The Registries require pre-payment of domains and those conducting the registration are responsible to ensure they have received payment for the domain before submitting the application for processing.
Our policy on use of domain locking is outlined on our website, http://resellers.tucows.com/opensrs/resources/docs/lockingguide.pdf, which states you cannot lock a domain against the registrant's wishes. We do make very limited exceptions to our articulated policy. If the reseller can provide clear evidence of a charge-back provided to you by the credit card company, our compliance department will place REGISTRAR-HOLD status on the domain after notifying the registrant. REGISTRAR-HOLD removes the domain from the zone file and stops it from resolving on the Internet. This effectively makes the domain useless. We will remove the REGISTRAR-HOLD status if proof of payment is provided to us. We are not in a position to adjudicate disputes between a Registrant and a Reseller. Our Reseller Contracts allow you to add your own terms and conditions so long as they do not violate any of our terms or policies including the domain locking policy. Thanks, Peter Ejtel Sales Manager Tucows Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Robert L Mathews Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 1:40 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: protection from non paying clientel At 7/15/03 10:18 PM, William Denniss wrote: >I had a similar situation where I wanted to delete the domain. > >I was informed by tucows that they don't normally delete domains. However, >and I quote "our Compliance Dept can place the domain on administrative hold >if a credit card chargeback has taken place. You can contact them for >further information at [EMAIL PROTECTED]" Well, if that's the official OpenSRS policy, and the domain does not resolve while on hold and is not transferable, and there's absolutely ZERO chance of the registrant getting access to it, then that sounds good. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be quite so ironclad. For example, when I've inquired in the past I've been told that there is nothing OpenSRS can do about chargebacked or fraudulently purchased domains (perhaps the policy isn't clear among OpenSRS employees, or has changed recently?), and the other poster mentioned that compliance forced him to give an end-user control of a chargebacked domain (it sounds like perhaps the dispute between reseller and customer was a little more complicated, but that's what it came down to from the reseller's perspective). So again, some clarification from OpenSRS would be welcome. OpenSRS hasn't commented yet, so I'll ask two specific questions that I'd appreciate an answer to: 1. Will compliance put domains on administrative hold (making them useless to the end user) if they are chargebacked or fraudulently registered, with a guaranteed zero chance that the end user can get access to them by any method short of a lawsuit? 2. Will compliance respect an additional contract provision between the reseller and end user that provides for an "ownership" transfer of the domain name to the reseller, under circumstances defined by the reseller (which may include nonpayment or perhaps other situations that match the reseller's business model)? -- Robert L Mathews, Tiger Technologies
