I'm curious.

I've been studying a lot about the relative merits of auto set up v's manual and it's got me to thinking.

With an auto set up you run the risk of fraudsters but the system in question also registers domain name say.

v's

You vet all accounts manually but this system requires you to secure the domain name.

What happens if you're on the manual system and it takes you a few hours to attend to an account setup where the customer wants to register a domain name and in the intervening time the domain name is taken by someone else?

I've read that some of the auto systems can do it on a qeueing basis, whereby the account is set up on a preliminary basis but not approved until you do so manually (having vetted the card payment etc), those of you that do it this way, are you set up to still secure the domain name straight away?

How do you guys do it? What are the best variations on this? Please give me your opinions and suggested methods.

Thanks.

If you do it manually, you tell clients upfront on your website that the domain name is not registered until you manually process the registration and somebody else may register it in the meantime. You state very plainly that the domain name is not registered until you send them the email invoice for the registration.

You also ensure that your contract states this and that there are no guarantee the domain name will be available when you attempt to register it. Your contract also states that the domain name is not registered until you send them an email stating it has been registered in their name.

Your contract should have this clause, even if you do automatic registration. There are 90 + registrars now, another could have registered the domain name during the time that your client filled in and submitted the form to you.

The fact that you have the domain name in queue at the registrar that you use does not guarantee the domain name will not be registered by another registrar.

The first to hit the registry with the registration gets the domain name.