This company registered my clients' domain name in their name. Now, when we're trying to get it transferred, they send me this (they are trying to charge my client to transfer it):


Tina

Thanks for the response.

The procedure to transfer a .com domain name away from Sage is as follows:

* We need to receive a faxed transfer request on 01912550317. The fax
must contain the domain request, an acceptance of the charge for the
transfer (£25 + VAT) and be authorized by the customer who registered the
name.
* The new hosts then need to submit a modification template request to
NSI detailing the proposed transfer.
* Sage will then agree to release the name when prompted by NSI.

If you have any further queries, please call one of our support technicians
on 01912550639 (opt3).

Assuring you of our best attention

Peter Asbury
Technical Support
Sage Software
mailto:peter.asbury@sage.com
http://www.uk.sage.com

Well, if your client is registered as the Admin then you can transfer the domain to OpenSRS for $10. You'd get a year added onto it and you would be able to change ownership information through the control panel.

Can't believe they would actually register a domain in their own name, and then charge a customer more money to get it in their own.

Goodluck

Yeah, I know the bit about transferring domains. We do it everyday.

The thing I can't believe is that they made themselves admin contact and are refusing to release it until my client pays.

--Tina

Had the client paid for the domain? If not, then they obviously should pay for it in order to own it. But if they had indeed paid for the domain, then there shouldn't be any reason why they'd need to pay for it again.

Mark Vockler
Aletia Hosting

Yes, they paid for it. SAGE just registered it in their name (not my clients') and made themselves admin contact.

In order to transfer to another host or registrar, SAGE is saying that my client needs to pay them a "release" fee.

Nothing short of extortion, in my opinion.

--Tina

That's terrible... there should never be any release fee needed.

I really have no idea what he could do to get it back without paying again... Anyone know?

Well, the deal seems to be that they registered in their own name and provide the "service" of "domain administration", mainly it would be up to SAGE to care about proper renewal and they'd be responsable for a loss of the domain due to non-payment of renewal fees...

So, since they own the domain (formally) it creates some administrative work for them when a customer wants to transfer it elsewhere. Especially they must somehow make sure that the one who asks for the transfert is actually the true domain owner and now someone else.

Now they charge a fee for this, it's much like some registars charge a fee for domain holder changes. The amount of 25Pound appears "normal", that's about what joker.com charges for the domain holder change. That's why I'm going to move my domains away from joker.com before they expire ;)

How to get away without paying again?

Well, this depends on the agreement between SAGE and their client when the domain was registerd. If SAGE was supposed to make their client the ADMIN contact, then they did wrong and wouldn't have a valid title to claim any fee. Guess one would need to look at the terms of that deal to know this

In any case without the consent of SAGE, NS will never transfer the domain, except if ordered by a civil court...

Many places charge you to change the owner of the domain, but almost all of those places let you register it with anyone you want as the owner too, that's the difference here. Joker.com charges to change the owner that you assigned, Sage charges you to for something you should have already been the owner of.