BigRock Tells Its Customers Verisign’s Price Increase Is A LOT Higher Than It Is

by

BigRock.com is an ICANN Accredited registrar, that is one of the major tags used by SnapNames.com to catch domain names on the drop.

I just received an email from them today about the Verisign’s price increase which goes into effect January 15th.

“”Dear Customer,

As your account manager, I would like to inform you of an imminent change in Verisign Registry pricing.”

“From early January 2012,.COM/.NET domain prices will approximately increase by $2 USD.”

“I urge you to take advantage of BigRock’s Industry Best Pricing and register your domains or renew existing ones prior to this price increase.”

“Feel free to contact me for more information or any help that you may need with your account.”

Now Verisign’s wholesale price for .com registrations and renewals is set to increase by 7% or $.51 and its wholesale price for .net’s is set to increase by $.46.

I don’t know if BigRock.com is planning on using the $.51 price increase as an excuse to raise their prices on .com and .net’s by $2, and while a registrar can charge whatever they want for domain renewal or registration,  it clearly not proper to tell its customers that Verisign is raising prices 3X more than they really are.

 

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

Comments

  3. Moniker_Fan says

    Register, Renew & Transfer-In Your .COM and .NET Domains by Jan. 15th, 2012 to Save!

    VeriSign®, the registry for .COM and .NET, will be increasing their prices by 7% for .COM and 10% for .NET domains effective January 15th, 2012. As a result, Moniker’s corresponding rates for 2012 will also be adjusted to reflect these changes.

    As a valued customer, we strongly recommend that you renew and register your domains at Moniker today to lock in your current rates and save. You can renew for up to 10 years to maximize your savings. The longer you renew, the more you save!

    Login to Your Account to Renew

    Thank you for your business,
    The Moniker Team

  5. Jp says

    They all seem to always raise their prices by more than Verisign, even if just a little beyond. Notice even Moniker in it’s solicitation above states “as a result moniker’s corresponding rates will be adjusted to reflect the change”. A while back enom sent me an apologetic email stating because of verisign they will be forced to raise their .com rates to $29.95.

  6. whatever says

    bigrock is why I no longer deal with SnapNames. And, of course, I would never deal with bigrock. I can’t believe anyone knowingly does.

    The last name I bought through SnapNames was actually at bigrock. Couldn’t transfer it out. Finally gave up and just let them keep it …it wasn’t that great of a name. SnapNames said they tried to help but they finally gave up too and at least refunded my money.

  8. DomainsAfrica says

    Clearly, the unwanted consequences of Verisign’s price increase; it gives some Registrars a good excuse to fleece their clients and potential registrants. I’m sure BigRock will not be the last of these “opportunists”

  9. Shashank Mehrotra says

    Hi Everyone,

    I am the General Manager for the BigRock business. Michael, thanks for flagging this issue. Please allow me to respond as follows:

    * The copy of the email sent out by our sales team erroneously implied that we will charge an additional $2 per domain name due to the Verisign price increase.
    * At BigRock, a significant part of our clientele is in India and given that we are based there ourselves, we have been at the receiving end of currency fluctuations for the Indian Rupee vs. the US Dollar (the India Rupee has depreciated by close to 15% over the last quarter)
    * BigRock will be revising prices upwards to accommodate pricing pressures due to both factors – the Verisign price increase and the Indian Rupee depreciation – the increase may be up to $2.
    * At BigRock, we are committed to price competitively and transparently. We will also continue to provide top notch support for all your domains, I apologize for the confusion caused by this email.

    Thanks,
    –Shashank

  10. Brad says

    “bigrock is why I no longer deal with SnapNames. And, of course, I would never deal with bigrock. I can’t believe anyone knowingly does.”

    “We will also continue to provide top notch support for all your domains, I apologize for the confusion caused by this email. ”

    I have had several issues with domains from SnapNames.com that are managed by BigRock.com and overall the support has been terrible.

    I have a whois issue currently that has taken 4 chats (2+ hours) and a support ticket to not resolve. The first technician could not even understand the issue after an hour long chat and gave me several BS excuses.

    Then after the chat she told me she would open a support ticket and never did. I had to open the ticket myself (it is still unresolved).

    I asked for the contact information of a supervisor or manager and no one would give me that information.

    On top of this, last year one of the companies BigRock.com managed domains for had some kind of falling out and pulled their domains from BigRock.com. I was stuck dealing with a company that basically held my domain hostage and I had to pay a fee to get my domain out.

    Brad

  11. Shashank Mehrotra says

    Brad – thanks for your post.

    Can you please help me with a username and domain name so we can try and look into the issue you reported. Please write us: escalations@bigrock.com.

    I’m not sure I understand this issue “one of the companies BigRock.com managed domains for had some kind of falling out and pulled their domains from BigRock.com” – we are a directly end customer focused business. Can you please help me understand this?

    Thanks,

  12. whatever says

    “…We will also continue to provide top notch support for all your domains, I apologize for the confusion caused by this email.”

    What a bunch of bullshit!

    I finally filed a complaint with ICANN. It was the only time I then heard from anyone from the company. It was just an email full of BS like your response here is. Screw you.

    @ Brad

    Sorry to hear of your problems. I know how frustrating it is. Though I don’t think it does a whole lot of good, I would urge you to file a complaint with both Icann and SnapNames. Doing so I at least got my money back from SnapNames.

  13. Man For the Ages says

    Thanks for the clarification I also got a notice from a different registrar and wanted to validate it was not a hoax.

    I plan to renew a little early to save a bit.

    Thanks
    MK

  14. Brad says

    @ Shashank Mehrotra

    “I’m not sure I understand this issue “one of the companies BigRock.com managed domains for had some kind of falling out and pulled their domains from BigRock.com” – we are a directly end customer focused business. Can you please help me understand this?”

    The registrar was Own Identity. They pulled their names from BigRock’s management because of some contract issue. I was forced to deal with them and pay a fee to retrieve my domain that I already paid for.

    If you provide contact information I would be more than happy to discuss my issues over the past with BigRock.com

    Thanks,
    Brad

  18. Frantisek Mrazek says

    If is it same bunch of clowns with same lame system as Resellerclub/Logicboxes that figures…

  19. India Abuse says

    More hike in .COM also.

    But for more amazed data from my personal research >>

    80% of .COM domains, either Parked, Forwarded or Dead.

    86% of .IN domains, Parked, forwarded or dead.

    So what exactly this domain industry is ?

    Just a big bubble, where 80% of domains are kept on parkings to generate revenue or for resell them in higher price.

  20. wcwe.com says

    WCWE.COM has kept thier prices as low as possible and now is cheaper than NAMECHEAP

    Namecheap charges $10.69/yr on .COMs and .NET

    WCWE.com chareges $10.49/yr on .COMs and $9.99/yr on .NET

    .ORG is also at $9.99/yr, but on sale for $6.99/yr through the end of january from what i hear.

    i got my website from them back in december, they even offer FREE WEBHOSTING when you purchase a domain from them, check my site out at

    CHARLOTTEFORTESCUE.COM

  22. BJ says

    The Moniker representative above implies Moniker would never stoop to such lows. Rubbish – they’ve just raised .com by another 10% instead of the 7% VeriSign raise (after doing the same in Jul 10), and .net by 16.6% instead of 10%!

    Dressing up the increases as passing on price rises is misleading and very tedious, I’m now looking for a new registrar for my 50 domain portfolio.

  23. wcwe.com says

    Hey, if you don’t like the BigRock or Namecheap price increase, come to 899domain.com or parent company wcwe.com and get your .com for just $8.99/yr for COM, NET, ORG, US, NAME, BIZ, INFO

    we try to keep our prices as low as we can over many leading registrars out there compared to such from BigRock, Namecheap and many other discount registars who charge at least 9.99 per year or more.

    wcwe.com is the parent company of the actual company name listed on thier website DomCheap.com which is where wcwe.com points to. but for 8.99 per year, not a bad price compared to this BigRock that i here so many of you out disgusted with for the outrageous price increase they just posed after the verisign increase.

    Transfer your domains to us from bigrock and use 50CN10 to get 10% off $50 or more.