Sneaky behaviour from 123reg

saver2000

Hi all,

I've got a couple of domain names with 123reg, one I've had for 10 years, the other probably 15 years.

On the older one, I've had email forwarding set up since I got it. I have one email address fowarding to my hotmail account, the reason for this is so I can change to other email providers just by changing the forwarding address.

Yesterday I got a weird email from 123reg. "Your product(s) will expire soon". I thought this was weird because I always renew the domains in june. The email was actually from e.secureserver.net so I logged into my 123reg account but under products there was my 2 domains plus "Professional Email Starter Renewal" (due to cancel end of year)

The email forwarding settings had moved from the domain page to under this new product.

Looking at my invoice history it was just the domains, no "email starter" listed.

I ended up deleting the product as I couldn't find any info online about this, I just assumed it was some trial I'd been signed up to (I should have realised something was up when the email forwarding settings had moved)

As soon as I deleted the product I checked the email forwarding but it had stopped working and I was getting message bounces.

So I decided I'm going to have to buy this email starter package to get my email forwarding back (all my accounts use this email!)

It now works again but at a cost of ~£35!

I feel that this is very sneaky behaviour from 123reg

They basically signed me up for another product, then moved the email forwarding to that product, without telling me about this. The only time I knew is when I got the renewal email.

I probably have no leg to stand on now I've bought the email thing, but I am extremly annoyed they didn't send me an email just saying they are removing the email forwarding from my domains in advance. If I had something like this in advance I would have had some time to set up an alternative.

There is this article regarding catch all email forwarding, but this is from March 23 and I am using just a single email address forward.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/19/123_reg_customers_caught_out/

Is there anyone I can complain to? I'm tempted to look through my last domain invoice and see what it says about the email forwarding. I'm sure there is probably something buried deep in there...

saver2000

Please ignore this.

I was searching for "123reg" in my emails, but searching for "123 reg" brings back an email from Dec 23.

So they did inform me about the forwarding stopping, and I will be moved to the free service for a year.

So the moral is, read your email more carefully...

DullGreyGuy

123-Reg and a host of other companies are now owned by GoDaddy. Seems this year they've started to make a push to harmonise technology/platforms across their various brands and indeed are retiring some brands. SecureServer.Net is a GoDaddy owned domain which they appear to be increasingly using as a neutral brand... like Direct Line Group uses UK Insurance as its underwriting entity for Direct Line, Churchill, Privilege etc. 


Looks like they've withdrawn the free domain forwarding that they used to offer as part of the transition onto the new platform and it's now only available as part of a paid for email solution. To soften the transition they've given all users of the old service 1 years free subscription to their most basic mail package. I never used their forwarding so didnt get it. 


I too dont like all my eggs in one basket but never liked the idea of people emailing me at DDG@mydomain.com and me replying from mydomain@hotmail.com. Yes you can spoof the email to appear as coming from DDG@mydomain.com but as spam filters get better etc fewer and fewer such emails get through. 


If you ask them nicely they may reinstate the remainder of your 12 month free service which should give you time to find an alternative. I abandoned their sister company for web hosting earlier this year as they made a real mess of the migration. 

I've no idea of Hotmails capabilities these days, certainly with Gmail you can set it up to pull email in from other POP mail boxes and so in principle you can setup two free hosting accounts with a mailbox each and either if they allow forwarding, they forward or if they dont and Hotmail is like Gmail set it up to pull mail from those boxes. 

When I was looking around earlier this year, hosts have significantly clamped down on the amount of email capabilities you can get for free or a minimal price. Still spreading the love though with domains with 123 and emails with another provider

Jenni_D

I read the OP's second post as being that they've discovered that they'd already had the free first year.

Ectophile

If I get an email from 123reg, I always read it very carefully.  If you're not careful, they will give you 1 year free of a service you never asked for, then start charging you for it the following year.

It seems to be a thing that no domain name registrar can be trusted to act fairly any more.

username

I've nearly been bitten by this too. I remember last year getting some really wordy emails from 123reg/Go Daddy talking about all sorts of Gen 1 email boxes migrating to Gen 2 (or some such terminology) - jargon but no clear reference to clearly what they're actually doing - making the email forwarding a chargeable service, and bumping up the price! The entire email appeared to be written like it was a technical platform change.

Back in t'day 123reg weren't awful, I remember it was about under a tenner for a year's .co.uk registration and included email forwarding, which seemed fair.

Now, looking at the same renewal, it is c. £15/year AND you need to purchase the 'professional email starter renewal at c. £28/year, eye watering £40+ a year.

This sneaky practice and shadiness from their new owners means I'm out, notwithstanding the fact they've been sending wolf-crying notices saying my .uk domains will expire in 90 days and to renew today. Fair enough tell me a month or week before, but three months!? 

mikeb21

Also nearly caught out by this.  Got the email in December 2023 saying my Generation 1 forwarding was ending and as part of migration to new platform I was moving to Generation 2 which was free for a year.

At the time I couldn't get into the 123reg portal to update anything and forgot all about it.

Then this month I get the emails saying this Professional Email Starter is expiring and needs to renew to keep my forwarders.

Considering I've paid 123reg to renew my domain this year for 2 years till 2026, paying for this on top is taking the mickey.

So I've ended up signing up for a FreeDNS/Email Forwarding service (NameCheap) setup all my DNS and Name forwarders on there and then repointed my DNS name servers in 123reg portal to NameCheap.

So now I've paid 123reg for services I can't even use (e.g. their DNS), but at least it works.

In 2026 next renewal I'll be transferring my domain away from 123reg.

perfecthost

It's more than sneaky in my judgement.

It's a breach of contract if they try to introduce any charge for email forwarding before the end of the contract period i.e. before domain renewal date.

I renewed one domain for 9 years in March 2019 so I'm contesting any attempt to *charge for services that formed part of the contract (*until at least renewal date on 26 March 2027).

123-Reg's Complaints and Appeals Policy doesn't, in my judgement, meet industry standards. For one thing no timescales are provided, but it describes the first step as raising the complaint via the 123-Reg ticketing system and the second as escalation by post!!

They will try every spurious excuse for what I judge to be their breach of contract, but I would encourage forumites to seek a refund of any charges for email forwarding that overlapped with their contract period.

'Giving notice' and 'not being able to provide the free forwarding on their new platform' are not valid excuses. If they can provide a service at a charge, they can provide it free - as they did in the one year 'free' Professional Email Starter period.

perfecthost

DullGreyGuy said:

123-Reg and a host of other companies are now owned by GoDaddy. Seems this year they've started to make a push to harmonise technology/platforms across their various brands and indeed are retiring some brands.

'Harmonising technology/platforms' is, IMO, their illegitimate excuse for introducing charges in breach of the original contractual terms, in many cases before the contract ends i.e. before renewal date - even taking account of the original 'free' year for the NEW Professional Email Starter package.

If they can provide that 'free' for one year, they can provide it free until renewal date in accordance with the contract at time of purchase, it seems to me.

I'd encourage forumites to seek refunds for any such charges before renewal date.

perfecthost

mikeb21 said:

So I've ended up signing up for a FreeDNS/Email Forwarding service (NameCheap) setup all my DNS and Name forwarders on there and then repointed my DNS name servers in 123reg portal to NameCheap.

In 2026 next renewal I'll be transferring my domain away from 123reg.

I couldn't find any Free DNS/Email Forwarding service on NameCheap and I'm not confident about being able to do what you're suggesting, especially without hitch.

Also not sure of the process to transfer domain names away from 123, but see my stand alone post.

username

I have moved all of my business away from 123reg and have also advised others to do so as well.
I've now moved everything to Mythic Beasts, who do offer domains, email forwarding etc. The latter is chargeable (although it's cheaper than 123reg, you can spread it across your domains and top notch support from them thus far.)