This I wouldn't expect. I registered my domain a while ago using Yahoo! Domains. Back then in was 9.95$ a year. A couple of months ago they started offering a domain for 2.95$ a year. So you'd think I'll be able to switch to the 2.95 plan starting with the second year, right? Wrong. They won't let me switch, they'll just automatically charge me 9.95 for every folllowing year. Now if I really want to switch I have to cancel my plan, which will release the domain to the wild (and we all know how many people out there want the pashabitz.com real bad), wait for some undefined amount of time until it becomes available and then register it again as a new customer.

I even emailed their support (which is not easy, let me assure you) and got such a laconic reply I'm not even sure it wasn't all computer-generated.

The correspondence went sort of like this:

Me: "I'm on the 9.95 plan but I see there's a 2.95 plan now. Can I switch starting with next year?"

Yahoo! Support: "No, you can't. We'll charge you 9.95 forever, until the world ends."

M: "But don't you see how moronic this is, you bloody fools? You realize I can switch the hard way right?"

Y: "Hmm. 2.95 is a limited-time new-customer offer, you have to pay 9.95"

M: "Are you even listening to me? Why would you treat an existing customer worse than a new one?"

Y: "The price is 9.95. You have an existing plan. You'll pay 9.95 once a year. Okay?

   Please fill out this quick survey:

   (1) Was Yahoo! Customer Support helpful to you? (a) Very (b) Not (c) Guess so

   ..."

You get the point.

This is all very Israeli-type service, but very not USA-type service. That's the surprising part of it, for me.

And anyway, why can't Yahoo! give me that lousy 7 buck discount? They make like a bejillion dollars a month. Their market cap is 50 to the 28th power. They *buy* small countries every day just to "enter new markets". Be damned if I understand.