Domain Name held hostage

michellek · #1 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 03:24 PM

A friend of mine registered a domain name with Spiderhosts.com. The billing module on their website has shut her out since mid-summer, preventing her from renewing the registration, which has now expired as of 9/13/06. She has been trying to reach Spiderhosts since well before the registration expired, and they have never responded to (and continue to ignore) her numerous support tickets and emails. The only phone number listed in their contact information goes to either a fax machine or a generic voicemail box. Meanwhile, the site is losing money every day while Spiderhosts continues to hold the URL hostage.

She needs someone to help her get Spiderhosts to release the URL immediately, so she can re-register it somewhere else and get the website back up.

She has filed complaints with Public Domain Registry, ICANN & the FTC.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get Spiderhosts to release the URL?? Has this happened to any of you?

CyberCrone · #2 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 04:05 PM

Yes, it most certainly has happened to me. I lost two domain names to Names.com when they expired as a result of their not sending me expiration notices. They told me I couldn't redeem them because the names had already been registered by Names.net, obviously a counterpart to Names.com, when I looked it up I found it even has the same street address. At Names.net I found that the names were available by auction and they were valuable enough to me that I offered their minimum bid of $90 for each, whereupon they notified me that they had received a counterbid of $425. I knew this was extremely unlikely to be true, and when I complained again to Names.com and told them I knew they also owned Names.net, all of a sudden the names were re-registered to some 'agent' in Colorado. I started trying to trace who that agent was, and was led a merry chase to agents owned by agents owned by agents, all registered in Wyoming, where apparently very little information is required to register a business name. The chase dead-ended with a company in British Columbia and I gave up. Obviously this is a racket. If you have any success in prosecuting this matter, do let us all know.

By the way, I have since moved all my domain names to GoDaddy, and can vouch for their honesty. I let a domain name expire (through my own carelessness this time) and they not only sent me several notices about it, they allowed me to re-register with zero penalty.

Toni

visio · #3 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 05:57 PM

I use namecheap, for some of my domains, do you think they are ok?

Dinghus · #4 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 06:02 PM

You absolutely need to know who you are dealing with when you register a domain name. GoDaddy is very good, as mentioned, and very reasonable. I have received excellent customer service from them. On the otherhand, I had a customer who registered through another service and had the same thing happen. The name expired even tho he tried to pay for it. Then he was told he would have to bid on it to get it back with a starting bid of $1000. We traced the company to Africa so there was little we could do.

However, as I recommend to all small business owners and especially freelancers, get legal advice. This may sound like a sales pitch but seriously, you MUST have a lawyer. I use Prepaid Legal and it has served me well. Inexpensive and excellent service.

I run every contract through them and when I get a deadbeat customer they send letters and give me advice on how to best pursue the matter.

Unfortunately, they sometimes tell me "nothing you can do". This will probably be the case with your situation. However you CAN register a complaint with the BBB and Attorney General for the state they are registered in. Also be sure to get the company name out to as many people as you can so others will be warned. Stick to facts tho. If you spread rumors or lies about them you could be in trouble. Once again, check with a lawyer.

If you have the lawyer send a letter, this will usually get some response because they know you are not fooling around. Once again, not to send like an advertisement, but I really believe in this, get Prepaid Legal (unless you can afford megabucks for regular lawyer fees)

Dinghus · #5 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 06:04 PM

TRIPLE POST! Wooohoooo.

Hey, webmaster, the whole thing threw an error when I tried to post and then posted this 3 times with no further action from me.

Guess the program decided what I had to say was very important. :)

TrafficProducer · #6 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 06:05 PM

Web Master Tools and Utilities Some links that may help out, you've used some ICANN etc..

(About a 1/2 way down.)

Dinghus · #7 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 06:05 PM

Wow. Double post. Some glitch going on.

visio · #8 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 06:37 PM

Quote:
Also be sure to get the company name out to as many people as you can so others will be warned. Stick to facts tho. If you spread rumors or lies about them you could be in trouble. Once again, check with a lawyer.
End Quote.

Yes, go to alexa.com and write a review, stick to the facts.

danno · #9 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 06:38 PM

I prepared a detailed press release including all the emails back and forth and sent them the preview link to it.

Miraculously, they released my domain.

Dan

Mads Dam · #10 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by visio

Quote:
Also be sure to get the company name out to as many people as you can so others will be warned. Stick to facts tho. If you spread rumors or lies about them you could be in trouble. Once again, check with a lawyer.
End Quote.

Yes, go to alexa.com and write a review, stick to the facts.

After alexa.com I would suggest you try siteadvisor.com as well...

Mads Dam / www.mads-dam-larsen.dk

CyberCrone · #11 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 07:56 PM

Terrific, Danno...I'll try the same with Names.net altho it's been a while and it may be too late in my case. And the other suggestions offered...thanks folks.

imghost · #12 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 09:29 PM

Hi. I had the same situation happen to me a couple of years ago with a customer of mine. His domain was held by some fly-by-night company in Australia and we could not re-new the name. I tried everything. Then it dawned on me to follow the host "trail" and the actual domain holder was Network Solutions, and the domain register that my customer had used was a re-seller. I contacted NSI and explained the situation, and after following their verification procedure, I had the domain trasferred back to them.

In your case it appears that the "original" host is a company by the name of BulkRegister.com (877) 841-6827. They will probably want a statment that you have tried to renew the name, but have not been able to. Also, once you get the name transferred, you might want to re-transfer the name to a well know domain registrar. I also use GoDaddy (2 years now.

Good Luck.

danno · #13 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 09:42 PM

That's great if there are actual people you can contact and a trail to follow.
Mine had many different phone numbers and addresses listed on the Internet that actually did not work.
Even the whois info was bogus. The problem with the Internet is no "accountability".

Skywoolf · #14 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 10:15 PM

I have seen this many times. The crooked hosting companies register a domain for you but they register in their name or at least using their email addresses. They never remind you when it is due to expire, then when it expires they demand extortion money for you to keep it, claiming it will cost a lot to get it back when if fact they just need to pay for the next year.

If you refuse to pay the extortion racket money they sell your domain name at a much higher price because now it is worth a lot more thanks to all the work you did getting it listed on search engines. I heard some even auction off the used domain names.

I use only Network Solutions who are very professional. They start sending reminders about six months before expiry and keep sending them every few weeks. Even if the domain has expired they still hold it for a period (a month I think) and keep reminding you. There are no extra charges if it just expired.

Network Solutions is a little more expensive than most but the peace of mind is well worth it.

Even in Hong Kong where there is very little dishonesty the ISPs take weeks to do the two minute job of turning off domain lock if you decide to move the domain.

dlsweb · #15 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 11:35 PM

BulkRegister is a fine company and cares so I would sure contact them. I have several domains with them. enom just purchased Bulkregister.

I lost a customer's domain early this year from godaddy.
I did not get my email to renew as I had always gotten and it was gone. I am not criticizing them at all because they are a good company but this particular month I almost lost 3 others as well.

I now go to godaddy each month and renew the domains due for the whole month instead of waiting for the emails so this does not happen again.

tmaster · #16 (**permalink**) 10-18-2006, 12:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dlsweb

BulkRegister
I lost a customer's domain early this year from godaddy.
I did not get my email to renew as I had always gotten and it was gone. I am not criticizing them at all because they are a good company but this particular month I almost lost 3 others as well.

I now go to godaddy each month and renew the domains due for the whole month instead of waiting for the emails so this does not happen again.

How are you doing that they only sell 1 year renews not 1 month. Also they now send out a postcard by US Mail but you should keep them on autorenew anyway just to be safe.

As I understand the new godady rules you can now get the domain back even if it expires.

deepsand · #17 (**permalink**) 10-18-2006, 02:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmaster

Quote:

Originally Posted by dlsweb

BulkRegister
I lost a customer's domain early this year from godaddy.
I did not get my email to renew as I had always gotten and it was gone. I am not criticizing them at all because they are a good company but this particular month I almost lost 3 others as well.

I now go to godaddy each month and renew the domains due for the whole month instead of waiting for the emails so this does not happen again.

How are you doing that they only sell 1 year renews not 1 month. Also they now send out a postcard by US Mail but you should keep them on autorenew anyway just to be safe.

As I understand the new godady rules you can now get the domain back even if it expires.

It's simple.

Each month, he is renewing different domain registrations!

Mads Dam · #18 (**permalink**) 10-18-2006, 03:02 PM

To prevent such problems in the future:
why not pay your domain name for the next 10 years, or for life..?

It is not a law of nature that we each year have to buy the same again, again, again...

10 years ago domain names cost a minor fortune, and the one year period made more sense.
But time moves fast on the net, so perhaps we should adjust our mental habits...

Mads Dam
www.mads-dam-larsen.dk

visio · #19 (**permalink**) 10-18-2006, 03:16 PM

actually I have a problem, I register a lot of domains for my customers, and actually I do with our company account it is simple and quicker, but the problem is that some of my customers after 2 or 3 months just stop paying and forget about the web site, this happens at least in two out of 10 customers so I have a number of domains and don’t know what to do with them, most the customer never made a web site and some it is me who terminated the account, because they, the customers were spamming or using the site for fraudulent purposes, so what is your advice?
Please note that at any time the customer asks to control the domain he will be given total access to. That is why I use namecheap because you can transfer the domain if the other person as a free account with namecheap. In this case the transfer is free.

Any way what is the advice? Put it up for sale or just forget about it?

Skywoolf · #20 (**permalink**) 10-18-2006, 07:05 PM

It looks like your suffering because cut throat competition makes you charge low prices. If it is possible I would charge the first year domain registration up front or make it a policy that their mininum total payment covers the doman name registration.