<rant>Just had a bad experience with Namecheap.com (my first actually). First of all their new "Live Support" system just seems to be run by front people who actually have no technical knowledge and are constantly "referring matters on" or asking you to log a ticket!

Turns out that they don't really offer .ca registrations. After nearly 20 attempts over the last two days to get one simple .ca domain registered and trying any combination of Canadian and US registration details, I finally gave up and headed over to 10dollar.ca, who registered the domain for $5 cheaper and best of all, without any problems.

Its just irritating, because I've worked hard to make sure all my names are registered with NC and now have to have a separate account.</rant>

1. Are you sure you have used a correct details to register your domain? .CA registrations are very complicated and even one missing digit in the phone number (for example) can screw up everything.

2. Have you read the following before starting live chat session?
https://support.namecheap.com/livesupport.php

It states quite clear that:

We are providing this service in order to streamline our support system and to provide you with a quick and easy way to get answers to your basic sales and support questions. We would like to make it clear that when we say basic, we mean simple questions that can be found in our knowledge base located here http://namecheap.simplekb.com/kb.show.

While our live support agents are well trained and knowledgable, they are not equipped to handle serious technical issues that require deep investigation and or some billing questions. In these cases, it is best to submit a ticket directly here https://support.namecheap.com/index.php?_m=tickets&_a=submit.

Based on what's said above, you shouldn't have had quite big expectations from the support provided by live chat.

1) I was actually told by support that they were experiencing some kind of timeout issue, and trust me when I say I tried EVERY combination of registration details :). The worst things is that they kept me hanging on for nearly 48 hours with no word of when I would be able to register, and finally came back with a lame message about the CIRA not recognizing the corporation name (when I was trying to register as an individual anyway). It looks to me like their link with CIRA is down.

2) True, I read that also, but I've approached them in the past with simpler issues to the same effect. A live support system has to be more than a talking knowledge base, and have to have more to offer than simply directing you to submit a ticket!

1) I was actually told by support that they were experiencing some kind of timeout issue, and trust me when I say I tried EVERY combination of registration details :). The worst things is that they kept me hanging on for nearly 48 hours with no word of when I would be able to register, and finally came back with a lame message about the CIRA not recognizing the corporation name (when I was trying to register as an individual anyway). It looks to me like their link with CIRA is down.

2) True, I read that also, but I've approached them in the past with simpler issues to the same effect. A live support system has to be more than a talking knowledge base, and have to have more to offer than simply directing you to submit a ticket!



Hello Luke,

I am sorry to hear about your issues. We were in fact experiencing some connectivity issues with .ca.

Regarding our live support, I try to make it very clear here: https://support.namecheap.com/livesupport.php what our live support can and cannot do. You are prompted with this message before you agree to enter the live support. I do not know how to make it any more clearer than that message. Our live support is limited. You should always use the ticket system for deeper issues that require more investigation.

I knew when we released this that clients like yourself would be frustrated but believe it or not, we get hundreds of questions each day regarding simple issues such as dns updates, sales questions etc and it does help. This takes much of the burden of those types of questions from our level 2 people and they can then focus on the much harder to solve issues. In the end I think the benefits outweigh the negatives. Let's not also forget that it is a new service so all of those techs well get better. We offer them incentives to go above and beyond whenever they can.

OK Richard; regarding the live support, I do understand. Thinking on it I can see that pretty simple issues must make up 80% of your support requests, and that it does free the techs up for the more hardcore issues!

The .ca registration is a different matter though, I would have just liked to be kept in the loop, and not still hanging on after 48 hours! Also it meant that I missed the SSL offer that you guys are running right now (which is great by the way).

OP, are you Canadian?

OK Richard; regarding the live support, I do understand. Thinking on it I can see that pretty simple issues must make up 80% of your support requests, and that it does free the techs up for the more hardcore issues!

The .ca registration is a different matter though, I would have just liked to be kept in the loop, and not still hanging on after 48 hours! Also it meant that I missed the SSL offer that you guys are running right now (which is great by the way).

Luke,

Thanks for your understanding. Please PM your username and I'll get a free cert added to your account for you.

Luke

It might sound silly to ask such a simple question, but are you canadian. The rules CIRA set up are pretty strict and requires the entity who owns the domain to be canadian in some sense (corporation, registered company, citizen, etc..).

Just thought I would ask.

10dollar.ca
$10 is quite cheap
Though they charge $10.45 :)

How is their service?
Any good, how would you rate them?

Try http://register.ca/. It was painless when I registered mine. still more complicated then a .com mind you. I think you have to fill out this long form, give a blood and hair sample, and possibly submit a urine sample.

j/k think its just a form, I forget exactly the process.

Try http://register.ca/. It was painless when I registered mine. still more complicated then a .com mind you. I think you have to fill out this long form, give a blood and hair sample, and possibly submit a urine sample.

j/k think its just a form, I forget exactly the process.
LOL! Just make sure those samples return with a positive result (that the registrant is CANADIAN). To be honest, it is just a *little* bit more complicated, and any competent registrar should have no problem using an automated interface to complete the process in MINUTES.