Domain auto-renewed early without notice

[alpeshv]

I had received an email from GoDaddy saying my domain is going to auto renew on 30/03/2019 but then they renewed it on 15/03/2019 and now refusing to refund me the money. 

Am I right to think that GoDaddy deliberately not being clear in their email about the actual renewal date? As a software developer I think they could have easily figured out that it is .uk domain and they would try to renew it 15 days in advance and so should have put renewal date as 15/03/2019 and not 30/03/2019.

[MrVapor · Accepted solution]

@alpeshv 

To my knowledge, this is the standard renewal window when products are set to auto-renew. The system attempts to renew them about 2 weeks before the due date to ensure there are no hiccups with continuity of service. 

[zzepposs]

Indeed, you're right: This is a rip-off!

In my case some of my domains were set to be renewed on 26/05/2019... and they renewed just today: 01/04/2019...
(and that's not a joke...)

I don't know what's happening at Godaddy since a couple of years... But this is not the first time... 

I would love to know how the undo this and get my money back — but presumably I have to go again through a bunch of phone calls whereby I then finally get to that one single helpdesk person who understands what I'm talking about and knows how to undo this.... 

Most of the qualified people seem to vanish there as well... 

Pffft.

[simon12345]

Rip Off, totally agree. and they refuse to refund because they said its already renewed. What kind of business practice is this. Totally Rip off, Stealing money from customer.  They saved my credit card in their system, I can not even delete my credit card information. WTF, They don't let you delete your credit card, so they can steal money from you again. Shame on you, Go Daddy. 

[Zreon]

I can one up this problem.

Yesterday I received a receipt from GoDaddy. On it was a domain renewal that was schedules for 6/24 as well as a domain that should renew in late September as well as an extra $10 for whois protection.

On top of this was a domain that I have never viewed that was purchased through GoDaddy auction for $168!

After talking with support for a long time, all they could basically say was "it looks like this was purchased by the customer". They wouldn't even acknowledge the early renewals. When I said I will just do a charge back and that I have never received such terrible customer service, the rep responded with "I agree"....

These were my last two domains with GoDaddy that I hadn't gotten around to transferring yet. Definitely will not be doing business with this company anymore.

[MrVapor]

The standard renewal window for a domain auto-renew is approximately 30 days before expiration IIRC. It will automatically try to renew in order to ensure you don't lose your domain.

I know this isn't what all of you want to hear, but it's your responsibility to maintain your account. GoDaddy doesn't hide any of these facts about the way they do business. You can find all of it in their Legal Agreements & Policies, Universal Terms of Service Agreement, (both of which you expressly agree to whenever you purchase something from GoDaddy) and their Help pages. 

If this is your business or a side-project you are really passionate about, you have to treat all aspects with attention. You're spending your hard earned money on this. Why wouldn't you make sure you were familiar with how the system operates and what you agreed to when you made a purchase? This is a recommendation I make regardless of the company being used. ALWAYS READ THE FINE PRINT.

[Zreon]

If it were standard procedure to renew 30 days before expiration, then why would they send out emails saying "auto renews on xx/xx"?