Auto-Renewal charging twice?

[GreenGrass2019]

I've been charged by two different hosts now where I auto renew my domain/website but they charge me twice as they also take credit into my account. Is this normal practice?

 

[tazarbm]

never happened to me before (I used over 20-30 different hosters in the last 16-17 years). So no, it's not normal... but it's probably the new normal as many companies are now competing with each other to see who can screw and rip their customer off the most

 

[N604]

I'm sure it's a system issue; contact the company, and they will fix it up.

 

[Alywan]

No, double charging is not normal practice and likely indicates a billing system error or deceptive practice. Check if one charge is a pre-authorization hold that will drop off. Contact support immediately with screenshots of both charges. To avoid this, disable auto-renewal and manually renew or use a privacy-focused registrar like Porkbun known for transparent billing.

 

[seoforever1]

Bug on their payments. Raise the issue with their support.

 

[svetlana55]

I've had similar issues with auto-renewal in the past, and it's usually a billing system error that can be resolved with a simple support ticket. However, I do agree that it's essential to be vigilant and monitor your accounts closely to avoid any potential deceptive practices. Has anyone else experienced issues with specific hosts or registrars that are prone to double charging or incorrect billing? It might be helpful to compile a list of reliable and transparent providers to avoid such problems in the future. Additionally, using a payment method like PayPal can also provide an extra layer of protection against unauthorized charges.

 

[tazarbm]

I'm sure it's a system issue; contact the company, and they will fix it up.

I'm sure it's not! When one company does it, once, it might be a system issue. When many companies do it for years it's definitely by design.

 

[N604]

When one company does it, once, it might be a system issue. When many companies do it for years it's definitely by design.

Have you come across companies that did it?
I'm in the hosting field for 20 years and never had an issue like this.

Moreover, most are using automated payment systems like Paypal and Credit card using a CMS like WHMCS so it's a bit hard to believe this is something intentionally. I'll be really surprised if more than a very few people experienced that with a company

 

[tazarbm]

Have you come across companies that did it?
I'm in the hosting field for 20 years and never had an issue like this.

Mochahost (used them some 4-5 years ago, don't remember exactly when) tried to charge me right after I asked them to unlock my domains so I could transfer them out of Mochahost. They tried to charge my credit card for 1 more year's worth of renewal for the 6 domains that I had. Lucky me that I had no money left on my credit card...

Then I moved on to Namecheap, and 1 month before my yearly renewal ($54) was due they tried to charge me 3x this amount ($153). My luck was - again - that I had no money on the credit card, but also the fact that just minutes (10-15 minutes or so) earlier their automated system had just sent me the new renewal invoice worth of... you guessed it... the normal, agreed upon 1 year earlier when I signed up with them... $54

They just wouldn't let me go unless I gave them $153, so I sent them the newly received invoice and told them how unprofessional it is to triple the fee sneakingly behind my back (they haven't sent any update about the new prices prior to trying to charge me), and I also told them that I will go to their social media profiles and post my entire discussion with them for everyone to see what they're doing. That's when they stepped back and let me go on with the normal $54 fee, which I told them that I'll be paying in the coming week (I think my discussion with them was on Saturday or Sunday, so I had to give them the excuse that on Monday morning the 1st thing that I'd do is deposit money onto my credit card and pay the renewal $54 fee for another year).

Whether or not they've believed that I was going to do that I don't know, but as soon as I got off the chat with them I immediately started looking for another hoster (in an emergency I've chosen one off BHW, Loominhost I think was their name), and moved everything out of Namecheap to this new hoster, and that's when I've stopped trusting Namecheap (not to mention the fact that they've charged me $9 per year for each SSL certificate. Let's Encrypt certificate that is, which is free everywhere else )

So yeah, that was Namecheap...

With GoDaddy I have no exact experience as the one we're discussing, but since you've been in this business for so long you have to know that GoDaddy is the daddy of all scumbag hosters, they try to charge you and inflate your invoices with every chance they get. Not to mention other scumbag tricks that they're pulling like stealing your domain names and then trying to sell them back to you at premium prices... there were a lot of discussions about GoDaddy some years ago that I've participated in on this forum, look them up and you'll see the many complaints about this company...

Some 10-15 years ago I was hosting my sites with Arvixe, a very popular and highly promoted hosting company by influencers back then, and after my 1st year with them in which I've paid $36 they've tried to charge my Paypal account $550 for the next year renewal. Once again my luck was that I only had like $80-90 left in my PP account (lol, the fuckers didn't even know how to steal smartly, had they not been so greedy they might have actually taken the $80 that I had in there), otherwise I would have lost it.

It's probably true that I would have gotten my money back since - back then - I was using PP for most of my transactions online and - even though I've run into several disputes with some scumbags - Paypal have resolved absolutely all of them in my favor and gave me my money back. So, I would have probably been safe either way, but the fact remains.

And actually, that's the 1st time in my life when I've decided not to keep any money left on my credit card, or in my PP account after I subscribe to anyone / anything. Even with BHW, my Jr. Vip subscription renews on the 28th of December and my credit card right now is completely empty, so nobody can charge it for any amount. After the 20th of December I will deposit the exact amount that I need to pay for my BHW subscription on my credit card and make the payment that way, but until then my CC will stay empty and I will only deposit the exact amounts that I have to pay for the various payments / subscriptions when the time for those comes, otherwise I've learned my lesson and don't keep any money on my CC or PP accounts ever again.

With Arvixe I even lost my account and sites at that time, I remember that the fuckers didn't want to reinstate my account unless I paid them $550, which - in hindsight - looks like downright extortion, but back then I was naive and let go of things all the time. Not to mention that 15 years ago was the scammiest period of my life, I was jumping from one scam to another almost monthly, so I got used to this behaviour

And the last case that I remember (right before moving to Arvixe actually) was iPage. Those fuckers have actually succeeded in charging me twice the renewal fee without sending out prior announcements about a potential price increase or whatever other excuse they could have come up for their theft. But being the naive and kind person that I was back then I let it go. I did contact them asking why they've charged me twice and they obviously gave the "new price structure" excuse, so I bought into it since I didn't know better about how online business works. Back then I was keeping money onto my credit cards and into my Paypal account, which is why they could succeed in charging me, but after this incident and especially after the Arvixe incident 1 year later I began to notice a pattern with hosting companies so that's when I started taking measures against this type of INTENTIONAL scam.

And I'm pretty sure that I have other examples as I've been running from one scam into another ever since I started my online journey in August 2008, so I got screwed up many times by one company or another, so I can tell you from personal experience that they're doing it intentionally. Not all of them, of course, I'm not putting everyone in the same basket. But a good chunk of them are doing it on purpose...

EDIT: also, I just noticed that I said in my previous message that this has never happened to me before, I don't know what the fuck I was thinking when I made that comment, but I obviously lied (unintentionally, sorry about that)

 

[N604]

Well that's some bad l

Mochahost (used them some 4-5 years ago, don't remember exactly when) tried to charge me right after I asked them to unlock my domains so I could transfer them out of Mochahost. They tried to charge my credit card for 1 more year's worth of renewal for the 6 domains that I had. Lucky me that I had no money left on my credit card...

Then I moved on to Namecheap, and 1 month before my yearly renewal ($54) was due they tried to charge me 3x this amount ($153). My luck was - again - that I had no money on the credit card, but also the fact that just minutes (10-15 minutes or so) earlier their automated system had just sent me the new renewal invoice worth of... you guessed it... the normal, agreed upon 1 year earlier when I signed up with them... $54

They just wouldn't let me go unless I gave them $153, so I sent them the newly received invoice and told them how unprofessional it is to triple the fee sneakingly behind my back (they haven't sent any update about the new prices prior to trying to charge me), and I also told them that I will go to their social media profiles and post my entire discussion with them for everyone to see what they're doing. That's when they stepped back and let me go on with the normal $54 fee, which I told them that I'll be paying in the coming week (I think my discussion with them was on Saturday or Sunday, so I had to give them the excuse that on Monday morning the 1st thing that I'd do is deposit money onto my credit card and pay the renewal $54 fee for another year).

Whether or not they've believed that I was going to do that I don't know, but as soon as I got off the chat with them I immediately started looking for another hoster (in an emergency I've chosen one off BHW, Loominhost I think was their name), and moved everything out of Namecheap to this new hoster, and that's when I've stopped trusting Namecheap (not to mention the fact that they've charged me $9 per year for each SSL certificate. Let's Encrypt certificate that is, which is free everywhere else )

So yeah, that was Namecheap...

With GoDaddy I have no exact experience as the one we're discussing, but since you've been in this business for so long you have to know that GoDaddy is the daddy of all scumbag hosters, they try to charge you and inflate your invoices with every chance they get. Not to mention other scumbag tricks that they're pulling like stealing your domain names and then trying to sell them back to you at premium prices... there were a lot of discussions about GoDaddy some years ago that I've participated in on this forum, look them up and you'll see the many complaints about this company...

Some 10-15 years ago I was hosting my sites with Arvixe, a very popular and highly promoted hosting company by influencers back then, and after my 1st year with them in which I've paid $36 they've tried to charge my Paypal account $550 for the next year renewal. Once again my luck was that I only had like $80-90 left in my PP account (lol, the fuckers didn't even know how to steal smartly, had they not been so greedy they might have actually taken the $80 that I had in there), otherwise I would have lost it.

It's probably true that I would have gotten my money back since - back then - I was using PP for most of my transactions online and - even though I've run into several disputes with some scumbags - Paypal have resolved absolutely all of them in my favor and gave me my money back. So, I would have probably been safe either way, but the fact remains.

And actually, that's the 1st time in my life when I've decided not to keep any money left on my credit card, or in my PP account after I subscribe to anyone / anything. Even with BHW, my Jr. Vip subscription renews on the 28th of December and my credit card right now is completely empty, so nobody can charge it for any amount. After the 20th of December I will deposit the exact amount that I need to pay for my BHW subscription on my credit card and make the payment that way, but until then my CC will stay empty and I will only deposit the exact amounts that I have to pay for the various payments / subscriptions when the time for those comes, otherwise I've learned my lesson and don't keep any money on my CC or PP accounts ever again.

With Arvixe I even lost my account and sites at that time, I remember that the fuckers didn't want to reinstate my account unless I paid them $550, which - in hindsight - looks like downright extortion, but back then I was naive and let go of things all the time. Not to mention that 15 years ago was the scammiest period of my life, I was jumping from one scam to another almost monthly, so I got used to this behaviour

And the last case that I remember (right before moving to Arvixe actually) was iPage. Those fuckers have actually succeeded in charging me twice the renewal fee without sending out prior announcements about a potential price increase or whatever other excuse they could have come up for their theft. But being the naive and kind person that I was back then I let it go. I did contact them asking why they've charged me twice and they obviously gave the "new price structure" excuse, so I bought into it since I didn't know better about how online business works. Back then I was keeping money onto my credit cards and into my Paypal account, which is why they could succeed in charging me, but after this incident and especially after the Arvixe incident 1 year later I began to notice a pattern with hosting companies so that's when I started taking measures against this type of INTENTIONAL scam.

And I'm pretty sure that I have other examples as I've been running from one scam into another ever since I started my online journey in August 2008, so I got screwed up many times by one company or another, so I can tell you from personal experience that they're doing it intentionally. Not all of them, of course, I'm not putting everyone in the same basket. But a good chunk of them are doing it on purpose...

EDIT: also, I just noticed that I said in my previous message that this has never happened to me before, I don't know what the fuck I was thinking when I made that comment, but I obviously lied (unintentionally, sorry about that)

Well thats some bad luck there, man. I literally used at least 50 different hosts and domain providers and never had this issue!
Some of the examples you provided sound like renewal prices for services, which companies usually hide" the renewal prices under some promising good price at the initial service purchase and that's unfortunate. I've heard stories about that, but I never commit for 1 or more years before I test the service & support properly and ask questions about renewal and such stuff.

 

[tazarbm]

Well thats some bad luck there, man

it's not bad luck when many customers are ripped off, it's intentional. Please stop excusing crooks.

Also...

companies usually hide"

why hide? That's theft, let's not use comfy words to excuse criminals!

I literally used at least 50 different hosts and domain providers and never had this issue!

that's some good luck there

I've heard stories about that, but I never commit for 1 or more years before I test the service & support properly and ask questions about renewal and such stuff.

I got into the habit of contacting companies prior to committing, too. And many times it helps, I've been able to weed out dozens of rotten apples in the hosting, file sharing and payment processor industries in this way. But at some point you still slip.

Also, your attitude is not the correct one (I am 1 in a million people who happens to sense the wrongdoers, therefore the other 999.999 people should suffer). People should be honest and transparent implicitly, forever, and unconditionally... especially in business I would wager since businesses want our business...

Anyway, lucky you that you've not gone through this...

 

[N604]

I agree with you, and it's not that im defending those crooks god forbid. Those companies who hides increasing prices upon renewal are just counting on you to be "too committed" already. I hate this kind of marketing; it's nothing other than theft and methods that i'll never use. As a hosting company owner i'm avoiding doing any kind of these promotions. Companies should be more transparent about their resources, their availability, their support, and the renewal pricing. Those are one of the key factors to gain the customer trust, as far as I'm concerned.
Wish you better times in the hosting field!

 

[Fhack]

I've been charged by two different hosts now where I auto renew my domain/website but they charge me twice as they also take credit into my account. Is this normal practice?

wich host ?