123-REG: Breach Of Contract & Services Not Fit For Purpose

Yup, I know, please don't tell me ... should have gone to specsavers and all that ... but I honestly did do a whole load of research into available options at the time and they honestly did seem to be quite reasonable. Definitely not significantly worse than most if not all of the alternatives that I looked at anyway !

Things didn't start well as I was blatantly over-charged on two separate orders. Despite 123-REG actually agreeing that there was a mistake on one invoice, a refund was not forthcoming after several weeks and much chasing. I subsequently had to get the matter resolved via the card company. 123-REG still haven't commented on the second smaller over-charge.

I'm sure almost everyone knows something about the relatively recent allegedly 'upgraded' e-mail system and the issues various which this has created for many users. It appears to be a massive 'downgrade' in most if not all respects with customers various apparently more than a bit peed off about it and quite rightly so. It's not just the fact that 123-REG have removed e-mail forwarding previously available to all customers with domains registered and managed by them. The 'upgraded' system also appears to be not fit for purpose going by the amount of e-mail which is now being classed as spam at best or simply no longer being received at worst. There are no options available to control what appears to be overly aggressive spam filtering and/or disable it to prevent messages just being unreasonably rejected or silently deleted on receipt. This 'upgraded' system requires constant babysitting and an alternative e-mail system available for use as/when found necessary.

However, it gets worse ! 123-REG also appear to have totally screwed over anyone with a domain registration and/or hosting package that was purchased and had been paid for in full for a period of several years in advance.



I registered a new domain plus a further 9 years renewal on the basis of 123-REG confirming as part of a pre-sales enquiry that domain e-mail forwarding was provided as standard at no additional cost. The following link shows an image of text extracted from their response:

> Confirmation of domain e-mail forwarding as standard (.gif image)

It was also plastered all over the 123-REG site as a major feature of the 123-REG services being provided and is discussed in great detail in many downloadable documents and on FAQ pages various. However, just a few weeks later I am informed that this feature is going to be deleted and a dedicated mailbox must be purchased from 123-REG (or elsewhere) in order to handle even very basic domain e-mail prior to deciding on what hosting arrangements, if any, are actually necessary. I effectively paid more to 123-REG than it would have been elsewhere for a fundamentally important feature that 123-REG had positively confirmed but then ceased providing after just a few weeks.



I also purchased a web hosting package which quite clearly included a single mailbox for a 3-year period paid for in full in advance. Again, this fundamentally important feature is discussed in many 123-REG downloadable documents and appears on many FAQ pages. However, just a few weeks later I am informed about the upcoming e-mail 'upgrade' and the various issues around it being implemented. What wasn't made entirely clear at that time however was the fact 123-REG fully intended making the e-mail mailbox which I'd effectively paid for as part of the web hosting package a shiny new separately chargeable product. So, despite paying for 3 years of web and basic e-mail hosting in advance, I am now faced with having to pay 123-REG even more just to keep the services that I have already paid for running or they will simply be ceased mid-contract. The following link shows a screen print taken at the time of ordering the web hosting package:

> Web hosting package screen print taken at time of purchase (.gif image)

As can clearly be seen, 1 mailbox was included with no restriction or time limit whatsoever. Current product offerings specify 1st year only. The product selected was the "starter" option and this is clearly shown as are all relevant specifications and/or terms either here or in other sources such as an archive copy of the complete 123-REG web hosting page. In addition to the now time-limited mailbox, 123-REG actually appear to have very quietly changed various specifications and even the name of the product. According to my A/C data I have apparently purchased the "economy" option despite what is clearly shown on the screen print prior to hitting the "buy" button and despite what is actually stated on the relevant invoice.

So, I purchased the "starter" option for a period of 3-years paid for in full in advance. 123-REG subsequently 'downgraded' this to their new offering which is apparently now the "economy" option. There appear to be several significant downgraded specifications but 123-REG have so far declined to explain what they've done and why or even document the various changes they've made to a product I purchased in good faith based entirely on exactly what they told me I was getting for my money. I also now have a new separately chargeable product for e-mail hosting with a completely different renewal date to the relevant domain(s) and web hosting.

At no time was I even informed of this 'downgrade' taking place, it just appeared in my A/C data some time over the past few months. 123-REG appear reluctant in the extreme to address any of the issues that they have knowingly created here. The attitude is very much along the lines of "we've improved things for your benefit, get used to it, oh and by the way, we'll be taking even more money very shortly just to continue providing the services that you've actually already paid for in advance"



So ... anyone else with a seat in this unprofessional leaky boat ?

Anyone managed to get things sorted satisfactorily and actually obtain the services that they've already paid for without the need for more money changing hands to provide them ?

Anyone got any suggestions of where to go next ? There must be a professional and reliable registrar and hosting company somewhere and I will probably be needing to find them and move everything ASAP !



At best I would suggest that what 123-REG have done here constitutes shady dealing and at worst it's blatantly fraudulent however in either case it appears to be a quite deliberate breach of contract. It seems perfectly clear to me that 123-REG had absolutely no intention whatsoever of providing what was being advertised and what was subsequently purchased in good faith. They did, however, have every intention of 'downgrading' the products purchased very shortly after receiving full payment and then start demanding additional payments for not ceasing fundamentally important features mid-contract.

Unfortunately, 123-REG appear to be holding absolutely all the cards here and are therefore able to do exactly what they please, including making registrar or hosting transfers very difficult if not nigh on impossible. I only appear to have the choice of paying 123-REG more or paying someone else to provide what 123-REG have already been paid for but are now refusing to provide without receiving additional payment. Either way, I'm going to end up having paid for things that I'm not getting and/or am unable to use thanks to 123-REG's greed, incompetence and/or totally unprofessional attitude

Unfortunately, I have no past experience to rely on here. This is my first foray into domains/hosting. Despite taking ages to decide what to do and with whom, it's turned into a complete bl**dy nightmare ! Any help or advice would therefore be very much appreciated

How much of the complaints procedure have you been through?
https://www.123-reg.co.uk/support/my-account/what-is...

Thanks for the reply

I've only been trying to get some sensible response and positive action via support ticket(s) so far. The ticket has allegedly been escalated and has received a corporate style response, carefully avoiding most if not all specific issues that were raised. But it's now been almost 2 weeks without any further response to my request to substantiate claims various which 123-REG have made regarding changes effectively being applicable to existing contracts and not just to new contracts. The issue is probably simply being ignored now ... just because they can.

Since 123-REG has been godaddy in disguise for several years, this is all presumably being driven directly from above in any case. A decision has no doubt been made to make changes various purely for financial reasons and taking full advantage of any get-outs available for avoiding the consequences of detrimental changes affecting existing customers who have paid for products in advance.

There are many existing products which have recently(ish) been discontinued or changed. However, mine certainly isn't on the list of product changes/terminations it's just been quietly tweaked behind the scenes. Discovered more by accident than intention while trying to negotiate the mess they're still making with system 'upgrades' various.

The problem is that they appear to be going down what I generally refer to as the 'plusnet' route having been on the receiving end of very similar tactics from them several times over the years ! Very carefully worded web site, advertising, specifications and Ts&Cs with liberal use of the word 'free' as opposed to a clear and definitive statement as to what's actually included in the package or deal being offered for sale. This apparently then 'allows' anything referenced as being in some way 'free' to be ceased without notice and/or subsequently made chargeable because there is no contractual obligation whatsoever to provide these items. Highly dubious tactics and false or intentionally misleading advertising at best I would suggest.

Unfortunately, I therefore rather suspect that I'm trying to fight a 100% lost cause here and I probably need to just bend over and accept being screwed over once again I'd still be very interested to hear from anyone else finding themselves in a similar position though. Surely (don't call me Shirley and all that ) there must be plenty of other customers being affected by the highly dubious actions being taken by 123-REG. I can't be only one stupid enough to have fallen for their BS and paid them silly money in advance for something that was perhaps unlikely to ever be delivered over the full term of the deal ... or maybe I am ?

I obviously do need to try and shift everything real soon though because they're not getting a penny more from me by choice. However, it will now obviously mean walking away leaving paid-for services behind that cannot be used no matter how or when I do it. I also have no idea how or to where but I can definitely see it becoming significantly more of a nightmare with a massive potential for major problems and periods of downtime. And all with absolutely no guarantee of not having a similar experience elsewhere in due course because playing silly games rather than being honest and up-front is very much a fundamental part of the business it seems.

Edited by ambrougham (Sat 16-Mar-24 05:26:24)

UK domain names can usually be moved between registrars free of charge, and most domain providers will offer email forwarding of various flavours at no cost.

For the web hosting, have you had confirmation in writing that your own hosted mailbox will be deleted? What date were you given?

Even if a service is advertised as 'free', it will be contractual to the extent that you would be legally in the right to cease the service, even within contract if the 'free' element is removed. I suggest a plan along the lines of
* Research again for a provider to move to
* Wite to 123-REG formally and state that you consider the service to be contractual at least for the period you have paid for and offer them to either continue the service for no extra charge in the contract period or to release you from the contract with a pro rata refund
* State that in default of any reply within say 28 days, you will consider the service cancelled and the refund due.
* Move if they don't negotiate a settlement and sue

Yes, sueing is a bother, but done well DIY, they will likely fold before it goes to court.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

UK domain names can usually be moved between registrars free of charge, and most domain providers will offer email forwarding of various flavours at no cost.

For the web hosting, have you had confirmation in writing that your own hosted mailbox will be deleted? What date were you given?

Thanks for the reply.

Regarding domain registration I sort-of new that. I think I know a little about what I'm trying to do but that can be, and most often is, a *VERY* dangerous thing of course. I am very well aware of that :lol:

In theory it seems relatively easy to change domain registration and management. But it's the practice I lack, the knowledge of what do if/when something goes wrong and how best to handle things to minimise downtime and/or risk of issues arising. Companies various appear to be suggesting several days for the changeover plus time for dns propagation once any necessary changes have been determined and implemented. Purely as a customer I've witnessed no end of monumental disasters when companies various have changed hosts or dns etc and got it significantly wrong. People who should without any doubt whatsoever have known exactly what they were doing and all that or at least have some experience to know what potential problems to look out for ! Days/weeks of downtime.

The .uk seems relatively simple. However my main .plus is problematic as well as expensive because choice appears to be somewhat limited apart from anything else. TBH, I don't really mind having to renew for another year just to move things in any case. It's the management thereafter that seriously concerns me. I couldn't have changed things until recently because I'd paid 123-REG for the maximum period of 10 years. At least I can now move by paying for another year elsewhere.

However, the issue with 'free' stuff such as mailbox or forwarding is apparently still there though and so potentially this will all happen again. Much like the scourge of CPI+ mid-contract price increases thanks to BT, it probably won't be very long at all before everyone else realises they can also totally get away with intentionally screwing existing customers over in pursuit of maximum profit. Advertise important things included for 'free' to obtain business on lengthy contracts then suddenly make the 'free' stuff chargeable mid-contract. Existing customers held to ransom. Pay again or lose it or just leave because we really don't care about let alone reward loyalty and we've already got your money in any case.

My registrations, web host and email host all began in late December early January for good reason. That's when I'm practically guaranteed to be available to do things, babysit changes and deal with any issues that may arise. For much of the rest of year I'm typically several hundred miles away from everything for periods of several weeks at a time with no reliable internet access and even a 5 mile walk to the nearest phone signal ! It's nigh on impossible for me to deal with anything at all let alone stuff like this, especially when entirely reliant on cranky public wifi at best and so on.

What 123-REG have done here is start a new email host package as of last September following the alleged system 'upgrade' so this now requires renewal at full price in September this year or will be ceased. The web hosting will continue until January 2026 as per what I bought, albeit with various other subtle changes/downgrades that have apparently been made.

The main problem I foresee with separating registration and hosting various is keeping dns up-to-date and working satisfactorily. Again, I think I know a little but have absolutely no experience in practice. In principle it appears to be just a case of ensuring mx-records and a-records and/or cnames all point to the 'right' place. Having everything with one company means there is not likely to ever be any problem. However, there will always be a major potential problem if the 'right' place can effectively be changed at random and when manual intervention is always going to be needed to update dns records accordingly.

For instance when 123-REG 'upgraded' the email system, I would have lost all email for several weeks due to not even knowing when it was going to happen let alone actually being in a position to deal with it. Changes only went through with minimal, if any, issues because 123-REG updated the dns at the same time as effectively stopping the old system and starting the new. Otherwise it would have been several weeks/months of rejected mail as happened for everything that was previously forwarded elsewhere when they stopped that service.

Also from looking at web hosting Ts&Cs various, there are references to server IP addresses not being guaranteed as they can be and often are changed with or without notice. Presumably this explains comments along the lines of you must use our nameservers. A comment equally applicable to companies providing registration services of course who want if not insist that you use their nameservers. I really don't know enough or in any way understand the implications of who manages dns records and which nameservers need to be the definitive source. But I do know that there definitely can't be more than 1 definitive source !

In reply to a post by DFScale:

Even if a service is advertised as 'free', it will be contractual to the extent that you would be legally in the right to cease the service, even within contract if the 'free' element is removed. I suggest a plan along the lines of
* Research again for a provider to move to
* Wite to 123-REG formally and state that you consider the service to be contractual at least for the period you have paid for and offer them to either continue the service for no extra charge in the contract period or to release you from the contract with a pro rata refund
* State that in default of any reply within say 28 days, you will consider the service cancelled and the refund due.
* Move if they don't negotiate a settlement and sue

Yes, sueing is a bother, but done well DIY, they will likely fold before it goes to court.

Thanks for the reply

That's exactly the attitude I've been taking with 123-REG ... BUT ... I am also well aware from past experience with plusnet playing similar games several times that 123-REG also obviously know *exactly* what they're doing here and the risk to them is minimal if not zero.

123-REG, or should I say godaddy, have already set out their stall in this respect and have even made public statements confirming their stance on these changes:

News report:

We tried to contact 123 Reg to hear its side of the story, but like many of its irate customers, found we were unable to do so. Fortunately, we had more success with GoDaddy, the parent company of 123 Reg, which sent us the following statement:

"In March 2023, 123 Reg made the decision to discontinue the free catch-all forwarders feature on mailboxes as part of our commitment to improving our products and services. Customers were contacted multiple times, beginning in March, advising them of these changes and steps they needed to take."

It added: "Whilst we understand this decision will be disappointing for some customers, our catch-all email forwarding was not performing to the level our customers need, or what we expect. So, we made the difficult decision to stop offering the service."

123 Reg said it will continue to support affected customers through the transition and advises them to raise a support ticket if they are experiencing issues.

123-REG ticket response:

Thank you once again for the patience. Firstly, as some general aspects, we understand that this planned migration to Gen2 for our email platform might haven't been ideal for some of our customers, based on the free mail quota of Gen1, which had been included in some of our products, such as hosting packages or Website Builder, a free mail quota which was to be deleted if it's hadn't been used for creating new mailboxes in the mean time, once the migrations had been completed.

This decision of migrating the email service to a new platform has been taken at brand level. After a long consideration, weighing the pros and cons, and taking into account that the new email platform will have provided enhanced anti-spam features and improved stability, we have decided to rollout this move along with a series or carefully calculated costs for the new email packages.

We realize that this is not what you have planned when you've decided to purchase the cPanel hosting package in question for 3 years back in January 2023. However, we cannot possibly monitor how each customer decides to handle the billing for the domains and services from the account unless we're specifically informed about their intentions beforehand, if the case. They can manage this aspect in any fashion they see fit and we're here if any assistance is required.

This migration had been planned for a while and we have spent prior months looking for the best alternative regarding the prices of the new email packages, the amount of time where the mailboxes can be used for free after the migrations and the correspondent email storage. We have then informed our customers accordingly about the next steps once the last details have been internally agreed upon and have become official.

Your particular Gen2 mailbox mail@MyDomain had been separated, thusly, from the mail quota of the cPanel hosting package and had been provided with a free year. The migration was completed on 01.09.2023 and the mailbox is to be auto-renewed on 01.09.2024 No charge had been taken for the migration, just a 0 GBP invoice was issued so that the system will know when the mailbox will be due for auto-renewal, starting with the second year.

The catchall option which had been a free one before the migration had been simply just a perk added from our end. When registering a domain with 123-reg, first and foremost, we offer you the possibility to take ownership for it and to allow you to manage the domain via the Control Panel, basically we ensure just the registration per se. Any other free service offered in the past and the respective policy for providing this might be due for changes as it had happened with those catchalls once the migration had been decided and activated.

Not only but also, a lengthy trawl through the best part of 100 pages of Ts&Cs will confirm that 123-REG can pretty much do what they like, when they like, how they like either with or without notice. There is no obligation whatsoever for them to provide anything at all. However, anything they do actually provide is provided 'as is' without any form of guarantee and without any warranty as to it's fitness for any particular purpose. Changes to or termination of products/services can also be made as/when deemed necessary by 123-REG with customers being moved to the nearest similar product/service. The best part of 100 pages of legal get-outs various typical of most if not all companies these days but especially US-based companies. Suffice it to say that I'm well tied up and positioned appropriately for the shafting I'm receiving unfortunately. Any previous thoughts along the lines of 123-REG being a professional company and either not applying detrimental changes retrospectively or coming to some kind of sensible and fair arrangement with customers have long since stopped.

I'm still not going to just take it without putting up a fight though even if I do realise it is most likely a 100% lost cause. I just hate feeling abused and being totally ripped off like this but it seems like almost everyone is up to it ! Unfortunately, 123-REG are pretty much just ignoring me now that they've given me the statement above. More than 2 weeks now and no further response. They will no doubt continue to drag things out until payment has to be made or the service ceases.

Edited by ambrougham (Mon 18-Mar-24 06:40:03)

Yeah, well.

This is actually a consumer rights issue, rather than a broadband or Web and HTML issue. So you would do better on this question to take it to the Consumer Rights section of moneysavingexpert.com

But it is highly likely that the terms hidden deep within the T&C's which allow them to take the services away are actually unfair terms. They are advertising 'hosting services with free X,y and Z' and the T&C's say 'X, Y and Z may be taken away at anytime'. And what they seem to be doing is making X, Y and Z chargeable.

I think that the maximum they can get away with is to make X,Y and Z charegeable at the cost of releasing you from your contract and refunding you pro-rata.

As you say, moving domain is a matter of renewing for an extra year at worst.

Using 123-reg web hosting with an external domain is officially supported, so I don't think you need worry too much: https://www.123-reg.co.uk/support/hosting/how-do-i-p...

Which leaves the mailbox, which you paid for in advance and should get. Exhaust their complaints procedure and sue if you hit a brick wall. The suggestion to post this at moneysavingexpert is a good one, they know a lot about consumer law.