Comment by richardchilders
1 hour ago
Namecheap forces users to log in to identify themselves. So far, OK.
But then when one attempts to pay for a domain, after one has already provided all of one's credit card information to Namecheap ... Namecheap up and refers its customers to something called Link, which forces Namecheap's customers to create an account and become Link's customers - providing all that confidential credit card information, all over - leaving the customer wondering why Namecheap collected it and what they are going to do with it.
Link forces you to authenticate via SMS so that they know where you are.
This all happened less than 24 hours ago and I was already getting ready to put domain service shopping on my list of things to do but I'm glad to see I'm not the only one.
I nominate Paul Vixie as a possible candidate for CTO or even CEO of a hypothetical nonprofit DNS domain service.
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Link is just payments processing done by Stripe.
https://stripe.com/payments/link
If you've bought anything online recently, especially if it's not obvious who's collecting the payment details or it looks like first party on the checkout page, you've probably used Stripe.
But in those cases you don't have to sign up for it, or create an account with SMS verification. That should be totally unacceptable.
Imagine going to a grocery store and when you want to buy your pack of soda and chips, they tell you: Woah there, pardner! You need an account with MyPaymentProvider before you pay for those groceries! Oh, and you'll need to set up a password and give them your mobile number...