2-year old auto-renew, do I have to pay?

djdna

Hi all

I purchased a domain name 2 years ago from an ISP (LCN.com), and never used it. Unbeknown to me this was automatically set to auto-renew every 2 years. I have been away on holiday for 2 weeks and got back to find a £24 charge. This came off a credit card that I have already closed so not even sure how it went through.

ISP sent me an email at 16:00 saying that I had to reply by 17:30 or there was no way they could get the money back from the registrar (who actually registers the domain name). I said sorry mate, SOGA says my contract is with you not the registrar, and I want my money refunded, but they rolled out some punitive-looking terms in the contract which they claim means I can't have my money back. I think those terms are unfair (Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 perhaps?) and SOGA/distance selling means I should get my money back.

I would have just dropped it but that credit card is probably somehow reactivated now and I don't even recognise the last 4 digits :S

pcombo

thats the problem when people just click Agree to the terms and condition when placing an order.

djdna

Presumably some of your other 1,899 posts were more helpful?

somethingcorporate

You have no rights to your money back if you agreed to the auto-renew, which is exactly what pcombo was alluding to. Do you have the original T&Cs?

Just because you don't like the answer does not make it unhelpful!

DCFC79

Did you read the terms and conditions ?

halibut2209

djdna wrote: »

Presumably some of your other 1,899 posts were more helpful?

Not really

somethingcorporate wrote:

Just because you don't like the answer does not make it unhelpful!

It was unhelpful. It didn't offer any help or advice, and despite the OP not being entitled to a refund, the post didn't say that either. It was pretty much a "serves you right" response. Not helpful in the slightest.

Optimist

djdna wrote: »

Hi all

I purchased a domain name 2 years ago from an ISP (LCN.com), and never used it. Unbeknown to me this was automatically set to auto-renew every 2 years. I have been away on holiday for 2 weeks and got back to find a £24 charge. This came off a credit card that I have already closed so not even sure how it went through.

ISP sent me an email at 16:00 saying that I had to reply by 17:30 or there was no way they could get the money back from the registrar (who actually registers the domain name). I said sorry mate, SOGA says my contract is with you not the registrar, and I want my money refunded, but they rolled out some punitive-looking terms in the contract which they claim means I can't have my money back. I think those terms are unfair (Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 perhaps?) and SOGA/distance selling means I should get my money back.

I would have just dropped it but that credit card is probably somehow reactivated now and I don't even recognise the last 4 digits :S

Closed credit cards are not as closed as you think. If you have a continuous payment authority set up the the bank will still action it.

You have no rights to refund under SOGA or DSR as it is not a new service.

As to UCTA there is very little in the way of case law about Automatic Renewal in consumer contracts, however it is good practice to send a reminder and been given time to cancel.

I am not sure from your post if that happened or it happened when you were on holiday. A judge might see it as unfair if they didn't but you would obviously have to take it to court. Whether the company would bother to defend for £24 is moot.

somethingcorporate

halibut2209 wrote: »

It was unhelpful. It didn't offer any help or advice, and despite the OP not being entitled to a refund, the post didn't say that either. It was pretty much a "serves you right" response. Not helpful in the slightest.

I understood perfectly the answer it gave, probably because I have seen this asked a million times and the answer is always the same....

Perhaps I am just getting old and cynical

texranger

this is automatic with all registered domains with all registrars.

when you register a domain it will always be set to autorenew, so it always pays you to check the configurations of any domain you register as soon as you have access to the domain. i personally only leave auto renew on my main critical domains all others i set to manually renew.
as a domain is a personalised item then you wont be covered under DSR and as an autorenew is just a continuation of the contract you accepted when you originally registered the domain then you wont be covered under SOGA.

also if you read the TOS of a majority of hosts they will have a clause as " we offer a ** day money back guarantee, but services such as addons, domain services, VPS, Dedicated servers are non refundable under our MBG"

this is because 9/10 of these are 3rd party services and the host is only an agent when you pay them and then they pay the 3rd party provider. i user resellerclub to resell our domain services and a domain registration can be cancelled within 3 days as long as its not been added to a server and even then their is a fee for doing this. but as most hosts use auto systems like whmcs and ce as soon as domain is registered it is set up on the server.

djdna

Thanks all. The T&Cs do indeed indicate that auto-renew is the default, however since they actually offered in email (does that count as 'in writing'?) to refund, then claimed to be unable to do so, it is this which makes me think they are not on such a firm footing.

They have come back to me and offered to refund their cut, which is £10 plus VAT. I suppose I will take this, but what I really wanted was for that credit card to get the exact amount refunded and quietly go back to sleep again or whatever it is they do when you have 'cancelled' them.

I will now have to work out which card it was and go through all the annoyance of calling them up and somehow getting past security checks even though I am no longer a customer etc

bod1467

I'd expect the CC company to send you a statement for payment. Unless you have changed address then you should get this within the next month.

As said before, pretty much all domains are set to auto-renew (mine is - domain every 2 years and hosting every year). But my host/registrar (same company) send me an email invoice at least 2 weeks before the renewal date - more like 4 weeks. Are you sure you didn't get anything? No emails? (Granted, it may have come while you were on holiday).

I have a client who has their domain and hosting with LCN - they haven't reported any issues. (Although the client is a business and actively uses the domain and hosting).

PS - Yes, email counts as "in writing". i.e. a durable means as it is dated and cannot be edited without leaving a trace.