LYNN D.

1) I have been with DOTEASY for over 10 years but only two of my domains were ever developed. All of the domains were registered and renewed under the $0 basic hosting plans. One domain, which I had never developed, was converted as a "mandate" by DOTEASY. In 2011 thought I was paying my usual annual registration renewal fee because the sum for a year's worth of hosting fees was virtually identical to that of a domain renewal fee, but all I really paid was the hosting conversion that I did not initiate and therefore did not cue into. Ironically, DOTEASY managed to notify me that I needed to pay this hosting fee but for the first time in all my years doing business with DOTEASY the notice pertaining to the actual domain renewal failed to flag my attention. The domain expired. Upon contact, a support rep in March 2012 quoted the WHOIS record to prove I had lost the domain vs. had it hijacked, which is what I had thought took place. He stated that I was no longer the registered owner, but most of the response consisted of pointing out that the hosting cyle and the registration renewals are not one and the same. Fees linked to a single domain do not run on corresponding billing cycles, and this is what contributes to the confusion! I responded to state it didn't make much sense to disassociate the hosting billing cycle from the domain registration cycle because if one expires without the other, the website will go down. I never got a straight answer as to why DOTEASY can implement a mandatory conversion from no-cost hosting to fee-based hosting but set up the "monthly" billing to overshoot the term of one's domain registration. If one should intentionally release a domain and such a hosting service is running on an entirely different billing track they claim you can't receive a refund even on an UNUSABLE difference. I have inquired about credits, since DOTEASY doesn't offer refunds, and even this has been denied after paying THREE YEARS worth of hosting fees on a domain I was told by DOTEASY support I no longer owned years ago! This is shady territory, folks!

2) DOTEASY support in 2012 did not advise me how to go about canceling the hosting plan on the defunct domain, their only emphasis was on the fact that they do not issue refunds. I accepted the fact that somehow I got roped into a "bait & switch" — going from $0 hosting to a fee-based hosting plan even though the website had never been developed and therefore never occupied server resources. But because someone else had now legally obtained my former domain and I could not develop it, let alone host it, I assumed I would not be on the hook for charges above and beyond the term I was in at the time I contacted DOTEASY support. I was wrong. After quoting me the WHOIS record to prove I had no rights to the domain, DOTEASY support nonetheless did not deactivate the hosting service going forward even though I had asked for a refund once I realized it was no longer mine to host! Fast forward now to February 2015: I AM STILL BEING CHARGED HOSTING FEES FOR A DOMAIN I HAVE NOT OWNED FOR THREE YEARS.

I feel like I have been the victim of unethical, if not fraudulent, business practices.

3) DOTEASY will use any payment method you have used to authorized a domain renewal to satisfy other service obligations associated with other accounts even if you have not configured a "master" payment method. I know this because after my previously-mentioned domain expired sometime in 2011 I was, at that time, not on an auto-payment method for any services. My payment method even managed to expire and yet DOTEASY continued to bill annual "monthly" hosting fees for the domain I no longer control.

4) DOTEASY in more recent times has added a check box stating that once you even attempt to update a payment method previously used, you agree to let them go on using it indefinitely. They do not make use of pop-ups or TOS alerts the way PayPal does or the way another website may do if you fail to login for a long while and need to click an "agree' button for new fees or service terms. DOTEASY does not plainly indicate how you can REMOVE services, not even services associated with a lapsed domain. DOTEASY does not indicate when they respond to support emails that if you wish to cancel the service you must do so in a particular manner otherwise the fees are perpetual, charged to your account whether you have logged in to view your account in the past year or not! DOTEASY does not offer a "remove" option for payments already associated with past domain renewals. If you wish to edit or update the payment at all to get there you have to check a box stating they obtain rights to continue billing it. There is NO opt out. It should not take agreeing to automatic payments simply to modify or remove a payment.

5) DOTEASY has grandfathered some of the original $0 basic hosting services while arbitrarily discontinuing others regardless of whether or not the domain in question has been associated with you for many years and even if that domain has never been developed. DOTEASY does not roll-out TOS changes uniformly, and there are no clear dates or deadlines via email or on a pop-up when you login to "agree" to unsolicited changes. Their emails concerning mandatory hosting changes read like "offers". If you should ignore them, that gives them the right to conclude you have consented.

6) DOTEASY, if you fail to specify a current email, will send all renewal and service notices to a defunct email account. If you make the mistake of asking them to send notifications to an email they host, and that email should be deactivated by technical difficulty (storage limit exceeded due to massive daily spam inflow) or by the fact that you have lost the rights to that domain name, DOTEASY will not use any of the information you entered at signup or for billing purposes to notify you when their notification emails begin to bounce. You MUST maintain an active non-DOTEASY hosted email account on hand and configure each and every email account you have hosted with DOTEASY for an alternate. They won't propagate any alternate information you have provided previously across the entire range of services you may have signed up for. If you don't know about changes to your service because their email doesn't arrive, that's your fault. No refunds. Period.

7) DOTEASY makes renewals for domains and renewal notices for hosting services look superficially similar when they arrive to your specified email account. They will bury notices of term changes in emails that seem, per the subject lines, to be nothing more than annual reminder notices. If you don't read them and respond, that is consent to bill or accept any proposed changes! There is no option to have DOTEASY email TOS and service plan summaries to you on a quarterly or monthly basis. If you make the mistake of logging in to the DOTEASY home page only to do annual registration renewals you will eventually begin to miss important TOS changes and/or fees. DOTEASY will not prompt you, if it has been some time since your last login, to review TOS changes. They do not make use of "opt out" options, only OPT IN. If you need to cancel a service you must do so in writing. There is no a la cart "deactivate" option in your dashboard.

My advice? Do not leave any payment methods on auto-renew and make sure that you read their email notices carefully because they may contain information much different than their subject lines alone imply. Finally, if you have already entered the payment method and wish to avoid any billing surprises later, I urge customers to remove it. And if you can't find an easy way to remove a payment so that it is not on file until it expires for DOTEASY's unlimited access, complain to DOTEASY that removing payment methods, as well as unwanted services, must become a straightforward option that the user can administer without the added requirement of being forced to write in before recurring charges will be stopped.