This is interesting: A domain of mine expired on 9/20/02 (I did not intend to renew and you are welcome to it if you want it.) On 9/22/02 I received the following message. It was not preceded by the normal "You better hurry up and renew" message. It would have cost me $9.95 to renew and from the message you can see that it would cost me more to reregister. Is this their way to drop cheap domains? I have no problem with their right to do business this way, even though it is counter to the normal practice of supplying a grace period. The name already appears in the data base as available. Mostly I don't want any of you getting caught by this. Personally I will not do a mass exit.
E-MAIL DOMAIN EXPIRED NOTICE FOR DOMAIN NAME <holusbolus.com>

holusbolus.com has expired. Failure to register the domain, prior to the
expiration date, has resulted in the domain being dropped back into
general availability.

FROM:
******** Communications, Inc.
2805 Butterfield Road, Suite 100
Oak Brook, Illinois 60523
United States
PHONE: +1 (630) 572-2242
EMAIL: billing@s t a r g a t e.com
http://www.s t a r g a t e i n c.com

(re)REGISTRATION INSTRUCTIONS:
***********************************
REGISTRATION COST: $13.95 USD
CREDIT CARD PAYMENT:
For fast and easy payment with a major credit card, go to our registration
system at http://www.s t a r g a t e i n c.com
Protect your identity by (re)registering the above domain name for up to
10 years!

We appreciate your business and look forward to serving your registration
and hosting needs!

Sincerely,

******** Communications, Inc

Although not the practice with my registrar, I do not see a problem with your registrar charging more to reregister than to renew. In fact, once you let it expire, they no longer had any obligation to you.

I agree with you. I don't see a problem with it. I posted because it is counter to common practice (as i see it) and I don't want others to get caught in these shifting winds and maybe loose a valuable name. Sort of a "Heads up".
(You did notice that my point was the lack of a grace period, not the charging amount. The greater amount is interesting in that it might show motivation but otherwise not significant to my post.) Again, I agree with everything you said.
Gary

Everyone keep up to date on your domains. Don't wait until the last minute.

Originally posted by Incognito
Everyone keep up to date on your domains. Don't wait until the last minute.

Very good advise - also keep an eye on your customers domains to - can't host an expired domain :)

I had many domains with s_t_a_r_g_a_t_e when they had a $7.95 transfer special last year. Now when it came time to renew, they upped their prices to $11.95 for renewals. I was going to pay anyway, but a problem with my bank for online orders (anything requiring the 3 digit auth code on the back wouldnt work) force me to wait until my bank fixed the problem. Some of my domains ended up expiring, but I did transfer my domains to my enom reseller account even after the expire date, so if anyone else has the same problem, be advised that you still can transfer it after it expires, but im sure there is a limit...according to the rules, you aren't supposed to be able to transfer within a week of the expire date, but its at the disgression of the registrar.

Yes. I am with godaddy.com and they sent me a reminder 90 days before expiration. I usually renew it at that time. But if people forget, the send notifications 30, 5, 1 days before expiration. Then they hold it for 40 days and still allow you to renew it.

Now that is the kind of server we would like to be use to.

After reading my initial post, I am thinking that it may appear that I am down on that particular registrar. I am not. I like their control panel and I am staying with them for the 1/3 of my domains they have. I will just be very careful about not missing an expiration date.
Gary