wondered how well that actually works. Anyone go through this process?

lud ,

It’s legal because they bought the domain and they can charge whatever price they want if you want to buy it from them.

starshipwinepineapple ,

tldr - lesson learned. buy a new domain and move over to it.

but for those who want to learn something new - you are only renting your domains. If you fail to pay by the registration date then you generally get a grace period to pay more money to renew it. If you fail to pay before that period expires then the domain will be released. Some companies like godaddy will automatically buy the domain for another year (or more). But even if Godaddy doesn’t then it still goes up on a list of expiring domains and there are backorder services that will try to buy the domain or auction them off.

So in the end it doesn’t really matter what registrar you use. If you do not pay, it goes back to a list where people can see it is expiring and then you’ll get some people who either want to legitimately use that domain or more likely they are wanting to try to sell it to you or someone else for more than they buy it for.

And I saw someone mention file a complaint. I’m sorry to say that if you did not have money to renew the domain then you aren’t going to be able to do that either. This is called Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) and the fee is between $1500-4000 for 1 to 5 domains.. Additionally, just because you file a complaint does not mean the issue will be resolved favorably or timely. These complaints can last years, and there is no guarantee you will get the domain back.

This is why you should always pay your domain rental fee. And if you don’t, then you need to either be willing to pay a ton of money to get it back or you will need to move on. Sorry its a tough lesson to learn but if you’re just a student then you probably weren’t using this to run a business or anything so in the end you are quite fortunate.

atocci , (edited )

This was the plot to an episode of iCarly

cupcakezealot ,
@cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

if only we listened to spencer’s advice. always listen to spencer’s advice.

teuto ,

I had a squatter get mylastname.com after my dad died. After a while I guess they noticed that I registered mylastname.net and orffered to sell me mylastname.com I didn’t respond and they let it expire. I should probably register it.

atocci ,

The .com of my last name is taken by an actual business. Fine, no issue there. The .net of my last name however is being squatted on by Hover, who seems to have done the same with tons of last name domains and are selling email addresses on them in the form of [email protected]. The .org of my last name is currently redirecting to the .xyz of my last name, which looks like a family’s personal website that lists their address and phone number as a header at the top of the page.

joeldebruijn ,

Got a work related variant, a 3 letter domain we really liked was registered by a person asking a couple of hundred bucks or so. Which really was a good deal and we were more then happy to pay.

Our IT department advised guiding the transfer themselves. Instead our marketing department went ahead anyway and just agreed to “you end your subscription and after that we register it” … instead of using transfer codes.

In the minutes between, a bulk claimer snatched it away.

AlwaysTheir ,

OMG. I can’t believe the marketing department was that inept. Tragic

ikidd ,
@ikidd@lemmy.world avatar

An .xyz domain? Nothing in that TLD is worth having, xyz domains are blacklisted by half the email providers by default.

soulfirethewolf ,

My emails seemed to go through pretty well. It’s been blocked by Discord and steam. But other than that, emails seem to go through pretty well.

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