Do NOT use CentralNic Reseller as your domain provider. Here's why.

[lulzkiller]

Do NOT use CentralNic Reseller as your domain provider. Here's why.

Since CentralNic merged with Hexonet and absorbed all their customers, the service has gone completely downhill. First, they hit us with a 5x price increase during the migration — no notice, no warning, just 5x overnight. But the pricing is the least of the problems. What I'm about to describe is either gross incompetence or a deliberate *. After dealing with this for months, I'm leaning towards the latter.

The pattern: domains that "magically" don't get renewed

We manage a large portfolio of .PL and .DK domains through CentralNic Reseller. Over time, we've noticed a pattern: domains that should be renewed in time — where the client has paid, where the funds are there — somehow end up expiring and landing in "former domains." Not once. Not twice. Repeatedly, across multiple .PL domains.

And that's where CentralNic makes their real money. Because once a domain expires and needs to be "restored," they charge ~$50 USD — on a domain that costs a fraction of that at the registry. It's a hell of a business model: let domains slip through, then charge a premium to fix it.

The .PL restore * — how it actually works

.PL domains are operated by NASK, the Polish registry. At the registry level, a domain restore is a single atomic command: domain:renew with an <extdom:reactivate/> extension. One command. It restores the domain and renews it for 1 year. One operation, one fee at the registry. This is defined in NASK's EPP 2.1 specification — it's not my interpretation, it's how the protocol works.

But CentralNic Reseller treats it as two separate billable operations: a restore, then a renewal on top. According to their own support agent, "our system runs restore and renewal separately, one after another."

This means:

1. They charge you a $50 restore fee — which at the registry already includes the renewal.
2. They then charge you a separate renewal fee — for a renewal that the registry already performed in step 1.
3. If you don't have enough funds to cover both (because you rightfully only budgeted for the restore, which should be enough), they delete the domain again and ask you to pay the full $50 restore fee a second time.

Let me say that again: they charge you to restore a domain, the restore succeeds at the registry, their own system fails to process it, and then they ask you to pay the restore fee again. For their mistake.

Proof — here's the actual support chat:

We had a .PL domain — let's call it XXXXXX.pl — show up under "former domains" even though WHOIS showed it active with an expiry date of 2027.03.19. Here's what happened when I contacted support:

Me: XXXXXX.pl - It's under "former domains" but renewal date is 2027.03.19, so there is no reason for it to be under former domains.

Support: Sorry for the wait, I checked the logs and found the restore succeeded but there weren't enough funds to cover the renewal afterwards, which made the domain get deleted again. Please make sure there's sufficient funds available for both operations + VAT to restore the domain.

Me: But WHOIS says renewal date 2027.03.19 — so the domain is already renewed?

Support: WHOIS shows the dates from the registry, where a restore was completed, but it wasn't actually completed fully. Please try again.

Me: I already paid the restore fee. You want me to pay $50 again?

Support: VAT needs to be accounted for as well.

Me: VAT? I'm a VAT-enabled DK company. I shouldn't be charged VAT.

Support: My bad, double checked, no VAT should be charged on your account.

Me: I just checked the NASK documentation. A restore includes the renewal. There is no secondary renewal on top of a restore.

Support: The implementation of our system runs restore and renewal separately, one after another.

Me: Your implementation is wrong. The official NASK documentation states that a restore does both things in one go. If you auto-renew after the restore, the domain is paid twice and should be renewed for 2 years, not 1.

After that — silence. No escalation, no resolution, no refund. I warned them multiple times that I would go public with this. They didn't care to respond.

It's not just .PL

We suspect the same thing is happening with .DK domains. CentralNic charges a restore fee, but the client then has to go directly to Punktum.dk (the Danish registry) to actually get the domain restored. So what exactly is the restore fee paying for?

The bottom line

Let's break down what CentralNic Reseller is doing:

- Domains "magically" expire even when clients have paid for renewal on time
- They charge a ~$50 restore fee that is massively inflated compared to registry cost
- For .PL domains, the restore already includes the renewal at the registry — but they charge a separate renewal fee on top, double-dipping
- When their own system fails to process the restore they already charged you for, they delete the domain and ask you to pay the full restore fee again
- For .DK domains, they charge a restore fee but the client has to deal with the registry directly anyway
- When confronted with evidence from the official registry documentation, they go silent

This isn't one bad support experience. This is a pattern across multiple domains, multiple TLDs, over months. Whether it's incompetence or by design, the result is the same: you pay more, you lose domains, and when you push back with proof, they stop responding.

Stay far away from CentralNic Reseller.
 

[Humanbeing]

The pricing is simply unrealistic, unworkable and anti-partner/customer. And then there are additional costs and friction like monthly subscription. There's no way one can sell anything with their pricing.

Edited 5 hours ago by Humanbeing