DO NOT USE THEM!!!

A while ago I registered several (about eight) domains with totalnic.net. Now I am trying to transfer the domains to a different registrar.. and each request has been refused. So I emailed them to ask why the transfers are not working, and here's the reply they sent.
Dear Sir,

For your protection against the industry wide recent rash of fraud, it is
contrary to TotalNIC policy to allow transfers to other registrars as we
are unable to verify that it is indeed the owner or administrative contact
that has initiated the transfer.

Due to inadequacies and restrictions in the upstream registry system, we
have been forced to require the following for proof of identity and
ownership. The domain name or domain names; a copy of the driver's license
or picture page from the passport for the Administrative contact; on
letterhead, a letter from the Registrant acknowledging the validity of the
Administrative claim and; on letterhead, a letter from the Administrative
contact asserting that they are the legal representative for the domain
name(s). These items must be typewritten, notarized and sent to our CORE
offices at Capital Networks, PTY LTD; PO Box 383; Dickson, ACT 2602;
Australia. Please note that we have been informed that these requests are
legal and will help insure the safety of your domain name, as well as those
of our other customers.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you for using TotalNIC.

Bradley M. Pitt
Customer Support Specialist
TotalNIC Domain Registration Service

Can you believe that?!! Does any other regisrar on the net require a typed, signed, and notarized document on "letterhead" to simply transfer a domain name to a different registrar?

I emailed them back and explained that if I am able to change the admin/registrant contact info.. isn't that good enough? If I have the username/password to modify the contact info and change the owner to anything I want.. then what is the point of requiring letterhead, etc..?? I could just change the contact info to whatever I wanted and fake the letterhead, etc..

I STRONGLY suggest everyone stay AWAY from these crooks.

I don't think they are crooks, per se, though I have been attempting to transfer domains away from them myself, with the same results as you and dealing with them is fustrating (an understatement). I do agree with you however and suggest that people do not use them (not that they would) under any circumstance and add that they make NetSol seem easy and great to deal with.

I emailed them asking how to change certain details, they replied back with instructions (which I followed) and they denied the changes. They do lie. They are not honest. Avoid at all costs.

:eek3:

a copy of the driver's license
picture page from the passport for the Administrative contact; on
letterhead, a letter from the Registrant acknowledging the validity of the Administrative claim and; on letterhead, a letter from the Administrative contact asserting that they are the legal representative for the domain name(s).

:confused:

OMG! Now that's a first. For a second, i thought you were trying out for the CIA. I mean, with all that documentation...it's like they are running a full scale background check on you.

hrmmm....and i thought NetSol was a pain in the rump :D

Feel free to read a similar thread over at sitepointforums.com.

Someone is interested in "action" against totalnic.net..

http://sitepointforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=40708

I don't usually jump on the anti-this or that bandwagon, but as I've had honest experience with these people, I'd like to ask any forum members a favor, to take the time to complain to ICANN (not sure how much it will do, but hopefully something), here:

http://www.internic.net/cgi/registrars/problem-report.cgi

Thank you if you do, and thank you even if you don't.

I also have a domain registered with them, and a similar thing happened to me. I hosted that domain for about a year, and left the host. Then of course I went to change my NS, and realized I do not have password written nor saved anywhere. The e-mail account was on that domain name, for which I no longer have hosting.

I sent them an e-mail to request my password, they sent me almost the same message. I asked if I could just confirm my credit card # with which I paid with, and they replied with a big 'NO!'.


Not much I can do but wait until it expires in January 2002.

also also had and have couple of names with them and last time i guess 6-8 months back i make the transfer and it went through fine. i guess this time it is going to problem. like chicken said we should make some complain about it. i will what more domains i have with them and weather i want to transfer them or not.

plus they had about a 2 day outage recently. Which caused all domains to not resolve in there US database.

until this i have had good experinces w/ them. I am making a switch now. not sure what provider i will be going w/ yet though.

Totally agree. TotalNIC is keeping some of our domain names hostage as well. It is completely rediculous that they require so much information to transfer a domain name.

They did not demand a copy of my driver license, etc, when I registered the domain name. What are they going to compare it to?

It is obvious that they are hurting for cash, and are forcing very unhappy customers to renew domain names with them.

Ugh, I'm starting to feel my blood pressure rise .. Going to make another call to our attorney.

They also rejected my transfer to GKG.net last week :angry:
How can we make them change their mind? :mad:

Australian registrars are a weird lot even at the best of times. Thankfully the only one I've had to deal with is MelbourneIT (now INWW.com). They have an odd system of keys instead of passwords and a bit of a quirky interface (nice site though)

I suppose it's to increase the security of people's domain names, but only a month ago I had to track a reseller of their services to get a domain name transferred to our servers. I e-mailed them with the new nameservers and signed it as the client(*). Expecting some e-mail tag to get it done I had plenty of time to set up the account. Within 20 minutes the tranfer was put through, even though I mentioned "I'm using a different contact address, but you're welcome to e-mail the one one I have on record". Nup, no need, they sent the details right to my own account, instead of the client... that was a little spooky

(*) yes - I know that's not the 'correct' way of doing things but as many a host will know, signing an e-mail under the clients name often saves a lot of e-mailing back and forth.

Greg Moore

What can we do? Here are three things:

1. Send a note to InterNIC. They have the power to "de-certify" totalnic.net as an accredited domain registrar. Be sure to specify "Capital Networks" as the registrar along with their domain name.

http://www.internic.net/cgi/registrars/problem-report.cgi

2. Send a message to the CORE folks, who will hopefully investigate and force the release of our domains.

secretariat@corenic.org

3. Send LOTS of email to totalnic.net and let them know we are very unhappy about what they are doing! I've been sending one email every day to each of the following addresses. I suspect that eventually they'll get tired and give in. (Especially since I use a different email address every time, so they can't just block me.)

core@totalnic.net
transfers@totalnic.net
icann@totalnic.net

See the sitepoint thread for samples of letters to send.. http://sitepointforums.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=303242#post303649

So everyone knows, they have given up all pretense of available process for transfer. Here is the letter I recently received from them:

Dear Mr Filiss,

For security reasons, it is contrary to TotalNIC policy to allow transfers
to other registrars because we are unable to verify that it is indeed the
owner or admin contact that has initiated the transfer.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you for using TotalNIC.

Bradley M. Pitt
Customer Support
TotalNIC Domain Registration Service


This isn't ethical, and I suspect it isn't legal. I would strongly urge everyone affected by this to voice their complaints to ICANN and CORE, as mentioned above. If anyone could bring this to the personal attention of individuals within CORE or ICANN, that would be great! This seems like an unprecedented move on the part of a registrar, and I'm sure these governing bodies don't appreciate that or how it reflects upon them.

Anyone have any other suggestions? :)

Unable to verify, my rosy pink ***. If they send the transfer order to the e-mail address they have on record as the person who registered the domain, that's proof enough for everyone else, so why wouldn't it be for them..

They're being clowns. I'd suggest a phone call to give them an un-adulterated version of what you think of them, then hound them by phone till you get to someone that sees enough sense to put the order through.

If you e-mail them, be sure to mention this thread by link, so they have an idea of how their business practises are viewed by everyone else.

Greg Moore

This story made the news site at The Inquirer

http://www.theinquirer.net/03120105.htm

Also, check out the debate at the ICANN forum

http://forum.icann.org/regxfer/

I have successfully transfered my domain away from TotalNIC, but it wasn't easy, as can be read by others in this thread and in other forums and newsgroups (http://www.coolwhois.com/totalnic.php#resources).

I have posted all the communication that I have had with TotalNIC and some others in regards to trying to transfer my domain away from TotalNIC. That can be seen at http://www.coolwhois.com/totalnic.php and is a good look at what TotalNIC customers have to go through to try to transfer their domains.

I'm trying to broadcast this across the net to try to get news places to write an article in hopes that it'll either make TotalNIC change their policies regarding domain transfers or destroy their company. I also want to let others know how to transfer their domains. So any help in the distributing of this would be appreciated.

For those that have domains they want to transfer away from TotalNIC, I have some instructions at http://www.coolwhois.com/totalnic.php#success which worked for my domain (tcuc.org - site (http://www.tcuc.org), whois (http://www.coolwhois.com/?d=tcuc.org)). today it finnally appeared as being registered through OpenSRS! ;)

If you successfully transfer your domain away, please let us know.

Free? That's pretty cool.


What script do you use for coolwhois? Is it downloadable from the net or was it custom made?

Originally posted by Dylan
Free? That's pretty cool.

Yeah, that's what I thought. I don't know if it'll hold that extra year now that I transferred to OpenSRS, but it's no longer with TotalNIC and that's all I care about right now. :)

What script do you use for coolwhois? Is it downloadable from the net or was it custom made?

I use a highly customized version of the whois2.php class http://www.easydns.com/~markjr/whois2/

I plan on adding more features to the CoolWhois site, right now the main difference between it and others is that it has the caching where it will store older versions of the whois results and then it can be compared to the current whois results.

Thanks for the heads up Gilby, I had trouble transferring my domain to TotalNIC, but hopefully - after following your instructions - I can transfer it away easily enough. Not that I've had any great problems with them - but the fact they are trying to do this to customers is a good reason to take buisness elsewhere. :)

Originally posted by Gilby

Yeah, that's what I thought. I don't know if it'll hold that extra year now that I transferred to OpenSRS, but it's no longer with TotalNIC and that's all I care about right now. :)


Nope... it looks like it didn't retain the extra year on the transfer. If you hold it with Joker.com for 60 days though, I think it might keep that extra year.

Hi!

I suggested somewhere in a different thread to setup a site, to list down those "bad" registrars. I don't have the luxury of time. Maybe somebody like jimb (who set up unlimband) can take charge of this? It would be of great help!

I was going to register that domain as it was free and free even up to this writing, but I am giving someone the right of way to do so.

:)

they just ripped me off. too bad i don't have time for all this fighting, i look forward to give them chills !!
-------------------

Subject: Decline of Transfer Request for Domain Name: xxxx-xxxxx.xxx


Requesting Registrar: Tucows, Inc..
Current Registrar: CORE Internet Council of Registrars.
OpenSRS Order #Id: 4962522.


Dear Creative People:

The current registrar for the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx domain name rejected the transfer request you submitted.
Pursuant to established Verisign Registry procedures, the transfer is declined.

Please contact the current registrar listed above for a further explanation of the rejection.

----------------------------------

:angry: :kaioken:

:uzi: totalnic.net :smash:

Originally posted by mahinder
they just ripped me off. too bad i don't have time for all this fighting, i look forward to give them chills !!


Try the process I have listed at http://www.coolwhois.com/totalnic.php#success which basically amounts to transferring it away from TotalNIC within the CORE system, and then out to OpenSRS (or whatever your preferred registrar is.). This just amounts to a lot of waiting, but you don't have to deal with totalnic at all (if all goes well).

Originally posted by Gilby


Try the process I have listed at http://www.coolwhois.com/totalnic.php#success which basically amounts to transferring it away from TotalNIC within the CORE system, and then out to OpenSRS (or whatever your preferred registrar is.). This just amounts to a lot of waiting, but you don't have to deal with totalnic at all (if all goes well).

yes, I read that before, you have done a great job, I was looking after joker.com and will update you guys on outcome, do you know or have any script which will keep emailing totalnic.net with different name and from address twice every day regarding my domains with them, in this way I can send them 10's of emails daily on legitimate issue. :D

I have a lot of evidence that TotalNIC is really make us very difficult to transfer - I shoild say they don't want to transfer our domain to outside registrar and also a liar .
They asking us documents send by post, I sent all still they rejected the transfer request from other registrar.
Who wants to proceed to sue this company, I will help you guys !

It is sad.

We do transfers into our service every single day. Most go without any human interaction at all. The most I usually get is a question from a customer asking why his transfer is not completed yet - and it usually is just a matter of normal registrar delays - even with NetSol domains.

If the transfer process is less than a week old, I generally don't even get involved - since 7 days for a transfer to complete is not unusual.

Most process transfer requests are handled well, quickly and with a minimum of effort. Transfers in from TotalNIC however take what seem like days of constant effort. We have a couple that are more than two months old, and show no signs of making any progress at all.

One customer is just about giving up in disgust. I'm going to try to transfer to another CORE reseller and then to me, and I'll eat the intermediate transfer costs. The customer will end up with a free domain year, but at this point I don't care. It's all about principal now...

-t

I tried to tranfer within CORE to joker. Seems to have failed as well. I followed the advice of one of the posts here (at at the icann site). Pity, but at this point, I'm in the disgust mode. I used to think NetSol was bad, but they don't compare to Totalnic. I can't stress enough that if you are about to register a domain, do not do it at totalnic.

The 3-4 domains I had there, weren't ones I couldn't live without, and only one was the .net version of a name I do actually care about, but being the .net version, I let that one go as well. They really are something...

Hello everyone,

Here is my experience with ToatlNIC.net

After originating the domain transfer, then receiving the denial from TotalNIC, then sending e-mails and no respond. I have decided to contact CORE for help, at first I was not getting anywhere but after few email and a few weeks I received this e-mail.
---
"Dear Sir,
Could you please try to request for A new registrar transfer
for the domain name: xyz.com
as CORE-80 (Totalnic) promised us they would accept the outgoing
transfer.
Normally, 5 days after your request the domains should be transferred
out of Totalnic.
Thanks to give us some feed back about this issue.
Best regards,
Fanny Mayor
CORE Internet Council of Registrars http://corenic.org
WTC II, 29 route de Pre-Bois, CH-1215 Geneva, Switzerland
Tel +4122 929-5744 Fax +4122 929-5745 secretariat@corenic.org"
---

Here we go 2 weeks later TotalNIC is still ignoring the request, and it gets even worse.
I waited till the domain expires so I can register with other registrar.
Here is what Totalnic.net did after the domain expired:
- Sent me 2-3 "you will loose your domain" notice every day for a week.
- Extended it for one more year, and change the DNS record for my domain.
- They left my name as the owner but did not charged my CC yet.
- Still holding my domain hostage.

It looks to me like they just ignoring every one include CORE Internet Council of Registrars.

Best regards,

JC

Yep, did the same for me, same thing you described. They suck, and I don't think you'll find me saying that about any company in my x-number of posts on this forum. They... just... suck... period.

I might drop in for a visit! I have nothing to do with them and there little office!

But i have been passed it many times when i was around the canberra area for networking contracts...

I might pop in and say hello to them, see if i can buy a domain and ask them how and if i can transfer that domain after i buy it with minimal hassle.. If so i will ask for signed paper work and from there scan and send to everyone on the forum if they do give me such paper work...

THEN you have something to complain about!

PM me what domains you have and want to transfer! Thanks

regards,

Hello,

I'm going to contact ICANN (ICAN'T thats what I will call them from now on).

In mean time I added a comment on my web site http://www.rebatesthatsucks.com it has nothing to do with domain registration but it has very good rating with Google. Hope that more people will learn about TotalNIC and stay away.

Best regards,
JC

It' has been a long time but ACCC started investigation against TotalNIC / Capital Networks.

Below is email I received, seems that ACCC is looking for more proof.
Anyone care to submit your comments about TotalNIC / Capital Networks.

Here it is Darwin Elizabeth" <elizabeth.darwin@ACCC.GOV.AU

"Dear Mr ME
Thank you for your complaint sent to the email address of the Information Centre of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (the Commission) on 9 March 2002 regarding the conduct of Capital Networks
Pty Ltd and/or TotalNIC.com (TotalNIC). The Commission is currently investigating complaints against TotalNIC.
Before proceeding further, it may be appropriate to outline briefly the scope of the Trade Practices Act 1974 ("the Act") and the role of the Commission.
The main purpose of the Act is to promote competition and efficiency in markets within Australia and to protect consumers and business from unlawful anti-competitive and unfair market practices.
The Commission's role is to seek compliance with the Act. Its primary role in fostering fair and informed markets is to identify important issues as they emerge and to develop national or industry-wide solutions.
For your information, the Commisison has written to this company to raise some concerns with its conduct in terms of potential breaches of the Act. In particular, the following concerns have been raised:-

* TotalNIC's alleged policy of hindering the transfer of domain name registration of its current customers;
* Some of the clauses of TotalNIC's Terms & Conditions set out on its website; and
* TotalNIC's lack of tax invoices for payment of its services by its customers.
Thank you for your complaint/query regarding this matter. I note in particular your experience with your domain name my_domain_name.COM.
If you would like to provide further details about this particular incident including the reregistering to a "fake company", I would be very pleased to assess it in terms of our legislation. Please do not hesitate to contact me via email or by phone on + 61 7 3835 4666 (and I can return your call).
Yours sincerely
Libby Darwin
Assistant Director - Qld."

- - - -
JC