Any lawyers here?
If a company enters into a contract to provide a service, advertises that there will be "no fees" once you've made the initial payment, and then without warning they introduce a fee, is it legal?
The company is 123-reg. I have some domain names registered with them that I want to transfer to another company. At the time I registered them, 123-reg advertised that transfers had no fee. At the time I renewed, they advertised that transfers had no fee. As recently as March this year, they were advertising that transfers had no fee.
In April this year, they started charging £12 per domain. There was no warning about this, they didn't tell anyone they'd done it. You only find out about it if you go into your account and request a transfer, and see there's a fee where there didn't used to be one.
So I've only just found out about it.
I complained to them about it, suggesting that it was a breach of the terms and conditions to do this to existing customers.
This was their response: "It is the position of 123-Reg that this change has been made within the confines of the law" and " Furthermore, by logging into your account, you accept these terms. As a result, I must enforce the charge."
How the **** can they say you agree to the terms when you log in to the account? Am I supposed to read through thousands of words of legalese every time I want to log in?
How can they advertise no fees, then start charging fees without offering people the chance to terminate the contract instead?
£12 might not sound like much to be concerned about, but I have around 40 domains with them, so that's nearly £500. There are ways around this that would cost a lot less, but would involve a lot of work, so I want to know if I can threaten them with the law before I decide what to do next.
If a company enters into a contract to provide a service, advertises that there will be "no fees" once you've made the initial payment, and then without warning they introduce a fee, is it legal?
The company is 123-reg. I have some domain names registered with them that I want to transfer to another company. At the time I registered them, 123-reg advertised that transfers had no fee. At the time I renewed, they advertised that transfers had no fee. As recently as March this year, they were advertising that transfers had no fee.
In April this year, they started charging £12 per domain. There was no warning about this, they didn't tell anyone they'd done it. You only find out about it if you go into your account and request a transfer, and see there's a fee where there didn't used to be one.
So I've only just found out about it.
I complained to them about it, suggesting that it was a breach of the terms and conditions to do this to existing customers.
This was their response: "It is the position of 123-Reg that this change has been made within the confines of the law" and " Furthermore, by logging into your account, you accept these terms. As a result, I must enforce the charge."
How the **** can they say you agree to the terms when you log in to the account? Am I supposed to read through thousands of words of legalese every time I want to log in?
How can they advertise no fees, then start charging fees without offering people the chance to terminate the contract instead?
£12 might not sound like much to be concerned about, but I have around 40 domains with them, so that's nearly £500. There are ways around this that would cost a lot less, but would involve a lot of work, so I want to know if I can threaten them with the law before I decide what to do next.
