dotster.com WARNING!!!

[netcraft]

I’ll try to describe what dotster.com did to me:

When you make an order at dotster.com, they place a hold on your credit card. Until now no problem, this is usual. The problem starts, when you receive a “Credit card verification error” from auto@dotster.com. I am not telling you, this happens every time, but it is posted on their website (hard to find), so it seems this issue is not a lonely mistake. Then you try again, and auto@dotster.com says, your card has problems.

This was the point where I called them:
Dotster.com has a professional voicemail system, many choices etc. I called dotster.com at least 30 times (maybe more, I wasn’t counting but I spent 120 minutes). I was able to talk to them too! Lucky me!
There is another choice email support at: support@dotster.com. It is automated!!! The sending from their website and the answer too! So you will have a great experience of an early artificial intelligence. It seems funny but when I managed to talk to the dotster.com support stuff (finally), they gave me the advice to give it a try now. After EIGHT tries, I still got the “Credit card verification error” from mister auto at dotster.com. This guy must be the best employee, he always answers 
SURPRISE!!! I was charged every time! Dot-domain registrations! And there is more:

auto@dotster.com says: Credit card verification error

Dotster phone support says: Thank you for calling….assisting other customers…wait…(nice music)…time goes…..YOU WILL TRY AGAIN LATER…what you don’t know is that your phone bill will be much more than the price of the domain and the Hosting and the site-builder together !

Dotster e-mail support says: Thank you for your patience…bla, bla, please wait until we are sure, we have your money. (Don’t be afraid, you will wait because we charged you so much, you won’t leave us for sure.)

They charged me 8 times for the same amount, around $2000 (a little less). And they gave me enough time to contact my bank, MasterCard and everyone to find out, what s happening. They had the opportunity to call MasterCard, and to approve or cancel my order, but the customer service is assisting other customers.
My story started at 07/04/2006 (land rush started for .eu registrations) and my card is still blocked. I was hoping to register some good .eu domains, between 60 and 400, for me and for my customers. The domains were available. Today 21 of them is still available, (I registered 10 with the money dotster.com left on my account). I cannot register them, because dotster left me with $100 on my account, and still waiting. I asked them to register the domains at least, to not lose them, but it seems I was a dreamer.
Dotster.com takes financial issues very serious, except if it is about my or your money!!!

If you deal with domains and customers, you understand exactly what and how much did I loose! My customers knew that the domains are available, and they saw them available for days, until somebody else registered them. And this just because they trusted me, they trusted my company; and because I trusted dotster.com.
I lost a few hundred dollars, some of my best customers and at least 20 – 40 exceptional .eu domains. Dotster.com says: thank you for your patience!

If you believe this short story, please send it to your friends and domain registrars or post it at as many places as you can. If you don’t believe it, feel free to ask me proof (account statements, payment refusals, statements from the bank, e-mails from dotster.com, exact dates, etc.), at: ilovedotster@yahoo.com.

[Banned: domain newbie]

i have ordered about twenty .eu's in the early hours of land rush, i haven't heard from them since, not a even single email or so, and no domains, they charged my Ccard, i haven't emailed the support yet thought...!

thanks for sharing !

[Rockefeller]

I have also used Dotster. Though I have had the initial preauthorizations I have not been charged wrongfully.

I have received multiple emails from them as well as well as the Card Verification error email...still no problems really. They did have problems with my card since I had 1K in pre-authorizations on my card and Mastercard declined more due to possible fradulent activity.

[proxinated]

:( that blows... i wouldn't use them anyways because ive never heard of them.