Slashdot Mirror
Recovering Domains from Negligent Registrars?
Mousit asks: "I am curious on how fellow Slashdot readers have dealt with negligent and unresponsive registrars. For a few years or so now, I've been using Jump Domain as my registrar for the domains I own and maintain. This was originally by choice, but for the last year or two it has been by force. I lost a domain to them early last year when I attempted to renew it and the automated process failed, putting it into a 'pending' status in wait for 'manual intervention' as the message told me. This intervention never happened, support tickets about it were never answered, and on top of it my money was never refunded. The domain simply lapsed, expired, and nothing was done about it. Have others experienced similar problems with Jump Domain or any other registrar, and what did they do to recover their domains? Is it even possible? Short of getting a lawyer, the options seem rather slim when a registrar decides to simply ignore you and eat your domains (and your money)."
"Attempts to transfer my domains to other registrars failed for nebulous reasons which were always attributed to Jump Domain's fault and never satisfactorily explained, at least for the .com domains. Since I can't get JD to answer their support tickets, I have never been able to obtain the EPP codes needed for transfering .org domains. I am effectively trapped in Jump Domain's service, and I am losing domains one by one. The story is currently in repetition, with two more domains now stuck in "pending" status. Support tickets are again unanswered, and this time I even have a couple telephone numbers. One simply rings endlessly, while the other answers with a machine for Jump Domain Hosting support. My messages there have gone unanswered. One domain has already lapsed into expiration as of Saturday, the other will go this Thursday.
It's worth noting that Jump Domain used to be a reseller for TUCOWS, but they appear to have been dropped. They are now reselling for the sometimes infamous eNom instead. Considering even TUCOWS couldn't get a response out of JD during the previous lost domain episode, I'm not surprised they had to change. I have contacted eNom but was summarily told I need to deal with Jump Domain, and was given no further help from them."
It's worth noting that Jump Domain used to be a reseller for TUCOWS, but they appear to have been dropped. They are now reselling for the sometimes infamous eNom instead. Considering even TUCOWS couldn't get a response out of JD during the previous lost domain episode, I'm not surprised they had to change. I have contacted eNom but was summarily told I need to deal with Jump Domain, and was given no further help from them."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
From my experience, it's quite effective if you find another registrar to take over the domain hosting. They're in the same business, and will go the extra mile to secure new clients.
Most of the time it's because we don't know what/where to ask, that's why you need lawyers to defend even the most obvious case.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
Personally, if a registrar took my money with the understanding that they would be providing me a service in return, and then did not provide that service with obvious willful abandon and intent to remove my intellectual property from my possession (my domain is my IP), I would consider that an egregious act of fraud...
But that's just me.. Your DA may or may not believe otherwise...
Try filing a complaint with ICANN
Depending on if anyone else is out there trying to grab your domain, I guess you can just let it fall and then buy it back through someone else. Or maybe you can try godaddy's back ordering system. This would also depend on if someone else is out there trying to grab it.
What are the good/bad domain registrars? Is there a comprehensive list with feedback somewhere?
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
Ya I still remember trying to get InterNic to respond to anything. Getting a new domain used to be a HUGE process, now I can get a new one with a few click over at http://namecheap.org/ (shameless plug).
If your domains are lapsing just go renew them at namecheap.
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
Sorry to hear about your plight, but unfortunately usually the only option left when the company does not respond is to seek legal action. I'm hardly a lawyer, but you might be able to recoup some of your legal costs by suing the company for them, but might not be such a good idea against today's armies of corporate lawyers.
This sort of thing is exactly why I only use domain registrars and hosting companies that either have independent, positive feedback or ones that my friends use. One should always do their homework before going into something like this.
My other Sig is
I'd say someone just forgot about it.
For context, click Parent.
He already has domains registered with Jump Domain. He does not want to abandon those domains, and he can't seem to transfer them. You could suggest a thousands amazing registrars, and it won't help him with this problem
hrmm it'd be funny to re-register jumpdomain.com with another registrar wouldn't it? :-P
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
Slashdot Parse Error, Paragraph 1: Option #3 of business plan not literal "Profit!". Re-enter.
OK, I'm assuming this is all occurring in the USA. If so, might it be possible to file a small claims action against them? The money is not large, but at least then you would have a legal decision on your side and perhaps help from the local prosecutors office (or sherrif) to enforce the judgement. It doesn't cost much to have a case heard in small claims court.
Hmmm... someone is hiding ;-)
IP Address: 216.21.228.13
Maximum Daily connection limit reached. Lookup refused.
It's not the destination that matters, but rather the journey.
Yep...godaddy is such a wonderfull place...until you wish to transfer the domain away from them. They deny the transfer (domain isn't locked, but they will lock it for you without telling/asking you) and don't even bother to send an email telling you they have denied a legitimate transfer request.
Yep...got to love that.
If ignorance is bliss, the world is full of blissful people
Jump Domain postal address, even in their corporate filings, is a MailBoxes, Etc. maildrop - 790 W. 40 HWY #197, BLUE SPRINGS MO 64015.
Also known as suing your socks off in a defamation suit. Even if you're right, it'll cost ya.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
5) Hemos posts a dupe of your original complaint.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Try contacting eNom again, and explain that you have made multiple attempts to contact the registrar but have not received a response. Detail your attempts. eNom surely has a procedure for transferring domain names to themselves when a reseller goes out of business or is uncontactable. They may also be more willing to help if you can find some sort of proof that Jump Domains is no longer in business.
I have had no trouble at all with AllDomains.com. They notify me by mail and email when action is required, and they allow me to lock and auto-renew my domains brainlessly if I want. I'll give them a thumb's up, mostly because I just don't have to think about them - ever.
--- I'd rather live with false hope than with false despair.
I think the grandparent is suggesting that the article's poster actually pose the same question to a third-party registrar (rather than slashdot), which isn't a bad idea at all.
In other words, rather than just trying to transfer the domain using automatic means, he might try getting in touch with a third party registrar's service line. They might know the best way to get this resolved, and might even have certain mutual contacts that could easily put them in touch with Jump Domain.
I and and some friends have had the same problems described by you and others.
Jumpdomain is not a registrar and is simply a reseller for OpenSRS (older domains) and eNom (newer domains). This is good since it means you can end run around them to get your domains transferred.
There have been three problems I've had transferring domains:
1) The admin email address is setup to be an auto@domains.jumpdomain.com (or something similar) which doesn't end up being delivered to the actual admin of the domain. This causes all of the automated transfer emails to not get delivered. You can update this information through OpenSRS at www.adminchange.com. I haven't needed to do this with eNom, but I'm guessing they have a similar process.
2) Domain is locked. This is done specifically to prevent the transfer of the domain and is usually a good thing, but in this case, it's preventing you from using your domain. The Jumpdomain admin interface worked for a few domains, but others I had to contact OpenSRS or eNom directly.
3) No way to access the EPP code needed for EPP registries (like .org and .us). I had to contact eNom directly and after explaining it was for Jumpdomain, they immediately sent the codes out to me.
I highly suggest doing all of this before your domain expires, since you'll need to rewew your domain before you can do any transfers (you might be able to get away with a reseller to reseller transfer with OpenSRS if it's expired, but I don't remember for sure).
Good luck!
IANAL, but it sounds like you have a fraud case at the least (paid for the service, but not received). If they're business domains you may be able to collect damages due to their negligence. If you can't afford a lawyer, just threaten one. Frequently a lawsuit will get a company's attention real quick. If they've done it to a number of people (likely), they should realize it could easily turn into a class action. It's a good way to be put into bankruptcy/liquidation by the court, given they probably don't have much, if anything, that's worth anything.
At the same time, you can dig through ICANN's website and see if they have any procedures for this sort of thing. Don't hold your breath.
- AMW
790 W 40 HWY #197
Blue Springs, MO 64015
US
831-305-6918 Fax: 831-305-6918
Map from Google...
The satellite shot looks like a strip mall...
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
I'm friends with the youngest daughter of the former head of the PowerPC division of IBM you insensitive clod!
I just started as web master for my law school's website, and we're having a similar problem.
We can't get any help from our hosting provider, so I figured I'd go somewhere else. (The former webmaster was using frontpage to post stuff and doesn't have a valid control panel login. We're looking at adding some PHP and a bulletin/discussion board. I don't think we've been billed for hosting for a couple of months)
The problem is a couple of uears ago, someone registered the domain for 5 years. The person who registered it is long gone, and I can't get ahold of them to change the DNS entries.
I've thought of transferring the domain registration also, does anyone have any suggestions about how well this would work?
What do you mean USED to?
netsol is still the worst.
Have a lawyer write them a letter, send it certified.
.. tell them you intend to sell their reseller account. At the very minimum this will get the attention of somebody at those respective registrars.
Explain in the letter that they either need to respond to you in writing how to transfer your domain name or you will be taking them to small claims court for the amount of the domain, along with the value of your time ($100/hr). Explain you would like to solve this amicably.
If they respond - you win!
If they don't, then take the letter to a judge and get a judgement against them.
If they show up - you win!
If they don't, You also win!
File the appropriate paperwork to the court and let them know you intend to place a lean on the companies assets.
Now, write Tucows/e-Nom a letter explaining that you have a court order to liquidate their assets.
Ask if the account is in good standing and if it has any values (your attorney will be able to put this into legalease for you)
If it doesn't -- hire a company to seize and sell their reseller account and liquidate their assets, then you buy it on eBay! Whoohoo! Now you get your domain back and you've got your own registrar. Hurray!
ps> if all this seems like too much work, then try finding another tucows reseller who can contact somebody at tucows to get the domain transferred to them. Tucows sucks, but they suck less if you're a reseller.
This isn't the wild wild internet anymore. Domain names are highly regulated legal holdings. When things turn sour you have few choices aside from getting lawyers involved. If you have _any_ problems with your domain names and can't afford a lawyer, then you can't afford the domain.
Its the american way.
Know what I like about atheists? I've yet to meet one that believes God is on their side.
Administrative Contact:
Domain, Jump hostmaster@jumpdomain.com
790 W 40 HWY #197
Blue Springs, MO 64015
US
831-305-6918 Fax: 831-305-6918
Or maybe hire some thugs and have them pay a visit?
Liable for what?
You know, if you're gonna correct someone, be sure to get it right. (Like me; right now I'm going to Google "libel" to be 100% positive I spelled it right.)
Go TP their HQ, and drain the oil from their cars.
I would contact the parent company. In this case it's TUCOWS, at least according to NetSol (unless I am mis-reading this):
Domain Name: JUMPDOMAIN.COM
Registrar: TUCOWS INC.
Whois Server: whois.opensrs.net
Referral URL: http://domainhelp.tucows.com
Name Server: NS.JUMPSERVER.NET
Name Server: NS2.JUMPSERVER.NET
Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK
Updated Date: 28-dec-2004
Creation Date: 23-jan-2000
Expiration Date: 23-jan-2006
TUCOWS has a help page here: http://domainhelp.tucows.com/
Or call them:
Headquarters
Tucows Inc.
96 Mowat Avenue
Toronto, ON
Canada M6K 3M1
Phone: 1-416-535-0123
Fax: 1-416-531-5584
Reseller Support Center
Monday to Friday 8am - 8pm (EST)
North America:
1-800-371-6992
International:
+ 800-371-69922
-Valiss
Register.com will keep a domain for 70 days after it expires in case the owner wants to reclaim it.
Have you tried reporting them to the Better Business Bureau?
"In print it's liable..." ...uh, yeah....liable to be considered libel.
I would hope that Icann would jump in and help out even if he is a little guy. I mean that's what they exist for right?
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
6) ?????
7) PROFIT!!!
I use internic.ca and I've never had a problem...
The BBB says that Jump Domain has an unsatisfactory record due to unanswered complaints. It lists the contact information as follows:
Jump Domain
740 W 40 Hwy Ste 197
Blue Springs, MO 64015
Telephone: (816) 550-2376
Fax: (816) 550-2376
If any readers live near Blue Springs, perhaps they would be kind enough to go knock on Jump Domain's door and see if anybody's there.
www.reg.ca
Great service, good prices. They go the extra mile, and have real, live people answering questions.
Funniest story was after I'd transfered a domain to them; I got an email from one of their techs asking about my DNS servers (which are named Lister, Kryten, and Rimmer) - he was apparently a big Red Dwarf Fan.
I'm having the exact same problem with Wazooweb, but I can't even figure out who the 'upstream' is. I thought it was hosting4u.com, but I can't contact them either. Anyone have any help?
I think you mean namecheap.com. I also use them with no complaints.
I used to have my domain registered with a discount gig (think it was domainshop.com), that was later bought up by those crooks at Verisign.
That started a short but very unpleasant relationship. I would receive countless amounts of spam, and when it was time to renew, the price had gone up A LOT, and it would cost me A LOT also to have the service tranferred to a competing service. I wonder hwo many of those customers stayed on with Verisign. Couldn't have been many.
I chose instead to let my domain expire, and again Verisign was messing with me. It took much longer than the advertized amout of time for the domain name to be released, so I had to try and fail many times before I eventually could reclaim my domain.
The moral is:
If you find a cheap registrar, make sure you've subscribed for a long period. Even if they'd go belly up after the first year, you're probably better off than signing with Verisign. And if they get bought by Verisign, the renewal is not going to gobble your whole nestegg. And who knows, after 5 years, maybe even Verisign will have adjusted their prices to compete.
Since I went with godaddy.com several years ago, I've not received a single spam mail, and they've been easy to deal with, and they even have a neat mail forwarding service.
-- Another senseless waste of fine bytes.
Unless you have some extremely popular or short domain names, I would imagine you might be able to register it again when it expired. At least it is a good damage control while you are still in contact with your service provider.
I've heard about more than one incident of people handing over a domain at the threat of litigation even when they know they're in the right simply because it would be necessary to hire lawyers either way and a cost-benefit analysis yields that they should just bend over and give up. The 2600 guys have had plenty of experience down this path. Have there been cases where people have counter-sued for being, I don't know the word -- extored, blackmailed, whatever -- in a situation where someone with a lot of cash muscles the other side into folding simply because they know the other side has neither the money nor, in other cases, the political capital to defend themselves?
Parenthetically, I like the UK's system in which the plaintiff has to pay the defendant's legal bills if the suit loses. We should do that.
Repost of my two replies regarding this topic at DNForum.com:
... Jump Domain postal address, even in their corporate filings, is a MailBoxes, Etc. maildrop - 790 W. 40 HWY #197, BLUE SPRINGS MO 64015.
... agent is listed as Scott Ison.
p .a sp?621690
... contact Tucows and explain you want to transfer them out - either to another registrar, or at minimum, to another Tucows reseller so that you can administer your domains - no matter what Tucows tells you, get your domains away from Jump Domain.
... use the phone and tie up their staff - that way Tucows is forced to deal with the problem as opposed to putting it off indefinitely.
... or perhaps Tucows too, since some of his domains could be registered through other registrars - certainly a possibility given what I've learned so far about Jump Domain. ...
.com / .net registry/ .org registry
Firstly, you're dealing with a seemingly shady company
Worse, the agent name may be bogus (or perhaps is a partial name [ie. middle and last])
https://www.sos.mo.gov/BusinessEntity/soskb/Cor
With that said, Jump Domain does not appear to be an accredited registrar - your domains are very likely actually registered with Tucows
Become a real pest, if that's what it takes, and *call* Tucows a lot - hopefully their customer support will help you the first time, but sometimes persistance is how these things get solved - try email, etc first, but if no adequate response
Tucows Inc.
96 MOWAT AVENUE
Toronto, Ontario M6K 3M1
Canada
416 535 0123
support@opensrs.org
** Follow-up/addendum to my above reply **
My bad on the registrar - I based my answer on searching I did on Jump Domain.
Still, the approach should be the same, just that he'll need to deal with Enom
One point I didn't make clear is even if Jump Domain is no longer affiliated with Tucows, that does NOT mean the domains they managed automatically moved from Tucows; they're still likely there - in a nutshell, the registrant will need to check the registrar of record for each domain at the links below:
http://registrar.verisign-grs.com/whois
http://www.pir.org/
Ron
Totally aside here... just was reading most of those today and yesterday... damn funny.
"I don't like you, I'll sue!" is way too common.
JC
On Arrakis: early worm gets the bird. Magister mundi sum!
Data Center:
Lee's Summit, MO
Note: For security reasons, we cannot disclose it's exact address.
Now of course, anyone who knows Lee's Summit (I used to live there, still pass through it regularly) thinks of this place, an old AT&T plant, now turned over to a number of smaller businesses. Note: I'm of course not suggesting anything happen here, as I have friends and family working in that building (no, none for jumpdomain, if you must know).
Now, I know a "data center" can also mean just a small office with a bunch of machines shoved into it, but despite that city's recent growth, I still don't know of any major location for a data center to live in Lee's Summit. If it's not there, then fine... keep the address quiet, fully understandable. However, if it *is* there, then their obfuscation is sort of like saying "I've hidden it in a 100 foot tall green statue of a woman in NYC, but I'm not telling you what it is, for security reasons" - sort of pointless.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
This is a bit off on a tangent, but if anyone is having problems accessing the Tokelau domain registrar (http://dot.tk), try a new name server. There seems to be a problem with certain ISPs' DNS with regards to that site. It's not negligence, at least not on their part. :-)
namecheap.org is now for sale?
Is no one safe from negligent registrars?
Our new negligent overlords (which of course I welcome) must have made you misspell namecheap.com
I purchased a domain through 1&1 a year and a half ago. nj-space.net I had a burgoining site that seemed to be popular with bloggers looking for info about space policy. Unfortunately, I typed my credit card number in wrong or something and 1&1 were unable to get my payment. Instead of contacting me to resolve this issue, they deleted my account. I was told if I wanted to use the domain again, I would have to wait until it expired and register it again (preferably with their service). So for 6 months the New Jersey SPACE NETwork displayed a "this domain has been recently registered and the owner has not yet moved in" page. Then when it expired, somebody swooped in and stole it. It is now registered to "Company Require" in Buryatia, Russia with a hotmail address and +000.0000000 for telephone number.
Free MacMini
Well I do not think you can do much about your lost domains. You can only learn a good lesson and stick with a reputable company. I use BulkRegister.com for the very beginning of the company and while their pricing is slightly higher, the company is extremely credible. IMHO, they will not refund anything no matter what you do. Do you know why? Because they are a scum and they do not care about their business, long term relationship with customers!
You could see if they will let you register jumpdomainsucks.com; perhaps that will encourage them to fix the problem?
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
I also have a few domains straggling around with not-so-great registrars. Despite some of the horrible things that NetSOl has done in the past, I still like them enough that I would transfer the other domains to them.
However, the main reason why I don't is that when you initiate a domain transfer with NetSol, you can't specify the DNS server address before the domain transfers. That means that effectively the site will be offline when it does transfer over, instead of it beaing ready to go when it clears the old DNS caches.
It looks like while approved registrar are looking to enlarge their market share by providing APIs and fake front-ends to "resellers", they can not or will not take responsibility for their reseller's customers when said resellers go away or "die" misteriously. I had the same problem with dodora.net and with directi.com. It looked like dodora.net disappeared and was then sued or perhaps just went chapter 11, directi.com tried to take over but trashed many, MANY domains in the process (I lost almost 10 domains for customers due to their negligence). At some point a year later dodora.net came back like superman in the last moment, trying to save the day, but it was too little too late, and i've already managed to move most of my domains to namecheap.com which i'm very happy with! (overall BEST features i've seen with ANY registrar yet!)
So my advice to you is to not get anywhere near either dodora.net or directi.com, don't say I didn't warn you. It is most unfortunate that some companies / people are just not stable and reliable enough to do business with.
Skaag
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... time... to... die...
Yeah, I think that's exactly why his name isn't mentioned anywhere at www.jumpdomain.com!
Verisign sucks. Working for ISPs back in the day, I was responsible for thousands of domain registrations and maint. Over the years, they have eaten all of my personal domains one by one, and sold them to spam/ad sites. When I call to have things fixed or transfered, I'm treated like an unknowing moron by some slang-speaking Joe-Bob.
Fuck you, Verisign
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
Let me explain a little more. The massive paper forms were the worst. As soon as OpenSRS and the like came along, InterNIC's methods didn't even make sense. Nevertheless, they continued to charge $35/year. I remember trying to transfer a domain away from them which was immensly painful and purchasing humans.com from another person. The transfer took over half a year which is completely unacceptable. They would only let you make changes by paper forms or forms by e-mail, to which they would take months to even respond to, or never. To try to do anything over the phone with them took being on hold, patience and and all they would tell you was to refill and resend the forms. Then when they did respond to you, they would just tell you (barely legibally or understablly) that some minute detail was off, and you'd have to start all over again. And of course lets never forget the lawsuit brought agaisnt them for tying to hoard names and advertise on every unclaimed web-address. They were a horrible company to deal with and I would never do business with them again.
(\_/)
(O.o) This is Bunny. (> <)
I wonder if the "Office Address" is the owner's house. That would explain why it's not open to the public.
I decided to switch from Register.com because they were way more expensive then the competition out there now, by more then twice. $30/year? When I can get better service from DNSExit for $12?
Anyways, I had about a month left on my domain so I started the transfer. Register.com sent me an e-mail saying that if I did *not* want to accept the transfer, to click this link. Otherwise, it would be.
So I didn't click the link. The transfer was denied.
I called them and they said they mistakenly sent out the wrong e-mail for a few days, and that I needed to transfer again. I only had 7 days left at this point, and it would have gone past it. They would NOT extend me any time at all, even though this was their own damned fault and they admitted it.
So I had to hand over those jackasses another $30 just to get another week to get the transfer done. At least that additional year carries to my new registrar.
DNSExit isn't perfect, but they've been better then Bulkregister, Register.com, and NSI.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
Didn't check this registrar and don't know what country you're from, but in case you have a small claims court, I think this would be the way to go. Very often, companies would intervene before they have to send a representative to court. And you can do it without a lawyer and with minimal cost. Again, these things depend on your local situation.
i guess i'm in the minority. i registered 3 domains thru netsol. even when they were internic back in the mid/late 90's, i had no problems registering, getting confirmations, getting updates, and when i had a problem, i somehow always ended up talking to a warm body (believe it or not, i even managed to get a password reset over the phone!). the process of consolidating my domains under one account (instead of three separate ones) was really simple too... but like i said, i seem to be in the minority. yes they are pricey, but they haven't let me down thru nearly 8 years of service!
Seems like someone at JD is reading this... the footer of the front page now has a copyright of 1997 - 2005...
You could just try dropping by their office, if you're anywhere near Blue Springs, MO (I assume that you are, since they're all about their local business).
They list their address on their website:
Although they say it's not open to the public, I'll bet that popping by would yield better results than you've experienced previously. You probably want to be on your best, most diplomatic behavior; and most importantly, never show that you are angry (by raising your voice, calling names, making physical threats, wise cracks that can be misinterpreted). Ask the receptionist if you can speak with someone in support. If she gives you a hard time, politely ask to speak with her supervisor. Whomever you speak with, explain that your showing up there was a last resort, as your support requests were not being handled. This place sounds like a pretty small operation, so there is likely a single support person -- and I doubt that they'll just laugh in your face in person.In the unlikely event that he/she does give you a hard time, politely ask to speak with their manager. If the manager gives you a hard time, take down their name, and politely inform them that you will be disputing all charges with your credit card issuer, as well as disputing the issue with ICANN, and reporting them to the local BBB chapter. Then thank them for their time, excuse yourself, and be on your way. Most places don't want to deal with bureaucratic headaches, whether with credit card issuers, ICANN, or the BBB. Lastly, you can spend $100 and get an attorney to simply write a letter (you don't want to retain counsel, since that will be incredibly expensive compared to your potential returns, but a letter can have massive sway). Again, they probably just don't want to deal with the hassle. They'll give you what you want and you can part ways as pleasnatly as possible.
-Turkey
My first ever domain - on a fairly expensive package for what I was using (£25/month and I was only using it for email).
I cancelled my hosting with them, and asked for a domain transfer - only for it to turn out that they had registered my domain with their details.
Nominet were helpless as they effectively owned the domain.
They continued to bill me for 5-6 months after cancelling, which I have yet to be refunded.
To finally take the biscuit, I've had a letter from Nominet offering the domain, but only after paying the outstanding $160 of charges owed on it by Host Europe.
So, take that as a word of caution: stay clear from Hosts Europe.
I'd suggest oneandone.co.uk if you're based in the UK, their service is very good, they even bend over backwards to allow you to move your domain from them. Cheap too.
Because the moderators are either:
+5, Optimistic
or
-5, Naive
I would find a lawyer first.
BUT, knowing WHEN they expire, I would squat on them with a service like godaddy provides. You pay 18$. They buy it for you when it expires. Not sure how safe it is, but if you are going to lose them anyway...
One simple tip that will greatly reduce the potential of problems is to use ICANN accredited registrars only.
.net) at:
Avoid resellers.
Check the official ICANN accredited list (.com /
http://www.internic.net/
For other TLDs, check the corresponding registry for the list of accredited registrar(s).
Domain name registries around the world (great resource and very stable - been using it for years):
http://www.norid.no/domenenavnbaser/domreg.html
Ron
I used to have an account with Namezero. I tried many times to contact them, with no avail. They never answered any of my questions (through their website) or replied to any of my emails. I did a whois lookup on them to get a number and called them on that number. There were no returned called. I eventually just ended up saying "fuck you" to them and went with network solutions. I got them to transfer my stuff over to them because Namezero actually used to be a reseller or something for network solutions and I actually ended up with them because I had no one else to get in touch with. They went ahead and transferred me. A few weeks after the transfer a representative from Namezero contacted me apologizing profusely and saying that I should come back to them and that they would provide better service. In addition to reporting them to the better business bureau, I told them to fuck off. The best thing to do is just go with someone else AND report them.
Vivin Suresh Paliath
http://vivin.net
I like
Every experience I had with Network Solutions was negative. At least it was possible to get a person the telephone, but they were quite unhelpful. I was told to fax forms repeatedly because no on ever logged them into their system. Changing contact information was darn near impossible.
Several years ago, a local web developer accepted money from many small businesses for hosting and development then skipped town. I tried to help a few recover their domain names but all gave up after a while because it simply wasn't worth the effort and cost. I did manage to change contact data on the domain of the hospital where I worked several years ago, but that took over a month.
Learning from my mistakes, I went to Registar.com for my next round of domains. Everything went smoothly and I was happy with the support. Then, just as my registrations were about to expire, I got letters from Network Solutions thanking me for transferring the domains to them. I certainly had not requested any such move and couldn't get anyone at either registrar to explain how this happened. By this time the domains had expired so I couldn't transfer them anywhere else without paying Network Solutions to register them. Did I mention how much I hate those guys?
i dont like the feel of godaddy, it frankly feels like im being spammed the whole time i use the site... check out registerfly.com (thought a bit on the slow real-time-site-response side from florida sometimes)
Cheers.
This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
I know my small hosting company has had issues with customers letting their domains lapse after repeated notices that they need to renew. Once the domain expires, it is very difficult to have companies like eNom allow the domain to be renewed again until the holding period is over. The problem is that end users are not educated enough about how registrars and DNS functions. Our single most common support question relates to DNS issues. The moral of the story is: don't let your domain expire! If you enjoy having a functioning web site and a domain name, be proactive and manage this asset.
Web Hosting
...like a polite, but damning letter to the President of a company spelling out the sequence of events, your attempted steps at resolution, and his employees responses (or non-responses.) Make sure the letter explains that the next communication will be a summons and a subpeona for records of JD dealings with you.
If the company is a legitimate business and you've slipped through the cracks (or were ignored by peons,) a senior manager can generally ask/force/cajole somebody into making your problem a priority. If they won't (or if the company is willfully defrauding people) then you should follow through on your threat, sue them in small claims court, and ask the judge to order them to release your domains to another registrar, refund your money, and pay court costs.
Very few people (outside of actual hardened criminals) are willing to ignore a court order. You might find some crumudgeonly fuck out there who would do on "the principle that the gubmint shouldn't tell me how ta' run ma' bidness!", but that seems unlikely...
Tough day? How about a free Mac mini?
Oddly, the best service I ever had from NetSol was when I was transferring my last domain away from them. There was some kind of glitch in the process, and one of their support people took up the issue, gave me his direct email address so that I could contact him with any additional questions, and followed up later to make sure that everything had gone smoothly (which it had). Meanwhile, the registrar I was transferring to didn't answer a single email that I sent them. I was almost tempted to stay with NetSol.
Sir, I would be hard pressed to believe your statement. I hard-refreshed the site and it maintained 1997-2003. I then went to a web proxy (firefoxproxy.com) and loaded the site, in case my version was cached. Indeed I tell you, it still stated 1997-2003!
Doth thine eyes deceive?
For context, click Parent.
vigilante justice.
Same here. Over 5 years of trouble free service. I guess we're the luck ones.
I know it's a bit costly, but in the case when your domain does expire and your current registrar doesn't renew it, by backordering your domain using another registrar, but be the thing to save your domain at the end.
godaddy offers this service for only $18.95.
network solutions and namecheap goes through snapnames which cost $60, probably more reliable and better service, but i've never used either of them to really tell you what the difference is.
What is Domain Name Backordering?
If you "backorder" this name, we will ATTEMPT to grab it and to register it on your behalf, if and when it expires and once again becomes available.
The low $18.95 backorder cost includes the registration fee, ICANN Fee, plus automatic monitoring and email alerts on changes to the Registrar, Status, Expiration Date, and Name Servers. Your domain backorder fee can be re-assigned to other names as often as you like, until you are successful in acquiring a domain name.
You also have the option of making your backorder private -- which means your personal identifying information (name, phone number, email and home addresses) is shielded from public exposure in the WHOIS directory from the very moment the backordered domain is successfully acquired.
Please understand that a backorder does not guarantee that you will acquire the domain name being backordered. The domain name you are backordering may be renewed by its current owner and not become available or we may be unsuccessful in our attempts to grab it and register it on your behalf.
Once again if your backorder is not successful, it can be reassigned to another domain name. (And if your unsuccessful backorder is a private one, your private registration can be applied to any other backorder).
hopefully your domains aren't that popular. then you shouldn't have much problem backordering them.
HD Trailers
I get domains for $10 per year with great service, but that's from BulkRegister - and handle a lot of domains.
That is not to say (of course) that no cheap registrar will give you good service, neither do I imply that an expensive registrar will give you better service. However, when you pick a cheap, relatively unheard of registrar, you ARE taking your chances.
steve
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
The data center is here
All your Sybase are belong to us.
windex.org was locked up by NSI for about 4 years after they claimed to not receive my payment by check (they cashed 2 of them just fine, though). This was pre-multiple registars, though. I made multiple attempts to get the domain back, and eventually every set of communcation led to getting a supervisor, having them tell me they'd call me back, and them never doing so.
When it came up in 2002, I had 3 domain-watching companies fixed on it, and thus, recovered it without incident.
I did everything short of getting a lawyer involved. Getting a lawyer involved may not matter, in my opinion. They aren't really accountable to anyone in the real world. It's like a landlord who goes out to his rentals, changes all the locks, then takes a flight to tahiti for a couple years without giving tennants a key. How do you realistically do something about that?
maybe have multiple backorders from multiple registrars just in case?
that being said, aside from that, i've always wondered what happens in the case when more than one person backorders a domain using the same registrar. is it a first come first serve, or do they have a bidding system?
HD Trailers
How would they win? All you have to due is prove what you said was true...
WASTE - The Secure P2P
network solutions has been less of a pain than some. It is about the most expensive way I have ever parked a domain. I just transfered a domain from Nonworking solutions to Tucows, and all on the day its registration expired. NS now leaves such domains in REGISTRAR LOCK status and you have to call to get it unlocked so your new registrar can pick it up...awkward but safe. The transfer went down smoothly. Ask me about Tucows [and their reseller canaca.com] in a year.
other than outrageous cost, the thing about NS that bothered me the most was that the default "under construction" page they provide for parked domains was festooned with links to hard core porn labeled as "related" pages. Can you imagine trying to stake out a name for your business only to find that customers who visit your site when you finally turn on your content are saying "hey where's your pornography" [and imagine all the customers you really wanted who will never visit you again and you never know why]
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
In my experience, harder to understand than self-modifying code.
registrars.
Who the hell even had the power to create a lease/lien situation on domains for these entities?
It is now time to change by FORCE the model in which site name registrants own and control their names.
For example, motorists in NO WAY surrender ownership of their to a toll booth operator when their car breaks down or runs out of gas on the road. The vehicle has a license, and it is allocated, issued, and annually or every two years checked by a DMV.
For registrars to have a mafioso grip on domain names is insane, thievery, and unctuous. It ought to be ILLEGAL for a registrar to take the name of a defunct site operator or to sell it.
However, the registrars will cry foul, and will also say they invest time, energy, research, and other resources into setting up and activating domains for users. Well, to me, that's no justification for locking an account.
But, this BS stance can be alleviated simply by charging the applicant/registrant $10 more for an insurance fee that their domain will NEVER be locked, blocked, or obstructed and that the registrant can change to any registrar at any time, without any DNS-excusing mumbo-jumbo.
Registrars should be forced to operate under a "toll road analogy" in which derelict or broken-down or abandoned vehicles (sites/domains) are tagged, warned, then towed, but NOT owned by the registrar. However, as is typical in modern corruption, sometimes tow companies are as unctuous as rogue and self-serving policy makers can be. SO, we need an electronic grave yard or tow yard which the site's owner can come to reclaim their site. SO, the boneyard/graveyard/towyards also are prohibited, under this model, from hijacking and extorting or bulk-selling off domain names.
Yet, there IS the problem of cybersquatters and of those who don't in timely fashion reasonably respond to questions by other companies and domain holders about potential infringement of name or likeness. If people would be more reasonable about being a "player in the field" instead of impeding competitors who are doing a legitimate, fair job of competing, and if instead of unfairly sidling up to a domain name for unfair purposes people would cease or desist their acts, the registrars would by default be rightfully stripped of some of the inexplicable and far-ranging powers they wield over domain holders.
I would propose that anyone registering for a domain would need to show intent or proof to use the domain imminently (as in under 10 to 20 days time). If they need more time, they could PARK the domain, provided it is for marketing or tactical reasons and not for mere cybersquatting or extortion purposes.
I would propose that the domain contact details require that an identifiable person be physically cataloged if that person can appear before a local office. Otherwise, the business or non-profit or research entity registering a domain should be electronically tied to a city, county, state or federal employer/business registry. This would make it possible for legit companies to establish fair-play appearances.
Individuals, or entities not actually doing business but intending to later convert to profit or non-profit business status, such as bloggers, certain reporters, and information sites should be required to personally register the domain via some utility-like office in their community (unless facial anonymity is a paramount requirement, in the case of authors or publishers of factual but contentious/controversial intellectual material/stories).
That said, some measures may make my above suggestions irrelevant or partially covered. But, there also needs to be an implemented method to deter individuals and business or marketing entities from just making up and registering a warchest/ database of names that never get used, never get surrendered, and clog up the domain registration systems. Maybe an activity counter (possibly Google could do this but ONLY for a country in which that government ALLOWS Google to do this:) to in
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Sue them. That is why we have the Goverment. You don't need a lawyer. Just take some time off, go to the local circuit court, fill out the paper work and figure out what your damages are. Put it at something reasonable like $500. If they even bother to show up, just present your paperwork and some screenshots of what your website looked like. The judge will likely find in your favor and you can move on. If he doesn't then who cares? They would have a HUGE legal bill fighting a $500 complaint.
Offer to settle out of court first, give them time to respond to your complaint (30 days is normal) then submit the paperwork. Its a simple civil process.
Why are people on Slashdot so afraid of exercising their rights and using the courts to protect them? That is what they are there for.
I registered a couple of domain names (including one that is my first and last name.com) with one of those "Free" domain / hosting thingees where you pay $30 and get 1 year of low quality web hosting and a domain name registration for a year.
It actually worked well for about six months, then, the company was "bought" by someone in Costa Rica or some place in Central America... then, my web sites were down for several weeks, would come back up for a week or two and then would be down again for ridiculous amounts of time (basically, no one was monitoring them).
Of course, their "Support Desk" was more like a circular file and I got one response after numerous attempts to contact them saying they were on it, then nothing (radio static).
Part of the $30 was for the domain name (which they unfortunately registered "on your behalf"). This means all but one of the domain contacts was me!
I started to get worried that I would have my domain name fall off the face of the earth and I didn't have access to change the DNS servers or anything because the hosting company had registered for me and gave me no self-serve login.
I finally tracked down the company the actual registrar (for which the hosting company was just reselling, of course) and after a long series of increasingly unpleasant emails from me to them, they finally tried to do something about it.
The first thing they told me was to contact the reseller. I told them, thanks but I've been trying that... for months! After a lot of convincing they got off their butts and tried to contact their reseller and got the same radio static I got so they helped me out (they made it seem like they were doing me this huge favor when all I wanted was approval to transfer to another registrar to be able to salvage my domain name out of this mess even if I would get screwed with the web hosting).
They finally approved me and I transferred to Godaddy... I lost one of the domain names (it wasn't a big deal to lose this one and I didn't put much effort into fighting it) but kept the one with my name because I basically complained and ranted until someone got annoyed enough with me to do something to get me to shut up.
So, basically, my strategy to get this was to go over their heads to the actual registrar and make enough noise to become annoying and have them do something to get me off thier case! Patience is the best thing for this as a lot of the replies to weeks to a month to get back to me and they took forever trying to contact the reseller and finally gave up (they gave them a huge benefit of the doubt) and let me get what I wanted.
Basically, as someone else pointed out... If you don't have a lot of money to hire a lawyer and/or take this to court you're almost at the mercy of the companies that are screwing you over. Be persistent and logical and if that doesn't work, be annoying to get results.
I feel for you dude, I really do. One of my dad's domains got stuck with a hosting company (we were with them a month. Then they got taken over. Then the new guys got hacked. Then the new guys wouldn't give us our domain back or change any of the WHOIS). We finally managed to get it transferred to another account on OnlineNIC (which, incidentally, is one of the worst registrars I have ever seen. Their interface sucks). :P)
Want a good registrar? DNBuy.net.
DNS updates within 5 minutes, usually, and the interface is a piece of cake to use, even for the internet illiterate (my dad proved that
Goten Xiao
I think you mean namecheap.com. I also use them with no complaints.
you went from domain hosting to domain hosing
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I just went to the page for the first time after reading this, and it still says 2003. I have never been to the site before. Just to be sure (since I do go through a transparent squid proxy) I also ssh'd to the FTP server (on it's own DSL line, and ran lynx. Here's the last line:
?1997 - 2003 Jump Domain, LLC. All rights reserved.
I dunno what that guy was talking about.
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
What do you do when someone steals your credit card and makes purchases?
Sheesh people. Do you need Slashdot readers to tell you how to dial 911 when there's a burglar in your house? Or how to call your credit card company to fight fraudulent charges?
Tomorrow on Ask Cliff (who apparently doesn't know much): "Do I need a computer to file my taxes?". I'll spoil the post and save millions of readers from the pain of having to read through the heartbreaking story: Go to the post office!
Try the Better Business Bureau - it *always* works for me when I have a problem with any business.
Joseph Elwell.
I've had no issues with PairNIC (www.pairnic.com). I use them as well as their hosting services (www.pair.com) and have ZERO complaints about their services.
Wouldn't this be a great example of where the new ICANN registrar transfer policy is useful? If they really are the registrar (instead of just a reseller frontend for eNom or someone else), initiate a transfer to a new registrar and it should go through in five days.
Registrars you can not contact, previous contractor as admin and tech contact bitter about being fired, domain in desperate need of administration! Try to get CIRA to initiate an emergency change of admin contact for the .ca domain - enough polar bear poo to clog your igloo hole shut. Finally phone tech support for previous contractors email address, low and behold it was suspended for lack of payment - sympathetic tech (dealt with CIRA before) gives me access to old contractors spam magnet. Transfer domain registrar - pay for ten years.
iRegistrations went out of business. They were a reseller of eNom. So I called eNom and transfered all my domains. One of them I had to renew so that was $29.95 a year.
they turn on autorenew on our commercial domains every year after explicitly turning it off every year. they start the renewal process over a month in advance. 1/12th of the entire contract. jerk offs.
FWIW, I'm a very happy customer of registrar Dotster and have been for about six years. Pricing is pretty standard $14.95/year for domains $9.95 to transfer from other registrars. IMNSHO What sets them apart, and makes them worth a bit more than the rock bottom registrars, is that you can reach a real human being in tech support within about 10 minutes.
In Nearly All Paradigms, Shift Happens.
I have used JumpDomain for almost 5 years and have been VERY HAPPY with their service.
I have a hard time understanding what is going on.
My last service (domain renewal for two domains) went through without a hitch January of this year.
I believe it is a one man operation - perhaps Scott is unable to reply at this time for reasons beyond his control.
I will email and ask what is going on.
Dude
Simple answer: Do exactly the same back to them. Might not acheive anything, but it'll be fun.
Santa's suicide mission go!
Actually an unsatisfactory record due to unanswered complaints just means they didn't respond one way or another to the BBB. Either you have responded to the BBB or you haven't. If you have responded to the BBB but not made anyone happy you get a satisfactory rating. If you just blow off the BBB because they lack any power or jurisdiction over you and you don't want to take the time to respond to some nut case then you get an unsastifactory rating. Ratings from the BBB really don't mean anything anymore. The only benefit you get with the BBB is if the company is willing to work the the BBB (they are under no obligation to do so ever) to negotiate between the customer and the company. Take the rating with a grain of salt
Quality Hosting e3 Servers
You really should check into Moniker.com. While it's double what you're going to pay at $CHEAP_REGISTRAR if you're only going for a few domains, their CEO Monte Cahn, in addition to being a damn fine individual, hosts a weekly "internet radio" show called Domain Masters on http://www.webmasterradio.fm/ Wednesday nights at 7PM EDT. Just listening for a bit lets you see how well he understands the undeerlying issues. His guests (sometimes they're even his competition) are top notch. You can listen to the show archives at http://www.webmasterradio.fm/episodes/index.php?sh owId=20.
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
If there's more to your web site than a few static pages, you spend hundreds of dollars a year on hosting and bandwidth. It boggles the mind that people will do that, then try to save a few bucks on the domain registration.
Personally, I often wish that .com registrations had stayed at $50. Yeah yeah, Network Solutions was making a lot of money for very little work. Wasn't the worst thing in the world. Not as bad as having all the best domain names snapped up by opportunists who either sit on them or use them to host porn.
Jump Domain went to the dark side about two years ago. I had a similar experience with one domain - but it was an .org which was still with Tucows while they were transitioning, and Tucows' own DomainDirect.com was able to slip me the secret code required to confirm the transfer. Subsequently with a couple of other domains I did manage to get eNom to help. So you might want to try again to get through to the right people there by phone. Also, although ICANN tries to say they will not help, if you get an e-mail through to the right place, they did in the latter case send their own query to eNom letting them know that they were looking over their shoulder on this.
I've had no problem with a couple dozens domains at DomainDirect so far. In past experience Network Solutions, Dotster, Register.com all suck, although none as badly as JumpDomain does now. Scott at JumpDomain used to be responsive, but I don't even know if it's his operation any more.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
In my defense, I told her no matter what happened I'd maintain the site and make any changes she wanted or had someone else do and then upload it myself, a gesture of good faith, and she immediately brought up lawyers.
This isn't much of an argument -- you're forcing her to "trust" the guy she just broke up with to maintain a site all about her? An act of good faith would be to give her the domain and let her take down the site; this is a mind game. You're trying to "punish" her for her attitude, or for whatever other grievances you have. I know how this kind of stuff happens; someone hurts you and you want to hurt them back... but the fact is that the best way to get back at her would be to move on with your life, enjoy yourself, and make yourself a nice life as if she'd never existed.
Shut the site down, pass off the domain name to her brother or something (so it's off your hands), and move on. Doing something (like hanging the domain name like a sword over her head) expressly to drive her nuts are what you do while you're still in a relationship -- if there's no relationship anymore, it's time to quit.
I bought a few domains using Yahoo for $5/year and so far have had zero issues. I plan to move my domains over from Register.com to Yahoo since I'm still paying like $30/year through Register, unfortunately they still have a fair amount of time on them. Also, like Register.com, Yahoo provides DNS services.
-Aaron
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
Sure, spelling/grammar flames are normally tacky, but not only do compilers bitch at you for getting your programming-language spelling and syntax incorrect (thus geeks ought to be good at them), but your ability to get spelling and grammar correct does indicate something about your level of effort, and about your willingness to use automated tools (like spell-checkers) if you're not natively good at spelling, grammar, or (in my case) typing.
And the "About Us
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
They would lose, but swamp you in time and money consuming legal "stuff" during the trial. You'd most likely need to hire a lawyer. It would cost you more than the value of your domains (in most cases) to fight it out.
Opinionated Law Student Strikes Again!
So Jump Domain's "About Us" page calls itself a legal disclaimer, not that it's particularly disclaiming anything, though it does indicate an unwillingness to provide accurate contact information, like the name of the human who operates it.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I can't wait for a tilt/pan feature, where you can move the image so that you're looking at it sideways (and much closer, of course). The satellite feature is nice, but it seems like the only thing you can use it for is to verify your location if you happen to be flying in a plane..."Yep, this is the right place, I recognize the top of the building!" Or, if you happen to be on foot, I suppose you could walk in and ask the building manager if he/she could take you to the roof for a minute to make sure it's the right one.
Even if you are or are not maintaining the website for her, the domain name ought to be hers, and if you're being stubborn about the $6-$35 "ownership" you might have in it, you're being a jerk about the wrong things and ought to put the energy into something else. And if she feels like pointing the domain name somewhere else and writing a blog or a rant about her ex-boyfriend, well, it goes with the territory :-)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
If Jumpdomain's just a reseller for eNom, then eNom is definitely the right place to go, because they're the real registrar.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Considering I'd all but exhausted all the other options, yes, getting it out on Slashdot was actually an intentional plan. It also worked, though not with JD itself.
.com domains were unlocked, including the expired one. Under eNom's system, an expired domain that is not in hold or lock, can be transferred. Thus, provided these transfers go through, I get everything back.
On calling again, I was able to talk with eNom's Transfers and Registration Manager, whom actually connected my story as related over the phone, to this article. Imagine that! I was provided EPP codes, and my
Jump Domain doesn't get their credibility back, but I still win. Hah.
I've had good experience with Joker.com (German based) for the past 5 years. Prices are $12 USD per domain per year, they provide registration for all the standard TLD's (org, net, com) and the crap TLD's (biz, info) :). Management is all through a self service web UI (renew/transfer/update/etc).
The BBB local to the company is usually a good place to start. Letters from the BBB tend to make it to the upper echelon at the company in question.
You won't necessarily get results, lots of companies fail to act on the BBB's letters. But they all read them. Its a good place to start, and its free.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
The GoDaddy web site is always trying to sell something, actually a hundred things. In my opinion, the GoDaddy web site is arranged to intimidate people who aren't really knowledgeable.
There is a Fortune 500 company whose largest data center is in Lee's Summit, MO. I believe they have over 70,000 square feet of raised-floor space in this facility. Although it's difficult to turn office space into a top-notch data center, companies put data centers in the basements of office buildings all the time. Unless you're in the habit of driving around back and looking for diesel generators, how would you ever find them?
My domain registrar is doing me some real good right now.
I registered my domain for a year. I tried to pay them for another year but they wouldn't take my money.
Yet, after the year was up, I am still able to use it. Heck, it's been almost 3 months since the year was up.
AC comments get piped to
About Godaddy, you call them on the phone at 1 AM their time, they answer. They are helpful and immediately deal with whatever I called about.
Which is a much better service level than the other four registrars I have used, and they are the lowest price too.
Their web interface works great too.
About that phone call thing: I often call a company I am considering doing business with, to see if I can get through. It's an important check on them before I jump in. And I often do it off hours as well. Just to test.
The ability to get someone on the phone can become especially important in the event of problems, like the OP wrote about.
And no, I don't have anything to do with Godaddy. I just like them better than the others I have used.
.
I live in Blue Springs. The 740 W 40 Hwy address is a UPS Store (was a Mailboxes Etc.) I can't remember what is at 1700 W 40 Hwy. This search shows several businesses in the plaza. No Jump Domain is listed.o usenumber=1700&street=W+40+Hwy&city_zip=64015&stat e_id=MO
http://www.411.com/10668/search/Reverse_Address?h
I can drive by tomorrow.
last time i had to change the DNS record for my domain and eNameco's system returned error (second time it happened) i decided to look for another registrar. after a week trying to unlock the domain without an answer to my tickets, i finally sent them an e-mail threatening legal action, with copies to ICANN and Texas state's general attorney.
a day later the domain was unlocked and i moved it.
What ? Me, worry ?
One of the domains I manage expired 31st march, and registrar pairnic.com is simply refusing a transfer. They're insisting I renew the domain with them ($20) BEFORE I can transfer to another registrar. They don't even make a support phone number available.
Jumpdomain is my former registrar. I too lost a domain to Scott Ison's bullshit. he runs Jumpdomain himself, as an easy way to make cash. it's an easy way to watch cash roll in because he does not perform any support for the domains he sells.
anyway, if you have a problem with his policies, you should call his home phone number: (816) 228 - 1901. his home address is unlisted but he lives in Blue Springs, MO.
sorry to post this anonymously, but Scott Ison is also a lawyer.
I am *JUST* *NOW* managing to get my last five domains away from jumpdomain after a 6 month process. I'll post the messages I've sent at the end, but I'll give you a quick run down now.
- I tried contacting jumpdomain many times via many different methods, including email, filing problem reports and phoning. Every such attempt failed to reach a human. The problem reports were never responded to and eventually they were deleted.
- I have filed a complaint with internic earlier this year. It didn't do any good.
- The contact point for eNom on the internic website is an email address that now bounces and used to go into a black hole.
- I have *JUST* *TODAY* gotten good response to transfers@enom.com. Jason Cluphf was most helpful.
- I had problems contacting tucows also, but fortunately the domains that I registered via jumpdomain that ended up at tucows were all
.com and .net, and there is a new rule that by default, the transfers have to go through. The domains that I had with jumpdomain/enom were .org domains.
Ok, the following is an email that I've sent in various forms to about a dozen different emails over the last 4 months.To: matt@enom.com, transfers@enom.com, abuse@enom.com
Subject: I am having problems with your reseller, jumpdomain.com
From: wayne
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2005 16:05:17 -0500
Message-ID:
Help!
I got your email address from http://www.internic.net/registrars/registrar-48.ht ml
Your eNom reseller, jumpdomain.com, appears to have dropped off the face of the earth. I have been using jumpdomain.com since the mid 90's, but now I'm having big problems with them.
I need auth codes to transfer the following domains: elgin-watches.org elginwatch.org libspf2.org trusted-forwarder.org
This is the second time this year I've tried to transfer these domains away from you and your reseller. The last time, I not only didn't get any response from your reseller, but I didn't get any response from you and the transfer timed out.
I *WAS* able to transfer my .com domains away from you last January
because when you didn't respond, the transfer went through by
default. Unfortunately, there is no such policy for .org domains
(yet).
*** PLEASE DO SOMETHING ***
On Oct 2, 2004, I renewed several domains, including elginwatches.org. All the other domains went through fine, but elginwatches.org remained in a "Pending" status. I didn't notice this until late Oct, but that wasn't a problem elginwatches.org didn't come up for renewal until Jan 11, 2005.
On Nov 10, the domain still hadn't finished the renewal process, so I filed a trouble ticket with jumpdomain's support system. Nothing happened, but hey, there was still a couple of months. On Dec 02, I updated the trouble ticket pointing out that this needed to be fixed, but still nothing. No response from jumpdomain, and elginwatches.org was still "pending".
On Dec 8, I still had no response from jumpdomain, so I filed another trouble ticket with a higher priority. On Dec 11, I got a 30-day warning about my From jumpdomain that and I replied to that message, filing another trouble ticket. Still no response.
Unfortunately, I was busy during the holidays and didn't file another bug report until early Jan. A couple of days later, I notice that the bug report hadn't shown up, so I filed another one on Jan 8, this time marked as "urgent." I tried calling the Jumpdomain support line, even though they said that for domain registration, I was only supposed to use the web forms. Even during their limited support hours, I never was able to reach anyone.
On Jan 10, I tried transfering my domains away from jumpdomain, but I am unable to complete the transaction because I can't get the "auth codes". Jumpdomain has no place on the their website to request them, and they haven't responded to my request for them via their web support system.
I have continued to try and contact jumpdomain.com, but have still had zero luck getting *any* response from them.
SPF support for most open source mail servers can be found at libspf2.
Truth is a 100% defense against charges of slander and libel. I can't speak for the submitter, but I am very willing to testify in court that almost the exact thing has happened with me and jumpdomain.
See this slashdot post for more details of my case.
SPF support for most open source mail servers can be found at libspf2.
Written "slander" is libel. And it only qualifies if it is untrue.
I had a similar problem where one of my domains expired because the OpenSRS reseller's renewal process was broken. I called OpenSRS, they said to pick another OpenSRS reseller because since it was staying with the same registrar (OpenSRS) it could be transfered without the reseller's cooperation or ack, and without my having to pay the ex-reseller's renewal fee first. I moved my domain to Domain Maniac. Stupid name but VERY friendly and clueful people who provide fast and excellent support both over the phone and via email. They got the domain assigned to their OpenSRS reseller account, I paid their modest renewal fee ($15 a year), and it was working again within the hour. jc
"I'd much rather be mistaken as a lesbian by a bigot than be mistaken as a bigot by a lesbian."
Now, I am not a lawyer, and I don't even play one on TV, but one option is to get an attorney. Take her/him the paperwork showing you purchased the domain, and write down what's going on. About your only hope is to get a temporary restraining order to ICANN not to allow the sale of the domain name to someone else until this gets sorted out. Depending on your area, expect to pay about $10,000 for the first stage.
If your domain name isn't worth $10KUSD to you, then use GoDaddy.com to "reserve" the domain. You may not get it, but you'll spend $18USD on it.
I use GoDaddy and DomainDiscover for my registration needs. GoDaddy support is the BEST, but I use Domain Discover when some fuddyduddy says "How can we trust a company calling itself "GoDaddy?!""
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
I'm going through this right now. My church website has been down for a month while we struggle w/ the jokers who took the money and didn't renew the domain.
I manage 29 domains through JumpDomain, and have encountered the SAME issues. I know someone else who manages about 10 through JumpDomain, encountering the same as well.
Which doesn't mean on cannot get quick and competent service as well as cheap prices. The two are not mutually exclusive. Case in point: godaddy.com --Mike
Just so I never forget:
!!!! NEVER USE REGISTERFLY !!!!
!!!! NEVER USE REGISTERFLY !!!!
!!!! NEVER USE REGISTERFLY !!!!
!!!! NEVER USE REGISTERFLY !!!!
They are NOT accredited by ICANN! http://www.internic.net/alpha.html
They do NOT have any phone support!
They do NOT have any escelation procedures for problems that continue to go unresolved.
Their servers go down for DAYS at a time!
My problems with RegisterFly are not isolated incidents or one-time goof-ups. The NUMEROUS and MAJOR problems I have encountered are symptoms of a completely broken operation. I used to work in the hosting arena, so I am VERY familiar with the types of challenges faced by RegisterFly. I tend to be (too) patient since I know what they might be going through; however, their issue handling constitutes gross negligence.
In my first 3 weeks of using RegisterFly for 6 new domains and 3 hosting packages (mid-range web-starter plan, not the super-cheap personal stuff), I have experienced the following problems:
1) Webhosting service down for 7 days straight.
2) DNS service down for 6 days straight.
3) None of the domains' e-mail services were setup. Rec'd auto-gen error e-mail re: failure to create new e-mail service.
4) Conflicting answers between live chat support sessions.
5) Conflicting answers between trouble ticket resolutions.
6) Trouble tickets being closed with no resolution and being asked to "open another ticket later..."
7) Buggy account login: I have to login twice anytime I access RFly.
8) Buggy checkout: Items continued to fall out of my shopping cart.
9) Buggy checkout: I could not register a domain name AND sign-up for web/mail hosting at the same time (despite being given the option to do so AND despite have done so a few days prior with another domain) I was told to purchase the domain name and come back later to sign-up for web/mail hosting.
10) The DNS, web, and mail hosting are dis-jointed systems cobbled togeather via clumsy control panels. The user interface issues are horrible.
11) Absolutely no phone support or any way to contact a real person.
12) Non-English support peoples are making difficult my chances of understanding the why problems of the issues not being fixing.
13) RegisterFly and Unified names is not even listed as an accredited registrar by ICANN! http://www.internic.net/alpha.html (MY fault for not checking this sooner.)
Support conversations go like this:
ME: My problem is blah blah...
RF: First of all, your settings are all wrong. They're still default values.
ME: I know, but I can't access the control panel to make the necessary changes. I was told last week that...
RF: Your settings have been corrected, please wait 24 to 72 hours for the change to be active.
ME: That's what I was told last week, but the problem still...
RF: Sir, please wait 24 to 72 hours and try again.
ME: But what if it doesn't work?
RF: Please open a support ticket.
ME: But they close the tickets without fixing the problem and ask me to re-open another one later.
RF: Sir, please wait 24 to 72 hours and try again.
ME: [I stop typing and just watch the chat window]
RF: Sir, please wait 24 to 72 hours and try again.
RF: Sir, please wait 24 to 72 hours and try again.
RF: Sir, please wait 24 to 72 hours and try again.
RF: Sir, please wait 24 to 72 hours and try again.
This one gang kept wanting me to join cause I'm pretty good with a bo staff.
I am another dissatisfied Jumpdomain customer. their turnaround time for support was, in my case, 2 weeks. at one point I had opened over fifty support tickets because fuck that place. I lost my domain and it got poached by a cybersquatter called Domain Contender. (more like Domain Cocktaster am I right!)
Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder
Re: squatting. I agree that you should squat on a domain (though you might sometimes need more than 30 days to use it, the courts shouldn't have too much difficulty seeing though this in those cases.
What about non-squatters who get a large offer. My company used example.com as one domain years ago, and gradually quit using it as that side of the business was dropped. We still own it for the few customers left. Recently some new company made a large offer for that domain, something we can't refuse. After all we aren't using it much, and we need the money. Are we in the rights to now ask everyone (some of which have been around for a while) who might be interested in our domain if they want to beat that offer?
This is a real situation. I generally like the idea of offering it to everyone, not just this new guy (who I don't know if I can trust). I like the idea of getting a profit from the sale, and the domain is worth more than $100/year to us, so it isn't worth giving up just because we don't use it much.
So what are the ethics of this situation? Should I be mad at the CEO for not refusing the offer outright? Should he have sold it without asking anyone else if they want to bid? (Giving up the domain is not an option, we don't use it much, but it is work more than the registration fees to keep it)
I think almost everyone is assuming that the Registrar is actively ignoring support requests.
I have a second opinion: I bet the company has long since dried up and blown away, and that all that's left is a bunch of servers running in some ISP's rack, unattended and unnoticed.
When something happens to destroy a physical company (death, illness, corruption, whatever) you usually figure it out quickly - the shop isn't open, the paper isn't being picked up, whatever.
If an internet business suddenly folds - how long before someone actually realizes what happened?
Clear, Dark Skies
I've found that certain hosts can be just as bad. For example I took over a website that was hosted with Web-Mania and the previous owner had registered the domain through them and I've been trying to transfer the domain for a number of weeks now. They never respond to the transfer requests and they refuse to reply to my e-mails asking them to. Even the previous owner gets ignored. So now the domain will expire and I risk losing it. That's why I always make sure I own my domains, because that seems to happen a lot. Are they really that sore about losing customers?
Last month, Tuccows put my domain ON HOLD for whatever reason. I sent then 2 e-mail, phoned at their office in Toronto twice without someone answering the phone! It took them 2 weeks before fixing it!!! A technical error that took 2 long weeks to repair. I just got the impression that they do not care about their customer problems. I never got a excuse.
call alice's registry and ask for Rick Wesson. I was the CTO of the registrars constituency in icann for a few years. I know most registrars and can help you get your domain back. Alice's is the most expensive registrar at $29 per year they are not big but can usually help folks navigate the dark waters of icann and the dns registrars. I'll be out most of thursday but will get back with you.
A big "OOPS" on my part. You reminded me of that which I forgot to include, as I was "on a roll" or "on a 'mission'"...
It is perfectly fine to me that once you coin or buy a name of a domain that some not in the registrar business is selling to you, you sell it when it is convenient or necessary. And, you should be able to take whatever the name fetches for you. As a benefit, it, as you indicate, makes administering your domains easier once you've disposed of them.
But, the loss of a domain name should not be a power of the registrars at all, unless the factually erroneously provided or reserved or assigned the name when someone else parked or reserved or is using it. Courts should never take it away or mandate its loss except when a case fraud, drug-dealing, child porn, id-theft or some other illegal activity warrants the seizure of the name.
Thanks, tho, for catching that.
And, as I mentioned earlier, if you can legitimately administer or manager or operate multiple, productive, functioning domains, more power to you. My main beef is when registrars park and give away a name on the basis of it being, in their eyes (for profit motive, I'm sure) "abandoned".
People just need to be more creative and work around taken names in a non-infringing way, such as capturing the essence of their activity. IF the company's mission changes so frequently that they need a nebulous site name, then they probably have some schizoid or identity crisis issues with their board, marketing or engineering team. Too bad marketing "buzz word" craze lets degreed people off the hook too easily.
David Syes
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
GoDaddy is a negative in my book, based on personal experiences.
I can't say enough good things about Name Cheap (namecheap.com). They rock...only $8.88 per year per domain, and I've had domains lapsed many weeks (2-3 months) and they were able to pull them back from the "about to be released" pool (or whatever the official term is) and renew them for me.
Fast customer support, and above all, they tell you what's going on when you ask a question, I've never gotten a boilerplate response from them.
I have no relationship with Name Cheap other than as a very satisfied customer.
Here's the website:
t orrent
http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/
And a torrent for the download:
http://opensource.arc.nasa.gov/torrents/metainfo.
-If
Run a pencil-and-paper RPG campaign with your far-off friends: Gametable!
Aparently beau is only in reference to a guy. Okay...
*slinks into a corner*
... but did you get your refund? Or an explanation of what happened in the first place?
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
I have domains at both namecheap and godaddy.
I have no real complaints against either - but I prefer namecheap. a bit more money, but better features and a website that doesn't give me a friggen headache.
For comparison's sake, I 've got a few dozen domains spread among 3 or 4 other registrars. They're not as good as either Godaddy or namecheap, IMHO.
http://request-header.info
I'm picturing two /.ers dressed like Vincent and Jules from Pulp Fiction pulling up to the office...
"E-mail, motherfucker! DO - YOU - READ - IT????"
You filled out trouble tickets and they never responded? Big surprise. You need to be more aggressive. Call them up, demand to speak to the highest brass you can get at, and either a) work it out if they're willing (then get a new registrar cause this one sounds like crap) b) despite your earlier reluctance to the idea GET A LAWYER. It's your money man, fight for it. You paid for the their services, and they're screwing you over, so take their sorry asses to court and run them off your block. Nevermind the cost it'll take to hire a lawyer. You've got a real legitimate claim here, that they can't dodge. Either settle for cash (and find a new registrar) or beat them in court and ask that they rectify the problem and pay your legal bills. It's just like in high school, you gotta stand up for yourself or people are gonna walk the hell all over you.
I used to work for a company which owned dozens, if not hundreds of domain names which the majority were registered through Network Solutions. Never had a problem (except that you can't register most ccTLDs), and as the gp pointed out, consolidating them into a single account was easy as pie.
Now, for my own domains, I would never use them as they are expensive compared to other reputable registrars.
Perhaps appropriately considering the topic to hand, I misread that as "I suppose you could walk in and ask the building manager if he/she could take you to the roof and throw [the JumpDomain dude] off" ;)
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
I laugh when I read horror stories like these, not because I wish this sort of thing to happen to people. But that people never learn. They always want something for nothing or "very cheap". I have been in the web hosting and domain business for 6 years now. I have clients who contact me on a regular basis asking me if we will match so and so's GREAT deal. I always warn them that if it sounds too good to be true chances are it is. I have had quite of few customers leave us only to return back in a month or two because of serious reliability problems or a total lack of service from these companies who appear to have these GREAT deals.
Bottom line is, do a little research, don't always go for a deal that is the cheapest. Word of mouth is your best bet or actual reviews from current or past customers. We sell domains for $13.00 per year, which seems outrageous compared to some. But you will always get a person responding within 24 hours or less and usually by phone.
All I can say really is be smart. Watch out for the shysters, there are plenty of them. Remember everyone has got to eat therefore if the deal seems almost too good chances are there is a problem with it.
Just my two cents.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
www.haidacarver.com
Quite interesting - I had no idea this was available. : )
... where you have to be on *really* solid ground before you start shouting about defamation or libel.
But when an individual customer files multiple complaints, and then several other customers do the same... perhaps ICANN would look at putting the screws to said shitty registrar
Heres a peice of advice - dont use resellers. Always register directly with an ICANN-accredited registrar. How to know? Either register a throwaway (.com) domain through them, or find some other (.com) domain that is regsitered through them, and then check its whois. Make sure that the whois server that the central .com whois redirects to corrosponds with the name of the company you are considering registering with. (Eg, if the company is 'jumpdomains', but the whois is 'opensrs' or 'enom', then theres your answer).
Also, if you find yourself in a case where you've already gone through a reseller, remember that you can always contact the actual ICANN-accredited entity that they 'resell' for, make it clear to them that their reseller is holding your domain hostage, and ask that they take action. They may contact their reseller on your behalf (and often they have the 'real' contact info for them, even if all you have is a voicemail number), and/or if they cant get a useful response out of them, then can intervene on your behalf (usually by moving it to a more responsive one of their resellers)
SCOTT A ISON (Born Sep 1973)
400 JOY CT
BLUE SPRINGS, MO 64014-3980
I was also able to turn up another phone number for him: (816) 228-1998. No idea if it works, though. A reverse directory lookup shows that that number is for Jump Domain, LLC.
Dear Scott: This info was retrieved from the public records. Your privacy was not violated in any way shape or form. Have a nice day.
"Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them." -- David Brent
Dude,
So she's an ex-girlfriend. It happens. Maybe at one point you didn't want to completely let go of of what you HAD with her.
So keeping the domain and administering the contents for her would naturally require communications (direct or indirect) to be maintained.
If she did right away threaten to stick the lawyers on you, do you really want that kind of a person in your life? If she acted like a bitch with you, don't give her the domain. Instead you can CANCEL the damn thing.
That way, she can't get at you with a lawsuit. How can she get something from you if you don't have it anymore? And as you said, it was a vanity thing. No business related content...
So cancelling the domain name and removing its contents will satisfy both parties. You don't actually give her control of the site/domain for free (since she was a bitch) and she can register her own domain later if she so wishes.
That way, you continue with your life and so does she. Trust me, it's better to go own a different path than to stay on the one you are own. Sounds to bitter to me... you're better off.
It's not the destination that matters, but rather the journey.
Quotes are used to indicate that the thing being quoted is of dubious truth, to convey sarcasm, or to repeat exacly how a source phrased things, among other things.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
I've had an experience with two registrars, where payments went astray, and in each case the domain mysteriously showed up the next day belonging to outfits in the far east. It appears that when they know you're interested, and you end up not buying, they "ice" the domain, to make sure you don't register it anywhere else. I'm surprised (but not terribly) that this usurpation of domains for business purposes has been allowed to go on. I looked for a place to lodge a complaint: it appears that there is none. My conclusion is that the domain racket is just another business, and some of the people you deal with will be ethical.
... personally, if this happened in Australia I would have taken them to the Fair Trading tribunal and demanded a refund. However, I might have some more time than you do (and you don't live in Australia :P).
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Not necessarily, depending on your location. For example, New South Wales in Australia (the State that Sydney is located in), the truth is NOT a 100% defense against defamation and slander.
In Soviet Russia the insensitive clod is YOU!
Would you believe that he has never actually gotten back to us?
I would have been much more surprised if you'd said that he did get back in touch.
// TODO: Insert Cool Sig