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Beleaguered 123-reg customers spot price hike
Price went up before mass deletion
Customers of domain biz 123-reg – which last month accidentally deleted the data of hundreds of customers and took their websites offline, and yesterday broke its own email systems – have complained the biz has doubled its fees.
One customer got in touch this week regarding the increase. "I've got a few domains with 123-reg. One renewed today and the renewal price has doubled from £8.38 to £16.78, for two years in both cases."
He added: "It's a few quid a year, not the end of the world but... multiplied by the over 3 million domain names they claim to have registered on their about us blurb, there are bound to be a few people surprised when their renewal notice comes through."
Richard Winslow, 123-reg brand director, said: “I can assure customers that our offer is fully transparent. This price is set, and you won’t ever see us offering one deal when customers sign up before excessively hiking this cost.”
It is understood that price change came into effect on March 1 2016, with customers having been informed about the changes in January.
The price of all the company's UK domain names, including co.uk, me.uk and org.uk, has been standardised to £6.99 per year.
Prior to March 2016, the price for standard domain names was £3.49 per year for .co.uk sites and £5.99 per year for .uk sites.
The move followed an announcement by the domain reg organisation, Nominet, in November that wholesale prices would be increased for all registrars. Chief executive of Nominet Russell Haworth said costs had risen considerably since it last changed the price "and we need to compete in a promotion-driven industry". ®