I owned a domain five years ago. I wasn't using it. It expired. Even though I had added my Paypal directly on iPage's website, to remove I had to contact customer support.<br><br>But if the domain expired, there was nothing left to pay, right? I didn't have to contact them.<br><br>Wrong.

CJ

@chostett

I was charged $14 a year for five years for an add-on to an expired domain. How did this happen? Why didn't I notice? In my opinion, intentional design choices by @PayPal and @iPage.

A thread🧵

11/27/2021, 8:52:17 AM

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CJ

@chostett

Before I go into this, I don't expect a refund or to talk to someone's manager. The reason I'm writing this is to illustrate:
1) What you actually are signing up for when you use Paypal auto-pay
2) How design discourages unlinking payment sources from accounts

11/27/2021, 8:52:18 AM

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CJ

@chostett

I owned a domain five years ago. I wasn't using it. It expired. Even though I had added my Paypal directly on iPage's website, to remove I had to contact customer support.

But if the domain expired, there was nothing left to pay, right? I didn't have to contact them.

Wrong.

11/27/2021, 8:52:18 AM

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CJ

@chostett

Long ago I purchased a privacy guard on this domain. The domain expired, but the privacy guard did not. And over the course of five years, iPage charged for a privacy guard to a domain that didn't exist.

Their control panel displays no active domains.

11/27/2021, 8:52:18 AM

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CJ

@chostett

Which is by computer logic, true—I had no active domains. But I DID have an active add-on.

This, I can chalk up to my feeble human expectations, however ridiculous the syntax was. I contacted iPage and they canceled the add-on.

11/27/2021, 8:52:19 AM

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CJ

@chostett

Now curious, I wondered; how did they have access to my Paypal account for five years? I did some digging and found this screen.

The big CTA here isn't to manage, but to sign you up for more auto-pay. To manage merchants, you use the tiny sidebar. There is no bulk delete.

11/27/2021, 8:52:20 AM

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CJ

@chostett

There were services I had deleted my account with who still had active auto-pay set up. And the sidebar only displays 7 entries, To know just how many merchants have access to my Paypal, I have click "See More" to display 2 more at a time.

11/27/2021, 8:52:21 AM

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CJ

@chostett

After clicking "See More" four times, I found the entry for iPage, far down on the list.

Even deleting my account wouldn't have removed the merchant link—that burden falls on me to remove manually through Paypal's interface that is actively trying to guide me otherwise.

11/27/2021, 8:52:22 AM

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CJ

@chostett

I started this journey thinking iPage was the enemy, but I am more horrified to know that once I input my Paypal, merchants have lifetime access to my money, regardless if I cancel their service or not.

11/27/2021, 8:52:22 AM

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CJ

@chostett

For those of you wanting to check how many merchants have active links to Paypal, log in and go to:

[Settings (Gear Icon) -> Payments -> Manage Automatic Payments]

Thanks y'all, and stay safe.

11/27/2021, 8:53:51 AM

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