What to do when your registrar (NSI) ignores you?

Frustrated Webmaster writes "For the past two days, I've been trying to make modifications on a domain name I registered through NSI/Verisign. The problem is, they refuse to accept changes through email, and their login system is apparently broken. What are my options? How do I transfer the domain away from NSI if I can't even login to their system?" CD: When I heard that NSI was going to go through yet another interface change, I moved the domains that mattered to me to another registrar. For what it is worth, I can totally reccomend EasyDNS.

Comments

Just Typical Shenanigans

[Lokni]

That's typical registrar behavior, especially with NSI/Verisign. Since they have had to deal with competition, they have been doing some pretty nasty things including not doing domain transfers. Their reasoning is that they don't know whether it is actually the owner requesting the domain being transfered, and they don't want to be liable for domain jacking. Well, that should be solved by a phone call and maybe a fax of ID, right? Wrong. They have made it super tough to transfer a domain because to transfer a domain means they are losing business to competition so they are going to hold onto your domain for as long as they can. Call it Reverse Domain Jacking if you will.

Lumber Cartel (tinlc) aproved registrars

[strredwolf]

These ones spam:
NSI/Verisign/Register.com
Joker.com
Dotster

You can find out more by asking on news.admin.net-abuse.email. However, here's some that don't spam, haven't given any problems, and are groovy all around.

DomainDiscover
GANDI.net
Stargateinc.com
awregistry.net
netwiz.net

Transfer Away ...

[RWarrior(fobw)]

Any of a number of people have suggested transferring your domain away from NSI, and have suggested replacements. There is one big hiccup to beware of, however:

If you try to transfer your domain away from NSI by letting your domain expire and then reregistering it with another registrar, you may find that NSI is holding it hostage.

A customer of mine let one of her domains expire for lack of funds; when the money came in to pay the $30 registration fee, NSI didn't want $30 or $35 or even $70 to re-up it ... they wanted $150 for a year. Calls to customer service to get the mess straight proved totally fruitless. We're still unable to register it with another registrar because NSI won't let it go, and NSI won't reregister it for anything like the usual price.

Also, I moved a domain from NSI to another registrar back in July; in September I started getting bills from NSI for the domains' registration which expires in October, 2005.

Problems logging into NetSol, you say?

[alexburke]

How do I transfer the domain away from NSI if I can't even login to their system?

Well, take a peek at the link you've been using, and you'll be one step closer to your goal. ;)

OpenSRS/Tucows

[NatePWIII]

Granted I am a bit biased, since we are a Tucows/OpenSRS reseller. However, I have not found a more reliable and friendly company to work with than Tucows. The development team is awesome and their support staff is more than willing to work with you. We have been registering our domains through them over a year and a half now, and have never once regretted the move from first NSI and then later registrars.com
We currently retail domains at $13.00 per year (which isn't the cheapest price out there) after buying them wholesale from Tucows at $10.00 year.
If you are serious about registering lots of domains I strongly suggest becoming a Tucows reseller.