Cant add my existing (expired) domain to my new premium account

  • Unknown's avatar
    crankbird · Member ·

    My domain storagewithoutborders.com expired. I was thinking of moving the registration to go daddy and self hosting, and that if the domain expired people could still access the content at storagewithoutborders.wordpress.com until I got around to that.

    Unfortunately going to storagewithoutborders.worpress.com redirects straight back to storagwithoutborders.com, so now my content is effectively blocked and hostage to a domain upgrade which has an $80 !!! late fee penalty (punitive fees are effectively illegal in Australia btw).

    I need to reference this content, so rather than pay $93 to get my domain, I upgrade to your $99 premium service which includes this as a part of the service (I figure this is what you were after), but no, I cant register storagewithoutborders.com on my new premium service because it says it’s bound to an existing wordpress account (mine).

    If the redirect from storagewithoutborders.wordpress.com didn’t push you back to storagewithoutborders.com I wouldn’t be so annoyed about this, but at this point I see no point in paying you $93 including a punitive late fee (i.e. the money you are charging is not related to the costs of providing the late renewal service), as I’m only doing this because your redirect is broken, and I cant get that money back.

    The solution to this problem from my point of view could be one of the following

    1. Allocate my existing storagewithoutborders.com to my premium wordpress account that I’ve just paid for and remove the “expired domain” warning
    2. Refund the money I paid for the premium offering and remove the redirect
    3. Allow me to renew without the $80 penalty fee
    4. Let me register the domain storagewithoutborders.com with godaddy where I keep my other domains, and I’ll move the content to my own hosted wordpress.

    At the moment I’m more than a little annoyed with wordpress.com

    Regards
    John Martin

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • Unknown's avatar
    jeremeylduvall · Member ·

    Hi John!

    First, I went ahead and updated the primary domain on your account back to the default WordPress.com URL here:

    https://storagewithoutborders.wordpress.com/wp-admin/paid-upgrades.php?page=domains

    Your site is now loading correctly at storagewithoutborders.wordpress.com. Just a note, you may need to clear your cache first before this begins working correctly on your side. Instructions can be found here:

    Solve Common Browser Issues

    Additional browser instructions can be found here:

    http://www.refreshyourcache.com/en/home/

    Second, in regards to your domain, I went ahead and refunded the Premium purchase you made. The funds should be returned to your account within the next several days. Normally, purchasing a Premium bundle does renew your domain. However, since your domain expired over 20 days ago, it entered a period of time known as redemption. During this time, your domain may get sold to another user at auction by the domain registrar (not by WordPress.com). The registrar imposes an $80 fee to retrieve your domain and renew an expired domain. This fee is charged to WordPress.com by the registrar, which is why the $99 Premium bundle did not apply. You can read more about this process here:

    Recover an Expired or Cancelled Domain

    Going forward, the best route would be to renew your domain from your My Upgrades page here:

    https://storagewithoutborders.wordpress.com/wp-admin/paid-upgrades.php?page=my-upgrades

    The total cost will be $98, which is $18 for the regular renewal and $80 for the late fee. Alternatively, you can wait until your domain fully expires and attempt to purchase it again. However, please note, your domain may be purchased by someone else in the interim. In that case, you would not be able to get it back.

    Let me know if you have any additional questions!

  • Unknown's avatar
    crankbird · Member ·

    Thanks,
    I’ll wait for the domain to fully expire .. do you have any insight into how long that will take ?

    I’d still argue that an $80 fee the registrar is imposing is a punitive fee, but either way, thanks for refunding the money and fixing the redirect

    Regards
    John

  • Unknown's avatar
    jeremeylduvall · Member ·

    Hey John,

    Not a problem! The domain typically takes about 80 days to fully expire. Around that time, it normally becomes available again for purchase provided no one else has purchased it first. However, if you would like, I can cancel the domain from your account right now and hopefully speed up the process. Please note, if I cancel the domain, it will be returned to the registrar immediately. In that case, someone else may purchase it before you, making it difficult for you to recover your domain. If you’re sure you want to proceed, just reply back to confirm. I’ll cancel the domain, which should make the domain available again within a shorter timeframe (2 weeks or so).

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