At 7:26 -0800 24.1.2003, Strategic Investment Mgmt. Inc wrote:
>We have a couple of attorneys who will be interested
>if enough potential plaintiffs all claim the same thing - that
>TotalNIC.net effectively forced them to renew domains
>with them when they tried to transfer domains away
>from TotalNIC.net.
>
>We are also looking for an Australian attorney for
>this suit, which would greatly facilitate things.
>
>Regards,
>
>Matt Hooker
>President
>Strategic Investment Management Inc.
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Tel / Fax: 1-760-924-8931
so if we all join we can now recoup our losses and set a precedent
against registrars violating their contracts and extorting captive customers.
kind regards philippe
--- *** ---
>Subject: Searching for class-action Plaintiff's re suit against TotalNIC.net /
>Capital Networks Pty, Ltd. registrar for failure to transfer domains and extortion,
>fraud, breach of contract - forcing domain owners to renew with them.
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
> [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
> [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
> [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
> [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
> [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
> [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>1/23/2003
>
>RE: Problems with Capital Networks Pty, Ltd. (dba
>TotalNIC.net) and upcoming class-action suit.
>
>To all parties who have been forced to renew their
>domains by TotalNIC.net (Capital Networks Pty Ltd.),
>and not allowed to transfer them to another registrar:
>
>
>1. We are going to sue them in court for two years
>worth of their $20.00 renewal fees per domain, when
>they should have honored our numerous requests to
>transfer our domains to another registrar of our
>choice (LowestPriceDomain.com - $8.88 per year), plus
>costs, fees and damages. If you are interested in
>obtaining information about your rights in this
>class-action suit to recover costs and damages from
>them, please e-mail us at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>or fax us at 1-760-924-8931 as soon as possible. We
>hope to have a form up at the soon-to-be-constructed
>web site: InternetScams.com.
>
>We would like a copy of the domain registration
>agreement or contract which was in effect in December
>of 1999 and January of 2000 at TotalNIC.net - the CORE
>registry. If you have a copy of this contract, user
>agreement, or terms and conditions of use, please
>e-mail it to us at [EMAIL PROTECTED], or
>fax it to us at (760) 924-8931. Thank you for your
>help.
>
>Below is the brief history of TotalNIC.net's extortion
>of us.
>
>TotalNIC.net has now shut-off DNS service to at least
>two of our domains, compu-mortgage.com and
>losvalores.com. They have refused to transfer our
>domains to Register.com (the registrar-partner of
>LowestPriceDomain.com) for over a year, and 1 year ago
>were were forced by them (they blackmailed us into
>renewing with them under threat of their releasing all
>of our domains for re-registration by any party) to
>renew with them, which we did under protest. They are
>now trying to extort more money from us by using the
>same threat - renew with them or lose our domains.
>They have already damaged our business by cutting off
>DNS service to some of our domains.
>
> In January of 2000 we purchased 33 domains from
>TotalNIC.net - 2 years each. The contract we agreed
>to at that time stated that we could transfer our
>domains at any time to another registrar. This was
>standard operating procedure for all registrars at
>that time.
>
>We would like a copy of this contract which was in
>effect in December of 1999 and January of 2000. If you
>have a copy of this contract, user agreement, terms
>and conditions of use, please e-mail it to us at
>[EMAIL PROTECTED], or fax it to us at (760)
>924-8931
>
>In December of 2001, we requested
>a transfer of 33 of our domains which were being held
>by the Australian registrar TotalNIC.net, to
>Register.com, where we had previously entered into a
>partnership which allowed us to buy domains at a bulk
>price of $7.00 each. The principal e-mail address that
>we had on file for all of our domains, s-i-m.com, was
>no longer valid because DirectNIC.com
>released it and it was registered by another party
>when we had 6 months left until expiration. TotalNIC's
>system did not let us enter into our domain manager to
>change the e-mail address. The password they had given
>us would not work, and they refused to give us another
>working password. To this date they have never
>supplied us with a working password, nor have they
>heeded our requests (many) to change the contact
>information including the e-mail addresses for all of
>our domains.
>
>At that time all of
>our experience with the five or so registrars we had
>dealings with allowed a transfer away from them by a
>simple e-mail request, and this is what our contract
>with TotalNIC.net stated. In January of 2000.
>TotalNIC.net at first told us
>that their policy had changed, and was at that time
>that we had to
>send a notarized letter on company letterhead to CORE
>Security at a P.O. Box in Australia by regular
>airmail, and that no faxes or deliveries could
>expedite the process. We protested that we had never
>agreed to those terms and conditions, and we demanded
>immediate transfer of all of our 33 domains. They
>refused, so, under protest we complied with their
>request, and waited, and a month or so later we were
>finally told that they refused to honor our request to
>transfer OUR domains to Register.com, and that all of
>the 33 domains had expired and that we must renew them
>with TotalNIC.net (Capital Networks Pty Ltd) at $20.00
>per year - or risk losing the domains alltogether as
>they would be released to the pool of domains
>available for registration.
>
>We protested again, but renewed each domain (total of
>$680.00 - 1 domain was renewed by mistake for 2 years)
>ONLY so that we would not lose it, and informed them
>that we would be bringing suit for damages including
>recouping all of the $680.00 plus expenses. We had
>informed them that it would cost us nothing up front
>and only $7.00 at the end of the year for each domain
>we transfered. This was in January of 2002.
>
>Five times this year we sent Capital Networks
>(TotalNIC.net) a demand letter demanding them to
>transfer our domains to Register.com and reimburse
>us the $680.00 or face a lawsuit. They never responded
>to our demands, and they never transferred any of the
>domains to Register,.com as we repeatedly requested.
>They never gave us a working password to our accounts
>or allowed us to change the contact information for
>our domains including the e-mail address on file.
>Theyu never made these changes for us either.
>
>Last month we sent a plethora of letters and demand
>notices to them, to the individuals we could find who
>appeared to be running their company, and to ICANN all
>demanding an immediate transfer of our (now) 31
>domains to Register.com, - all to no avail. The
>31 domains have now expired and DNS service has been
>shut-off to some of the domains (compu-mortgage.com,
>losvalores.com)
>
>We want to place an injunction on TotalNIC.net (and
>perhaps ICANN also) to prevent any of the 31 domains
>from being released to the pool of domains available
>for registration. We are short on cash and do not want
>to waste another $620.00. We also want to recoup the
>$680 spent a year ago when we were extorted to renew
>our domains with them of risk losing them, about
>$325.00 in costs, and substantial damages for this
>extortion.
>
>Below follows two of our numerous legal notice demands
>to TotalNIC to release our domains for transfer to
>Register.com (where we are a domian registration
>partner/affilliate)[A.] and [B.]; which is followed by
>our response of 1/8/2003 to TotalNIC's notice that
>they will shut-off DNS service to one of our domains
>which expired on 1/6/03 within 24 hours and we risk
>losing the domain altogether[C.].
>
>[To: ICANN: I am hoping that you might be able to help
>us legally with regard to the matters described above.
>We honestly feel like this is extortion, and we
>believe that ICANN is irresponsible and negligent in
>failing to protect our domain holder's rights. ICANN,
>you are letting one of your accredited registrars
>defraud and extort domain owners. This is sever
>negligence at the least, and you are creating a
>windfall for lawyers and arbitrators and a nightmare
>for domain owners. You shouldn't be entitled with the
>opportunity and responsibility of managing the
>Internet and the Domain Name System if you allow fraud
>and extortion to proceed unchecked by one of the
>registrars you accredited. We demand that you place an
>immediate hold on all 31 of our domains, transfer them
>to Register.com immediately, and remove the accredited
>status of the TotalNIC.net registrar - or you will be
>guilty of fraud and extortion along with them.
>
>In addition, we demand a copy of the contract (user
>agreement) which TotalNIC.net (CORE) had in effect on
>its web site on January 1, 2000. That is the only
>contract which applies to us and our 31 domains and
>this dispute which is actually extortion.]
>
>3 years ago, TotalNIC.net was one of the lowest price
>registrars, and today it is twice as expensive as the
>lowest priced registrars. So they are refusing to
>honor valid transfer requests from its customers,
>scaring or extorting them or defrauding them into
>renewing with them or risk shut-off of DNS or losing
>the domain altogether. They recently informed us, when
>asked why they never honored our transfer request made
>per their new terms - the notarized letter, etc... a
>year ago, and they stated that with the shift form the
>CORE registry to ICANN, no transfers could be made for
>180 days, and that no transfers can be made in the 30
>days before a domains is due to expire. This is crap,
>unacceptable, fraudulent crap that we never agreed to.
>This is fraud, and you, ICANN, by letting them keep
>their accredited status are participating in this
>fraud.
>
>We have everything described above documented - we
>have saved copies of all of the letters and demand
>notices and e-mails and faxes.
>
>Would you please contact us at your earliest
>convenience to descuss whether you can help us?
>
>Sincerely,
>Matt Hooker
>President
>Strategic Investment Management Inc.
>Tel / Fax: 1-760-924-8931
>E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
