Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Domain Names : Domain name in redemption when registration not expired

[phaderunner]

I have had a domain name registered since 2001. It's current expiry on whois shows it registered to me until 02 Jul 2012.

Recently I tried to renew my expired hosting for this domain at the provider I have used forever. After paying them the money and waiting for my domain to come back online I noticed that all of their servers went offline and it appears they have gone out of business.

The hosting provider is reselling domains from PublicDomainRegistry.com, so I have contacted then in regards to getting it back as the original reseller has gone out of business. They have written back saying that the domain is in redemption period and I need to pay $85 for them to retrieve it. On whois the domain status reads HOLD PENDING DELETE RESTORABLE. My full details show up as the Registrant and the Admin and Tech contacts are the old, now bust, hosting provider.

Is it correct that the domain can be deleted when I have an outstanding valid registration for it for 12 more months? Should they be charging me this to get it back?

I do not really understand the process.

Thanks for your help!

[BeZazz]

At a guess it expired on 02 Jul 2011. It then got a year added on.

http://www.tucowsdomains.com/topic/w...d-information/

The expiry date located in the Tucows WHOIS database is always correct. To provide you with a 40 day grace period when the domain expires, we must submit a temporary renewal to the Registry.

This is what you are seeing when you perform a WHOIS lookup at a central Registry (such as Internic for .COM/.NET domains) on your expired domain name.

[Dave Zan]

Sigh, goes to show that still confuses people.

What generally happens is the expired domain name gets autorenewed by the Registry, extends the domain for another year, then charges the registrar for that. Essentially, the registrar's paying for that extra year out of their pocket, and will update their own records upon receiving payment from their reseller or customer.

From what you described, it sounds like you paid the reseller, but the reseller didn't pay their registrar partner. So the WHOIS shows it's autorenewed and extended from Registry to registrar, but it's actually expired and so on from registrar to customer.

Can you at least check if indeed funds have been taken off of what you used to pay your reseller-domain provider like credit card, PayPal, etc.?

[Doran]

Originally Posted by BeZazz

At a guess it expired on 02 Jul 2011. It then got a year added on.

http://www.tucowsdomains.com/topic/w...d-information/

You would think they would "rethink" this procedure. This has always confused a number of people when they see the expiry date on whois as valid but it is still expired.

[BeZazz]

Originally Posted by Doran

You would think they would "rethink" this procedure. This has always confused a number of people when they see the expiry date on whois as valid but it is still expired.

Yes it would be good if they could somehow change the way they do it.

[stub]

Always check the Registrar whois, not the Registry whois, to see the correct date of expiry. As Dave Zan say, the Registry auto-renews the registration. If the Registrar doesn't pay this auto-renewal the Registry reverses this renewal after day 45 after expiry, at which point in time, both expiry dates agree again. This is entirely done to safeguard the interests of the Registrant. It isn't done to make the Registrant think he renewed the domain when they haven't actually done so. But of course, it is the Registrant who is entirely to blame for the situation, by not renewing the domain before it expired.