Member
Was Hostinger!!! But I dont recommend the chargeback way now, reading the thread. I was lucky maybe, or they was weak that day!!!
Now I use Cloudflare Registrar for new domains, no markup, no surprise. But too late for you, I think!!!
Cloudflare Registrar is US$9.15 for .com, no upsell, no auto-renew gotchas. Moved everything there after Gandi doubled their prices. Only catch is you need to use their DNS, which is fine by me.
For @priya's situation though, you're locked in for this year unless grace delete works. Chalk it up, set calendar reminder for 11 months, transfer out on day 61 after renewal to avoid lock.
Still not a good look, but
I've had good luck with Porkbun for weird TLDs and Hover for .ca domains. Both send multiple renewal notices starting 30 days out, none to spam yet.
Member
I manage maybe 200 domains for clients. Auto-renew is necessary evil because letting a client domain expire is career suicide. But I keep them all at registrars with explicit grace delete policies and I test the notification path yearly.
@priya if your registrar refuses, name them here. The community should know who ghosts renewal notices into spam folders.
This is why I have all registrar emails filtered to a dedicated folder, not inbox. Gmail's spam filter is too aggressive with transactional mail from low-volume senders. I check it weekly like a second inbox.
Saved me twice. Cheap insurance.
Member
Graphs dont lie but also dont tell whole story. Registrar could be on shared AWS SES pool with 10 other companies, one bad actor ruins it for all. Not necessarily their fault.
Still, grace delete is the move. Icann complaint is last resort and takes months.
Same spam folder issue with Namecheap last year. Their renewal notice went to promotions tab in Gmail, not even spam. I caught it by accident scrolling. Grace delete worked in 24 hours, no fight.
Set up a filter now: from:*@*registrar* label:domains never spam. Or whatever your registrar domain is.
Update: billing replied!!! They are offering account credit of $89, not refund to card. I asked for grace delete instead as advised here. Waiting for reply now.
Thank you all, this community is very helpful only. I will update once final.
Also I will check Cloudflare Registrar for future. Currently with GoDaddy, was from client requirement originally.
GoDaddy? That explains the $89. Their renewal prices are brutal after first year promo. Transfer out to Cloudflare or Porkbun once you're clear. Don't let them auto-renew again.
Account credit is useless if you're leaving anyway. Hold firm for grace delete or card refund.
