[DMCForum] Domain registrars/resellers

[Ryan Wright <ryanpwright@xxxxxxxxx>]

Any opinions on a good domain registrar/reseller?
And what's the difference between the two?

Long story short: I have half a dozen domain names with GoDaddy. Never
had a problem until yesterday. Apparently someone filed a complaint
about my invalid whois data on ryanwright.com. I had written "private"
for the address and "000-0000" for my phone number. My email address,
however, was valid, which should be good enough - it allows people to
contact me.

Not so. The complaint was filed and GoDaddy yanked my domain. Didn't
even tell me, either. Yesterday DNS servers quit resolving it. I
called GoDaddy FOUR times today. The first three times it was, "Oh,
there is apparently some problem on our end, we will fix it." Then,
"You should try this, etc." When it got later into the evening and it
still wasn't working despite my doing everything they asked, I called
a fourth time. This time the rep argued with me that it must be a
problem with my DNS server. Eventually he agreed to look into it
further and then told me, "Oh, we took your domain away from you, you
can't have invalid whois data, that's a federal law you're breaking by
writing 'private' in there."

Well first he's full of himself, it's not a law, apprently just an
ICANN policy. And second, I'm supposed to get 15 days notice, but they
don't seem to care. So I fixed the info and they agreed to reinstate
my domain but, "It could take up to 7 days." Those f***ers. They can
take it away in an instant but won't give it back for a week? In the
meantime I can't contact anyone, nobody can get to my web site, and my
mail servers are broken because DNS doesn't resolve correctly anymore.

So I'm very disillusioned with the whole domain name thing. I can't
believe they can just take your domain from you like that...
especially considering I paid for the damn thing. I'm even more upset
at the way GoDaddy handled the whole thing and am looking for another
registrar to transfer my domains to. Any suggestions?? I've been doing
a lot of searching and it seems like most of them are fly by night con
artists. Lots of reports of various registarars refusing to release
domains when you try to transfer them, confiscating them for random
(or no) reasons, intentionally overcharging, refusing to issue refunds
after they overcharge, then confiscating ALL of your domains if you
issue a chargeback... Lots of things that should be illegal, but
apparently aren't, and will never be resolved without lawyers.

Oh, and even better, every time you change your whois info - which I
was just forced to do tonight -- GoDaddy locks your domains for 60
days and disallows all transfers during that time period. Isn't that
nice. So I'm completely at their mercy. That, and someone out there
dislikes me enough to complain because they couldn't get my private
mailing address out of whois. Like they had any f***ing right to it in
the first place.

:(

-Ryan

---

Yahoo! Groups Links

• To visit your group on the web, go to:
  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DMCForum/
   
• To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
  DMCForum-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
   
• Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.