7 months of silence, a leaked internal note, then a cancelled order — never got my domain
On 17 February 2026 I purchased a domain for €26.40 incl. VAT. Payment was taken immediately, but the domain was never registered: it never appeared in "My Domains" and the order stayed stuck on "Running".
It took five months and repeated ignored messages just to get an acknowledgement (July 2026), in which they admitted the registration failed due to a technical incident on their side and promised to complete it. Then in August, a sales agent emailed me demanding an unspecified extra "premium" fee — for the registration AND all future renewals — even though the contract had been concluded at the standard price displayed on their site.
After I sent a formal notice citing French and EU consumer law, their reply accidentally included an unredacted internal note ("À ARBITRER PAR EVA / DIRECTION AVANT ENVOI") showing they were still deciding whether to honour the price, and it promised a final answer by 31 August — a date that had already passed when the message was sent on 1 September.
On 14 September they gave a "firm and final position": register the domain at the price already paid, cancel the premium supplement, ordinary renewal tariff, domain visible by 18 September at the latest. That deadline passed with nothing. On 21 September — seven months after taking my money — they simply cancelled the order, claiming the registry treats the name as premium.
Summary: payment taken day one, domain never delivered, months of unanswered follow-ups, an attempt to charge extra mid-dispute, a leaked internal deliberation note, two self-imposed deadlines missed, and a unilateral cancellation instead of honouring the sale. I have referred the matter to the médiateur de la consommation, the DGCCRF and ICANN.
*** 22.09.2026 Answer to the reply:
Two points in it are incorrect, and the rest omits the file.
1. You write that “once the decision to cancel was taken, we issued a full refund of your registration payment.” That is false. You have not refunded me. On 21 September 2026 you asked me to send my RIB (IBAN/BIC) so that you could make a bank transfer. I refused. The order was paid by card on 17 February 2026. My card has not been credited. No refund has been issued.
2. I did not discover a silent “Running” status after the fact. I reported it on 22 February 2026, five days after payment, and followed up for months. The first substantive admission came in July.
3. On 14 September 2026 you gave, in the support ticket, a “firm and final position”: register ***.cam at the €26.40 already paid, cancel the premium supplement, ordinary (non-premium) renewals, and confirm visibility under “My Domains” before 18 September 2026, 18:00 Paris time. On 19 September you wrote that registration was “being finalized with the registry today.” On 21 September you purported to cancel and asked for my bank details. I refuse cancellation and I refuse a refund. Premium status had been known to you since at least 20 August, and was expressly set aside in that 14 September commitment.
4. As of 22 September 2026, independent RDAP/WHOIS still shows no registration for ***.cam. The domain remains available. The order was not completed. Please correct your public statement about a refund that was never issued, and honour the undertaking of 14 September: register ***.cam at the price already paid, with ordinary renewals.
*** 23.09.2026 Answer to the reply:
You write that a refund has been processed and the matter is closed. As of 23 September 2026 the card has not been credited.
Announcing that the file is closed is not contact, and it is not an attempt to perform the order.
You accept that you promised to register the domain and then did not. This reply does the same thing: another apology, and the domain is still unregistered. You have still not given the name of your médiateur de la consommation.
I did not ask you to cancel. A seller cannot end a paid order on their own. Register the domain.
Reply from Domaine.fr
Hello Sir
We would like to address both your original review and your update, and clarify the outcome of your case.
The requested .cam domain was classified by the registry as a premium domain, with a registration fee approximately twenty times the standard .cam fee. Our system’s connection with the registry should have identified this classification and triggered the appropriate premium registration process. A technical failure prevented this, and your order was accepted at the standard price without registration being completed. We acknowledge our responsibility for this error.
As you noted, the order remained marked “Running” and the domain never appeared in “My Domains”. This reflected an incomplete registration, not a successfully delivered service. The domain remaining available does not contradict its premium classification: availability and registry pricing are separate matters.
You state that you reported the issue on 22 February, five days after payment. We therefore withdraw any suggestion that you waited seven months before checking or contacting us. The pending status does not excuse our failure to resolve your enquiries promptly.
Regarding reimbursement, we initially requested your bank details to arrange a transfer, but you did not provide them. We therefore decided to refund the original card used for payment. This full refund of €26.40 has now been processed. Please check the account associated with that card; the credit may take some time to appear, depending on your bank. Our earlier statement that you had already been refunded was premature, and we apologise for that inaccuracy.
The internal wording “À ARBITRER PAR EVA / DIRECTION AVANT ENVOI” was a drafting instruction generated by the AI tool used to assist in preparing our response. It flagged the need for management review in an unfamiliar situation. It should not have been included in the message sent to you. We remain responsible for the content of our correspondence, regardless of the tool used.
Investigating this incident took too long. Summer holidays and reduced staffing contributed to the delay, but do not excuse the inconsistent replies, incorrect deadline or unfulfilled assurances.
We also acknowledge the significance of the undertaking you cite from 14 September, followed by the message of 19 September. Those communications indicated that registration would be completed, and that did not happen. Referring to the “Running” status alone does not address that inconsistency, for which we apologise.
There was no intention to charge for a service we had not provided. Payment was collected when the order was placed, but the registration process failed. The order has now been cancelled and the full payment refunded to the original card.
With cancellation and reimbursement processed, we consider the matter closed on our side. We remain available to provide the relevant correspondence and transaction records through the mediation process you have initiated.
We regret the technical error and the subsequent handling of your case.
Kind regards,