The domain fbbg.org.au is coming up for renewal, and I got a reminder with typical content:
The following domain(s) will expire on the date indicated unless renewed. Please visit http://www.transact.com.au/ to renew.
Of course there's no information on domain renewal at http://www.transact.com.au/; it's far deeper. Took the search function and arrived at http://www.transact.com.au/en/business/products/web-hosting/domain-names. And the price was really good: $17 for two years.
But how do you renew? There's no information there about renewal. In the end called TransACT up and asked. They didn't know either, but they got Steve McCulloch to call me back. He didn't want to know anything about the $17: for me it was $60. I pointed at the web page, and he said he'd get back to me. When he did, he said:
The price for domain renewal is $60 as shown in the webhosting section if you scroll down. The link that takes you through to the incorrect pricing is not for Victoria but ACT.
What's wrong with this picture? For one thing, he doesn't say where he has been looking for that price, except that it was in webhosting , something I don't want. Another is that they have different prices in different states in the first place. And finally, after much searching I still didn't find the prices that allegedly applied to me.
Called up the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, a name they try hard to hide, on 1300 302 502. Spoke to Shrupi, who told me that there's nothing illegal about asking for different prices in different places, but after some prodding agreed that the ACT page was misleading, and that that could be grounds for investigation. She made a note of the matter , but they won't take any action unless there are further reports.
Started writing a reply to Steve, but first checked the web site again. And this time, on their home page (only!) there was a random link in their clever flash animation: Are you in Victoria? . Clicked on that and got a parallel page http://www.transact.com.au/en-VIC/business/products/web-hosting/, which divulged (but only after clicking on web hosting , which I didn't want) a price of $60 for DNS hosting, in connection with web hosting. And the corresponding page for the ACT doesn't include any price at all for DNS registration.
But in each case there's a link on the left: Domain name registration . And it takes me to the page I originally found. The Victorian version appears identical to the ACT version: it mentions $17 for 2 years.
So: it seems that, for some strange reason, if you choose to host your web with TransACT and you're located in Victoria, they charge you not only monthly fees for the hosting, but additional $43 for domain name registration.
Once again: what's wrong with this picture? We cancelled our web hosting with TransACT a little over a year ago. But the $60 has to do with web hosting only. The fact that they treat their customers differently is a strange business tactic, given that the hosting is probably done on the same machine. But I came to the conclusion that Steve had had as much difficulty as I with their web site, and ended up offering me the wrong product. I put this to him, but he said, no, he had checked. This sounds to me like a third person was also confused by the organization of their web site.
To be fair to Steve, he offered to give me the renewal for $17. But by then it was too late; I had renewed elsewhere. Apart from the price, there's also the issue of the difficulty getting things done. There should be a page on the web site where you can do it automatically. Somehow I'm left with the feeling that TransACT, in Victoria at any rate (ex Neighbourhood Cable) has serious organizational issues.