Tod, our programmer has spent two hours this week trying to regain authorization to one of our client’s domain names. The third attempt has failed and he’s moving on to attempt 4.
What happened is that a few years back, our client received a notice in the mail telling him his domain name was about to expire and this courtesy notice was to inform him he could renew now at their lowest rate.
Nothing in the notice says that it comes from his domain name company, and you know what, it’s not his original domain name company!
So he goes ahead and renews for several years as its convenient to pay for several years upfront and not have to worry about it. But then lo and behold about 5 years later, we want to switch his hosting account and we can’t redirect his domain name. Neither he nor us have control of the domain name any longer and the email address on the receipt is bogus.
Our clients get notices like this in the mail all the time. Sometimes they switch and there aren’t problems but just as often the switch results in a time sink.
To keep this from happening to you.
1. Memorize the name of your domain name company and hosting company.
2. Keep domain and hosting paper work in a place where they are easy to find and check. Also, put a copy in a safe deposit box or fire safe as you never want to lose this info. It’s very hard to get it from domain name and hosting company because they are working to keep websites safe from hijacking.
3. Don’t renew accounts from companies that send you notices. If you need to change hosting or domain registrations for some reason, check online for complaints against the company or ask an industry person like us to recommend a reputable company.
This happen to you? Please share your story.
Below you can see one of these notices and check out the ambiguous wording for yourself. I’ve blocked out all the names.
