Yahoo Hikes Up Domain Name Fees
By Anna Johnson on July 15th, 2008From July 1, anyone who has registered a domain name through Yahoo’s small-business site will see their annual domain name renewal fee jump from $9.95 to $34.95.
Yahoo has been warning its customers of the impending price hike via emails sent 90 days, 60 days, and 30 days before users are set to renew their domain registrations.
According to Yahoo, new domain registrations will still only cost $9.95 and after a year, the fee will go up to $34.95. Fine, but if you visit their site, you’ll see a very prominent offer of domain names for $9.95 per year… and NO mention of the fact that the price will be $34.95 on renewals.
In my humble opinion, this failure to explain a renewal fee that is three and a half times the initial fee is, at the very least, bordering on contravening the misleading and deceptive laws here in Australia, and possibly elsewhere too.
Apparently, Yahoo is imposing the $25 price increase to meet its costs of delivering the service. Funny how other companies can sell domain names for between $5 and $10. Yahoo, however, argues that because domain name registration is not a core part of its small business suite, its domain prices can’t be as low as those of companies that focus on registering domains. Another comeback might be that low-priced domains are “loss leaders” for such companies.
My hit prediction is that less-educated customers will pay Yahoo’s excessive renewal fee – just as they tend to pay excessive fees for other products and services that can be obtained much more cheaply elsewhere. (Don’t get me started on how big name ISPs get away with charging uneducated home and small business users exorbitant fees for very average services!) Those with a bit more nous will realize that they can pay much less by going elsewhere.
Heck, check out our ad below: we offer domains for $8.95 per year (including renewals) if you use the coupon code “saveabuck”.
Sources: Holly Jackson, “Yahoo Ups Annual Domain Registration Fees”, June 27, 2008, Yahoo Small Business
