Domain transfer failures

[astro]

I am having a problem with a Canadian based hosting company. I have been transferring domains away to a UK host for some time now (19 so far) and at first all went well, then as I transferred more away little problems started to develop. Recently I tried another batch of 4 domains and after 3 attempts all four have failed again. There is no reason for them to fail. I noticed when I first started transfers last year the domains must not expire within 14 days, now this has moved to 60 days. That said, not one of these recent 4 failures expire within the new 60 day period. But a couple will if they delay much longer. I am the registered owner for 3 of the domains and the admin contact for all 4 of these domains.

Is there anyone to whom I can appeal to force the transfers for .com domains? (I know it is possible for .co.uk)

Any explanations as to why these domains should fail? I can understand with the £/$ exchange rate UK web companies are moving away from dollar based providers, but would such a large provider be so awkward and be difficult about losing the business to a Brit hosting company?

Is it bad practice to mention the domain names and the provider/registrar concerned?

Thanks in advance

astro

[Dubbya]

I can't recommend a solution off hand but I'm sure you'd find one using a search query containing the registrar or host name and "won't transfer domain".

Have you tried calling the registrar to ask about the why's, wherefore's and what the heck is going on?

Good Luck.

[astro]

In an interesting development I have just received a copy of an email to onlinenic from my hosting company. I quote from the email

"Hello Onlinenic,

Can you please tell me why are these transfers failing again and again?

We unlocked these domains on your system and got authorization codes from you. Still transfers are not working. Please do whatever necessary to complete the transfer.

We are wasting time on unecessary communications. FIX YOUR PROBLEM ASAP.

Sincerely,
Ed
Support Team
geohost.ca
Telligent Corporation"

Anyone else having problems, and what possible problems could there be? Apart from a reluctance to lose the renewal fees from me!

astro

[astro]

In an effort to get to the bottom of things I have found out there is a major problem with Onlinenic, and I feel members of this board should be aware of this.


Cybersquatting is as much of a pain in the brand name as ever, but Verizon has been awarded what it calls the "largest-ever judgment" against OnlineNIC, a company squatting hundreds of domains related to Verizon products. Verizon is set to collect $33.15 million from OnlineNIC—if anyone from the company can be found.

OnlineNIC is a domain registrar based in San Francisco that, according to Verizon's 480+ page complaint filed in June, has made a business out of registering over 600 domain names like iphonefromverizon.com, itunesverizon.com, and treoverizon.com. Since no one from the "accredited" OnlineNIC appeared to court summons, the court "concluded that OnlineNIC's bad-faith registrations of Verizon-related domain names were designed to attract web users who were seeking to access Verizon's legitimate websites," Verizon said in a lawsuit.

The telecom won a default judgement against OnlineNIC for $50,000 per domain name that OnlineNIC registered, and both Microsoft and Yahoo filed their own similar lawsuits later this year.

Verizon Vice President Sarah Deutsch displayed an affinity for the theatrical in the company's statement, declaring that "this case should send a clear message and serve to deter cybersquatters who continue to run businesses for the primary purpose of misleading consumers."

The problem here is at first you think Onlinenic is an American company, but not so, it is in fact Chinese. There is no way you can find or trace any onlinenic employees or directors in the US.......and how are you expected to force any issue in China? Especially as the big boys like Verizon, Yahoo and Microsoft are unable to do so? Onlinenic as a registrar used the system to move disputed domain names around so much and so fast it was impossible to track who actually owned the disputed domains. So the Judge put a court order out to stop Onlinenic from doing this. They deliberately in an effort to be B. awkward and B. minded took this to mean the transferring of all domain names. So the net result is hundreds of thousands of innocent people are effected........like me.

Just how the heck did this company with no traceable employees or directors in America become an American registrar in the first place? Plus why will ICANN not act to break the deadlock? Because they can force the transfers for the innocent domain names and people.

I suspect many, many others may be effected without being aware of it yet. The amounts of money concerned here are huge, is it possible for all the domain names they control to just disappear over night?

Worrying

Astro

[dean]

Did you try this number for onlinenic? 415-665-6387
I had a similar problem years ago when a cheap host suddenly went out of business. They handed all the domains to domainphil, which is a business in the Phillipines. At the time, domainphil was not yet an icann registrar, although I think they are now. The accredited registrar used was Chinese, bizcn. I finally realized the problem was in the timing. Things are automated. I had a contact at domainphil who was very helpful. He would unlock the domain name. I would have to receive a confirmation email and get the epp code, then send it to the new registrar. I had a day job unrelated at the time and by the time all this transpired, an automatic reset occurred at bizcn, relocking the name and causing the transfer to fail. It seems that I had a 24 hour window to complete the transfer, which I was initially unaware of. I finally did get the transfer and learned a couple of important lessons in the process about cheaper not always being better, etc.

[dean]

ICANN | Policy on Transfer of Registrations between Registrars (http://www.icann.org/en/transfers/policy-en.htm)

It looks like it should be between the new and old registrars at this point. I wonder how far the new registrar will go on your behalf. Please keep us posted.

[astro]

The receiving registrar will not get involved because of further court action. Onlinenic have been awkward saying it is not their fault the ruling was made but they are attempting to resolve the situation as soon as possible. (hmmm...)

I suspect by holding everyone attempting to move domain names, (and there are thousands of names at risk here) to ransom they hope the judge's ruling will be lifted, or other agencies may get involved and force the domain changes. Once (If) that happens Onlinenic may be able to add the disputed domains and move them away again to more hard to trace owners! What ever their reasoning I fail to see how it should affect domain names not in dispute! There is so much money at stake here I suspect Onlinenic will just vanish into deepest darkest China never to be seen again! Then what?

I don't know, I only know I am caught between a rock and a hard place and it is costing me money every month because I set up the new servers first (paid 12 months in advance) to prevent downtime for the domain names and websites involved. Never did I for one moment think the domain names would fail the transfer! So now I am having to keep the old servers live as well! Two of the domains have now entered the 60 day to renewal transfer rule so I will have to renew in dollars which is also now more expensive as I whilst I spend much of my time in Greece my business is UK based so deals in £sterling. This will not break me by any stretch of the imagination, but is very annoying.

Why will not ICANN, who can move the domains, in their capacity as registrar watchdog act? It is obvious I am not involved in Cybersquatting!

very unhappy!

/astro