I am grateful for the replies and help I have received from the fellow members here. Thanks to all of you. Just went through the responses again and realised that back in September, I had this stuff in the back of my mind that I was supposed to be incredibly submissive in my responses to everybody here. I thought there would be some
street justice or sth lol. That clearly led to nowhere. I am now much better informed in these matters so I'll post my replies.
I think it's fair to say that your initial approach triggered a series of cascading events that led to where you are now.
No, it's not. We're not talking about OLX or Ebay. This is a company accredited by a central authority. They are not allowed to adopt intimidation tactics to make me pay extra or intentionally ignore my subsequent mails to suspend my domain. That's a breach of their accreditation agreement. More on that later in this reply.
The reply you mention was respectful by all means. I think you need to think this from an avg user's perspective. Imagine you pay, go to sleep and wake up to a suspension mail. You definitely want to let them know 'respectfully' that you were unhappy with the suspension without warning. When I received that account suspension mail, I genuinely thought that I lost my money. If you have a look at that response again,
I ask them where and how to provide them my Govt ID of preference i.e. Adhaar. They never answered this and I sent my Adhaar assuming that I was supposed to send them the complete photocopy. That's not how paid support works. You're supposed to reply, "Send the desired ID proof here on Gmail in this manner". It's not the consumer's duty to be aware of this beforehand. I am not serving them as my masters. A company serves its consumers, not vice versa.
As a consumer I have the right to show dissatisfaction respectfully. Companies are not supposed to misbehave upon being asked where to submit govt ID for verification. If they think they can, they mustn't operate in any situation where they deal with consumers.
You said you did your research based on price but somehow you didn't do enough research to know that you need to put in a full postal address for the domain registration. Ignorance of this isn't a valid excuse, there are so many resources online — videos, blogs, wiki's, whois databases, all of which you're aware of but did not use. it takes a maybe five minutes at most to find out what you need to know about domain registration through a web search.
Ignorance is not an excuse, yes. It is not a crime either. Companies are supposed to cooperate when unintended mistakes like this arise, not send threats to charge 500 extra. Thing is the institution that my domain name went by doesn't exist. Since my home is not the institution concerned here, I chose to enter the name of the city which also happens to be the name of my block. That's all the ignorance involved here. I repeat, ignorance is not enough of a crime for which companies misbehave and send threats.
This company assumed since you know enough to register a domain, you would also known the basic guidelines of the registration process.
Purchasing a domain isn't rocket science. You pick a name, enter your info and make the payment. Any literate human has the ability to do this. Registering a domain doesn't mean that one is already a 'geek'.
Their language and tone was unnecessarily aggressive but the actions they took are within what's to be expected — account suspension, penalty charges, refusal of refund. In fact, i would say they they even did what other registrars would not do — give you a second chance. Other registrars would straight away cancel a registration if they suspected incorrect information and you would lose whatever you had paid.
You're clearly wrong here. Have a look at the .in registry's 'Terms and conditions for registrants'.
https://www.registry.in/system/files/Terms_and_Conditions_for_Registrants.pdf
The actual rule reads as follows:
2. Inaccurate Information: A Registrant's willful or grossly negligent provision of inaccurate, false or unreliable information, and in the event the registrant willfully or grossly neglects to promptly update information provided to Registrar shall constitute a material breach of the Registrant's Registration Agreement with the Registrar and be a basis for cancellation of the Registered Name, and any other action under the relevant laws of India.
It mentions two things. 'Willful' and 'grossly negligent'. Where do you think anything that I had wilfully provided false info? In my first reply, I had written clearly that, "I've no intentions to violate or not comply with any regulations." That is not wilfully inaccurate or 'gross negligence'.
No registrar can suspend a domain for 'assumptions'. Everybody gets a second chance and that's not pity. It's the right of the the individual who registers a domain.
Mitsu.in didn't do me a favour and no, nobody losses anything they pay if there is no malice/wilful negligence involved.
The Rs 500 charge is also not unheard of, domain registrars and hosting providers are known to charge extra (either on a plan or per incident) if they need to hold your hand and explain what the process/procedure is to get something done or setup. Companies like these are service providers, they expect you know what you need — they're not youtubers or online tutors.
May not be unheard of for those who have dealt with it before. For the rest, it is. As for the tutorial/explanation part, they are supposed to provide the consumer the KB articles immediately when they ask the consumer to update anything.
They are supposed to charge only when the consumer fails to do it on his/her own and they (the company) do it themselves.
They are supposed to say, here are the KB articles that explain how to do it. If the consumer still needs help,
he has the right to ask where and if he is missing anything. If a company doesn't have pre-made support material, that's not the fault of the consumer. Companies can't say that you need to pay 500 after 48 hours if they do it. That's nonsense. They can charge 500 if the consumer intentionally ignores the timeline.
For your reference, here is the .IN REGISTRAR Accreditation Agreement.
https://www.registry.in/system/files/IN_Registrar_Accreditation_Agreement_1.pdf
Scroll down to page 8 of that PDF.
In section 6.2, the agreement reads:
The Registrar has to be able to perform all necessary domain name updates and be able to initiate transfers, when requested to do so by the Registrant, without undue delay. Registrars shall employ such employees, contractors, or agents with sufficient technical training and experience as reasonably necessary to fulfill its obligations hereunder, and to respond to and fix all technical problems.
Section 6.6 reads:
Registrars will endeavour to resolve Registrant complaints efficiently and with due diligence. They will provide each Registrant with the contact information of their customer support personnel, such as phone number, fax number, e-mail address and website URL.
So yes, registrants are required by their accreditation contract to provide competent support. Something Mitsu.in clearly lacks. They have breached their agreement.
I have never needed to email customer support for any domain or any website in the last two decades
To put that in my context, I have not paid for any antivirus in my life. I have used every version of Windows starting from Windows XP to Windows 11 yet I never encountered any virus, malware, bundle-ware.
That doesn't mean I tell others that they shouldn't use anti-virus or ... When they get infected with a virus that they are missing the expertise to browse. That's not how life works. Just because we are well versed in something, it doesn't mean other are, or that they even need to be.
Another thing is, the guy was threatened/triggered by verification email which he should not have because it's within their rights to verify the ID if they want to.
I absolutely felt threatened. I think my brain has the right to feel so when I literally paid, slept and woke up to the suspension. And as far as rights are concerned, I do have the right to tell them 'hey listen, you should've asked me to update my address instead of suspending my account for 'assumptions'. In the same mail I ask them 'where and how' to submit my ID. That's the part where the focus should be on. Whether I complied or not.
And in my experience, if they ask for verification information then you should provide it. Period.
You missed the part where I ask them, in the same reply 'where and how to submit it'. Adhaar is personal and confidential, not a piece of paper. I have the right to ask in what manner I am supposed to send it. And for the record, I had provided my Adhaar in 18 minutes.
The alarming thing is OP accusing them in return which escalated the whole situation to where it is right now. Company's legal message was a template email and they said nothing wrong in it. But OP tried to teach them English or how they should manage their website or whatever he was trying to do. lol
Nothing alarming there. I expressed my dissatisfaction for the suspension upon 'assumption'. I have the right to speech in this country. If you run a company, the consumers will let you know when they are unsatisfied with something. This is why the 'feedback' mechanism exists in most if not all major companies. If you can't stand a simple criticism, then don't run a company. Period.
I wasn't trying to teach them English. When I first received the suspension mail, I genuinely thought that I lost 3k. When they wrote 'contact details' I thought maybe I had mistyped something else and not my address. Only when I went through the billing info I realised that it was just the name of city that I was being asked this govt ID for verification.
I was not telling them that I was not ready to provide them my govt ID. I was not accusing them saying that they don't know how to run a website. I was not teaching them 'English'.
I was telling them that I was unhappy that they suspended my account without asking me my govt ID if they deemed that necessary. That's not accusation.
To be frank, I "may" also be offended by such an email out of the blue.
Then you shouldn't work in a position where you deal with the consumers. Simple as that.
And whole situation became worse day by day. All this could have been avoided if OP kept his cool and just provided them ID and accepted the additional charges as a cost of learning.
Makes no sense. If you can, go through my reply again and see where I write where and how I am supposed to send them my govt ID. It was a respectful criticism of the suspension first-then ask mechanism. And they did get my Adhaar.
There is no learning involved here. I didn't sign up for a lesson lol. I was not supposed to be charged anything extra since there was no wilful negligence involved from my end. Here is the concerned T&C for your reference.
https://www.registry.in/system/files/Terms_and_Conditions_for_Registrants.pdf You can't wait for 48 hours to be over to charge a consumer and teach him a lesson.
The alarming thing is, that it may be OP's first time to deal with such incidence but the company is dealing with such people from last 5-10 years or may be more and they very well know what to do and how to deal in such incidences.
That's none of my business. I had signed up for the domain, not to learn the history of the registrars. They clearly are not competent enough to run a company.
that support staff is also human and if you treat them poorly, they can and have many ways to return the favor in many different ways.
There was no mistreatment involved. Period. I didn't disrespect them in any way or manner on that reply. What you are implying here is that they are allowed to bring my personal life into this and bully me into paying extra. That's not how business works. That's criminal conduct. If you think as a company you can bully a consumer to flex your power and "return the favour", there will be consequences.
I would apologize to them for my behavior and ask them to resolve the matter peacefully.
That's peak bullying right there. Am I supposed to lick their boots and plead for the domain/money? I have committed no wrong for which I should apologise. There was never any option for 'peace' when they called to send me those threats. Even more so when they suspended my domain 10 minutes after that call and unquoted all my responses after that 'We'll charge you now" reply. They now call me "DDOS Attacker' and 'Cyber Criminal'. Tell me to apologise again lol.
They now have to answer Nixi why my compliance and subsequent mails were unquoted from the domain suspension mail. Misleading .IN Registry should definitely be considered a breach of registrant agreement with the .IN Regisry.
What this means, most importantly, is that there's no expectation of a timely reply to a support related email. They'll reply if and when they feel like replying. It could be hours or days or never. Every second they spend typing an email is a second away from monitoring their systems, their automations and their rollouts.
Clearly completely wrong. They must reply with due diligence and more so when the matter is regarding suspension. What you assume 'alright' is a clear breach of agreement. I'll provide the link and excerpts once again.
.IN REGISTRAR Accreditation Agreement.
https://www.registry.in/system/files/IN_Registrar_Accreditation_Agreement_1.pdf
Scroll down to page 8 of that PDF.
In section 6.2, the agreement reads:
The Registrar has to be able to perform all necessary domain name updates and be able to initiate transfers, when requested to do so by the Registrant, without undue delay. Registrars shall employ such employees, contractors, or agents with sufficient technical training and experience as reasonably necessary to fulfill its obligations hereunder, and to respond to and fix all technical problems.
Section 6.6 reads:
Registrars will endeavour to resolve Registrant complaints efficiently and with due diligence. They will provide each Registrant with the contact information of their customer support personnel, such as phone number, fax number, e-mail address and website URL.
To put it into perspective, the emails they sent you have already ate up so much of their time/money that even if you were to register a domain with them for 10 years, they would not make a profit from your account. They are basically taking a loss when they respond to your emails, hence the Rs 500 charge.
First, the price is set by them. Consumer registers for the domain and not to care for their profit or loss. Whether they make a profit or loss is none of the consumer's business.
If they can't co-operate to let a registrant keep his domain, they MUST NOT be a registrant. What you're saying is literally this: 500 rupees if they reply. That's bullying and illegal. That aside, I've already posted agreement twice above. Domain business doesn't work the way you have assumed here.
Companies like these rely on numbers, they'll earn less than maybe Rs 100/year from you and your single domain. So they'll concentrate their efforts on transactions and accounts that don't require any effort on their part, and they hope to make a profit by having thousands to lakhs of accounts like yours. This is how every registrar works.
Taking above into consideration, you should have a better idea why they ignored your emails. They expect you to know what to do with their service. If you submitted/updated the details they asked, they get a notification that appears as a blip in their automations and they would not even look at it nor remember who you are or what your domain is and this is normal for their day to day operations.
Literally none of my business. That's not any consumer's business. Consumer pays for the product. A consumer doesn't pay to learn about the internal operations, the profit margins or anything along that.
When I visit a bike showroom, I am there for the bike and its features. Not the engineering, mathematics, or the hard work involved in manufacturing it.
Again, I need to stress, in twenty years and countless domains, I never needed to email anyone at a registrar or hosting provider. This industry is very different and it has always been this way.
The industry operates within clear rules that ensures that consumer rights are not abused. No magic spice involved here. The registrar involved in this circus is going to face the consequences. Period.
No, they have also lost the cool during the conversation and later stepped over the line with the threats on phone call.
Taking above into consideration, you should have a better idea why they ignored your emails.
I think something clear as daylight is being swept under the rug here. You don't need be Sherlock Holmes to understand what's going on here.
They had the time to send back to back mails initially. They had the time to get offended, to un-suspend my account within 15 minutes of me sending my Adhaar. But they didn't have the time to send me the KB articles until 23 hours later.
They didn't have the time to respond to all 5 of my mails in 48 hours but at 12.15 PM on September 6, 2023, "precisely 48 hours" after the stipulated time limit was granted to me, they remembered to call me and send me personal threats. To call me a child who they were 'sparing'.
They had the time to doctor the interaction and omit my compliance and subsequent mails in their domain suspension mail. They had the time to call me 'Cyber Criminal', 'DDOS Attacker' and 'Threat to cyber space' upon my demand of refund.
Please don't try to interpret bullying as technical reasons of missing.
That's all I had to write. Thanks again for the help.
techenclave.com
