33 replies to this topic

[NapisaurusRex]

Ok, so I'm so mad I'm basically purple.
 
Saturday I decided to work on making a blog, like I've been nattering about for years. Picked a service, everything is fine til we get to payment. They declined both of my cards even though they had more than enough money on them. Whatever, found a different service that's slightly more expensive and set everything up. Site #1 decided (6 hours later) to go ahead and put me on a totally different plan than the one I wanted ($10/month instead of $3) and charge me anyway. Obviously, I'm like what the fuck and open a ticket.
 
Me: "Hello,

I just received an invoice saying you're billing me for 24.90. I don't understand why, since the thing I was trying to purchase cost way more than that, and also you said my card was declined."
 
Them: "Jessica,

Thank you for contacting us we will be happy to assist you.

Typically all of our accounts are pre paid for the entire term and you are correct, for whatever reason the card did not go through on the higher amount.

We know you want to be successful so we went ahead and got you the month to month rate instead. The monthly rate is $9.95 and domain registration is 14.95 per year,

An online school like Jeremy's would cost well over $1000 when you factor in tuition and books and it wouldn't provide you with all the money making tools that you now have. Your account is very special, because typically the only accounts that have those benefits are prepaid for two years. 

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Thank you,
David
Steady Cloud
 
Me: No, thank you. I would like you to reverse that charge and cancel whatever plan it is you've put me on. I will not be using your services for my website. You didn't decline just one payment, you declined both of my cards, no matter which payment options I chose. You do not get to decide how my money is spent after refusing my payment.
 
(Two days later...)
 
Me:I was wondering what progress has been made on this and why I can't delete my card information from my account.
 
Them:
Jessica,

We are sorry that the service did not work out for you.

Cancellations are processed in the order that they are received.

Please note domain registration is non refundable and unfortunately if you cancel now an early termination fee will be applied.

Please wait while we forward this ticket to the cancellation queue. Please allow 48 hours for us to process the request.

You will receive a confirmation once the process is complete.

Thank you.
Steady Cloud
 
 
 
So obviously, I'm pissed. Walmart doesn't decide to charge you for a gallon of milk 6 hours after declining a pint of milk. I don't understand why I'm having an early termination fee for something I didn't go into. Or a domain registration for a domain that's already been registered, for that matter. What questions do I need to ask now? What should I do at this point? How many times can different companies register a domain? Thanks.

[Cass]

Isn't there some kind of legal action you can take? Obviously they have those fees covered in their terms and conditions but you didn't consent to those, since your cards were declined.

[Daria]

Don't you need to accept some terms and conditions before your payment goes through?! What right do they have to charge you for a service you didn't even select in the first place?!
Read through all of their agreements and terms and conditions, see if you can find something that can bite them back in the ass.
Where do you live?
I know in Australia we have something called fair trading so if anyone ever fucks me over I always threaten to report them and then they just do as I say haha

[Padme]

When stuff like this happens I call my card company and they reverse the charges for me. I send them proof that my purchases were declined and stuff. If too many people complain they aren't allowed to even use certain card companies or something like that.

Also post on Reddit because bad PR forces people to do stuff so does tweeting companies if they have enough of a presence

[NapisaurusRex]

Yeah, that's part of what I'm curious about. I was under the impression that you weren't under a legally binding thing til they took money, since that's usually the place where you accept terms and conditions.

[GetJinxed]

Teorically they really can't refund a domain registration. However you can always call your bank and reverse the payment. Don't worry about anything beyond that point. You CAN'T get into legal issues over a single domain name. Plus you had your cards declined and were charged without consent so you win in this situation anyways. By the way what registrar did you use?

[NapisaurusRex]

How do I prove to the bank the charges were declined? @Padme

I'm looking at ToS and it looks like they're right to do everything they did... up until they get to the part where they're charging me fees for cancelling.

[DonValentino]

In addition to above, threaten with these:

 

https://www.ftccompl....gov/#&panel1-1

https://www.bbb.org/...int/get-started

[NapisaurusRex]

Teorically they really can't refund a domain registration. However you can always call your bank and reverse the payment. Don't worry about anything beyond that point. You CAN'T get into legal issues over a single domain name. Plus you had your cards declined and were charged without consent so you win in this situation anyways. By the way what registrar did you use?

It's not a domain registration though because they couldn't have done it, right? It's just money that they're placing under that term. Steady Cloud.

In addition to above, threaten with these:

 

https://www.ftccompl....gov/#&panel1-1

https://www.bbb.org/...int/get-started

I was mad enough when I got off work to flip shit all over the internet. I'm about to eat and calm down, but I'll torture myself tonight so I'm all gung-ho again.

[GetJinxed]

It's not a domain registration though because they couldn't have done it, right? It's just money that they're placing under that term. Steady Cloud.

 

I probably read your original post too fast. But they did meantion you can't get a refund for your domain. Which you can just call your bank to do that. If you ordered a hosting package : https://www.steadycl.../#refund-policy

 

Also if they're being stubborns about it just call your bank and get all your money back and fuck them. To register my domains i always preffer the most known ones godaddy and namecheap

[NapisaurusRex]

Someone tell me if I'm wrong please. Their ToS is along the lines of "you will pay a $20 cancellation fee for every contract over 1 month" "all contracts will be paid in full ie 3 months is due at a time under a 3 month contract" soooo if they signed me up for a month-to-month, then they can't charge that $20 cancellation fee, right?

[Padme]

How do I prove to the bank the charges were declined? @Padme
I'm looking at ToS and it looks like they're right to do everything they did... up until they get to the part where they're charging me fees for cancelling.

Sometimes you get pages where you're shown that you were declined. Sort of like when your card gets denied at an actual store and they give you a receipt to show your card wasn't charged. Technically you're supposed to save them 'just in case' this sort of BS happens. However I'd call anyway your companies should see that someone tried and failed beforehand to charge you.

Also what DV said. Contact the better business bureau and let the company know you have done so afaik.

[shrouded]

Don't even bother trying to work it out with the vendor. Go right to your issuing bank or credit company. They'll charge it back no questions ask if it's only for 30 dollars. The vendor will get fucked, but that teaches them to screw around. All they have to do is hit refund in their merchant account. Once they get a chargeback they'll get a fee and hopefully learn their lesson. Too many chargebacks and their merchant account is going to be reviewed and/or closed. Hosting companies are already high risk, so they're on thin ice or with a sketchy merchant account/gateway that costs them a fortune for chargebacks.

 

 

Moving forward register the domain with Google Domains or NameCheap. They're easily the best. The downside with Google Domains is that your host may not be capable of @yourdomain.com emails. NameCheap works fantastic. They have single click install WordPress & built in webmail servers.

Edited by shrouded, 18 May 2016 - 01:14 PM.

[NapisaurusRex]

I probably read your original post too fast. But they did meantion you can't get a refund for your domain. Which you can just call your bank to do that. If you ordered a hosting package : https://www.steadycl.../#refund-policy

 

Also if they're being stubborns about it just call your bank and get all your money back and fuck them. To register my domains i always preffer the most known ones godaddy and namecheap

I went with a better known one after lol

 

I saw that in ToS, but I didn't do it! They didn't do it! lol

[GetJinxed]

I went with a better known one after lol

 

I saw that in ToS, but I didn't do it! They didn't do it! lol

 

Call your bank and you will have your money back in no time It's the only thing you can do and it should be pretty simple. Just explain the situation and say you were charged without consent. Whatever steadycloud may charge your afterwards just ignore it they can't do shit

[Padme]

Someone tell me if I'm wrong please. Their ToS is along the lines of "you will pay a $20 cancellation fee for every contract over 1 month" "all contracts will be paid in full ie 3 months is due at a time under a 3 month contract" soooo if they signed me up for a month-to-month, then they can't charge that $20 cancellation fee, right?

Idk if I'm reading this all right but if/when they changed your terms when you opened the ticket it allowed to do this. Which seems like it's probably a scummy thing they try to do to get more money out of people since they know once you contact them you probably wanna cancel.

The whole 'we know you want to be successful' line is such typical BS a company will spout to try and manipulate buyers

[Pyro699]

Alright, I am going to stick my nose in here and give a more technical explanation of whats happened. Unfortunately i cannot side completely with you. While you used an example of purchasing a gallon of milk, think of it like going to the video store and renting a VHS (yeah, im being old school). You made the rental for 1 week, you pay the fee to rent the movie - then you decide you didnt like it. Well, you already had it for a little bit and they cannot do partial refunds. This situation is slightly similar.

When you purchase a domain from go-daddy or ican or any of the other domain providers, they are essentially acting as a middleman between you and the domain registrar for that TLD. Domains that end in .ca are owned by https://cira.ca

So it gets more complicated when you are doing this. Usually in the terms and conditions there are clauses telling you that all purchases are final. If you read the ToS of Steady Cloud ( https://www.steadycl...rms-of-service/ ) they have this in the document:

Domains:
Domain renewals are billed and renewed thirty (30) days before the renewal date. It is your responsibility to notify Steady Cloud Billing department via a support ticket created from http://support.SteadyCloud.com to cancel any domain registration at least thirty (30) days prior to the renewal date. No refunds will be given once a domain is renewed. All domain registrations and renewals are final.

You would have been purchasing the domain for immediate use, so the 30 days do not apply to you here.


I knowledge of domain registration and ownership is not top notch, but that is the information that I currently know on the situation.

As for some advice on your next steps, I am not entirely sure - from how you worded the message above it sounds like you have registered your domain successfully and ran into problems when it came to the services for actually building your blog. You can initiate a domain transfer to move the domain between services (usually costs a fee). It depends on what you want in the end from all this, I can try and help you continue and set up your blog with you - but i highly doubt you will be able to get the money back unless you file a complaint with your credit card company.

[GetJinxed]

The whole 'we know you want to be successful' line is such typical BS a company will spout to try and manipulate buyers

 

Typical sales pitch Trying to create a sense urgency

As for some advice on your next steps, I am not entirely sure - from how you worded the message above it sounds like you have registered your domain successfully and ran into problems when it came to the services for actually building your blog. You can initiate a domain transfer to move the domain between services (usually costs a fee). It depends on what you want in the end from all this, I can try and help you continue and set up your blog with you - but i highly doubt you will be able to get the money back unless you file a complaint with your credit card company.

 

The thing is you can only switch to another registrar after 60 days. I have no idea what will happen if a chargeback on the domain happens. But I think ICANN will probably lock the domain ?

[Elindoril]

Hell include the email in the dispute. "We went ahead" will not be good for them at all.

[Waser Lave]

This is exactly why all the cool kids use Geocities.

[shrouded]

Alright, I am going to stick my nose in here and give a more technical explanation of whats happened. Unfortunately i cannot side completely with you. While you used an example of purchasing a gallon of milk, think of it like going to the video store and renting a VHS (yeah, im being old school). You made the rental for 1 week, you pay the fee to rent the movie - then you decide you didnt like it. Well, you already had it for a little bit and they cannot do partial refunds. This situation is slightly similar.

When you purchase a domain from go-daddy or ican or any of the other domain providers, they are essentially acting as a middleman between you and the domain registrar for that TLD. Domains that end in .ca are owned by https://cira.ca

So it gets more complicated when you are doing this. Usually in the terms and conditions there are clauses telling you that all purchases are final. If you read the ToS of Steady Cloud ( https://www.steadycl...rms-of-service/ ) they have this in the document:

You would have been purchasing the domain for immediate use, so the 30 days do not apply to you here.


I knowledge of domain registration and ownership is not top notch, but that is the information that I currently know on the situation.

As for some advice on your next steps, I am not entirely sure - from how you worded the message above it sounds like you have registered your domain successfully and ran into problems when it came to the services for actually building your blog. You can initiate a domain transfer to move the domain between services (usually costs a fee). It depends on what you want in the end from all this, I can try and help you continue and set up your blog with you - but i highly doubt you will be able to get the money back unless you file a complaint with your credit card company.

 

Skip to this portion. It's the only way you'll get anything back. You'll win the dispute 100% of the time. Web hosting and middle-man vendors have the highest risk merchant accounts and use the most expensive gateways.

[yeahneocodex]

Best advice I can give: Complain a lot on twitter.

 

But seriously, remember to print everything you happen to do online against them,

[HiMyNameIsNick]

Fire. A lot of fire.

[Jozie]

This is exactly why all the cool kids use Geocities.

 

Is GeoCities still a thing?

 

Sorry was lurking this board. This caught me off guard. I have had a similar situation happen, bank refunded my money, filed the case under fraud, and closed my bank account and opened a new one for me at no extra cost.