I don't wish to bash a company when I disagree with them. But in this case, I must make this public so that others will realize what I have learned today.

My company has been doing business with BulkRegister for several years now. They have been terrific to deal with... a great company. In the course of this time, we have bought domain names on behalf of our customers from BulkRegister as well as other registrars. During this time, I estimate that we have paid to BulkRegister an amount in the neighborhood of $10,000 USD. Not a huge amount, but a substantial one, wouldn't you say?

Well that has ended. We have decided to not bring new domain registrations to bulkregister and also, to not renew with them again. Why? Read on.

A customer of ours allowed his domain name to expire. He let it expire for a long period and the domain name went into redemption... OR SO WE THOUGHT.

I contacted BulkRegister on behalf of the customer and let them know that we no longer could see his domain name listed in our control panel. I asked them if the domain name had gone into redemption. This is the response I got.

*Rep: xxxxxx*
Hello,

Thank you for contacting BulkRegister. This domain expired on July 31st. For 33 days from that date, there was a grace period where the domain could have been renewed (also, after 10 days of that grace period, the domain is pointed towards an expired domain page). At the end of the grace period after expiration, a domain can either be deleted and placed into the redemption period, backordered and resold, or simply resold to another member (refer to the registration agreement for more information - here's a direct link: http://bulkregister.com/DNSagreement.php). In this case, the domain was resold, and now another member now owns the domain.

If your client still wishes to register this domain, they will need to contact the new owner and inquire about its purchase.

If you have any other questions or need anything else, please let me know.

Sincerely,

xxxxxxxxxxx
BulkRegister.com
Support

P.S. If you or your client have trouble contacting the new owner, please let me know.

I have now learned that the redemption period and fee, which was heralded as a way for the registrars to PROTECT domain names when and if they expired, is optional at BulkRegister. It is in their domain agreement that they can sell a domain name that expires instead of putting it into redemption.... AND THEY DO SELL THEM, OBVIOUSLY.

Thus, we have decided to not do business with BulkRegister any longer. What they consider ethical in regard to handling customer domain names and what we consider ethical do not match.

Does anyone know of another registrar that holds true to the spirit of the REDEMPTION PERIOD without selling customer's domains out from under them, or is this a standard practice (selling customers domains instead of putting them into redemption)? I am looking into OpenSRS at this time. Any help will be appreciated. I have 220 domain names with BR. I want them out of there.

Wow that is really tough. I am sorry to hear of your trouble. I only use srsplus so I don't know about OpenSRS but thus far I have not had any problems of that nature.

Good luck finding the right registrar for you!

This is common practive among most larger registrars these days. Even the smaller ones have agreements in place these days to send expired domains to Pool/Snap for auction.

Not justifying it, but just saying that this isn't unique to Bulkregister. After all, your client did relinquish control of the domain when they let it expire. You're lucky they got ~30 days. IIRC, Godaddy only gives you 12 days.

I don't see anything wrong with what BulkRegister told you. You say that your client let the domain expire for long time. If that was more than 33 days, then what BulkRegister did was exactly what they have explained to you. I see no problem with that at all. I think it's all your clients fault for not renewing the domain when they had a chance to.

I haven't gone back and read Bulkregisters ToS to see if what they told you is true, but most registrars will give you their own grace period where you can renew the domain after expiry for just the renewal fee then they tack on the ICANN stipulated Redemption Period of 30 days. Other registrars incorporate the Grace and Redemption Period in the same 30 days. It looks to me that in BulkRegister's case they gave your client 10 days to renew at renewal fee and 23 days to renew at redemption fee. This is not at all uncommon.

It looks to me that BulkRegister have behaved correctly.

It looks to me that BulkRegister have behaved correctly.

My thoughts exactly.

We're not living in a perfect world where every person who let his domains expire will get an infinite chance to get them back...

Unfortunately, sonixi, your expectations might be too high. As the others have said,
many registrars (both big and small) have incorporated the practice of auctioning an
expired name to any interested party before letting it go.

Do note, though, that not all expired domain names are automatically "sold". This will
happen if someone expressed an interest and followed any and all processes placed
in.

However, there are at least 2 registrars who currently don't do this: Stargate and
ItsYourDomain. I'm sure there are others.

its a shame, dude. they will miss your business im sure. very sad .. :(

its not bulkregister who sells/auction domains after they expire, 99% of registrars does this nowadays.

it would be the same scenario if the domain expired/deleted and someone else reg'ed it at some other different registrar.