free privacy

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Acalita

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I had a client last week ask about hiding their domain details due to an ex that was a stalker, now I completely understand this issue but the client thinks the option should be free. We do not of course wish to rake up our prices to cover the cost of offering free domain privacy but this person did not seem to understand that money does not in fact grow on trees. Anyone else have this issue before?
 
Well one of the things you'll likely face is that the client will leave your services for that of another domain registrar, as they likely DO offer it for free.

Years ago, it was a big racket - up to $10/month for privacy protection. Then a few places dropped the price to $10/year. These days, you can find plenty of places that offer it for free. There's any number of domain reseller companies that also offer it for free, so you can take advantage of that there too if you wanted.

I guess I compare it to the people that are still charging $14.95/year for domains, or $24.95/year - and they're just regular .com domains. It's not a competitive price, but if their clients are paying it, then that's all that matters in their eyes. I have a different view of things, but everyone has their own opinions.
 
We offer domains through a resellerclub account and offer privacy all free ( why charge for this when many dont). our domain prices, we make on average 20p per registration as hosting is our core business and domain services is a secondary addon that we try and keep our prices in line with many larger domain providers
 
Free domain privacy is increasing in popularity, however I do see a lot of companies also offering it free to the first year, and then billing for it yearly.

It all depends on the company, like mentioned above with the domain names being sold by companies that charge much more things than their competitors, they have happy clients and have no reason to change what they are doing.
 
I have mostly seen the "free", but read the find print and it is charged thereafter (kind of like the .99/domain names price jump after one year). Someone who suddenly wants it added after getting the domain would probably need to wait for that yearly "is the info right", but I know you can go and change as well.
 
handsonhosting said:
Well one of the things you'll likely face is that the client will leave your services for that of another domain registrar, as they likely DO offer it for free.

These days, you can find plenty of places that offer it for free. There's any number of domain reseller companies that also offer it for free, so you can take advantage of that there too if you wanted.
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I think so. I notice that Google still offers the private domain registration for free. Namecheap also offers it for the first year. I think you should consider it to better compete with other registrars (or hosting providers).
 
trueman1 said:
Google register domain names now ? :shocked:
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Google is ICANN accredited. I thought they were using this for their own internal use only (Google owned domains).

I guess it would make sense to offer it with their hosting packages. Could you link us to where they are offering these domains as I also wasn't aware they were sell / giving them.
 
This is one of those places where resellers are starting to lose more and more money..Most resellers can get free whois privacy and it was always a wonderful way to make a little extra cash off some clients. Now however, more and more companies are offering the whois privacy for free (such as NameSilo who offers free whois privacy on all new registrations)

My suggestion would be to give the customer his privacy for free if that's what you get it for. Otherwise explain to him that it isn't free for you so it can't be for him either. If the privacy is free for you then its worth just giving it to one customer for free to keep them happy and keep them wanting to stay with you.
 
The other alternative is giving it for free for the first year. I think customers (especially end users) wouldn't transfer their domains to other registrars without good reasons.
 
Our provider offers it for free, so we pass it on also. It's a lot simpler that way, besides the domain sales is not our main business either, we do it more as a convenience then anything.
 
Westpoint said:
The other alternative is giving it for free for the first year. I think customers (especially end users) wouldn't transfer their domains to other registrars without good reasons.
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This is how NameCheap operates, I guess it must work for them nicely. I've actually taken them up on that offer and renewed it after so yeah good for them!

Sadly NameCheap was once sued over the privacy protection so hopefully that doesn't happen again otherwise they may need to justify racking up the prices a bit to offset the risk!
 
Many domain registrar offer privacy option with extra charges. I had the similar problem where I requested the client to use fake details on domain registrar tool if it doesn't have privacy option.
 
Acalita said:
I had a client last week ask about hiding their domain details due to an ex that was a stalker, now I completely understand this issue but the client thinks the option should be free. We do not of course wish to rake up our prices to cover the cost of offering free domain privacy but this person did not seem to understand that money does not in fact grow on trees. Anyone else have this issue before?
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Things that are important and necessary will never get for free. The privacy protection service is too important as many people nowadays make wrong use of your details listed on whois. Among the privacy protection service providers, I think the Namecheap is a good one. You may opt for that if your client want to hide his details.
 
BrandonM said:
Free domain privacy is increasing in popularity, however I do see a lot of companies also offering it free to the first year, and then billing for it yearly.
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Why to hide your identity ? I'll never trust a company having a domain with domain privacy on. But I see the way how most of the big companies are doing is to make a customer to contact them almost impossible, so like this they can be relaxed.How do you check a owner of a domain if there is privacy, you can't, so you are playing "Russian roulette" . Most of domains with domain privacy on are abusers, spam sending etc.

So again, if you are saying all the time the truth you don't need protection.....
 
I can understand a woman business owner having the privacy on for safety reasons, but she needs to understand that it can also be bad for business. There has to be a productive medium in there somewhere.
 
I see a lot of counterfeit ecommerce sites using domain privacy like in have a .uk or .com domain, but selling counterfeit goods from China.

So if a domain has domain privacy enabled then how do you know where the domain/site is registered or what they offer is genuine.
 
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