Guys,

I registered some domains with a company I use for hosting at the moment. Basically they have charged me the fees twice and I have demanded a refund. I dont want to get into a legal discussion here but they have now changed the details in the whois database to their company name from mine even though my name was there previously and I have paid for these.

Below is a section if an email they sent me:

"At this time, for our protection against fraudulent chargebacks and bank fines, we have
taken ownership of the domains that we have registered and purchased. Once there has
been a signed agreement regarding the charges you owe us they will be released."

Is this legal? Can they do this? Who actually owns this domain? Afterall I have paid for it so surely it is mine?

Please help as this is getting very messy

Tks

Mondeo

Bypass your host and go directly to the 'registrar' (are they ICANN accredited?) and lodge a complaint. You may find that your registrar keeps an audit trail of domain name ownership details and can see clearly that an unauthorised recent change has been made to the Organisation Name field by your host.

If you've registered via a host and had yourself listed as the Organisation Name from day one, any rights over the domain name are yours.

Of course, every situation is different, I'm only going on the info you've provided.

-j

They are not ICCAN registered. I think it may be TUCOWS who are the registrar (from the whois database).

Basically, they have failed to provide the service levels I expected (and I was not being unreasonable but 5 days and still awaiting support replies is not on). On top of that they charged my credit card twice for the service.

I have now told them I want to cancel and get a refund (which is inside their 14 day cancellation period) and it was after I told them this that I got the above email. I have checked the whois database and they have changed the details of the domain owner to their company which strikes me as illegal.

Mondeo

Without knowing which domains are involved, it's impossible to give an exact answer, but I'll try.

Assuming Tucows (http://www.opensrs.org) is your registrar, complain directly to them about the actions of your host.

The Tucows reseller has no right whatsoever to change ownership over a domain name they simply resold to you. Bottom line is, it's your domain.

Tucows may refer you to their reseller to resolve the complaint, but it appears you've already tried that and failed.

Advise Tucows what you've advised us. The rest will fall into place.

-j