NSI Botches Domain Transfer, Says 'Not Our Problem'

Rolan writes "Wired is carrying a story about a botched domain trasfer that cost a customer "a large wad of money". In the end they say it's not their problem, even though they botched it, and Lawyers say he probably can't do anything about it. " Its an interesting article actually, and it doesn't sound like an isolated incident.

Comments

Re:5 day waiting period??

[1010011010]

I think that NSI is both sloppy and in cahoots with people, arranging special favors as they see fit. I contacted the legitimate owner of the mls.net domain and asked if I could use it, as he was not. "Sure!" was his reply, and he and I worked together to transfer the domain from him to me. NSI said we could not "transfer" the domain, and suggested sending both a delete and add for that domain in the same message, which would result in a transfer. So we did that. Somehow, in the middle, a crank named William Hicken (rhymes with the barnyard animal) acquired the domain instead. I called NSI, quite mad, and asked how their procedure, with DELETE and ADD in the same message, resulted in both the original owner of the domain and I losing it to a third party. They said "Well, it sucks to be you. Try calling Mr. Hicken," refusing to accept any responsibility for the fuckup, even after I produced the "paper trail" of email between me, the original owner, and NSI planning the transfer. Their reply was that they're officially infallible, like the pope.

So I called Mr. Hicken, who said he aquired the domain name legitimately, using standard NSI procedures, and almost immediately treatened to sue me if I tried to get the domain name back. As the company I worked for at the time had neither the time or money to waste pursiung Hicken in court, we let it drop.

All I can figure is that he has, or had, friends at NSI. I don't know any other way he noticed the few-minutes (seconds?) gap between the delete and add for that domain. It certainly would not have shown up in WHOIS (updated every 24 hours!), so he shouldn't have even known that the domain was on the move. It was an inside job!

NSI is just a poorly run company which found a way to latch onto the public teat. They would have been chewed up and spit out by the market without special government protection and status; what talent do they have? All they do is mismanage a system invented and set up by the NSF and Jon Postel, et al, way back when. And, unfortunately, ICANN is a joke and hasn't humbled NSI or improved the situation in the least.

My Secret Recipe

[1010011010]

... which isn't really that secret, I imagine:

1. Send in email templates until you get a ticket number
2. Print out the template and make a cover page explaining what you want. Include your ticket number, full contact information and business name. Print it on company letterhead (make up some if you have to).
3. Fax it all to NSI.
4. Immediately call, and stay on the line with whoever you get until they've found the fax, and/or the email, and do whatever you want. Never take no for an answer. Ask for supervisors if necessary. Get angry and yell if it helps, but be polite as long as possible.
5. Record the call if possible. "This call is being recorded to ensure quality customer service." Heh.

5 day waiting period??

[bravehamster]

When he originally put in the forms for the transfer of the domain, NSI told him there would be a 5 day wait. A 5 DAY WAIT? For what? In my job I've registered literally hundreds of domain names, and transferred several dozen and I've never seen any notice about a 5 day wait. As anyone else ever had this happen to them?

And one things for sure: if this guy had been a big corporation, NSI would have found a way to get that domain back.

Ways to proceed.

[Animats]

There was a court case that ruled that domains are property, in, I think, Virginia. That might be used to impose more obligations on NSI under property law. This will take a good lawyer.

There's also the possibility of using the new Domain Name Dispute Procedure, which works through the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva. That costs only $1000 to use, and might be worth a try.

A Fragile Plan?

[grahamkg]

Sure that's too bad and all, losing money through a botched process. NSI screwed up, BUT McLanahan knew the consequences. He's an MBA major. If he wants to succeed in business, he'd better toughen up. If the loss of a domain name is enough to crush a business plan, it couldn't have been much of a plan, imho.

Graham

Re:A Fragile Plan?

[um... Lucas]

Who says a domain name needs to be at all descriptive of the site it represents?

Slashdot?
Amazon?
Ebay?
Yahoo?
Excite?

Those are all very non-descript names.... And that's why they catch, IMO... I agree with the original guy. If his business plan can't be adapted to a new domain name, then that in itself seems to be a problem.

So...life goes on.

[razvedchik]

One rule for making alot of money in the business world: "Location, Location, Location"

Of course, us webheads know that's why you want to own microsoft.com or ibm.com.

However, if something didn't go right with the domain registration, it's *not* the end of the world.

I understand why somebody should be upset, since he had a "verbal contract" with NSI, but something happened.

I don't see anybody getting upset because they can't use the username mike@aol.com. They apply creativity and imagination to come up with something original.

so, maybe racing.com is taken, take reallykick-assracing.com. Contrary to what you might believe, there is more to web success than an URL. Look at slashdot, freshmeat, and 32bitsonline. They don't really have beautiful URLs. You have to market the site once it's set up

That's just my 3 pfennigen.

Disclaim all Liability

[wesmills]

So why is it that NSI is allowed to put into their registration agreement that "OK, it's your ass if you've done anything wrong, and we'll stick it to you, but if we screw up, well, that's just too bad." This doesn't make any sense to me. Yes, it's a binding contract, and you really should read the terms of a contract you're "signing," but this seems extremely one-sided to me. Even my credit card company is nicer than this...

--------------------

Moral: Don't base you bussiness on a domain name!

[Hobbex]

While I feel pretty sorry for the guy who got ripped off, and am not the slightest bit surprised to see N$I acting this way, I think that if he was basing the entire bussiness on the url then he had the wrong attitude to begin with.

I mean, in what other field would people base their entire bussiness plan on the NAME of the fucking company? Yes, as long as the Internet is still new to most of its users, and people still feel lost and unsure of where to go, owning a domain like buy.com or sex.com is a goldmine. But in the long run, you are on pretty thin ice if that is that is the base of your bussiness (yes, I know Wall-street doesn't agree with me).

The web is not, and will never be, a keyword based system. In fact, if you read TLBs original paper on WWW for Cern, he specifically mentions having developed the Web because keyword based systems are BAD. Hypetext provides the ultimate decentralized namespace, and no one can argue that people don't become less and less dependant on obvious domain names as they become more at home with the Web and the way it works.

Did Ebay, Yahoo, or Slashdot need obvious domains to succeed? Does the domain not being nerdnews.com detract from Slashdot's popularity and success?

I have no clue what sort of a market there actually if for the website he wanted to start, but if his bussiness-plan WAS sound, I would recommend he thinks of another name and goes on. I'm no good at this, but why not for example on-your-marks.com or theyreoff.com? For someone more creative with words there must be hundreds of race related terms not urled yet.

I really hope that someday people will realize that the domain name is not the website. If a site is good enough it can be just as successfull with some clever, easy to remember, but not generic domain, as it can if you spend millions on buying the most obvious related word you can afford...


-
We cannot reason ourselves out of our basic irrationality. All we can do is learn the art of being irrational in a reasonable way.

Not necessarily an "innocent" victim...

[Anonymous Commando]

When I spotted this story on Wired this morning, I decided to look this guy up (John McLanahan) - I've had my own experiences with NSI (not quite to the same extreme as he has), and wanted to find out some more details about his situation and see if I could help somehow.

Tried searching the web for him - found a 29-year-old John McLanahan from Boston who came in 134th in a half-marathon, another who is a corporate lawyer in Georgia, and one who lived sometime in the late 1700s (from a few geneology sites). From the Wired article, it sounded like the Boston McLanahan might be the one (right age range, into racing) but there was no e-mail address listed on the marathon results.

So, I went to the NSI WHOIS server, searched for "McLanahan, John", and found a John McLanahan with a Boston address (actually, three or four handles with the same name and mailing address) who currently owns a number of domains related to racing (roadraces.com, sailingraces.com, runningclubs.com, raceplanning.com, raceinformation.com, coolraces.com) - sounds like the right guy...

...and then I notice the other domains this guy has registered. It looks like he owns a number of domains that are stock-ticker symbols for .com and hi-tech companies (TalkCity, Voyager.Net, ChemDex), some life-insurance related domains (weblifeinsurance.com, lifeinsuranceinfo.com), and some more generic business-related domains (bankinginformation.com, companyinterview.com). Unless his business plan covers more than just racing, I'd say he's been in the domain-speculation game for a while himself... especially when just about every domain I tried going to said "domain for sale".

Not to excuse NSI's more-than-usual imcompetence, but suddenly I don't feel quite so sorry for this guy...
________________________

Re:The Lesson is Clear

[phil reed]

It's kind of funny... the guy (who has the .com name) says he's looking to sell it, and has got other bidders. Hah! We've got the trademark tied up in the USA, so no one else is going to touch it. We'll just wait for it to become available for the regular price.

Sorry to puncture your balloon, but you appear to need a little education in trademark law. Unless you are a hugely major brand, like Coke or Disney or McDonalds, you don't have the trademark 'tied up'. You might have the trademark 'tied up' for a particular class of trade, but that doesn't mean that it couldn't be used somewhere else. Take a look at the word "Delta". I'm personally aware of three companies that call themselves "Delta" (Airlines, Faucets and Dental Insurance), and their trademarks don't conflict with each other (as long as the airline people don't try to sell faucets).

So, it's entirely likely that your whatever.com address is going away and there's nothing you're going to be able to do about it. It's unlikely that you're bigger than Delta Airlines. And what if he sells it to somebody outside the U.S.?


...phil

Re:The first thing that comes to my mind...

[RoninM]

Then at the very least they can reimburse the guy the money he paid for the domain name transfer, if not purchase the domain for him. As it is, they deny any liability, but fail to lock the records during the transfer. I'm not even certain of why they left a five day lag. And then to say, "Well, really, we'd like to help and it really sucks, but we can't, 'cuz this guy isn't one of our customers -- he was going to be, but he isn't," is just downright onerous and contemptuous. It's indicative a flaw in how NSI conducts its business that the domain was ever open for outside registration. NSI failed to have proper supports in to protect those transferring domain names and it'd set a really poor precedent to say, "Oh well, oh hell."

Think about it: if NSI has no blame, then there's no good solution to this. Register.com can't boot its customer - the domain was open for registration, that NSI had plans for it is irrelevant, since NSI didn't make that situation apparent until after Register.com was already in contract; the guy who originally held races.com and transferred it shouldn't have to pay back anything - he's out a domain name, already; and McLanahan shouldn't have to spend $500,000 to buy a domain that should be his or have to pay money for a different domain that he didn't want to begin with. NSI bungled the transfer process by failing to lock the domain name when it'd be highly trivial to do so. That constitutes liability in my mind.

Joker...nuff said

[tweek]

Check joker.com.
If you order tons of domains, you can get a special account that verifies based on your pgp key (not sure if gpg keys work, they should though). Also they will bill you for your domains as opposed to normal registration which you pay up front. I just ordered two domains the other day from them for US ~70 and it was great. The records were done within 24 hours and I am a happy camper.

I found joker through a suggestion of a slashdot user. They're fast. They have an SSL encrypted process. (heLLO? network solutions?) Ignore the fact that they use poor english on the site (it IS their second language) and you'll be happy. The only issue pain was having to re-register my name servers and contact info with corenic since network solutions info isn't corenic registered but that was cool with me. When my other 5 domains expire next year, I'm rolling them over to joker.com. They're fast, simple and in short, they kick ass.
Check em out.