Let me first say that the idea I'm about to state could be really
stupid. It may have negative effects I haven't considered, or even be
against ICANN or Commerce Department policy. But NSI makes me SO MAD
that I feel compelled to propose the idea.
What if the accused registrars (Tucows, Register.com and BulkRegister),
and any other registrars that wanted to participate, were to band
together to offer a one day promotion in which customers could transfer
domains from NSI for rock bottom prices? Perhaps it would be called
"T-Day" or something like that. The idea is to give end users the
opportunity to free themselves of NSI's chains by transferring ALL of
their domains in one shot, and also to send a message to NSI that end
users and registrars/resellers are fed up with their policies and
tactics. A price would be set, perhaps $7 per domain, and all
registrars/resellers participating would have to charge the end user
that price for the transfer/renewal. So perhaps Tucows would charge
RSPs $6.50, and RSP's would charge the end user $7.00. I imagine this
would be just enough markup to cover credit card processing fees.
Customers would be given explicit instructions on how to verify the
transfer requests, to minimize denials. An unbranded website could be
set up that states the ideas behind "T-Day". Participants would, or
course, market the promotion to their existing customers prior to the
event. Customers could also be asked to pass the offer on to friends in
a "grassroots campaign" like manner.
I've already said this may be a dumb idea, but I would love to see NSI's
attempts to retain market share backfire with them losing a huge chunk
of it in one day. My biggest concern is that the number of transfers
would be so high that some RSPs would not have enough funds to cover
them, since it takes 3 to 5 days for the credit card charges to be
deposited.
ST
