David & Goliath

[Jeremy-IYC]

Hi, I have a Big Problem and I wonder if anyone can advise based on their experience and knowledge.

On 19th of October 2006, I transferred 50 Domains via Bulk Transfer, to www.hostway.com. They sent me confirmation to confirm that the Transfer had taken place. After 2 months, I could not log in and I repeatedly sent them email every month to ask for access.

In November 2007, one of the Business's which has been online for 4 years had email errors. I checked the Domain and it was listed up for sale with www.sedo.com . I immediately contacted www.hostway.com and www.domainpeople.com their sister company, who said that we should have renewed the domain.

They offered me assistance in buying back the domain from the new owner.

"However, we would like to assist you with recovering the domain by
contacting one of the domain broker agencies with which we have a
partnership. These agencies have an expertise in the domain recovery
sphere and thus might have some success at recovering your domain."

After some investigation and a few hours on the telephone at 0100 hrs in the morning CET, it appears that www.hostway.com had sold the domain illegally with another 7 months left before the domain expired.

After a Whois search, some guy in Belarusia was the new Registrants name, he had bought 6 x "5 letter .com" domains from our portfolio (market value of US$ 100,000). When I contacted Hostway with evidence, they immediately re-acquired the domains at 0300 hrs European Time. Though they would not return it, unless we signed a Document absolving them of any wrong doing. One of Hostway's Lawyers even threatened to re-sell the domains unless I signed their Document within 24 hrs.

I advised them that our Business had vanished after an Immaculate 4 year online record, due to their incompetence and that if they did not return the IP Property, our action would be severe. They then pointed the DNS back to the Website after a couple of hours as otherwise we would sue for Brand Damage, Loss of Income etc..

The Domain was down for 11-12 days. We had no income during this period and our Brand was definitely damaged as some of our clients and partners called us personally and asked if the company was still trading.

I contacted ICANN to make an Official Complaint against an ICANN registrar, they advised me to talk with Hostway and said it was a "Legal Matter".

The following day after contacting ICANN, Hostway returned the domains without us signing any waiver and threatened legal action against me personally and our company, if we contacted anyone with our "outrageous claims".

We have received no apology from Hostway, No compensation and we feel like we have been treated very badly. We would like to know the following:-
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1] Has anyone else experienced this problem with Hostway or another
Domain Registrar and how did it get resolved?

Our Domain was down for 10-12 days and our Ranking dropped in Google. Our traffic has reduced for the domain
and recently one of my colleagues had to find another job. We spoke to an SEO Guy and he said that pointing to
www.sedo.com - "Domain Up For Sale" for 10 days would have a bad effect in Google as it makes us look
unprofessional and not very serious about our Business.

2] Does anyone know exactly what effect would occur with our Google Ranking to our site after 4 years online when
the domain points to www.sedo.com - "up for sale" for 10-12 days?

The above information will help us try to get some compensation.
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I look forward to any suggestions which can help us solve this Domain Nightmare.

[advancedmerchant]

Search this forum for the word "hostway". You will see you are not the only one to have major issues with this company.

If I said what I really feel about Hostway, I would be banned from this forum. Search and see for yourself, avoid these guys at all costs.

[OKSupport]

Search this forum for the word "hostway". You will see you are not the only one to have major issues with this company.

If I said what I really feel about Hostway, I would be banned from this forum. Search and see for yourself, avoid these guys at all costs.

My ongoing present nightmare with HOSTAGEway - I mean Hostway seems to be echoed throughout the Internet. They are holding 5 of my domains and refuse to respond to my questions. Mind you, I only used them as a Registrar. I had considered their dedicated server, but their very slow Domain Control Panel and constantly changing the Tech support contacts in the DNS was a sure sign they can't provide hosting either.

I have a feeling I'm about to see the cost of transferring my domains out of Hostageway (darn - there I go again - I meant Hostway), may see my sites held hostage for big dinero like others have reported. Complaining to ICANN is like eklecting a politician, or changing the bedpan. But, losing my domains means I will have a lot of time on my hands so I won't mind becoming their worse nightmare - it will keep my out of the pool halls

I had a run in with a Host a couple years ago that didn't want me to leave. They locked my sites so a Page Not Found was displayed, denied me access and demanded I sign documents stating I would remain for at least another year before they would unlock my sites. I emailed them a picture of their local Sheriffs office, the name, address, and picture of their local state Attorney Generals office, Senator's email and fax and Congressman's address and fax, local BBB and a link to the FBI Internet fraud reporting web page.

They released by sites

When I get upset, even Freddy Kruger breaks out in a sweat. But we need more protection from these kinds of hijackers. They appear giants, issue a press relase that makes them look like Registrar heros and get away with the kind of stuff we are reading about them. I am the first to get my hackles up when it comes to hearing "control" and "Internet" in the same breath, but if it means cleaning the Internet up from the mafia-style rackets that victimize the innocent, then give em a big stick and have go at the bad guys.

[Jeremy-IYC]

OK Support, can you expand on your problem? Do you have access to the Transfer Authorization code?

You could do the following:
1] Contact the BBB as Hostageway is a member.
2] Contact Tim Cole at ICANN via phone and email. By email he does not actually confirm that "Hostway" have done anything wrong, though our domains were released the next day by the Gangsters at Hostway "slightly bruised" and damaged after we contacted Tim Cole for assistance.

It definitely needs regulation. Hostway is the Gold Sponsor of the ICANN wiki website...

ICANN Wiki

"though ICANN wiki is DEFINITELY not affiliated in any way to ICANN..."

[OKSupport]

OK Support, can you expand on your problem? Do you have access to the Transfer Authorization code?
..."

Resolved. I got an email back from the US office and a phone call from another of their reps. Both did their very best to make it an amicable resolution.

I sort of understand how difficult it can be when a registrar might have many emplyees, each in a buzz to get to the next issue and keep within 'call-center' timing parameters as is probably the case with most tech support arenas. I'm not making excuses for them, or any otehrs for the matter as any large company, small ones too, should give the training and time it takes to make sure the issue is understaood, and resolved the first time. There is nothing worse than this guy blaming that guy.

That aside, they worked very hard and still have me as a customer. Not only did their seemingly honest desire to make things right appeal to me, my new found need to research registrars and the planned newer one scared the pajeebers out of me. So, I rocked the boat, made waves and am still there. Go figure.

In the end, two things I learned - research, and I firmly beleibve the Internet needs to police registrars. There are just too many horror storeies out there.

Ta for your input.

O

[Jeremy-IYC]

OK,

It's your choice. A Registrar should be like a restaurant, you enter you sit down, you look around, you order.
If they serve you very bad food, you vomit, you get food poisoning and you leave...

Though if they force you to stay, and force you to sign Legal Declarations before you leave, stating that it is not "their fault",
and that you cannot report this to "anyone", not even your friends, the Health and Safety Board, when clearly it is, their fault
-- then this is wrong...

If you value your Intellectual Property and after reading these forums about Hostageway (your words) and you continue to stay,
you obviously must have very high tolerance levels and a very strong stomach.

Personally, I was quite ill and vomiting every day for 5 weeks... after their culinary delights...
and my IP Property is still a Question Mark...

The Fact that they have such a big Legal Department, it would not surprise me that they scan all of the Forums, Daily...
and were aware of your specific gripes, hence their "nice reaction".

[OKSupport]

OK,

..................
Though if they force you to stay, and force you to sign Legal Declarations before you leave, stating that it is not "their fault",
and that you cannot report this to "anyone", not even your friends, the Health and Safety Board, when clearly it is, their fault
-- then this is wrong...

Actually Jerremy, the signing of a Declaration had nothing to do with the Hostway registrar - that was a side-story (see above) about how I handled a hijacking Host - not the Registrar.

The Fact that they have such a big Legal Department, it would not surprise me that they scan all of the Forums, Daily...
and were aware of your specific gripes, hence their "nice reaction".

Just about anything is possible these days. I doubt I scared them off. I reached their market department head and politely, but firmly, suggested that their reputation was fast eroding because of how transfers stories are being relayed and they might want to consider fixing the problem, not the stories. Then the phone call. The tech supervisor (spoke fluent english I might add) was very considerate, explained what may have gone wrong with two domains that seemed stuck in limbo, then said he would take it of the transfer out manuall and woruld do it immediately himself. They did sem genuine, and I wasn't going to lose my domains.

Earlier, I was given a link to nodaddy.com. I was going to transfer to Godaddy but having read the nodaddy.com site, well - there is an old saying that goes "Better the devil you know than one you don't" Well, I wouldn't classify Hostway in that genre, I do know their system and their Domain GUI isn't riddled with the glitz and in-your-face glamour-girls like Godaddy, but I do know them.

I wouldn't try to sell you or anyone on any Regsitrar by the way. You seem to have very good reasons to be very urinated-off with them. I must also consider that most people will post a complaint - not praise (myself included) and with the thousands of customers they have, that A:, they took the time to explain, and B: make the effort to set things right (without strings) - that spoke volumes.

No one should ever lose any domain to a mistake. Remember the days when if you registered a domain, the fine print stated that you were free to use the domain name to host your site under it, but the registrar owned the name? One would only find that out when they tried to move it, and it was in the agreement (which reads like a Philidelphia lawyers letter to his ex wives!) I guess they are still here, in a way - lawyers included

I wish I could help you resolve your issue but it seems no one can do that now. I just read where a fellow disciovered his domains were transfered out of Yahoo by Yahoo 6 months before renewal. That's why I think we need international registrar cops. IRCs - has a nice ring to it