A client recently took too long to pay an invoice, and as such their domain was allowed to expire. They now want the domain, however going to UKreg they have told us it would cost £200 as a manual renewal was now required. The client was not impressed so said no. They decided to let the domain fully expire and then simply re-register it. Before this could happen another company got hold of the domain and now it is simply one of those advert/search pages.

The domain/site is not popular, it is not a great domain, but for some reason they wanted it (bet it wasn't £200 to UKreg either!). At a similar time I noticed a whole load of sedo.com links on UKreg allowing us to make an offer on the domain name (these have since been removed). I suspect what is happening is UKreg have either sold this domain to another company so it can be offered back to us, or UKreg themselves are simply renewing domains again so that they can offer them back (via sedo).

UKreg are ignoring emails with questions about this, and anything related to getting this domain back (pretty impossible it seems).

We've only had 1 domain expire recently with UKreg so I have not been able to check if this happens to all domains. Has anyone else here had this happen? And if so did you ever manage to get the domain back?

Thanks,

Looks like there certainly is a new connection between ukreg and sedo as of November:

http://www.domaininformer.com/news/press/061123Fasthosts.html
http://www.cheaphostingdirectory.com/news-web-host-and-domain-registrar-fasthosts-offers-domain-sale-with-sedo-2574.html

Maybe this is one of their new money making schemes.

Sheesh, I guess you hadn't heard then.

Nowadays many registrars will try to "auction" an expired domain name within a
period of time before they let it go. Go Daddy, Enom, Network Solutions, check 'em
all out.

Read their legal fine prints. That oughta tell you what they'll do to a domain name
that's expired.

Meanwhile, do a WHOIS on the domain name and see who's the registrant. That's
the one to contact...if they'd be interested in selling it to you.

If they are, expect the worst.

There are both pros and cons behind this practice. Whether it's ethical or not will
depend on what side of the fence you choose to be on.

We've had this issue with a number of domains and are in the process of getting our own tag so we can move them, a lot of domain reg providers are ripping people off at the minute - not just UKreg.

Dan

I think the client is to blame for not renewing their domain in a timely manner. Let's face it. This is not just a couple of days after expiry we are talking about here. This is way past the Renewal Grace Period and into the Redemption Grace Period. Even then they refused to pay the Redemption Fee. What did they expect? That they could just go a re-register the domain when it was released? Get real. They gave up all rights to "their" domain when a) they didn't renew and b) declined to pay the Redemption Fee.

Of course they should of renewed on time, and it is their loss at the end of the day. I just find it strange that this particular domain would ever be taken like this. It is not in google or any other search engine I have tried, the site was very basic and they pretty much just used it for email.

Thanks for the info everyone.

because it is "wanted" therefore it worth money, so the registrar will try to get as much money out of it as possible.. In the UK, you also get "transfer out" fee from some of the name registration company.. so be aware when you think you are buying a £5.98 .co.uk name for 2 years.. if you want to transfer out because their hosting is bad or keep on losing your nameserver settings when you do not host with them.. then prepare to pay £20 - £30 to get out of it..

at least if it is .co.uk, you can go to nominet and get them to do it for you.. not a chance if it is .com!

Again, the answer is you get what you pay for..