A few weeks ago, someone emailed me the following message about registering a domain name at eNom, the domain name registrar owned by publicly traded Demand Media (DMD).
“Today I wanted to inform you about something I find really unacceptable: eNom keeps adding “.co” domain names to my shopping cart, even after I delete them from the cart.”
At the time I received that email, I tested the registration process, but it didn’t happen to me, so I figured it was probably an isolated incident.
Today, when I went to hand register a domain name (WhateverYourHeartDesires.com), I was sure to only leave the .com field checked, as you can see above. However, upon proceeding to the checkout screen, the .CO domain name had been automatically added to my shopping cart. Had I been paying less attention, I could have very easily hit the checkout now button and bought a domain name I didn’t want or need.
In addition to this, there was also something called the “Rich Content Free Trial*” which had to be manually removed from my shopping cart as well. I didn’t review the *fine print, but my bet would be that it discusses that a free trial then turns into a paid renewal, which would be equally or possibly more annoying. I don’t know if this is the case for certain, but it would seem to be so.
I understand when companies use a checkoff box to encourage you to buy other domain names. However, it’s very annoying when I uncheck the box and they automatically add it to my cart. Why not just add .net, .org, .biz, .info, .us, .ws, and .name just for good measure? I guess they figure people might notice that but are less likely to notice a .CO.
I hope Enom will stop this.