I have entered the twilight zone trying to deal with these outfits for the past 10 days.

I have two domains that were hosted and registered by them. I decided to transfer them to another host and registrar.

A request was issued to them by the new registrar 10 days ago asking that the domains be transferred to them. They refused to reply. Four days later a formal request was issued to me by the new registrar and I approved by electronic signature. Upon forwarding to them they immediately put a lock on the domains.

At the same time I went into the control panel on their site and updated the server information to the new host. They immediately updated the whois to reflect no nameservers effectively knocking my domains off line.

When I contacted them they said their system were having problems and they would manually update it which they did, to the local only and never the global.

When I contacted them and called them on that they immediately deleted any information on the whois except for their administrative contact information.

So now they say they can't do anything because the domains are pending transfer, and the new registrar can't make any changes because these people still have a lock on the domains.

I have filed a complaint through ICANN but what else can be done.

what is the domain you're talking about?

might be some miss understanding or something :)

PM me the name if you don't wish ti public share it.

Actually I believe you were so fast to report them to ICANN , maybe they really have a server side problem , anyway you can cancel the transfer and try again and again .

Did a search here at WHT and I see many horror stories with them. Bill's recommendation for all:
1) Keep your domains and hosting seperate.
2) Ensure you have full control of your domains.

Think about it. Would you keep all your money in someone elses bank account? If you don't have control of your own domain then 99% of the time it is sitting in someone elses account.

So fast to report them!!! Let me relate to you that the same registrar and host that I was transferring my domains to had another one the other night and let me follow it through with them. From the time that the person sent the e-mail to transfer the domain from their registrar and host it was showing up on the new ones in less than 7 hours later.

So 10 days is totally unacceptable.

I realize now I should have kept them seperate. Or at the least use a reputable host and registrar.

I have been doing a lot of research on them and am beginning to wonder by what process ICANN approves these registrars. Cause with all the complaints about them I am finding it can't be a very good one.

"by what process ICANN approves these registrars"

Can you say Benjamin Franklin? Look at the unethical business practices people post here on the forums and then look at the companies they are complaining about. People preach "ICANN Accredited" (two years ago I was one of them) but sometimes they are the biggest offenders.

BTW, do I think you over reacted. No!

I just got off the phone with Aplus(Names4ever) representative Andrew Burl (April 17th, 2004, 7:07 a.m. EST) . He is telling me one of the domains is already transferred and the other is waiting on the new registrar to pickup(his words).

I have e-mailed the new registrar and will update this when they reply.

Great News. I transfer domains almost every day and in all cases the DNS settings carry over with the transfer. I still think they messed with you.

Well guess what, Andrew lied, doesn't surprise me considering this outfits track record.

The domains were never transferred and the whois was never updated.

At 5:01 p.m. (EST) I talked to Aplus(Names4ever) support again
and supposedly Phillip Tretrov he at least told the truth to begin with by saying the domains were showing pending transfer.

I held on line while he supposedly did the update on the whois, putting back on my information they deleted, such as contact information, ownership, etc., the new registrar, and the dns.

Now he is telling me I have to wait until the next whois update before it will show. Is this correct?

Originally posted by redville
So fast to report them!!! Let me relate to you that the same registrar and host that I was transferring my domains to had another one the other night and let me follow it through with them. From the time that the person sent the e-mail to transfer the domain from their registrar and host it was showing up on the new ones in less than 7 hours later.

So 10 days is totally unacceptable.

I realize now I should have kept them seperate. Or at the least use a reputable host and registrar.

I have been doing a lot of research on them and am beginning to wonder by what process ICANN approves these registrars. Cause with all the complaints about them I am finding it can't be a very good one.


I transfered a domain from onlinenic.com to eNom It took four days to be done , despite there was no problem at all ,, this is why I said it's to fast to report them

I would have been fine with 4 days, even 7, 8, 9 but on the 10th day I was fed up with this outfit.

It is now the 11th day and still its not done.

Well the whois updated and guess what is wasn't changed.

I called Aplus(Names4ever) at 7:57p.m. (EST)and got Steven this time.

He did say they now show transferred away, but they are still showing in their control panel.

He told me that he would go in a update the DNS information at least and get them back online, which he did while I waited.

We will just have to see on the next whois update.

Day 12 - Well it looks like Andrew, Phillip and Steven lied.

Called at 12:59 p.m. (EST)today and got Mike asked what was status of account said it was active. Had to tell him it wasn't, go look at the whois.

Asked does it show domains transfer - no nothing on account about any transfer.

So he said he filled out work ticket#33501 to get the the domains transfer immediately and update the nameservers.

I see some other post across the internet about this company and it state it was company policy to lie to the customers and I it must be true because they sure have lied numerous times to me.

I am now calling them everytime the global whois updates, can't wait and see what the next lie they have to tell me is going to be.

Last night I was so totally frustrated with this outfit I finally Blew my top.

I went to the ICANN website and recorded every e-mail address I could find, including board of directors and then went to Aplus and Names4ever and recorded every one also.

I sent one e-mail out to all of them begging for someone to help me detailing everything that had transpired with this account from its beginning. I have the receipt for every time they billed me that shows the payments were done immediately upon request.

This morning at 7:23 a.m. (EST) when I talked to their support they informed me there was no change on the account they still showed they were in control of them.

Well as some of people on the e-mail got to work and read it(I sent it with delivery and read receipt request) , lo and behold it was put on a fast track and the whois update as of
Mon, 19 Apr 2004 07:22:44 EDT showed that the domains were transferred to the new registrar.

The nameservers and contact information has already been updated and as the different whois update across the country I am seeing it propagate and pick up the new information.

Thanks to everyone for reading my rant over the last several days.

Redville, you are a very patient person indeed. I would have done that last (mass email) step on day 4, not day 12. Glad to see that you finally got the issue resolved and thank you for the heads-up to the truth about this outfit. I guess when they say names4ever, they really mean their names forever.

glad to hear that, good luck :)

transfer ur name asap then to save urself future hassle like this one!

Originally posted by redville
I have entered the twilight zone trying to deal with these outfits for the past 10 days.

I have two domains that were hosted and registered by them. I decided to transfer them to another host and registrar.

A request was issued to them by the new registrar 10 days ago asking that the domains be transferred to them. They refused to reply. Four days later a formal request was issued to me by the new registrar and I approved by electronic signature. Upon forwarding to them they immediately put a lock on the domains.

At the same time I went into the control panel on their site and updated the server information to the new host. They immediately updated the whois to reflect no nameservers effectively knocking my domains off line.

When I contacted them they said their system were having problems and they would manually update it which they did, to the local only and never the global.

When I contacted them and called them on that they immediately deleted any information on the whois except for their administrative contact information.

So now they say they can't do anything because the domains are pending transfer, and the new registrar can't make any changes because these people still have a lock on the domains.

I have filed a complaint through ICANN but what else can be done.

Just to back up what was said here...

I had a client that had the same situation with them when making the switch to my service recently (like in the last 2 months).

When she first tried to update the name server information, their local information went blank. After contacting them, and the local information being updated, the global information still didn't get updated, until she hounded them about it over and over.

Her site was dead in the water for about two weeks because of it.

Because of the good service and value I've received for a few years now, I still refer new registrations and transfers to:
http://www.namecheap.com

I have about 40 domains in my own account there.

Regards,
--
Doug

NameCheap is also where I transferred my domains. Because the host that I was transferring to recommended them.

They have used them for awhile and have had good luck also.

Names4Ever.com - I have to put that on my BEWARE list.

I just saw this while doing a search from the main forum. Names4Ever/APlus deliberately does not allow users to update DNS records through their own control panel, so that users will have to fill out a support ticket. It is actually programmed into the control panel that when a user tries to initiate a DNS change they will not be able to update the primary IP. They do this to keep the hosting at APlus. Most of the time people just give up in frustration and let Names4Ever/Aplus host their sites.

Others, who try to switch registrars, go through the ordeal that you just described. You are not alone. Just do a search on this very forum. It is littered with similar complaints. It's not a technical error or an error in their control panel software like they will have you believe. There are posts as far back as 2 years ago suggesting that users are prevented from changing their own DNS info.

BUYERS BEWARE

I have a domain that names4ever and Hawk communications did this with. Client cant get domain renewed and when he finally got thru they wanted 75 bucks to renew for 1 year..... Laughable business practices to say the least. So what happens when domain is up for renew? Niether Hawk (reseller for Names4ever) or Names4ever can renew the domain name. Funny how Hawk ended up owning the domain at the end of this ordeal, and now wants client to purchase the domain from them...... Same incident I had happen to myself from OLM. I guess the domain name business dictates that you gotta rip off clients to survive now days huh?

Originally posted by RandyO
BUYERS BEWARE

I have a domain that names4ever and Hawk communications did this with. Client cant get domain renewed and when he finally got thru they wanted 75 bucks to renew for 1 year..... Laughable business practices to say the least. So what happens when domain is up for renew? Niether Hawk (reseller for Names4ever) or Names4ever can renew the domain name. Funny how Hawk ended up owning the domain at the end of this ordeal, and now wants client to purchase the domain from them...... Same incident I had happen to myself from OLM. I guess the domain name business dictates that you gotta rip off clients to survive now days huh?

$75.00? Was the name in redemption?

i thought redemption $85 (registry cost) - $200+ ?

Client tried to renew name, and could not, after it entered redemption they went up to $75. But still could not process, then Hawk purchased domain and then offered it back to customer for $200. Just a racket to make money, customer told them to stick the domain name up their arse

$75 is a fee setup by the registry (infact its $85) so $75 + 1 more renewal fee would be nice offer from them to offer.

Yea that would be nice had they allowed him to renew PRIOR to the date, I watched the client try in vain for 3 weeks trying to renew the domain, I see NOTHING NICE about that type of business practice. In fact I think it is unethical and a rip-off of the pubic trust that a domain registrar must possess. They are keepers of a business asset much like a bank does. By that simple fact they should be held highly accountable for this type of despicable business practice. Any note of "Being Nice" is a joke.