Domain Issues? a plusnet support disaster.
@discontented wrote:
OK about two months ago I get an email about my Domain needing renewing, it cant be renewed because it's free. When I signed up with plusnet about 5 years ago it was free for the term I was with plusnet, all was fine and I had a nice name pointing to my NAS with a fixed IP that I used infrequently but when I did use it, it was invaluable to me.
So I contact plusnet who told me I had to pay for renewal. I have not in the past nor had been told of any changes even when renewing my yearly contract.
You shouldn't have been told this, it was incorrect advice. Sorry.
So I was cut off from using the domain. I couldn't change anything and got an access denied or you don't have access to this error if I tried to change anything. My only option was to pay the exorbitant registration fee or let the domain expire. I choose to let it expire and then grab it back after it expires.
I'm interested to know more about this error. Exactly where were you seeing it? I can't see any obvious cause, and from what I can determine the domain has never expired.
I check a week later and plusnet had renewed my domain for two more years at no cost to me and basically holding me to ransom. I still couldn't change or edit anything with the same access denied errors. On the phone to support again but met with the same excuse about not having available staff to help and again I was assured someone will call me back. Well guess what, they never did and I'm now very unhappy with plusnet.
Again, we've not intentionally restricted access to your domain at any point. In fact, nothing's been done to it in our CRM systems for a while 
The domain expires in January, and from whois you can see the registration was extended the December prior:
Relevant dates:
Registered on: 18-Jan-2016
Expiry date: 18-Jan-2020
Last updated: 29-Dec-2017
Off to trustpilot to spew a raving bad review that made me feel a lot better and then go look for a new domain name as I will not be forced to pay a transfer fee because a really bad support team who wont communicate with there customers.
There is no fee to transfer a .uk registration from us. The gaining provider may charge (not all do), but in doing so, they will typically extend the registration of the domain by a further year.
So I get my new domain name and managed to set it up but then my plusnet domain started working again, logging in today confirmed it was all accessible and I could edit it, the renew this domain message had gone.
This is the only bit I'm struggling to explain, but rest assured it wasn't intentional. Sorry the advice/assurances you received at the time weren't up to scratch 
| You shouldn't have been told this, it was incorrect advice. Sorry.
What does this refer to, me not getting a call back that would have cleared the whole thing up in one fail swoop or the part I didn't have to pay.
| I'm interested to know more about this error. Exactly where were you seeing it? I can't see any obvious cause, and from what I can determine the domain has never expired.
This was in my control panel for my domain in the members area, it said it was due to expire not expired. I had two options, select to pay for renewal or allow the domain to expire. I chose to allow to expire after being unable to resolve the issue through every avenue I attempted. Now it shows "we will not renew this domain", this is NOT what I want but had no other choice at the time.
| Again, we've not intentionally restricted access to your domain at any point. In fact, nothing's been done to it in our CRM systems for a while 
The domain expires in January, and from whois you can see the registration was extended the December prior:
This might be the case but persistent calls to plusnet support seeking answers to this issue fell on deaf ears, if I had access to my domain then I would not have called in the 1st place, I'm mot doing this because I have a load of spare time on my hands and want to fill it with mindless support calls.
| There is no fee to transfer a .uk registration from us. The gaining provider may charge (not all do), but in doing so, they will typically extend the registration of the domain by a further year.
Perhaps your support representative also didn't know this, I was told there was a fee and there was nothing they could do but escalate it and someone would call me back about it, they did not... again.
| This is the only bit I'm struggling to explain, but rest assured it wasn't intentional. Sorry the advice/assurances you received at the time weren't up to scratch 
I refer to the first part of my reply, if you had indeed called me back as stated then you would not have had a very disgruntled customer seeking answers to a problem with no clear resolution in sight.
This whole experience has been an appalling support scenario.
I have attached the email you sent to me regarding the renewal, when I clicked on the link provided the fee for renewal was displayed. It said the domain could not be auto renewed because my payment method was not able to be used for this and wanted my debit card information. This started the ball rolling.
Dear Mr
This is an email from Plusnet to let you know that your domain,
idrinkbeer.co.uk, will expire on 18 January 2018.
We have noticed that you have not yet chosen to renew this domain. We will
automatically renew it for you 30 days before the expiry date.
To choose not to renew your domain, please visit the Domain Names section
of our website - http://portal.plus.net/my.html?action=domainv2
Need help?
----------
If you've got any questions about your service ask the Help Assistant -
http://portal.plus.net/wizard/
Kind regards,
Plusnet Customer Support
http://portal.plus.net/
PlusNet plc
Registered Office: The Balance, 2 Pinfold Street, Sheffield, S1 2GU
Registered in England no: 3279013
VAT registration number: 842254440
Email Ref: E0309