Gate.com creates situations where it is very difficult for the customer to have any control over their web domain. I was with both gate.com and EasyCGI. When I signed up with these hosts, they automatically created my web domain names and registered them with one of their "partners". In the case of EasyCGI their register partner was Tucows. With Gate.com their registrar was DomainPeople.com. The former (EasyCGI and Tucows) was a good experience. The latter was a terrible experience.

I was switching both sites to a new host and wanted to consolidate my domains into a cheaper registrar (namecheap.com). When I made the transfer requests, EasyCGI and Tucows were very cooperative in giving me authorization codes, etc. The account transferred to my new registrar and host immediately (within a day).

It has be over 10 days, and my account gate.com and domainpeople still hasn't transferred. Gate.com locks your domain, doesn't let you unlock it through your profile--you have to contact them. Oh yeah, their customer service doesn't work nights or weekends. They don't respond to e-mails. Given that, I decide to go directly to the registrar, Domainpeople.com. I asked them to directly change my dns servers to my new host. Their response was that I (the site administrator and registrant) could not do it! I had to "ask" gate.com to do it for me. Ridiculous.

Avoid Gate.com like the plague. In addition to the above problems their user interface sucks--they give you very little control, and customer service is horrible. Also, stay away from Domainpeople as a registrar. I highly recommend namecheap.com.

Also, gate.com is part of Affinity group, so I would avoid any affinity affiliated host.

I've never heard of a host going to those measures to keep a customer. Do they have a phone number you can contact them? Maybe you could whois their domain and try calling the number on that.

Sorry to hear that..

Some hosts definately make life difficult for you.. The problem is you don't know until it's too late.

Is there a forum specific to dodgy hosting companies.??

Have the company said anything about the domain to you at all?

Was told to call back on Monday!

Is it even right to not allow a domain registrant to change the dns 's on his own account directly through the registrar? Does ICANN have a policy on this? I am livid.

Is your name listed in the whois for your domain?
If it is there, your registrar should help you in the transfer.
As a side note, it is always good to keep your registrar and host at two different points to avoid head aches like this. This has been a common thing now with hosts trying to tie their customers with out releasing the domain names.

Just as an FYI, Gate and Affinity are actually owned by Hostway so you may want to try moving up the company ladder to the parent company if you still are unable to get movement on the domain situation.

Plus I agree with Matt, it's always a good idea to keep the domain registration and hosting separated, just because this type of issues tend to happen more often then not.

Their response was that I (the site administrator and registrant) could not do it! I had to "ask" gate.com to do it for me.That would be fine, but if gate.com doesn't answer to your messages, it would be well within their right to correct things. Domain owners should not be locked out of their own domains.

I've found Ipower.com to use similar 'no move' tactics as employed here too.

I also bought a domain at gate.com. They were slow in processing the order and the domain didn't come with DNS control.