Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Domain Names : (Legal) advise needed.

[microsol]

Recently we transfered one of our domains to a new registrar (ICANN accredited) and paid for 5 years in advance (to make potential customers feel more comfortable).

Now results that the domain doesn't show up as registered for 5 years.
We emailed the domain registrar and that's what we got back:

Our system will register the domain initially for 2 years, then after
the 2 year term is up, it will renew the domain for 1 year at a time until
the full 5 years have been used up, at which point you would need to contact
our billing department to let them know of your intent to renew this domain.

The problem is that it doesn't even show two FULL years of registration!!!
Ok, we know that we paid it for five years (we have our CC statement and their invoice), they know but our clients don't!

We told them that we will initiate a chargeback if they don't adjust the domain to reflect the real registration time and that's what we got from them:

Charge backs. CLIENT agrees that he will lose all rights upon the
selected domain name in case of a charge back by his credit card company,
credit card fraud or any other reversed payment. REGISTRAR will decide at
his sole discretion whether to hold the name in his own portfolio or to
release it for use by others. REGISTRAR will reinstate such names at his
sole discretion and subject to reinstatement fee of $300, in addition to all
other fees.

Our last email to them was a little while ago telling them (yes, it was a LAST ADVISE) that they have 24 hours to adjust the domain or we will report them to ICANN, the BBB and other places we feel oportune to deal with this case.

And of course we will initiate a chargeback as they did not gave us what we paid for. Additionally we registered other domains with them which turned out to be locked and not available to registration. We believe this was in bad faith to rip us our money off because they where shown as NOT available with other registrars but we didn't know about it and thought they where free. Now they don't wan't refund us our money. (yes, we will also thread them about this).

What can we do?
I thought about to transfer the domain quickly to another registrar and just fu$$ them by initiating the chargeback.
What do you think?

[pgrote]

Don't do the chargeback if you want to keep the domain.

You think getting them to post a five year notice on your domain ... try fighting with them to get a domain back. It is almost impossible. You will spend more money doing that than anything else.

My suggestion is to explain the situation to your client, fall on your own sword and admit you made a mistake going with the registrar and offer another service to your client to make it up.

[markblair]

The problem with just transferring is that you must be with the current registrar for at least 60 days before any new registrar will accept a transfer. Unfortunately you'll have to wait but that's what I'd do. Wait 60 days, transfer them to someone else and if it still doesn't show up as a five year renewal, then contact ICANN and start making waves. At that point, they can't pull the domain no matter what they think.

Who's the registrar if I might ask? I need to know who to stay away from. Good luck.

[microsol]

Originally posted by markblair
The problem with just transferring is that you must be with the current registrar for at least 60 days before any new registrar will accept a transfer. Unfortunately you'll have to wait but that's what I'd do. Wait 60 days, transfer them to someone else and if it still doesn't show up as a five year renewal, then contact ICANN and start making waves. At that point, they can't pull the domain no matter what they think.

Who's the registrar if I might ask? I need to know who to stay away from. Good luck.

I won't tell you right now if you can't find out yourself
Also the transfer has taken place on December 15th.
Since then there have been big problems in contacting their support and/or sales department of even any other of their departments. Their support department even did admit that there was an error with the other domain registrations (which where locked but don't want to refund now) and that we should contact their sales department. But we did not get any answer from sales yet. I AM SICK OF THEM and we'll contact our lawyer tomorrow.
If they have any problem with the bloody charge back which we will also initiate we will sue them!

[thewitt]

I'd recommend transfer, then charge back Definately.

This is actually against ICANN policy, however they don't appear to enforce this.

Recent discussions on a mailing list I'm on identified one registrar who does this and has been reported to ICANN multiple times.

You can always lodge a complaint at icann.org, but don't count on any quick results.

-t

[DigitalXWeb]

Originally posted by microsol


I won't tell you right now if you can't find out yourself
Also the transfer has taken place on December 15th.
Since then there have been big problems in contacting their support and/or sales department of even any other of their departments. Their support department even did admit that there was an error with the other domain registrations (which where locked but don't want to refund now) and that we should contact their sales department. But we did not get any answer from sales yet. I AM SICK OF THEM and we'll contact our lawyer tomorrow.
If they have any problem with the bloody charge back which we will also initiate we will sue them!

I would have to say you chose the wrong Registrar. We had one domain with them awhile back. Their prices are cheap but so is their service and support!! I would transfer it over as soon as you are able then see how they can threaten you.. What a load of crap..

Good luck

[microsol]

Update:

This issue has been resolved after our "Last advise before we take action".