I'm trying to register a domain on namecheap.com that expired on December 6. It is registered through namecheap.com, the same place I have all of my domains. However, according to their terms of service and a rep that I chatted with they hold expired domains for 2-3 months after expiration. In reading their TOS closely they are basically going to try to extort money from the previous owner for a while and then, if they decide to, they will release the domain.

I'm very frustrated with this. Their only suggestion was to use a watch list that they apparently are a part of to get the domain when it becomes available.

Is this standard practice with the registrars? I thought that Verisign/Network Solutions got in trouble with ICANN a while ago for this exact practice but I may have this wrong.

Do you know of less shady registrar that I could move my 30 some odd domains to? Or are they all like this and consumer be damned?

Al the partner-registrars are wholesale... However any of them owns brands that offer domain registration to consumers. One of those is mydomain dot com. It is a good idea to check the godaddy's policy on this.

The domain life cycle is diagrammed here:
http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/gtld-lifecycle.jpg
When the name is in the Redemption Grace Period the registrar is charged additional fees if the domain is renewed. Namecheap is just passing on these fees and padding a little. It's not a scam or Namecheap "holding the domain hostage". The long delete process is to allow owners a 2nd & 3rd chance to renew their domains past expiry. Going once... going twice...

I agree this length is very long, I'd love for a shorter time span on the expiry.

It does kinda suck. However for the odd occasion when a legitimate owner misses or forgot to renew their domain, I think it's fair to give them a little extra time (ie in case they are away on vacation or some sort of emergency).

90 days is indeed a bit excessive though...

90 days is lot of time to wait. you better try resellerclub.com

90 days is lot of time to wait. you better try resellerclub.com
The domain he is trying to grab is at namecheap.com, and their policy is to keep it for 90 days...what has this got to do with resellerclub.com?????????????

It doesn't take 90 days, folks.

As Techno posted, the domain name (especially a .com) remains in its expired, autorenew grace period anywhere from zero to 45 days max. Barring any "extenuating circumstances" such as bankruptcy or legal disputes, or if it's not auctioned off, the registrar will drop it within that time.

Then you have 30 days redemption grace period, then five days pending delete, then it'll be available "roughly" on its "sixth" day. Counting all that, the domain name will become available between roughly 36 days (0 day expiry + 30 days RGP + 5 days PD + 1 day avail) to 81 days (45 days expiry + 30 days RGP + 5 days PD + 1 day avail) after expiry.

Now, 81 days may seem excessive for some. Then as pointed out, allowing a little extra time to renew (or redeem) can help the domain's owner rather than risk losing it to someone else.

All in all, it depends where you stand. Hopefully you won't find yourself in the position of losing it unless, say, you intended to drop the domain name.

81 days gives the registrant time to realize that his site is no longer accessible. It also means he won't lose the domain through oversight or because he is in hospital or on vacation. Under the current system the registrant can't claim he wasn't warned or notified of deletion.

I've had some customers contact us after 90 days to try and renew their domain.

Some people are not very smart.

Or they simply don't check their website very often.

(ie: For hosting, we have some customers who renew hosting even after their website was suspended for 180 days..)

90 days is reasonable, imho.