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Domain Name registration.

seanbranagh
Grafter
Posts: 1,236
Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Domain Name registration.

I have had loads of domains hosted with 123-reg.co.uk for many years now. On 27 March this year a few of them were renewed by me (and a few were let go).
As shown on my invoice I renewed downcranehire.com for 12 months at this time which is for my cousins business.
I received an email today from iTimemarketing stating that they had bought this domain in an auction and are offering to sell it to me for 457 dollars!
When I checked the whois they did infact somehow register it today a month after I renewd it!
123-reg will have a lot of explaining to do tomorrow on the phone! I need this domain back under my control. Is there any laws on my side for a situation like this?
13 REPLIES 13
Strat
Community Veteran
Posts: 31,320
Thanks: 1,609
Fixes: 565
Registered: ‎14-04-2007

Re: Domain Name registration.

A cousin of mine had a similar problem with a very popular site he had. It was earning thousands of pounds a year on Google click-through alone. The site was effectively hijacked by another company. He got it back by working with Google and his hosting company...eventually.
There were clear errors in the data held by the domain registration company which should have been checked earlier.
I see that you have .co.uk and .net.
Companies like iTimemarketing put markers on profitable domains in the hope that the owner will forget to renew them.
You might like to read this on Nominet's site.
As to the law concerning this, it all depends on circumstances which 123-reg should help you with.
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seanbranagh
Grafter
Posts: 1,236
Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Re: Domain Name registration.

I phoned 123-reg today about this and was not exactly happy with the response I got. Rather than explaining all of it I will just post a copy of what I posted on the BBC Watchdog website five minutes ago:
"I had a domain registered with 123-reg.co.uk. The domain expired on 02/02/08. At this time I did not plan to renew it. However on March 27th it was decided that the name was required. I logged into my control panel at 123-reg.co.uk, renewed the domain for 12 months and received my invoice. It was also showing on my account that the domain had been renewed until March 27th 2009. On Friday I received an email from an American company offering to sell this domain to me for USD457 after they had registered it on April 25th. I contacted 123-reg today for an explaination. They said that I had waited too long before renewing the domain and it was not available for renewal on March 27th. They refunded the £8.99. They would not accept responsibility for wrongly leading me to believe that the domain had been renewed by charging me, issuing me with an invoice and showing it as renewed in my control panel. They made no attempt to contact me in the time following this "false" renewal when in fact the domain was in a redemption period and could have been retreived by myself. Instead I continued to believe that the domain had been renewed when in fact it had become publically available and registered by another party on April 25th. I feel that 123-Reg should buy this domain back for the USD457 as it is clearly their fault that I have now lost it which may have serious implications for the company on whos behalf I registered it."
Peter_Vaughan
Grafter
Posts: 14,469
Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Domain Name registration.

Many Many others have reported problems such as yours so this is not a one-off.
123reg should be avoided at all cost as their support is non-existent.
seanbranagh
Grafter
Posts: 1,236
Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Re: Domain Name registration.

To be fair to them this is the first problem since my first registration on 31 Jul 2002. However I think this is completely unacceptable and I am not prepared to lie down as the loss of the .com for my cousins business is very serious. I think this especially bad because I do currently have 39 domains registered with them so a little more in return would be nice!
I would be very interested in hearing about other companies with similar prices and control panel options that I could transfer to. I am not in need of hosting.
Please do not suggest Plus Net as dispite the fact that I think they are a fantastic service provider their domain prices are not exactly competitive, in fact they are completely laughable!
seanbranagh
Grafter
Posts: 1,236
Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Re: Domain Name registration.

As I am still bubbling with anger I sent the following to 123-reg. I am understandably now very eagar for your recomendations for alternative companies!
"In light the recent issues you have caused and the level of service I received after being a custommer for almost six years, you have now left me with no option but to transfer all of my current domains to another company. I therefore am requesting transfer authorization codes for all of the current .com .net and .info domains that are set to autorenew in my account. As stated earlier I am also making enquires on how to go about taking this issue further. I would appreciate a speedy response as I understandably want to end my business with 123-reg.co.uk as soon as is humanly possible."
gswindale
Grafter
Posts: 942
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Domain Name registration.

You could try Just The Name - part of the PlusNet group.
pd
Grafter
Posts: 235
Registered: ‎09-05-2008

Re: Domain Name registration.

You could threaten to sue them for the 457 dollars to buy it back!
seanbranagh
Grafter
Posts: 1,236
Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Re: Domain Name registration.

I am now at my wits end with domain registration! After all the problems with 123-reg I transferred most of my domains to 1and1 as they looked good on paper. Now they are proving to be worse than 123-reg! On Friday my hosting company (Eukhost) migrated my server with almost no notice to a brand new server with a new IP. Despite stating in an email that they would keep the old server online until June 6th they took it down by lunchtime Saturday. They have finally appologized and admitted fault for this.
When I got their email on Friday I immediately changed the IPs of my private nameservers with 1and1 to point all of my domains at the new server. That was about 63 hours ago and still I and the people I host for have absolutely no web or email services. When I phoned them the lady on the phone was as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike. The conversation went round in circles for a while and then I lost my temper said a few nice words and hung up!
Despite the problems I had with 123-reg I was not waiting (at least) 63 hours for propagation! Apart from this 1and1 only charged my card 5 weeks after I had transferred the domains! I am not going to waste more money by transferring the domains again until the end of the 12 months I have just paid them for. At this time I really want a good company. All I am looking for is listed below:
Reasonable pricing
Fully functional control panel
Instant charging to my card when I place an order
Speedy propagation
Is this too much to ask?Huh
itsme
Grafter
Posts: 5,924
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎07-04-2007

Re: Domain Name registration.

Where is your DNS, if your hosting company also host your DNS I assume that you requested 1and1 to change the IP addresses for your nameservers and then you changed the entries in all the DNS for each of the hosted domains with the new IP addresses?
seanbranagh
Grafter
Posts: 1,236
Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Re: Domain Name registration.

I have private nameservers with Eukhost (ns1.branaghcomputers.com and ns2.branaghcomputers.com) The domains including branaghcomputers.com are registered with 1and1 and all using the above nameservers. The only change I needed to make was to the IPs of these nameservers which I did in my 1and1 control panel on Friday night.
All the DNS records for the individual domains using these nameservers were changed by Eukhost during the migration to the new server (and I have checked in WHM which I can get to through the IP).
The problem lies with the fact that the addresses of the actual nameservers STILL points to the old server (which in offline) after now what is about 65 hours!
Even the site I host at home on my own server is offline because of this as it uses the same nameservers (with edited A records)
itsme
Grafter
Posts: 5,924
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎07-04-2007

Re: Domain Name registration.

Just in case it's a local caching problem a I get the following IP addresses for your nameserves  91.186.25.13 and 91.186.29.51. Are these the old or new?

I use UKreg and I have looked at creating my own nameservers but does not look that easy. Doing the glued records via the control panel is straight forward but then you have to send an email to them Huh I also use a third party to host my DNS.
seanbranagh
Grafter
Posts: 1,236
Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Re: Domain Name registration.

That is still the old IP's. Using your own nameservers is really simple. It just looks more professional if you are building and hosting sites for other people. They cannot see the hosting company behind you.
I first done it with 123-reg who do it all automatically.
seanbranagh
Grafter
Posts: 1,236
Registered: ‎02-08-2007

Re: Domain Name registration.

I have now been forced to abandon my private nameservers in an attempt to get services back online. If 1and1 ever get their finger out and update the records I can change back!