Greetings!
I've been in the domain registration world for a long time. Certainly
from the days when Network Solutions was the only game in town (albeit
under the handle of INTERNIC.NET) for registering .COM/.NET/.ORG
domains. They have always demonstrated a total disdain for providing
any semblance of customer service but now that they are bleeding domain
transfers they have become even more annoying as they fight for their
survival.
I've dealt with many registrars with varying degrees of customer
service.
I was particularly annoyed last week when we discovered that NSI had
adopted a similar policy to REGISTER.COM's of insisting on a
confirmation email from the admin contact. Partly because we had done a
large number of transfers before and based on those experiences
incorrectly told the clients that all they need do is click on the link
from their OpenSRS email accepting the agreement and the domain would be
transferred in the next few days. I always hate looking like I don't
know what I'm talking about. The other reason that this upset me was
that we had actually had clients close accounts with their former ISP
where the admin contact email was through expecting the domain would
transferred to OpenSRS forthwith. Now that this hasn't happened it will
be a huge problem to get their accounts setup temporarily to retry the
transfer.
I called them up to complain because both of their emails to the client
(the one asking for confirmation and the one stating it had been
rejected because the client didn't respond) stated that the transfer
would be denied.
(BTW... does everyone have NSI's 800 number? 1-888-642-9675 Enjoy. :)
Here is what I learned:
First off just so we have our terminology straight a Registrar is a
ICANN accredited body able to register domains directly. The Registry
is a database. I say this because when you get angry and start saying
Registry when you really mean Verisign or ICANN, Network Solutions staff
just gets confused.
The term "denied" that NSI uses in their emails is actually a passive
thing meaning do nothing. They do not actually send a "denied transfer"
to ICANN or any body overseeing the transfer process to allow another
transfer request to be initiated immediately. You can ONLY wait until
the request times out. I am not absolutely certain but I believe the
time-out period is set when a given Registrar signs their agreement with
Verisign. The time-out is as per the settings of the Registrar
initiating the transfer request.
If a transfer is denied because the domain is not in a paid up status
they send a notice to the admin contact to that effect. (Interestingly
we had many domains transfer successfully prior to NSI's email
verification policy that expired by as much as 6 weeks!)
If a transfer is denied by NSI not receiving a confirmation email then
NSI sends an email to this effect to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In either case it is an almost useless gesture because the domain is
still locked out from further transfer requests until it times out.
At first I dealt with a front line customer service person who offered
to ensure that the domain in question was rejected properly so the
transfer could be resubmitted. I told her that I wasn't willing to do
this as it was a problem I wanted fixed such that I didn't have to call
NSI every time a domain transfer wasn't acknowledged within their 3 day
window. Keep in mind that at this point neither I or this 1st level
tech support/customer service type realized how these transactions
worked. (I was mistakenly under the impression that if NSI denied the
transfer "properly" it would remove it from the "transfer pending"
pool.) She agreed that she couldn't in fact help me and transferred me
to 2nd level tech support.
I had been on hold for two and a half hours before getting the first
person and was on hold for another hour before the second level life
form answered. My only satisfaction in this was that because I had an
800 number for them, they were at least paying for their own lack of
customer service responsiveness.
The second person was obviously more knowledgeable and he was the one
that told me about the there not actually being any method of refusing a
transfer to have it immediately put back in an "okay to transfer" state.
I decided to vent a little on this guy because he seemed to be able to
comprehend what I was talking about.
I asked this automaton what someone would do if the email address listed
as contact for the domain ceases to work making it impossible to reply
to NSI's confirmation of transfer request. (This is the case for my
client who closed their account with their ISP after acknowledging
OpenSRS' transfer request email.) He stated that it is not possible to
transfer a domain to another registrar without NSI getting a positive
response from the same email address as the email was sent to.
I curtly responded, "You mean it's Network Solutions' policy not to
transfer domains without aforementioned email."
He said, "I cannot comment on policy with regards to Network Solutions."
(Ok now... I decide to clamp this dufus down and peel his skin off layer
by layer.) "So you're saying that it isn't written anywhere that you
need suitable confirming email before allowing a transfer?", I begin.
"All I can tell you is that we cannot perform a transfer without it.",
comes the brainwashed response.
"How do you know that?", I decide to explore.
"I am not in a position to comment on NSI policy. I do have
supervisors." (Or programmers I guess. :)
"Ok. I find it interesting that for Service agreement changes you do
have a manual method involving a faxed form on company letterhead. A
nameserver, contact and address change as allowed in a Service Agreement
change form can be every bit as important as a transfer of Registrar,
especially seeing as none of these things need change with a change of
Registrar.", I continue.
"There is no manual means of performing a Registrar change.", comes the
ever so useful answer.
"So you're telling me that NSI, the pioneers of Mail-From, Crypt-PW and
PGP verification have suddenly decided that Mail-From is the ONLY means
of acknowledging a transfer? So because you've taken it upon yourselves
to adopt this tact [I was careful not to say policy] you will own any
domain where the ISP has gone under in perpetuity?", I move in for the
kill.
<Long pause> "Sir. I think we're going in circles here." (Meaning: He
wasn't programmed for a response to this query and is falling back on
his default "lack of data" response.) "I guess that the contact would
just have to get that email address set back up so they could respond
from it."
"Well...rather than guessing how be we get one of those supervisors on
the phone so I can pose this question to them? If they can't answer it
then I think that probably would indicate a purposeful impeding of
domain transfers when NSI knows full well that admin contact emails are
not always static or stable." (This is almost fun, isn't it? :)
<long pause> "Ok... I am not sure they will be able to talk to you now
though."
[Just so you know it was about 2 1/2 hours for first level to answer,
another hour for 2nd level to answer and I waited a further 30 minutes
for him to come back with this answer.]
"If the email address for the admin contact is incorrect then they must
do a NIC handle change first before the transfer can be performed.", he
returns with. (I'll bet the supervisor just made that up on the spur of
the moment but it was a lot better than his guess.)
"That's interesting. The quickest NIC handle change I've ever seen go
through has been six weeks and they almost always involve repeated
faxing of personal information, repeated phone calls and a liberal
infusion of expletives! I also know that this will in most cases will
surpass the time left until the domain expires forcing your current
clients to either pay you ransom of another year's registration fee or
have their domain go down until you get around to deleting it and HOPE
that they get it registered before some other body nabs it!" (I'm pretty
livid now.)
"I've explained how the system works. If you need to call back on this
issue I can give you a reference number to use.", he responds. (I'm
betting he'd love to get away from my call.)
It was getting late and I had to leave so I took his reference number
but I thought you might all benefit a little from hearing my experience.
I am quite certain that both REGISTER.COM AND NSI know full well that
they are not protecting the lion's share of their clients but rather
making it difficult for them to leave. I think OpenSRS approach of a
negative response provides better protection without impeding a client's
wishes.
I apologize for the length of this but hopefully some parts were
valuable.
Cheers!
Jack Broughton
CanTech Solutions
