 |  |
>We have used Dotster (http://www.dotster.com) many times and they have been
Re: theivery
From: ahclist
Date: Friday, December 14, 2001
Time: 1:06:50 pm
>flawless. GoDaddy is not as user friendly but I have registered a few names
>there fot $70 for 10 years.
>
>NetSol has now matched QWest for the worst company ever to deal with. MANY
>people that I know have had nightmarish stuations with them.
>
> > From: Warren Michelsen <Warren@MDCCLXXVI.com>
><snip>
> >
>> Yesterday I registered Break80Golf.biz. By all rights, it should
>>be resolving
>> to my DNS servers.
>>
>> Instead, Register.com has it resolving to their servers so they can get some
>> free promotion at my client's expense. Do they take everyone's
>>domains hostage
>> for a while after you register with them?
> >
That depends on whether you supplied the server info at registration.
However, I don't think it is fair to slam a company based on what
they charge. This is a free market -- and if you are smart enough or
have enough time, you can save plenty without bitching about other
companies. Do you complain that Hechts charges 40% more for the same
suit? Do you get mad about Exxon charging $0.10 / gallon more for
gas than the local Get-n-Go?
No, let me give you examples of what you should bitch about:
Deceptive marketing practices. Recently, Register.com purchased a
list of the domains I own/admin. List short list contained each and
every domain NetSol/Verisign has currently registered. It did not
miss a one, nor did it contain any from other legit registers (ones
that aren't fronts for Verisign). This mailing appeared to be a bill
at first glance. In fact, even at second glance, it appeared to be
an invoice billing me for the six domains, but offering a small
"discount" for bulk re-registration. This "invoice" did not note the
expiration date of the domains, all of which had at least 4 months
left.
The fine print stated that by enclosing payment, I was giving
permission to have register.com transfer all of these domains to
them. If I had been joe-public, I might have paid that mailing,
thinking it was legit. In the phone industry, similar misleading or
deceptive attempts are called slamming.
Not that I love Verisign, either. This year, from late February to
the end of May, they had "accidentally" crippled the web-based admin
of domain contact information. If your admin to an account was not
current, you had NO WAY to update the info -- thereby crippling one
from authorizing the legit transfer requests.
I can tell you that Verisign is so in-bed with BuyDomains.com that
this cybersquatter has been very efficient in scooping up domains
which receive more than 3 whois queries.
Verisign has also adopted an new tactic: they will mail domain
renewal invoices snailmail to domains that have not been theirs for
over 4 months. I conducted a mass exodus of domains from them to
another registrar this past June. None failed to transfer. I have
received eight letters asking for payment for the renewal of domains
that were in this batch, most recently just last week for a domain
transferred successfully July 2. When I called after receiving the
first letter back in August, the sales person claimed they were still
"updating their database and it would be a few days" before the
billing department was current.
Draw your own conclusions. I've held back on some of the other
questionable practices Verisign uses -- like the mailings offering to
host an existing clients website -- but hey, I suppose that's just a
fair business practice. Not that they have an unfair marketing
advantage by owning the database which lists each and every owner of
a .com, .net, .org, .biz or .info.
Oh, and you have noticed that Internic.net now uses the Verisign
whois query database now? I thought they were supposed to be an
independent entity. It's a shame we cannot have one service which
doesn't sell query or registration information.
Sorry for the lengthy OT -- but I think there is a difference between
charging different rates for a service and some of the more "grey"
ethical practices. We have to know what to truly complain about :)
--
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