Those who have seen my posts in the past may have noticed I occasionally recommended Simply.com (owned by Namesco) as a domain registrar in the United Kingdom.

However, in the past few days, I have lost all confidence in them. Their support isn't always as I'd like it - sometimes support tickets are left for a day or 2 without being answered but that's not too bad, although when they do answer, their advice isn't usually very useful.

My main issue with them is their policy on renewals. I've purchased numerous .co.uk domains from them in the past for a very reasonable price of under £3/year. Then, a bill in the post arrived yesterday for the renewal of one of my domains asking for £19.99 for just 2 years. I'm fairly sure that this absurd renewal fee hasn't been charged in the past. They advertise that you can have domains from just under £3/year yet they fail to advertise that after that, they charge £10/year!

This wouldn't be an issue if I only had a couple of domains but at my last count, I've got 21! I'm not made of money and paying £210/year on domains is just over the top.

Things get worse though. Namesco allow you to transfer domains to them for free yet charge you to move them away. For each domain, you'd have to pay £10 to move to another registrar. So ultimately, I'd end up paying £210 over 2 years or so just to move my domains away from them, without counting the renewal fees of the other domain registrar.

I'm definitely not a happy customer and I'm thoroughly disappointed with their service and their sly sales tactics. They obviously give you a discount when you buy a domain, then once they've got you, they force you to pay their ridiculous renewal fees or pay a large transfer fee (which costs more than the actual registration of the domain in the first place!).

I do not recommend using Namesco or Simply.com as a domain registrar at all.

Dan

P.S. can anyone recommend any decent domain registrars that are relatively cheap, but offer good service. I'm not talking ultra cheap, but something affordable

Thanks for the warning. Normally, I would recommend domainsite.com, as my emails are usually replied too, but i've been having a heckload of problems with them lately. Name.com is pretty good, i think. I've had no problems with them.

I was wondering If I should register a few domains with them, after hearing a couple of other minor complaints about them. But after reading your post i'll be sure not to do business with them, thanks for the heads up!!!!

Name.com also seems fine so far for me, quick too.