Yahoo! raises domain renewal prices 350%!
July 3rd, 2008
Just when it seems that Yahoo! can’t make the customer experience any worse, somehow they find a way to sink to a new low. Back in 2005 I wrote about my difficulty canceling Yahoo! services (the ‘cancel’ form was mysteriously broken for months) and more recently about my Yahoo! Finance portfolio link redirecting to the Yahoo! search page. Now Yahoo! is raising the prices for domain renewals from $10 a year to $34.95 per year, a 350% increase!
Of course the price of everything is going up these days - from gas prices to food - so a little domain inflation is understandable - but 350%!? Even more frustrating is the fact that the cost of a new domain at Yahoo! remains the same - $9.95 for the first year. It’s a classic gotcha move - you don’t want to lose the domain after you’ve had it a year so what else are you gonna do but pay whatever Yahoo! says? Before July 1, 2008 domain renewals cost the same as new domain registrations ($10). If you’re thinking of registering a new domain, don’t let the intro price fool you - go with 1and1 or another registrar instead.
Fortunately the domain cancellation form is working now so when I received a renewal notice in my email yesterday I rushed to cancel before I was hit with the inflated charge. Yahoo! even *appears* to make it easy for you to switch registrars, giving you the necessary unlock code on the cancellation page; I guess they aren’t even interested in keeping their domain customers. Unbelievable how fast this company is sinking…
July 24th, 2008 at 7:53 am
[…] have about a dozen domains with each company. Regular readers will recall my recent rant about Yahoo!’s domain renewal price increases that went in effect July 1, 2008, effectively raising prices 350% from a year ago. With some of my […]