Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Domain Names : How long for a domain transfer?

[CRA]

I was wondering how long it takes to transfer a domain. (The domain in question is ***********.com)

My site is hosted at Geocities right now, and I've tried e-mailing both the domain tech (domain.tech@YAHOO-INC.COM) and calling the tech phone number, but calling in sends me through a maze of automated options and no live person to speak to and my e-mail went unanswered.

Doing a whois search, I find that the domain is registered at inww.com. So I try to get the key to my account, but the web-page turns up a script that says to contact the reseller -- which for me, means contacting Geocities again, which means being ignored by Geocities again.

So I tried to take my chances and went through RegisterFly's transfer process. It's been 48 hours since I placed the order in and I'm starting to get antsy. And it doesn't help that the e-mail I've sent to help@inww.com -- asking if I need to help in the tranfer in any way -- went unanswered.

Right now, I'm at the end of my rope, that close to calling the BBB and ratting on Geocities and inww.com for holding my domain.

[JoeT]

Tech Name YahooDomains Techcontact
Tech Address 701 First Ave.
Sunnyvale
94089
CA
UNITED STATES
Tech Email domain.tech@YAHOO-INC.COM
Tech Phone 1-619-881-3096
Name Server ns8.san.yahoo.com
ns9.san.yahoo.com

this is what I get when I whois your domain I am new at this but I think I would contact them. They have access to change you name servers already so they should be able to help.
I registered my domain with Network Solutions directly, a bit more costly but from the sound of this it is worth is. I had control of my domain right from the get go before parking it anyplace. I also am using mydomain.com. I just put it there for the mail, and from what I hear at this forum I make a good decision in doing so. Anyways you own the domain so you will get control of it, just seems like you are going to have to work for it.

I don't really know if this will help but I wanted to try.

Joe T

[JoeT]

sorry you already did that. I messed up.

Joe T

[CRA]

Hold the presses!

Shortly after this post here on WHT, I did get an e-mail from INWW. They did get the request from RegisterFly and are processing it. Anways, the transfer takes 5 days -- so, I have a few more days to go. Whew! I just might be Geocities free by the end of the month after all.



But still a few lingering nigglings: Why couldn't INWW give me the registry key to my account, why'd they make me go back to Geocities?

Even more troubling, how come none of my e-mails to Geocities -- either through the domain tech's e-mail or the ticket to Support Help -- ever get answered? They've always answered my silly questions -- like, about SSIs (no they don't) and logs (no they don't release these either) -- no matter how disappointing the answers would be. So, I'm kinda miffed that my questions -- about what registrar was used to register my domain, and (once I did find out the registrar through registerfly's whois search) what my registry key was to "my" INWW account -- went unanswered.

I don't know if anyone from Geocities is reading this but: After this experience, I am a bit suspicious that these non-answers were either 1) incompetence from staff there or 2) a passive attempt to discourage me from taking steps to switch web-hosts.

Lesson (that I) learned: Register your own names under a registrar of your choice instead of letting the site host do it for you. The extra steps that you do on your own for that peace of mind -- that you get from knowing that you have control over your domain, instead of worrying about the domain being at someone else's whim or incompetence or both -- is worth it.

[Disgruntled]

If you haven't pulled the plug on your webhosting by Yahoo, it is probably not so difficult to transfer. You would arrange the tansfer with the new provider, and they email the necessary codes to approve it to the email address listed in your last Whois.
If you made the mistake, like I did, of pulling the plug on the Yahoo hosting then it gets tough. As CRA noticed, Yahoo is unhelpful, claiming that they only do hosting, and that Melbourne IT in Australia does the registry. Something they didn't tell you when they took your $35. Melborne IT wants the login and key numbers that Yahoo never provided.

If you are still having problem, like I am, getting this fixed, here are some addresses for complaints. Yours would not be the first. I faxed mine in yesterday. That's not exactly an amazing coincidence, since it's in the course of mounting my complaints that I did the Google search that brought me to this board.

California Department of Justice
Public Inquiry Unit
P.O. Box 944255
Sacramento, CA 94244-2550
Fax: 916-323-5341

Santa Clara County
Office of the District Attorney
County Government Center, West Wing
70 West Hedding Street
San Jose, CA 95110
Fax: 408-286-5437

BBB of Santa Clara Valley, Ltd.
2100 Forest Ave., Ste. 110
San Jose, CA 95128
Fax: 408-278-7444

I faxed copies to Yahoo at 408-349-3301. So far no response from Yahoo. I guess they're waiting to see if any of these agencies really contact them.

I also faxed copies to the "action line" of San Jose Mercury News at 408-271-3786. Whether there is ever any action in the action line remains to be seen.

Also online complaint FTC.
I printed copy to WinFax and faxed that in to FTC at 202-326-2496 as well as faxing copy to Yahoo and the other agencies.

Yahoo seems to be one of those companies whose business plan is to try to prove you can't make them provide the customer support you paid for.

[Disgruntled]

I also faxed complaint to the Federal Trade Commission's San Francisco Regional Office at 1-415-848-5184.

So far no response from Yahoo. They know that I have submitted the complaints, so they obviously plan to be unresponsive at least until an enforcement agency contacts them.

[Bashar]

thats almost 2 years old!

[Disgruntled]

Originally posted by Bashar
thats almost 2 years old!

I guess you mean the posts I was responding to. So the moral of the story would be that Yahoo's behavior has not improved since that time.

[Disgruntled]

I took another stab at getting some actual customer support today from Yahoo. After plodding through the menu they give you the new telephone number to actually do stuff, once, real fast, which is
866-800-8092
I guess that's how they trim down the volume of calls.
This time I got connected to Calvin, and unlike the person I spoke with on June 10, Calvin seems genuinely helpful.
He says that Yahoo will "escalate" this. What that means is that they will contact Melbourne IT and get the domain detached from Yahoo. When that happens (estimated 24-72 hours) going to Melbourne IT to recover the password may actually work instead of failing. It remains to be seen, but looks encouraging.

[dmaven]

Yahoo is not exactly known for good client support

[Disgruntled]

6/17/04

The 24 hr part of the 24-72 hr has arrived. Entering my domain name into the Key Recovery tool part of Melbourne IT still fails.
Yahoo did send me an email giving me the email address of another division of Yahoo to contact. So I forwarded to that email address. Awaiting results.

[Disgruntled]

Friday Jun 18, 2004
1:40 AM MDT: Faxed Registry Key Recovery Form to Melbourne IT. That would be 5:40 PM in Melbourne. I included copy of the domain hosting cancelation sent by Yahoo to my Yahoo address to support that being the still functioning email address connected to that account.
2:27 PM MDT Friday Jun 18: Message on my home answering machine from Dan Daugherty, Yahoo Legal Dept.
3:12 PM MDT: I return Dan's call. He says this is response to my letter. Dan doesn't stipulate whether it's response to copies Yahoo has had for a week or one of those agencies contacting Yahoo for respnse. Anyway he denies that Yahoo prevents people from transferring domains. I contend when Yahoo just won't do what is needed to make it possible it amounts to same effect. Dan takes my work number and says tech person will call.
5:14 PM MDT: Pablo calls me at work from Yahoo. He is pushing buttons to definitely get things going with Melbourne IT, and says in about two days I should receive email from Melbourne IT with the registry key. Pablo gives me number to call him Monday if this fails to happen.

6/19/04: 1:04 AM MDT No new emails in Yahoo email

[Disgruntled]

Well, it looks like things are finally happening.
My Register Key retrieval from Melbourne IT was successful. I went and changed my email address in the Whois to one that exists. I then signed up with RegisterFly.com for transfer, ProtectFly, and hosting. Current status is:
"Awaiting auto verification of transfer request"

I hope that doesn't take too long. For one thing, until the transfer actually occurs I can't apply ProtectFly to the domain. Between now and then a spam-free email address is on the Whois, vulnerable to capture by the spammers.

[Bashar]

glad to hear that

just make sure the domain is not LOCKED and u will receive approval email to approve the transfer request.

[Disgruntled]

Thanks, Bashar.
I got the email and entered my approval of the transfer.
I checked with the RegisterFly chat support. They estimate 4-7 days from there for the transfer to be completed.