We have our Domain simonandrews.com registered with Hotlinks (http://www.hotlinks.co.uk) . We want to transfer the domain to another registrar. Apparently they have a hefty fee if you want to do that (http://www.hotlinks.co.uk/whois.pl). Also they have their email address as the administrative contact. Just wonder is that normal?

NO, it does not sound 'right'.. that they have 'their email address' as the admin email. hmm I'll take a closer look.
? What's the fee to transfer? Which register do you want to transfer the name too?

i want to transfer to s-t-a-r-g-a-t-e and they charge 25 British Pounds.

It's not norma, but I don't know that there is anything to stop them from doing it either.

I took a look at the way back machine (http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.hotlinks.co.uk/whois.pl) and it looks like it's been in their pricing since about 03-Aug-2001.

The way that they enforce this policy is by making themselves the admin contact (as you noticed). All changes etc. to the domain must be approved by the admin contact.

Frank

If you can change the administrative info yourself, then you can just initiate the transfer from *********** (I know they are banned). *********** will send you a confirm email (which is listed on the admin contact), and all you have to do is approve it.

Peter

The main registrar is:
Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 06-Mar-2002.
Record expires on 10-Mar-2004.
Record Created on 10-Mar-2000

I've personally never dealt with Tucow's for domain registrations, but possibly you can go direct to TOCOWS to initiate the transfer.???
You've got a good amt. of time left on the current registration...


The uk site, of course is a reseller for TOCOWS, and I briefed the site and couldn't find any 'acredited info' on who they are associated with.. but I may have overlooked it?

g/l

Tucows == OpenSRS.

If you have the password to admin the domain, you should be able to log in at https://manage.opensrs.net/ and change the admin contact.

My guess, however, is that you don't have the password, or they would never be able to charge (because you could just update/transfer).

Frank

no i don't have a password to transfer it.. we just paid for the domain to be renewed, I wanted to have DNS forward to another host, for that they wanted to charge again.. the only thing I like about them was the server uptime. When we moved our site to some american hosts it was kind of a nightmare in terms of uptime. palmversa, jaguarpc, d-i-a-t-o-n-e.net :( hope venturesonline is better now..

There is nothing illegal in what they are doing, so I'm afraid you are stuck.

You can contact OpenSRS and ask them for the username and password for your domain, but it's not likely they will help you.

They allow their reseller channel to set up just about any business model they wish - including charging fees for transfers, DNS changes, etc.

Sorry.

-t

ooohh you mentioned the Unmentionable Registrar....watch out for the Ire of the Chicken now :D

You paid for the domain - and they have used their email as Admin? That is totaly unethical but happens with some resllers.

http://www.hotlinks.co.uk/contact.htm - this has a phone number, you might want to call them personaly and see what they have to say.

Well, if they don't do that, then you can just transfer out and avoid paying them the transfer fee.

Its a self-protecting machinism.

Peter