I just wrote an internal sales brief on these types of "too-good-to-be-true"
deals from Network Solutions...
Here's some hard facts for you...
Typical Deal:
- 3year exclusive term
- $8 per domain year pricing
- Marketing subsidy and assistance
Typical Contract Pitfalls:
- Network Solutions does not enter into true wholesale agreements.
Rather, they enter into resale agent agreements. The fundamental difference
between these two types of relationships is that the former fosters and
promotes the ongoing relationship between the reseller and the customer with
no interference from the registrar. The latter type, NSI's preference,
simply has the reseller acting as a lead generator for NSI.
- if the reseller does not wish to sell these services to their
clientele that NSI will undertake to do so anyway. (ie - check out this gem
from a recent NSI channel communication "Please note: if you do not sign the
contract allowing you to sell .biz and .info registration-related services,
we may be contacting your customers that have Domain Names with Network
Solutions.")
- The exclusivity of the arrangement precludes the reseller from
shopping around for a new registrar if they are dissatisfied with NSI's
performance[1]. Further, the arrangement also allows NSI to terminate the
arrangement at any point for any reason simply by filing a 30-day
cancellation notice with the reseller. Once a contract with a reseller is
terminated by NSI, the customers automatically become NSI's. This provides
NSI with complete and unfettered access to the resellers' customers and
likely end up leaving the reseller out of the customer revenue loop.
It is also worthwhile to note that Network Solutions does not recognize
subscription periods paid for at other registrars. Their policy is to reset
the time left on any domain name registration that is transferred to them.
In other words, if you have a customer that registered a domain name with
Registrar X for five years and wishes to transfer it to Network Solutions as
the resellers preferred registrar partner, Network Solutions will purposely
reset the time left on the domain name registration to only one year.
This policy has a direct and measurable effect on the support and
administrative costs incurred by the reseller and an immeasurable effect on
the reseller's credibility. As far as the customer is concerned, they've
just lost a significant amount of money because they put their trust in a
reseller.
All in all, in order to deal with NSI, you must be painfully ready to accept
the true meaning of "caveat emptor".
-rwr
[1] Which, given the customer service that NSI has provided resellers in the
past, is likely to occur.
----- Original Message -----
From: "ezgoing" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "William X. Walsh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Loren Stocker"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: "Saurabh K.Agarwal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
"Derek Balling" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2001 10:20 PM
Subject: RE: Re[2]: [Domain Expired : in April]
> Verisign is also calling resellers and offering some
> outstanding prices and deals to start selling domains
> through them.
>
> We have two reseller accounts, one I started and one we
> received when we bought a smaller hosting company.
>
> We have now received telephone calls from Verisign on both
> accounts offering us a very good partner deal if we switch
> to them for domain name registrations and renewals.
>
> Offered a branded web site, automatic registration, domain
> name manager for clients and a control panel for us to
> manage domains, 30 day billing for payment of domains
> registered and $8 per year registration fees. Can also use
> their name on branded site if desired.
>
> Stated offer was only available for ISPs and Hosting
> companies. But who knows. I doubt they would turn down
> volume.
>
> And they swear that customer service is changing as they are
> making sweeping changes on the wholesale end. Wholesalers
> will have a different set of telephone numbers and account
> execs that are not available to the retail public for any
> problems that can not be handled with the control panels and
> domain name managers.
>
> If true it looks like they are turning over a new leaf and
> making an all out push to get back in the domain name
> registration game.
>
> Problem areas.
>
> A three year exclusive contract where you can only register
> and renew domain names through them.
>
> Reseller must be listed as billing contact on domain names
> they register or renew. Which many clients would not
> appreciate.
>
> Haven't decided if we will try them or not. Don't like
> exclusive contracts and would need to clear up if we could
> renew existing Network Solutions customers.
>
> If yes then we would probably set up the smaller account
> that we acquired with them, as a lot of our hosting clients
> still use Network Solutions and will not switch to another
> registrar. It would make it much easier to manage their
> domains and be an easy source of extra income, as we could
> charge more for a Network Solution registration than we can
> for the newer registrars.
>
> And believe me we have been trying to get them to switch
> from Network Solutions this past year. :)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of William
> X. Walsh
> Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2001 7:58 PM
> To: Loren Stocker
> Cc: Saurabh K.Agarwal; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Derek
> Balling
> Subject: Re[2]: [Domain Expired : in April]
>
>
> Hello Loren,
>
> Wednesday, June 27, 2001, 4:45:56 PM, Loren Stocker wrote:
>
> > Hi All,
>
> > With all due respect to Derek, the world of NSI has
> changed -- and Past
> > performance is no guarantee of future results!
>
> > In the last 30 day NSI has drastically changed their
> transfer policies and is
> > doing major house cleaning, dumping a massive number of
> chronically late
> > domains. In addition, I've seen about a dozen domains that
> were "slated" for
> > sale at Great Domains go back on invoice (for those in the
> know:). In short,
> > NSI has adopted a new style of customer service:
> take-no-prisoners!
>
> > I believe NSI is heading for a rapid, 45-day or less
> deletion cycle so that
> > all domains are either live or extinct within the refund
> window. We should not
> > be surprised to see slightly overdue domains deleted at
> will.
>
> Yes, many months ago I tried to pay for a domain that had
> never been
> paid for (completely forgot about, domain wasn't in use
> really) but
> NSI said they couldn't find an invoice for it, and no matter
> how hard
> I tried, I couldn't get them to accept $70 from me to get
> the domain
> turned on. I called them at least a half dozen times
> trying to get
> to someone who could make it happen.
>
> This week I got an invoice for this domain, which has been
> on hold for
> well over 2 years, letting me know I had 10 days to pay for
> it or lose
> it. This time they had an invoice for it.
>
> Looks like they are finally dealing with these customer
> service
> issues.
>
> But is it too little too late?
>
> --
> Best regards,
> William X Walsh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Userfriendly.com Domains
> The most advanced domain lookup tool on the net
> DNS Services from $1.65/mo
>
>
