New Client bad situation with Old Host

Hi,
Can anyone help with this major issue which has occurred. I took over a new client and transferred his sites to me. The came the issue of transferring his domain names. The domains in the client's account have been transferred, but 12 are still with the old host. I have requested the transfer codes but now discover that the old host has transferred the remaining 12 to his own name, renewed them for a year and is asking the client for a large sum of money to transfer them, otherwise he is going to use them himself. The domain names were originally in the client's name and the client has not given his consent to the change of name.
Can I go higher up to demand they get put back in the client's name and transferred, especially as the client did not authorise the name change.





__________________
THANKS
SIMON

You can try talking with the old host but I doubt that would go anywhere. I say I would just leave this to the client. I don't see any reason as to why you would need to intervene. The old host probably got angry over the client transferring over to you and decided to hold the domains hostage to make a bit of cash for his losses.





__________________Rageki Web Hosting Solutions - Canada

Quote:



Originally Posted by Rageki-John


You can try talking with the old host but I doubt that would go anywhere. I say I would just leave this to the client. I don't see any reason as to why you would need to intervene. The old host probably got angry over the client transferring over to you and decided to hold the domains hostage to make a bit of cash for his losses.


If he owns a trademark related to the domains, tell him to consult a lawyer and get a letter (not sure what it would say) sent to them. The possibility of legal action generally solves these problems quite quickly.





__________________LCWSoft - Canadian web hosting (based in Newfoundland)Uptime Report
lawrencewilliams (at) lcwsoft.com

Are you sure the new client didn't let those domains expire and/or pay his current bills while he was busy switching hosts?
I've seen this happen a couple times before, where a small business doesn't understand that once they let that domain expire, it isn't theirs anymore, and then they get irate when someone else registers it. This is often also a result of the individual in question being too prideful to talk with the old host for whatever reason and thinking that they have the right not to pay their current bills while they are shopping around for a new host.
Not saying this is the situation in this case, but it's worth a look into further, there are always two sides to a situation. Not saying the host with ethical AT ALL, but there's always the chance that the client wasn't either.
In the end though, let the client deal with it, it's NOT your problem at all and you getting involved can actually make the situation worse. (And yes, I've been in this situation on your end plenty of times, I've learned my lesson.)





__________________
Douglas Thigpenhttp://www.dthigpen.com

Obviously this is a problem that can only be resolved by the ICANN Registrar. Do a search at domaintools.com and see who the ICANN Registrar is and contact them directly.
The client will need to provide an invoice or similar that show he owned and paid for the domain to a certain date. You can also do searches to see who previously owned the domain and this should also display your clients data and can be used as evidence when contacting the ICANN Registrar.
Good Luck

Can't really add much more to this but please do remember you only obligation to your client in this case is to provide the hosting service, are they paying you to sort out their problems with past hosts? No? Well don't get involved - politely tell them to take legal advice if they feel the previous host has acted illegally.





__________________RJH Enterprises UK Shared Hosting | UK Reseller Hosting | UK VPS Hosting | UK Dedicated Servers Website Design

Hi
Quote:



Originally Posted by Rageki-John


You can try talking with the old host but I doubt that would go anywhere. I say I would just leave this to the client. I don't see any reason as to why you would need to intervene.
The old host probably got angry over the client transferring over to you and decided to hold the domains hostage to make a bit of cash for his losses.


This has been going on for about 2 to 3 months now and that is why I have intervened as the old host still has not even changed the DNS to my DNS.
and the old host has been talking to me about him passing this client over to me for months.
Quote:



Originally Posted by EvaHost


Obviously this is a problem that can only be resolved by the ICANN Registrar. Do a search at domaintools.com and see who the ICANN Registrar is and contact them directly.
The client will need to provide an invoice or similar that show he owned and paid for the domain to a certain date. You can also do searches to see who previously owned the domain and this should also display your clients data and can be used as evidence when contacting the ICANN Registrar.
Good Luck


We may end up doing this. Would the old host have to have a domain reseller account for this to be done. I think he is only using a domain retail account to run his domain part of his site.
Quote:



Originally Posted by RJH Enterprises


Can't really add much more to this but please do remember you only obligation to your client in this case is to provide the hosting service, are they paying you to sort out their problems with past hosts? No? Well don't get involved - politely tell them to take legal advice if they feel the previous host has acted illegally.


Yes they are going to pay me.
I have only intervened in the last few days as the clients website's have been moved on to my server so I am having to charge him for the hosting but until the DNS or the domain's are transferred to me the site's are not live with me.
Also now I do not know if the old host has renewed the domain as he will not tell or show that he has. This is the info showing on all the domain's:
Created On:12-Dec-2007 15:51:56 UTC
Last Updated On:14-Nov-2008 13:46:45 UTC
Expiration Date:12-Dec-2009 15:51:56 UTC
So do you know how I can find out when thy where last renewed?
as I think the Last Updated On:14-Nov-2008 was when the old host just changed the Registrant Name from this client's name to his own name.
And my client did know the Expiration Date where coming up that is why he waited to do this move so then when he got them transferred it would add a year on to them.





__________________
THANKS
SIMON

Quote:



Originally Posted by westonehosting


Hi
Yes they are going to pay me.
.


You know how much a lawyer charges





__________________RJH Enterprises UK Shared Hosting | UK Reseller Hosting | UK VPS Hosting | UK Dedicated Servers Website Design

Quote:



Originally Posted by EvaHost


Obviously this is a problem that can only be resolved by the ICANN Registrar. Do a search at domaintools.com and see who the ICANN Registrar is and contact them directly.
The client will need to provide an invoice or similar that show he owned and paid for the domain to a certain date. You can also do searches to see who previously owned the domain and this should also display your clients data and can be used as evidence when contacting the ICANN Registrar.
Good Luck


Very good advice. Domain names don't need to be trademarked to be provided protection. I'm still missing something in this thread - did the domain name registration by your client actually expire?





__________________▓ Hostirian (314) 216-7148Premier Colocation - Dedicated Servers▓ 24-7-365 NOC Tech Support sales@hostirian.com

Quote:



Originally Posted by SteveBloemer


Very good advice. Domain names don't need to be trademarked to be provided protection. I'm still missing something in this thread - did the domain name registration by your client actually expire?


No it was due for renewal on the 12-Dec-08 and the client has been trying to get this transferred since the end of October-08.





__________________
THANKS
SIMON