Hello,

At the time we entered web hosting industry we have registered our primary domains with a Reseller DotRegistrar. At some point we have created our own account with them and since then we keep a few proprietary domains (no customer domains) with DotRegistrar, which is not MyDomain.com.

MyDomain shut our primary domain name down Friday evening (See announcement - http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=968719). We have tried to find them and as you can imagine there were no 24/7 support. The offices were closed. A WebHostingTalk member suggested that DotREgistrar and MyDomains are Dotster companies or somehow related to Dotster.

We found Dotster's phone number (they do not do Toll-Free by the way). Dotster claims to have 24/7 support and their message is "We're here to help"! We called them and a front desk support operator, a lady, answered the phone but said that she would do anything because the company's offices are currently closed. And told us to call back on Monday 9AM PST.

So we need to wait more than 48 hours someone from a Domain registrar (MyDomain.com) taht claim to offer 24/7 support to pick up the phone and to tell us what should we do to get our Domain Account unlocked!

Why Do We Got Locked?

We have decided that MyDomain.com should at least sent any kind of notice. After searching for an hour in our mailboxes for e-mails from DotRegistrar, MyDomain or Dotster, we have finaly found an email from unknown sender with email address support@registerapi.com signed "Domain and Hosting Support". Here is what does it say:

Recently you requested personal assistance from our on-line support
center. Below is a summary of your request and our response.

If this issue is not resolved to your satisfaction, you may reopen it
within the next 10 days.

Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.

Subject
---------------------------------------------------------------
WhoIs Data Complaint


Discussion Thread
---------------------------------------------------------------
Response (Robert) - 07/26/2010 02:25 PM
Hello,

We received a complaint regarding the WHOIS information on your domain name(s).

Domain Name(s): hostcolor.com

Bad WHOIS Information:

Problem in whois block: Administrative Contact
--- Error in address: Incorrect address
--- Comment: 1504 isn't a US zip code.


Problem in whois block: Technical Contact
--- Error in address: Incorrect address
--- Comment: 1504 isn't a US zip code.

Per our Registration Agreement, WHOIS Information must be accurate and current to be in compliance.

To change domain contact information:

1. Log into your account
2. Click Manage Domains
3. Select Update Domain Contacts from the drop-down menu
4. Check the boxes next to the domain(s) that you would like to make contact changes to
5. Click Manage Domains
6. Click either Owner, Administrative, Technical or Billing
7. Select the boxes for Apply changes to Administrative, Technical, Billing to make changes to more than one contact at once
8. Click Update

Please comply or respond to this message within 72 hours to help resolve this matter or your domain may be disabled until the situation is resolved.

Please feel free to contact us if you have further questions.

Regards,
Customer Care


Question Reference #100726-066821
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date Created: 07/26/2010 02:25 PM
Last Updated: 07/26/2010 02:25 PM
Status: Resolved
Emergency:
DOMAIN:
ACCT NAME:

Domain name
---------------------------------------------------------------

[---001:001691:22634---]

This looks like a SPAM, doesn't it? We have never dealt with a company or brand named Registerapi.com. The domain does not resolve anything! It looks like a scam!

This probably was the reason no one from the authorized persons in our company to go check the Account we have in MyDomain (DotRegistrar). I would like to say very clear that this is 100% our fault. Potential SPAM or not, we must pay more attention on this e-mail message and to go check the domain, although there wasn't a suggestion in the email to go on any web address, we would recognize! And the only one that was there didn't open!

So our main corporate domain HostColor.com we use to use for almost a decade is now pointed to Name Servers: NS1.BADWHOISSHUTDOWN.COM and NS2.BADWHOISSHUTDOWN.COM.

1. We are not allowed to log-in to account to update ZIP code (It was wrong) and to activate the domain!
2. There isn't MyDomain.com official to assist us. The company is closed for the weekend. There is no one who can make a decision.
3. We switched to HostColor.us, but all new customers who come from advertising campaigns, from Google Search engine now go to the hijacked domain name.

No one said in the SPAM-alike e-mail that the whole Domain Account will be locked. They would lock the domain, not the whole account. What if we had customers' domains on this account?

And we should be waiting 48 hours for MyDomain to open their Vancouver office so we would start "negotiating" with them opening our account!

Now, please folks tell me should I blame on MyDomain for this or to decide that it was our fault!

PS: Every time we had "situations", WHT members helped me and my colleagues to make a good decision!

Now, please folks tell me should I blame on MyDomain for this or to decide that it was our fault!
Your whois is incorrect, someone apparently reported you for it, they tried to get you to change it and you didn't. Whatever the reason, you had wrong info and didn't respond to the notice, so it's a valid complaint and you are in the wrong I'd say.

The lack of a speedy remedy to resolve it is the only complaint you have with this company, if they offer 24/7, etc. I have no doubt they will bring up that advanced notice when you do, however.

Thank you very much. It is fair! Anyone should take their responsibility for the property the manage. Domains are property! The problem is that: There is no 24/7 and that the email comes for a URL which has nothing to the with the account (although I blame on us we didn't login to account). Hope you are right about bringing up the web address.

You now... for me this is a lesson to learn! However 24/7 support is a standard in web hosting business. If smaller and middle-sized companies do this and work to resolve the customers requests promptly, why a company which claim to server millions of customers is poor on customer support?

I have some more terrible news for you.. This weekend is a long weekend in Canada :\

http://gocanada.about.com/od/canadatravelplanner/a/canada_holidays.htm

I'm sure you'll move your domains from these rookies ASAP. I've started to move all my domains to http://www.internet.bs/

Good luck

These things always happen on a Friday night after the abuse department has gone home for the weekend, at most registrars. I feel your pain. You'll probably change registrar after this incident, but most registrars behave the same way. So you'll be out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Why did you have the wrong info in the whois?
It's shady I'd say as you are a company.

Just to give you an update on this. We called them around 10 am PST it was a "big happy conversation". Their operator told us "Account was unlocked" (it wasn't only 1 hour before we gave them a phone call). We have corrected the ZIP code and it took 15 minutes for the domain name to resolve our DNS. The other few domains we have with them were not "hit" although they had the same wrong ZIP.

So it was weird, bureaucratic act which costed us around $5,000 losses in account renewals over the weekend, another $5 - $7k lost on new sign-ups (calculate on the average basis). We have also lost Search Engine ranking, our customers were worried and wandered what was going on (Thank god, we didn't use this domain for Name Servers... so there was no downtime) and we didn't receive tons of web traffic we have paid for.

It will take some time to recoup our losses, but life goes on. It is a good lesson to learn (do not miss even a detail) and it was a stress test that showed we can make it!

So folks, go and check whether your domains' WhoIs info and keep it updated!

One more thing: What would happen if the domain was on WhoIs privacy (something which do not find appropriate for a corporate domain name)? They wouldn't do that, because no one would report it? What do you think?

The main problem was you didn't respond. So even if you had the correct info and a competitor reports it as wrong, you would have been in the same position.

I think you would lose more business if you had domain privacy in your whois than you lost over this incident.

This is why I always use unique emails for vendors. It rules out the possibility of scam/fraud unless the vendor has been compromised.

I use something like vendor-k7wR78rabExuCH@mydomain.com. ('k7wR78rabExuCH' changes).

Keep your WHOIS, vendor billing information, and site contact information clear and up to date and you should not have issues like this.

I prefer registrars like Moniker that allow you to define WHOIS contacts once and then assoicate the contact number with all my domains. I would also not deal with a registrar that did not have 24/7 support.

Thanks you for your suggestions and for the advise! I appreciate it. Anyway, I'm in this industry for almost 11 years and I've seen a lot. But I do not find proper a Domain registrar to close accounts and domains just like that... People miss emails, make mistakes and it is a absolutely unacceptable to "shut down" someone's business just to make an example!

This is bureaucratic and irresponsible policy which must not be tolerated at any level, especially to service providers which do not have 24/7 support.

I have reviewed 150 hosting accounts today, which were expired. Instead of suspending them I asked customer support operators to call clients and to ask them what should we do. I'm sure that most of you do not shut their customers, just like that!

Do you have whoisguard on your domain? It does look suspicious considering the email it was sent from perhaps you can check the server it was sent from and check if that domain registrar sends email from the same server?

Most Registrars will. Especially to spam/wrongful whois complaints. I presume, from your comments about not tolerating this behavior, you will be moving your business elsewhere. Of the other registrars, I'd suggest looking at Moniker, who might be slightly better at these wrongful whois complaints. Best to ask any prospective new registrar what they would do in a similar situation, before you transfer.

Hi,

Thank you for your comment "stub". I would not call it "business", except the general meaning, because we have only a few domains with DotRegistrar. I decided to keep these with them because they looked like a stable and reliable provider your can trust. Please see the first response to the original thread made by "Bear". I appreciate his response, because it is very precise. He said that "The lack of a speedy remedy to resolve it is the only complaint you have with this company, if they offer 24/7, etc. I have no doubt they will bring up that advanced notice when you do, however."

It would be irresponsible for me not take my own responsibility for not keeping the domain contacts up to date. If I do we can not require our customers to follow our own procedures and guidelines.

The only thing that is absolutely non-sense is anyone, no matter it is a domain registrar, a web host or anyone else in this industry to lock your account on Friday afternoon, when they now that they DO NOT have REAL 24/7 support, but only front desk operator (I mean DotREgistrar, MyDomain and Dotster), to go to status "Manana" (an indefinite time in the future). It is also non-sense when you call them to get refusal of support, because the appropriate person, who is authorized to open your account is chilling home until Monday morning!

You guys all know that our business is not "9am - 5 pm", Monday through Friday! It is 24/7 and if anyone can not do this 24/7 they'd better close and move to other industry!

Anyway, this is not more topic about us! We are good! it is about principles of doing this business!

Thank you for staying on the topic :)

I would suggest you take your backup files and database and hurry on installing the site with a known respectable hosting company, That, If you haven't done that already. If the website is ofline for a long time it could loose it's search engine's resaults and that is a big penalty no one should bare.

Hi "eitanya",

Good to have you on the thread, but please do not just post around, but PLEASE read the thread before joining. We are "respectable hosting company" (Sorry folks, you are too!) and it is not backing up any files at all!

A friendly advise: You'd better read before posting here in WHT. Otherwise you'll not have a good experience in this forum!

Dotster has been using registerapi.com for almost 10 years (if not longer). For you to say you did not know who it was comes off as disingenuous. I can understand not knowing if you just regtistered for the first time. You state you have been using them since you entered the web hosting imndustry, which your sig says 2000.

This is bureaucratic and irresponsible policy which must not be tolerated at any level, especially to service providers which do not have 24/7 support.

I presume, from your comments about not tolerating this behavior, you will be moving your business elsewhere.

I decided to keep these with them because they looked like a stable and reliable provider your can trust.

So you do tolerate this behavior? If I'd lost as much money as you mentioned, it would leave a bad taste in my mouth. As I said, most registrar's abuse departments are only 9-5 M-F. It seems a common practice for them to turn off services at 4.45 on a Friday for maximum impact. You need to find a registrar which treats you differently. Which is why I mentioned Moniker. I have no affiliation with Moniker, but they satisfy your criteria above, and afaik, do not participate in this kind of dubious behavior. But best to ask them before you sign up. There may be others.

Dotster has been using registerapi.com for almost 10 years (if not longer). For you to say you did not know who it was comes off as disingenuous. I can understand not knowing if you just regtistered for the first time. You state you have been using them since you entered the web hosting imndustry, which your sig says 2000.

Would you please refrain from using words like "disingenuous". It is an open conversation and I believe that making statements is not appropriate...

Should anyone know what kind of domains and other tools any domain registrar might use? You obviously do, because you are either a client or are affiliated with Dotster.

But I think that the provider is the one who would make its system and procedures usable.

PS: I'm not staying not the topic to chew these folks of Dotster (MyDomain). I'm just having a conversation here about such situations, case and similar business practices. So the thread it is not about me/us now!

Sorry if it offends you but it is the appropriate word to use. Maybe you should not use the phrase "need your opinions".

Thank you "AHFB HTML"! It is fine :)

May I say that saying to someone he is "disingenuous" is not an opinion. this is personal. We discuss business cases here, don't we.

issue is resolved so why is this thread still getting bashed at?

issue is resolved so why is this thread still getting bashed at?

Good point. I does not work for me. Some say there is not bad publicity, but that one does not work! People just come and join the thread. Should I ask Mods to consider closing it?

Good point. I does not work for me. Some say there is not bad publicity, but that one does not work! People just come and join the thread. Should I ask Mods to consider closing it?

Hit the report button of your main post and request it to be closed ;)
If that's what you want unless you want users to carry on posting.