Registry trickery?

Recently, one of my web site clients found that her domain
name, which was registered through www.registry.com, had
expired. She had not received any kind of bill, notice or
reminder in any form. However, the registrar offered to
"save" the domain name -- for $200. There seems to be
a considerable motivation here for the registrar to
"forget" to bill or remind the client that their domain
name is about to expire, or to "lose" the payment, and I
am wondering if others have had similar experiences with
www.registry.com or other registrars. Is this now a
regular thing?

G*rd*n

G*rd*n wrote:

>
> Recently, one of my web site clients found that her domain
> name, which was registered through www.registry.com, had
> expired. She had not received any kind of bill, notice or
> reminder in any form. However, the registrar offered to
> "save" the domain name -- for $200. There seems to be
> a considerable motivation here for the registrar to
> "forget" to bill or remind the client that their domain
> name is about to expire, or to "lose" the payment, and I
> am wondering if others have had similar experiences with
> www.registry.com or other registrars. Is this now a
> regular thing?

Doesn't matter. It is the SOLE RESPONSIBILITY of the registrant to renew
their names on time.

--
Charles Sweeney
http://CharlesSweeney.com

"G*rd*n" <> wrote in message
news:cmioof$mao$...
>
> Recently, one of my web site clients found that her domain
> name, which was registered through www.registry.com, had
> expired. She had not received any kind of bill, notice or
> reminder in any form. However, the registrar offered to
> "save" the domain name -- for $200. There seems to be
> a considerable motivation here for the registrar to
> "forget" to bill or remind the client that their domain
> name is about to expire, or to "lose" the payment, and I
> am wondering if others have had similar experiences with
> www.registry.com or other registrars. Is this now a
> regular thing?

It's a scam many do to make extra cash. It is up to the owner to renew so
there's not much you can do about it.

Best bet is to make sure your contact info is always up to date and find a
registrar that will let you automatically renew every year with a credit
card. Saves me a heap of headaches.

"G*rd*n" <>:
> > Recently, one of my web site clients found that her domain
> > name, which was registered through www.registry.com, had
> > expired. She had not received any kind of bill, notice or
> > reminder in any form. However, the registrar offered to
> > "save" the domain name -- for $200. There seems to be
> > a considerable motivation here for the registrar to
> > "forget" to bill or remind the client that their domain
> > name is about to expire, or to "lose" the payment, and I
> > am wondering if others have had similar experiences with
> > www.registry.com or other registrars. Is this now a
> > regular thing?

"Noozer" <>:
> It's a scam many do to make extra cash. It is up to the owner to renew so
> there's not much you can do about it.
>
> Best bet is to make sure your contact info is always up to date and find a
> registrar that will let you automatically renew every year with a credit
> card. Saves me a heap of headaches.


My client made the mistake (in my opinion) of going through
the hosting company (Hurricane Electric). So the fault may
not be theirs -- although in searching throough Google Groups,
I came upon a couple of complaints.

I advise people to do their own registration. But then they
want to know with whom, and I don't want to recommend an outfit
that's going to play games with them. I wonder if anyone has
put together a comparative list of registars, similar to the
host comparisons at www.webhostingratings.com.

"G*rd*n" <> wrote in message
news:cmircp$ji3$...
> "G*rd*n" <>:
> > > Recently, one of my web site clients found that her domain
> > > name, which was registered through www.registry.com, had
> > > expired. She had not received any kind of bill, notice or
> > > reminder in any form. However, the registrar offered to
> > > "save" the domain name -- for $200. There seems to be
> > > a considerable motivation here for the registrar to
> > > "forget" to bill or remind the client that their domain
> > > name is about to expire, or to "lose" the payment, and I
> > > am wondering if others have had similar experiences with
> > > www.registry.com or other registrars. Is this now a
> > > regular thing?
>
> "Noozer" <>:
> > It's a scam many do to make extra cash. It is up to the owner to renew
so
> > there's not much you can do about it.
> >
> > Best bet is to make sure your contact info is always up to date and find
a
> > registrar that will let you automatically renew every year with a credit
> > card. Saves me a heap of headaches.
>
>
> My client made the mistake (in my opinion) of going through
> the hosting company (Hurricane Electric). So the fault may
> not be theirs -- although in searching throough Google Groups,
> I came upon a couple of complaints.

My ISP will register a domain on behalf of their customers but they do state
that its up to the customer to maintain the domain, etc.

> I advise people to do their own registration. But then they
> want to know with whom, and I don't want to recommend an outfit
> that's going to play games with them. I wonder if anyone has
> put together a comparative list of registars, similar to the
> host comparisons at www.webhostingratings.com.

Most folks will only get bit once... Personally I think that once a domain
is overdue it should become available and just skip this "on hold" crap.

G*rd*n wrote:
: My client made the mistake (in my opinion) of going through
: the hosting company (Hurricane Electric). So the fault may
: not be theirs -- although in searching throough Google Groups,
: I came upon a couple of complaints.

Yes that is almost always a mistake (99.9% of the time)
I use http://www.directnic.com/ and have not had a single problem
with them in years. They are the only ones so far I have used...
well aside from NSI but don't even go there... LOL.
Good luck.


--
Heidi
http://stores.ebay.com/id=18489075
Recommended Hosting:
http://www.page-zone.com/

"Noozer" <>:
> ...
> Most folks will only get bit once... Personally I think that once a domain
> is overdue it should become available and just skip this "on hold" crap.


That would certainly motivate the registrar to make an
effort to contact the client when the domain name was
about to expire. The on-hold business is quite a
disimprovement.

"G*rd*n" <> wrote in message
news:cmioof$mao$...
>
> Recently, one of my web site clients found that her domain
> name, which was registered through www.registry.com, had
> expired. She had not received any kind of bill, notice or
> reminder in any form. However, the registrar offered to
> "save" the domain name -- for $200. There seems to be
> a considerable motivation here for the registrar to
> "forget" to bill or remind the client that their domain
> name is about to expire, or to "lose" the payment, and I
> am wondering if others have had similar experiences with
> www.registry.com or other registrars. Is this now a
> regular thing?

A couple of thoughts come to mind here...

First, I really don't think a company would do anything in the way of
forgetting to notify the user of their domain expiring or losing the
payment... this is mainly because not only is it easier to keep people
happy than to try and make a few extra bucks, but also disgruntled customers
might cost you more in the way of future business (bad word of mouth) and/or
use up extra customer service resources as they try to get things resolved.

This is especially the case if the customer is using other services
(other domain names or if they offer hosting) where the loss could be alot
more than the gain (ie: losing $10/mo hosting for 2, 3, 4 or 5+ years to get
an extra $190).

As for what could have gone wrong... a few thoughts:

- Spam Filters: There are so many different spam filters out there: some
use a database of companies or IPs that spam... some just look for keywords
in the subject line or email body... in some cases the customer might have
clicked on a different email from the company about products or account
upgrades and added the company to their spam filter.

- Email Accounts: Most people have multiple email accounts... some assume
that their 'work' account (the one linked to the site) gets all their email
from their other accounts. It could be a case where the customer just
forgot what email account was getting the bills/notifications.

- Spam Reported: The company in question might just not send out
notifications about accounts about to expire. Not only does email tie up
resources and bandwidth (you might be thinking "How much email could it be?"
and if they have just 50-100 customers its not much... if they have 10 or 20
thousand customers then it can really build up) but also there are people
who are quick to pull the trigger and report a company for spamming, even
though they've signed up for a newsletter or getting email reports/updates,
etc.
Because of this I wouldn't be surprised if more and more companies stop
sending email notifications and just put everybody on a program of "you are
responsible for your domain names or can sign up for automatic renewal"

- Customer Fault: It is also possible that the customer just ignored the
notices and figured they could renew the domain name at $9 at any time, even
after it has expired... and then when they got dinged they complained to you
because they didn't want to pay more.


In the end it should be up to the customer to ensure their domain name
doesn't expire and any additional work the company does (sending
notifications/alerts) should be a secondary line of defense. As well,
domain names are cheap to renew for the long term... if they expect to be in
business in 3, 4 or 5 years from now... then why not renew the name for 5-10
years? 10 years = less than $100... any business should be able to afford
that as a one time in ten years cost (if they can't afford $100 then little
red flags should be going off in their head that they need to fix their
company)


Clint
(woohoo! this one wasn't a short novel!)

On 6 Nov 2004 09:57:19 -0500, G*rd*n wrote:

> Recently, one of my web site clients found that her domain
> name, which was registered through www.registry.com, had
> expired. She had not received any kind of bill, notice or
> reminder in any form. However, the registrar offered to
> "save" the domain name -- for $200. There seems to be
> a considerable motivation here for the registrar to
> "forget" to bill or remind the client that their domain
> name is about to expire, or to "lose" the payment, and I
> am wondering if others have had similar experiences with
> www.registry.com or other registrars. Is this now a
> regular thing?

What does "save" a domain name mean anyhow? If they can "save" it, it means
it's still in their domain and you should be able to renew it.
$200 is way too much to do anything. You can backorder it using another
registrar and they should be able to register it as soon as it gets
released. There's no gauarantee however. You may wnt to ask your registrar
why the fee is $200.



Karim
--
http://www.cheapesthosting.com - Innovative Web Hosting since 1998
Spam and Virus protected email - Online calendars with email notification
Camera phone photos automatic transfers to your photo album (RSS Enabled)

G*rd*n wrote:
> Recently, one of my web site clients found that her domain
> name, which was registered through www.registry.com, had
> expired. She had not received any kind of bill, notice or
> reminder in any form. However, the registrar offered to
> "save" the domain name -- for $200. There seems to be
> a considerable motivation here for the registrar to
> "forget" to bill or remind the client that their domain
> name is about to expire, or to "lose" the payment, and I
> am wondering if others have had similar experiences with
> www.registry.com or other registrars. Is this now a
> regular thing?

I wasnt going to renew one of mine when it expired so I ignored the email
www.stargateinc.com sent me and left it go into redemption status. Well I
then decided maybe I did want it after all. I emailed them and asked how to
get it back and they wanted $160. Well I didnt think the domain was worth
that much so I left it go. Another time I forgot one of my domains was
expiring even though the register sent me a few emails warning me to renew,
so it went into redemption. The domain was at www.namecheap.com . When I
emailed them asking how much they wanted to get the domain back I was told
to just pay them the normal $8.88 and they would drop it back into my
account. This to me proved that some registers are just out to make money
when you forget to renew a domain