Ipowerweb.com
Ripoff DOMAIN NAME SCAM you may lose your name to someone else because they never register it!

Here's how the scam works:

1. They advertise domains at the incredibly cheap rate of $2.95 to attract people to their site.

2. But then when you actually order one (and don't buy their other services), they tell you they won't process your order unless you provide them with a whole lot of paperwork. The paperwork is so onerous that very very few people would be:
- willing to do it
- have the time to do it
- or even have the actual paperwork to do it.
In other words, the whole offer is an INCONVENIENT AND FRUSTRATING MIRAGE. A bargain that evaporates through your fingers the moment you try to take it to the check-out!

That would be annoying enough - but the other thing they do is RISK LOSING YOU YOUR WEB NAME!

Why? Becuase they even don't bother telling you they haven't registered your domain - at least not in the FIRST 24 hours! You're left to find out that yourself - hopefully before someone else has snatched it from under you!

Chronology:
1. I came up with three names for websites I wanted to create. But I didn't have a credit card. My friend had one but only had $US 14 on it. (Yeah, losers I know, but you've got to start somewhere!) But if IPOWERWEB'S domains REALLY WERE $3 each, we would have had enough. (Beside's - THAT'S THE OFFER!) We order them in my name, using his credit card. (No big deal, huh? And in fact, we did this exact same thing with —and —on the very same day - but earlier, when we had more funds. These went through fine and were registered by the next day).

2. When you order they don't give you any LOGIN name. You don't sign up to anything so you can access a toolbox later. There's NOTHING. Just a screen saying "Thanks for your order" and that's it.

3. But I also got nothing from them in my email box - not even a confirmation of order! (Including the SPAM folder.)

4. All this leaves you completely in the dark as to what is going on. Was it actually ORDERED, or not? Was it being registered or not? There's no way to know!

5.24 hours later I check to see if all the names I ordered have been registered. Sure enough, the ones I ordered with the other two sites have duly been registered. But the ones I ordered from IPOWERWEB are STILL AVAILABLE for anyone in the world to take! I'm mortified!

6. I can't find ANYWHERE to log in (and how can I, without a log-in name?), but I use a contact form to get in touch with customer service. No response for hours.

7. I talk to their live online tech support. They tell me Accounts will be sending me an email. They say I can expect my names to be registered within a few more hours.

8. When I read the email it tells me that: "Due to the high number of fraudulent orders we are receiving, we have found it necessary to verify that the legal cardholder has placed the order." They will only complete my order if I send them a FAX or JPEG of my friend's credit card "as well as a copy of the cardholder's identification (driver's license, passport etc.)". Alternatively I can POST them a cheque!

9. I send several emails protesting this but they don't reply to any.

10. I finally got my friend to agree, against our best judgements and concerns about identity theft, to scan his credit card into a jpeg file. We also scan in his MEDICARE CARD - a card issued to every adult Australian (we're both Australians) for free government healthcare. This card is universally accepted as a basic form of ID in our country. We also scanned in a segment of a recent government letter my friend received. (Australia doesn't have any official ID card and neither of us drive, so we don't have licenses.)

SURELY THIS WILL BE ENOUGH, I THINK, CONSIDERING THAT *JUST* A CREDIT CARD IS ENOUGH FOR ONLINE PURCHASES OF $100s WITH THE VAST MAJORITY OF ONLINE VENDORS, And it's BACKED UP FURTHER by ID that most government departments and businesses in Australia will accept for basic transactions.

11. They reply: "Unfortunately our policy is to verify orders that have been flagged for one reason or another. I assure you that we are not trying to single you out, but it is necessary for you to provide the information that we have requested from you. Unfortunately what you have provided is not sufficient. If you can not provide what we've asked for, you have the option of mailing us a check or money order. We also accept wire transfers. Our mailing address is listed below."

12. But, I'm sure like many people - we just DON'T HAVE the SUSPICOULSY HIGH level of paperwork they're suddenly requiring. Furthermore, if THEY'D MADE IT MORE CLEAR that this unusual amount of paperwork would be required in the first place, we wouldn't have wasted our time with them. Not only that, because they didn't tell us that our order wasn't accepted for over 24 hours (in fact ONLY when WE contacted THEM - they may NEVER have contacted us, considering they didn't even send us a confirmation of receiving our order), they have put us at risk of losing our domain names altogether.in fact, if we'd had enough faith to simply trust that an order is an order and not checked it for a few days, it could have been a complete disaster.

Tim
Sydney
Australia

Company: Ipowerweb.com
Country: USA

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