What to do...

RobertFoster

Hi,

The company I got 2 domain names through (firevision.net) has folded. The company which has taken over their clients is sitewizard.co.uk

The reason I was with firevision was because it was only £11 per year per domain. I use a seperate hosting company, which I have the domain DNS settings pointing to.

The only way I found out about the change-over was that my domains are expiring in August, and I was checking out the firevision site to see the exact date.

I have been in contact with the new company via email. Their prices for domains is £30 per year. That's £60 for both domains compared to the £22 I was paying with Firevision

Once I saw this, I thought I'd transfer the domains to another company (one my hosting company recommend @ $16/year). Firevision would transfer you for free. SiteWizard wants £30 PER DOMAIN. Plus, if it's with 30 days to the domain expiration, you've to pay the renewal fee on top of that...£120 in total.

I emailed them, telling them how annoying this was, and I got the following responce:

Barbara wrote:

[...] I can sort out the renewal of the domain names for you and it will include the transfer fees if they are transferred as soon as they have been renewed. [...]

So, down to £60 (I think, she didn't go into exact details) - Still very expensive (to what I'm used to / can afford / have budgeted for).

What really annoys me is that they just took over the domains without contacting the clients before hand to see if they had a preference as to where to go. The main reason I was with Firevision in the first place was the price.

Has anyone any suggestions as to what I should do? If I let the domains expire (on August 10th) - will they become available straight away? Is there a chance SiteWizard could "lock" the domain at all? Have I any right to demand to be charged the original £11 since it wan't them I entered into contract with initially?

(Wow, long post. BTW - both domains are non-profit making "hobby" sites)

dahamsta

They're probably already locked. If they're not, and you're the admin contact, it's quite likely you'd be able to transfer them whether they like it or not. Look them up here and see if there's any mention of LOCK in the output.

If they're locked, you're probably screwed I'm afraid. It might be possible to appeal the fees to their upstream registrar (you'll find that in the WHOIS output too), but ICANN give registrars - and by extension their resellers - the "right" to charge "administration fees", and tbh they don't give a toss about end users.

An appeal is unlikely to be resolved quickly though, so unless the domains aren't locked, it might be best to take the hit and move to an ethical registrar/reseller asap.

adam

RobertFoster

Thanks for the quick reply adam. Unfortunately they are locked

Does that lock remain on it permanently, even after the expiration?

I'm kicking myself now. I was planning to move away from Firevision even before this started (they didn't renew my domain for two weeks last year because they'd implemented a spam blocker and weren't getting my complaints :rolleyes: I had to contact TUCOWS to get them moving) - I was leaving it to nearer the renewal date to transfer.

Looks like I'll have to bite the bullet

dahamsta

RobertFoster wrote:

Does that lock remain on it permanently, even after the expiration?

Hmmm. As far as I can remember, the domain goes to REGISTRY-LOCK or REGISTRY-HOLD when it expires, which is like REGISTRAR-HOLD and REGISTRAR-LOCK but set by the upstream registry; i.e. the registrar can't change it.

(Better explain: The registry is top of the chain, they sell domain names to registrars, who in turn sell to resellers, who in turn sell to registrants. Most registrars also sell direct to the public.)

It'll stay like this for a 40-day grace period during which the domain can be renewed at no extra cost (to the registrar/reseller). The domain will be in the WHOIS, but not in the roots (it won't resolve/work).

It then goes to REDEMPTIONPERIOD for another 30 days, which is effectively deleted-but-recoverable; i.e. not in the WHOIS either. (The price for a RESTORE used to be an absolute digrace, but I believe it's cheaper now.)

All of which leads me to the simple answer, which I should have started with: Strictly speaking the lock changes, but the upshot is that I'm pretty sure you can't transfer it after expiration, and you won't be able to re-register for 70 days.

I'm such a nerd.

EDIT: I just noticed the mention of Tucows. I consider Tucows the "nicest" registrar, which is why I'm a reseller of theirs. If anyone is worth appealing to, it's Tucows. They're good guys.

adam

mneylon

If they are with Tucows can you appeal to get the domain moved to another Tucows reseller? I thought Adam mentioned something about that before, but I could be imagining it

RobertFoster

The company my host seem to recommend is hostdimedomains.com ($15.99/year). I checked their whois and it seems they're an Enom Inc reseller - so a Tucow to Tucow transfer seems unlikely

Sposs

aswell as that price is very dear - have a look at some irish hosts who should be able to help you.

dahamsta

No, obviously you can't do a reseller-to-reseller transfer if the registrars are different! However Michele was making the suggestion to get you out of a spot, you can always transfer away to another registrar after you get away from this shower, and no reasonable reseller will charge you more than €15 for the additional domain year.

If I was you I'd get in touch with Tucows, explaining that the transfer via acquisition was totally out of your control and that you now feel like you're being held to ransom. Ask if there's a way you can transfer to another reseller with a better reputation.

I'm not sure of their end-user support address, but I know they switched us over to another address a while back, so support@opensrs.org might do it.

adam

dahamsta

Yeah, I'm pretty sure blacknight's right, I think you can do a reseller-to-reseller transfer even if the domain is locked, because reseller ownership tracking is done interally on Tucows systems, not via the registry.

Here's Tucows' FAQ on the subject. Probably worth a further browse of their FAQs too, they're usually pretty good.

adam

RobertFoster

dahamsta wrote:

Yeah, I'm pretty sure blacknight's right, I think you can do a reseller-to-reseller transfer even if the domain is locked, because reseller ownership tracking is done interally on Tucows systems, not via the registry.

Here's Tucows' FAQ on the subject. Probably worth a further browse of their FAQs too, they're usually pretty good.

adam

I emailed Tucows and the reply I got was an exact copy/paste of that links content...

mneylon

Ring them.

dahamsta

Robert, if you PM me the exact details I'll get in touch with my account manager to see what can be done for you. You won't have to move to my OSRS account unless you want to.

Please try to provide as much information as possible.

adam