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A warning to all (and maybe seeking advice too)

Vega
Rising Star
Posts: 118
Thanks: 14
Registered: ‎22-06-2009

A warning to all (and maybe seeking advice too)

Im so amazed at the poor service of my Domain provider (Not plus.net) I just have to tell (and warn everyone) of just what terrible service you can sometimes get from these Domain providers.
My Domain Provider is Freeparking.co.uk and the domain (www.soundsfamiliar.info) is hosted by Plus Net (as host only). I renewed my domain and paid for it in June of last year (I've had this Domain with them for many years). They made a dreadful mistake of not renewing it with INNW. They did at least reply to my support ticket and admit it wasn't registered with INNW and they would rectify it. 7 months on, many support tickets and complaint letters later and I still have had no explanation as to why its still not registered. In the mean time my search engine rankings have obviously plummeted. All further support requests with their support team  were simply ignored! Checking with Whois, I can now see why they have buried their heads in the sand. Its now registered to someone else based in Germany! lets not forget my money was taken back in June and my revenue from this website are now extinct.
Here's the real killer... today I've now had an email pop in to my inbox to say a new domain has now been registered. They have simply registered a different domain by adding a hyphen in the address with no apology or even aknowledgement that the original domain has not been reigistered! Absolutely awful awful service and bad behaviour in my opinion... Anyway, sorry to bore you with my non- plus.net problems but I just wanted to explain my horrible experience with this host. Im guessing theres not much else I can do only to resubmit my website to search engines with the new hyphened address.  Sad
7 REPLIES 7
Mattz0r
Rising Star
Posts: 620
Fixes: 1
Registered: ‎21-07-2010

Re: A warning to all (and maybe seeking advice too)

Oh my Sad I'm sorry to hear that.
I'm sure there is a length of time that domains go into a pool where nobody can register it apart from the current owner. I guess your provider must have taken ages to get their fingers out.
Thank you for giving us all the heads up though. I hope that you get things back on track, Maybe now is the time to find a new domain host Smiley
Regards,
Matt
pierre_pierre
Grafter
Posts: 19,757
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: A warning to all (and maybe seeking advice too)

just checked my .me.uk on Plusnet, they are supposed to do the reg, it doesnt look like it has been paid
went round a bit in circles, people saying the name was free, went in via whois.com
then went in via who.is
phew  renewal date June 2011++
sweat over
Vega
Rising Star
Posts: 118
Thanks: 14
Registered: ‎22-06-2009

Re: A warning to all (and maybe seeking advice too)

Oh well settled for the new domain. Its set up here http://www.sounds-familiar.info. Just got the job of making the mighty world wide web be aware of its existence again  Roll_eyes (Not to mention telling all my partner sites to add a dash (-) in the address!)
Ellis
Grafter
Posts: 213
Registered: ‎04-02-2011

Re: A warning to all (and maybe seeking advice too)

Sorry Vega, you've got too many hyphens in that address, it should be http://www.sounds-familiar.info
It looks like, due to their incompetence, a German, Austrian or Swiss company has grabbed your address.
henbane
Grafter
Posts: 37
Registered: ‎03-01-2008

Re: A warning to all (and maybe seeking advice too)

Sorry to hear that, plus they did not fix it in the period of grace when it is open to the expiring registrant to re-register (as someone else commented)
Freeparking did something similar but not quite as bad to me back in 2003.  I knew my domains were soon to expire (think I had a warning from INWW the registrar) but on freeparking they were showing they had months left so would not let me renew.  Luckily I did a print screen showing this.  Then suddenly they stopped working and they were showing up as "expired" on their control panel.    The first level reply from them was that "your domains are showing up as expired -- what do you expect".  I told them about my print screen, how their system until the day before was showing they had months left, and offered to fax it to them if they did not believe me. 
The request obviously got escalated and then they admitted their mistake and managed to get them renewed in the period of grace time.  I moved a number of my domains to elsewhere (123***) and only left a couple with freeparking for redundancy.
Just shows how if they can get away with hiding their mistakes they will and how careful you have to be still as that was some 8 years ago now.
VileReynard
Hero
Posts: 12,616
Thanks: 582
Fixes: 20
Registered: ‎01-09-2007

Re: A warning to all (and maybe seeking advice too)

Will you be having a hyphen in your logo?

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

Vega
Rising Star
Posts: 118
Thanks: 14
Registered: ‎22-06-2009

Re: A warning to all (and maybe seeking advice too)

No, Im still keeping the the logo's as is at the moment (its not displayed as a web address, just a title). I have however changed my banner as it had the web address in it.

The content of the website is still as strong as ever, just now I have to rebuild all links to my website, resubmit to search engines and it will take around 6 months for the major search engines to increase my page ranking to what it was. (If I can get it that far up the rankings this time!)
Some good news, freeparking refunded me the full amount for my old domain renewal. So credit where its due I guess
Matt