“Safe renewal”, if you see it be wary

Last Updated on: March 20, 2015

For a long time I’ve bought domain names, sometimes on a whim, just in case the name could have some form of business potential .. at one point. Truth is, rarely, well for me personally. A few friends and customers on the other hand might be happy for my creativity with regards to names, and concepts/design.

Anyhow, been using register.com for a long time. When I first signed up there weren’t many registrants around, that situation has changed. I’ve never used that company for web hosting either, so why I’ve stayed with them is somewhat of a mystery. Be that as it may…

Over the course of the past few weeks I began getting info re. renewal of a domain name. Not planning to renew it I ignored the information, let things fizzle out.. or so I thought.

Then one morning a mail with an invoice showed up, with the subject “thank you for your business with register.com”  …er… WOT? I had not authorized a renewal had I? Not at all! Puzzled I put it aside to return later, but something else happened and I forgot about the whole thing.

Checking my net bank later turned out I had been billed by register.com, for a domain name renewal I never authorized! Not only that, they had invoiced me towards a credit card that expired 6 months prior to invoice date!

Without me knowing they had turned on something called “Safe Renewal“. A function impossible to switch off. Possibly during some upgrade or service renewal, certainly something I’d missed. This had resulted in billing with or invoicing to an invalid credit card. Even more surprising, my bank had let it slip through!

I called my bank and filed a case. Took screenshots of the user profile, it clearly said in red letters that the card registered had expired eons ago.

If you subscribe to online services and store credit card information, check user profiles, REGULARLY! There may be changes, coming in the form of 24 trillion miles of disclaimer information. If you see something like”Safe Renewal” be aware that it could mean they invoice you IF you don’t cancel.

eCapitalism is a self-mutating beast, services change, concepts change, seldom in the favor of the user or customer. Check your credit card transaction logs frequently, errors happen, scam happens.