Why You Should Never Buy From Telecom Domains Ltd

Underhand Cold Call Selling

A family member had exactly the same experience as this person on Blagger.com. She was manipulated into buying two domains. They told her that if she didn't buy them immediately they would be sold to one of her competitors. She was also told that she wasn't in the Google Maps Places index and if Telecom Domains didn't do this for her she could be losing business.

Edit 25th July 2011: I've just found this page on the Consumer Action Group. Looks like these guys make a habit of this.

Charging over 1500% the Market Value for Domains

You can buy a .co.uk domain for under £5 e.g. 1and1 charge £5.98 for 2 years. Telecom Domains charge £100 for 2 years.

Lying about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

The Telecom Domains sales staff sold a product that has zero value and could if anything harm your Google ranking.

Here is what they sold us to improve our SEO:

  1. Two domain names totalling £200 for two years.
  2. Cloaked redirection of both domains to your real website effectively creating "fake" duplicates of your site.
  3. Creating a Google Places maps entry if it doesn't already exist.
  4. Take full control of your Google Places and use their domain names not your proper web address.

Evidence of Telecom Domains SEO Lies or Incompetence

After 2 years there is now perfect evidence that what this company sold was of zero value. The two domain names are not included in Google. £200 for nothing!

If you are a similar customer of Telecom Domains and want proof of this type your the domain name in to Google prefixed by the site: e.g. for the BBC type site:bbc.co.uk

Lying about Google and Costs When you Cancel

This is what Telecom Domains told us when we phoned to cancel this week:

Good Morning [delete],

The domain names [delete] and [delete] are not due for renewal until 7th Sep 2011. 
We contact all clients 8-10 weeks before expiry to make sure that the renewal process runs smoothly.
You are the legal owner of these domain names. However if you wish to transfer these names there will be a admin charge of  £30 + VAT per transfer.
If you continue with your transfer then I do need to make you aware that your Google Map listings will be deleted and you will no longer have your hosting under these domains. Your Google Maps analytics for the names I have arranged to be sent over to yourself in order for you to see the hits that you will lose when we deactivate the Google Listings for these names.

Please advise if you still wish to proceed with the transfers.

Kind Regards

Louise Redknapp

"..Google Map listings will be deleted.." as a outright lie. Unless of course Telecom Domains plan to sabotage the entry when we cancel our contract.

"... they have told me that I have to sort out my Google submissions and Google maps, as once I have come to the end of my contract in September I wont have them anymore..."

This is technically correct but once include on Google Places you don't have to do anything. Unless of course Telecom Domains plan to sabotage the entry when we cancel our contract.

"...Google would charge me around £210??!!"

This is an outright lie! You should never pay have to pay Google to have an entry in their index.

Unfair Exit Fees

To add insult to injury the company want to charge £72 to transfer the domains out of their control. It is not illegal to charge a transfer out fee but within the industry it is frowned upon. In Telecom Domain's hosting which is provided by Fasthosts it would take about 2 minutes to transfer a domain to a difference Fasthosts account so £72 is extortion!

As the domains are not even included in Google there is not value in keeping them so fortunately this is not an issue.

Company Name: Telecom Domains Ltd
Llanelli
Carmarthenshire
UK
SA15 3JA
www.telecomdomains.co.uk