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Comment by ted0 | Hacker News Reader

Ted from Namecheap here. We have launched a new beta registrar, Spaceship.com, which has wholesale pricing on most extensions. A reminder that wholesale pricing is set by each TLD’s registry, not us.

Would love your feedback on this early version of Spaceship.

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Yeah, nah.

What's the point of this? If you think this pricing model is sustainable, why won't you just lower the Namecheap prices?

It feels like a bait. What service are you gonna launch after you jack up the prices to the moon on Spaceship? How about Submarine?

Also I already noticed deceptive pricing, ICANN fees are added in the checkout instead of being in the listed price the domain.

If I'm leaving Namecheap, I'm leaving Namecheap.

Well fair but I welcome you to at least check it out! It’s an entirely new codebase and platform.

I consolidated my domains on Namecheap, but this behavior pisses me off enough to move ALL of them. And I have dozens. Right after I post this screed I'm going to deactivate auto-renewal on every goddamned one.

Don't rip us off and then launch a new service and point to it saying, "Hey look, since you caught us ripping you off, try this one!"

Unbelievable.

How would you call this ripping you off? Seems like quite the stretch here. Namecheap is a business — we can choose to take a markup on registrations, which by nature is transparent given that wholesale prices are public.

Spaceship has been in the works for years and it’s something we’re excited about, hence why I’m letting you know about it.

You've been called out right here for pretending that the price increase is out of Namecheap's control, when in fact the vast majority of it is Namecheap's markup.

So that's how I call it ripping us off.

I am very confused by this. What's the purpose? Why not just improve Namecheap?

It’s an entirely new brand and platform that’s been in the works for a while.

Ok. But why?

Long time, big user of Namecheap here.

I'm so confused about Spaceship.

Why would I use Spaceship over Namecheap, and vice-versa?

spaceship.com has a "sale" on .com domains, $7.88 now and $8.80 list price. since both of those are lower than the current fee of $9.15, how is anyone expected to trust that the price will not increase in the future if you're selling them at a loss?

We are committed to having competitive pricing at Spaceship for the long term. If you’re concerned, you can also lock in current pricing with multi-year registration.

Fwiw, you could say the same about anyone else in the market. Wholesale pricing is controlled by the registry, retail pricing can be updated by the registrar at any time.

No. You're creating a pain in the ass for Namecheap customers. Your only chance of keeping my business (and probably that of other pissed-off customers) is to give us a one-click way to migrate all of our domains to your new "less of a rip-off" brand.

I'm not about to reward a company that WASTES MY TIME by shuffling my business between THEIR brands. I will make damned sure that my next registrar has nothing to do with Namecheap.

One click migration is not out of the question. Super early days for Spaceship. There’s no shuffling happening here, I’m simply letting you know about a new platform we’re excited about.

You're holding out "Spaceship" as an alternative, which absolutely DOES mean shuffling our registrations from Namecheap to Spaceship.

Now you've really insulted us, so I don't give a shit if you offer migration or not. I'm gone.

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