We have dealt with this situation before. According to what we have found out, it appears to be a very risky business to purchase a domain from Verisign reseller
If a Verisign reseller owes funds to Verisign, the domains under that reseller move to unpaid status. We are not sure how Verisign determines which domains move to unpaid status - the ones for invoice owed? all domains under that reseller? Anyhow, the Verisign whois will display correct expiration date on that customer's domain BUT their internal database puts a lock on that domain. One of our customers bought his domain through Bcentral, I believe, then tried to transfer to us some months later and to his unplesant surprise had the same situation just as you described. So he called Verisign many many times and finally got to the bottom of the mystery. Bcentral did not pay their bill to Verisign. Although the customer has a proof of payment to Bcentral - he is out of luck, he even went to Bcentral and renewed the domain there for yet another year in a desperate attempt to defect from this Verisign nightmare. Unfortunately - his domain is still hopelessly locked in the Verisign dungeon. It has been going on for 4 months now. I wish I had a recipe for solution on this one, but I do not. Cheers Genie
