There are many people who have problems with some of the registrars (NSI, REGISTER.COM) - they just don't release expired domains properly and either try to offer them on an auction or just don't release these.
We should do something against this bad business practice! First, vote for this poll so we see how much are having problems. Then we can discuss HOW to force them (better business buro, ICANN, ...)

Yes, I agree we should all pool our expertise and resources and try to get NSI to at least officially set a time frame and release expired back to the market/pool to the general public for resale again.

Now they seem to drag their feet as far as expired domain is concerned and at their whim and fancy either auction it off through another company as many have mention in the forum or God knows what happen to it as I read also from this forum that a member was hoping to buy a particular domain and had been on the lookout for it since 1999 if I am not mistaken.

This kind of business practices is very unprofessional and I support fully any suggestions/proposals to find ways to get them in line with the other Domain Registrars system of releasing expired domains after 45 days which is the maximun days allowed as mentioned by some members of this forum.

Vote!
And maybe some people can bring in their opportunity HOW we can force these two registars to work properly!

The only way to effect change is to go in force to the body that governs domain names and insist on it. That means a mass effort directed at ICANN. Anything less is a waste of time.

Duster, I disagree a little :)
1. ICANN told me that they don't act when they get a complain, they just collect the complains and see where the trend gos.
2. There is no chance to come close to the body of ICANN, I think
3. NSI and REGISTER.COM are not on the moon, they are normal plain US companies. If enough complaints arise on Better Business Buro or at other services they will have to REACT.

I'll agree, but before everyone storms the gates of ICANN let me catch up with the payments on all my expired/expiring domains. :)

Originally posted by Walter
Duster, I disagree a little :)
1. ICANN told me that they don't act when they get a complain, they just collect the complains and see where the trend gos.
Lots of companies fail to take action on solitary complaints and suggestions. It's only when their number reaches a certain critical mass that action may be taken.

2. There is no chance to come close to the body of ICANN, I think
I don't know what you mean here. I do know that ICANN has elected representatives and is the governing body concerned with domain names and registrar accreditation. They are slow to move, largely unresponsive, though they are the ones in charge.

3. NSI and REGISTER.COM are not on the moon, they are normal plain US companies. If enough complaints arise on Better Business Buro or at other services they will have to REACT.
ICANN is not on the moon either and you are mistaken in believing that complaints will deter their action. They hang on to expired domain names because there is a profit to be made. In the face of that, complaints mean nothing.

One of the most important considerations in effecting change is to deal with the authoritative body. Anything else is likely to be a waste of time.

Duster,
I don't know what you mean here
Maybe due to my not so good english, it's not my native language.

What I meant was that it maybe will take a long time before ICANN will react, so in the meantime we will have to try other things (including word of mouth, better business buro, and so on)

There can be plenty of good reasons why a registrar will hold onto an expired domain name. Trademark disputes, fraudulent registrations, credit card chargebacks, etc...

Also, registrars are provided with a grace period that allows their customers to renew the domain name after the expiration date if they did not receive the renewal notice, forgot to renew, payment discrepancies, etc.

I don't think any of us would like our car or house taken away just because we were late on one payment. Or your phone disconnected because you failed to make the payment exactly on the date the bill was due.

I do agree that expired domains should not be auctioned off. If they can be auctioned they should be dropped.

45 days is only the grace period in which a registrar can drop the domain and recoop it's cost after the auto-renewal takes place on the domain.

Originally posted by Duster
One of the most important considerations in effecting change is to deal with the authoritative body. Anything else is likely to be a waste of time. The real authoritative body, perhaps, is the U.S. Department of Commerce, the agency with which ICANN has contracted.

In any case, ICANN has shown little interest in acting on such complaints from users. It would probably be more effective if a protest were organized among other registrars, appealing to the Commerce Department on the grounds that NSI's activities (by this I mean the transfer of names to GreatDomains for auction; I agree with TheOps that it's not unreasonable to leave a grace period or even to go beyond the prescribed grace persiod for registration renewal) are an unfair barrier to competition within the industry.

Originally posted by Walter
in the meantime we will have to try other things (including word of mouth, better business buro, and so on) The Better Business Bureau, by the way, has absolutely no authority in this or any other matter. If you file a complaint with them, they'll notify the company in question that there's been a complaint and ask the company to let them know how they respond. They'll track the number of complaints and how many they feel have been properly responded to, and they'll make that information public.

In some industries a bad BBB report can do a company real harm. I can't imagine that Network Solutions would feel any negative effects from it, though. Potential customers that shop around and investigate registrars are going to rule out NSI based on negative information from any number of sources; those that go to NSI are doing so based on their long standing as "the" place to register domain names and their heavy marketing. Those customers aren't going to check the BBB for a report on NSI first.

TheOp:
There can be plenty of good reasons why a registrar will hold onto an expired domain name. Trademark disputes, fraudulent registrations, credit card chargebacks, etc...

This whole thing was NOT about registrars holding a domain for disputes or for holding a domain in the 45-day period. As clearly stated it was about registrars who auction expired domains and about registrars holding domains after the 45-day period without any reason.

Walter:

I clearly understood what the post was about, and I believe my comments were relative to the other postings.

"about registrars holding domains after the 45-day period without any reason"

Perhaps many of the registrars have determined that consumers typically pay late and that they, the consumer, needs beyond the 45 day period to renew the domain.

Actually, the 45 day grace period is not in place for the consumer at all. It's intent is to allow the registrar 45 days to drop the domain and recoop their cost from the auto-renewal process at the registry level if the domain was not renewed. Any registrar can decide to drop the domain before the grace period is over or if they so choose to keep the domain beyond the grace period. It's all based on the individual registrars business policies.

How do we know if a domain is being held without any reason? Isn't that just speculation?

I know of a few domains that people decided to not renew or pay for. They also didn't bother to delete them either. In other words, they are not in dispute, not contested, not paid for, nothing other than lack of renewal/payment. These domains have been expired since June of 2000, with no date to be available again. I emailed NetworkSolutions about this and got some form-letter response from some dolt that didn't bother to even read my email.

I sent it back with a response that clearly, once again explained my inquiry. I got another form-letter response (and no, I'm not talking about auto-responses). I emailed them back and asked if they get paid for that sort of nonsense, since it sounds like an easy job -- just send unhelpful, pointless form-letter responses that are the closest thing you can find in your database of FAQ's and send them off.

Needless to say, I didn't get a helpful response again and just another pointless email that didn't answer my question. Basically I was told that, "The expiration date is not the date they become available", "there is no reserving or waiting list -- domain's are first come, first serve", "If you want a domain that's expired, check back often until it's available" and all sort of obvious, known and pointless things that had _nothing_ to do with my question to them, of why they hold onto non disputed, expired, non paid for, non renewed domains for over a year and simply will not release them! I never got any answer that had anything to do with it.

This is highly suspect of NSI to be pulling and I personally think with all the other registrar's under selling them, they want to hold onto any domains they can, so people can't register them through other registrar's once NSI has their claws on the domain. Indeed, in such cases, they should be forced to release them and this is hardly the first time and hardly a rare incident. This is what I assumed this thread was in regards to, since of course domain disputes, legal issues and other such things are justifiably fine to hold onto as long as it takes -- but in many cases, that's not the issue at all and NSI needs to release them, even if they are forced to do so. That being the issue, I don't think anyone would disagree?

TheOp:How do we know if a domain is being held without any reason? Isn't that just speculation
No, it's not. For instance, I spoke with a domain owner and he agreed to not renew the domain and after expiration+45 days we tried both 6 weeks to force REGISTER.COM to release the domain so I can register it (through an other registrar!). Many support tickets, calls, faxes. They told us never why they do not release the domain. Luckily yesterday they released the domain. :)

Tim Greer, and just another pointless email that didn't answer my question
I can feel your pain. There are some companies out there who really are acting like completely a...oles.

it exists? world of web needs it?

what is the istitutional function if it isn't present in this kind of dispute?

:D

Just wondering if anyone else thinks that if NetSol didn't run the registry, they wouldn't be holding onto those names quite so much? If *they* had to pay $6 for the expired domains...

*hmmmmmmm*

Actually, Netsol does not run the registry any longer. Verisign Global Registry Services (http://www.verisign-grs.com) does. NSI is just a registrar like the rest. They also pay the $6.00. The only difference is that they can afford to hang on to them.

I got a couple of domains with NetSol that expired last Feb. 2001. They did not do anything on it until a few days ago when they disabled it. I tried to renew one of the domains today but my payment wasn't accepted. Reason: the domain was not found in their registry. But a whois search at NetSol still reflects that the domain is with NetSol. Searching the domain with other registrars also return a result that the domain has already been taken.

Suspended animation?

Mivo,

It happened to a domain I am looking at too.
This is what NSI's whois says now:Domain not found locally, but Registry points back to local DB. Local whois DB must be out of date.

The old owner is no longer listed and someone told me that this is the last step before they drop it. Aabout 6 days after the last update (done by NSI).

Originally posted by GregL

The old owner is no longer listed and someone told me that this is the last step before they drop it. Aabout 6 days after the last update (done by NSI).

Yep! NSI dropped my unpaid domain today. Registered it with another registrar. whew!

Just use snapnames.net
I call them "the domain snipers"
:D

Have you ever used SnapNames?

Were they able to get an expiring domain for you?

My first impression is, that SnapNames collects money for a service which they are not actually able to provide...

Woo hoo. After numerous attempts, I finally acquired an expired domain via www.greatdomains.com.

I don't plan to reuse their services because the domain was transferred over to me two weeks ago, but I received no e-mail notifications. I only found out when I checked my credit card statement. Now, I just have to wait a few months before moving the domain to another registrar.

Originally posted by TheOp
Actually, Netsol does not run the registry any longer. Verisign Global Registry Services (http://www.verisign-grs.com) does. NSI is just a registrar like the rest. They also pay the $6.00. The only difference is that they can afford to hang on to them.

I hate to break it to you, but Verisign owns Network Solutions.......

Originally posted by dotcomguy


I hate to break it to you, but Verisign owns Network Solutions.......

I know that Verisign is the parent company. But at least now there is some form of seperation, however small that may be.