This post describes my personal experience with Whiz and my personal point of view regarding Whiz.
I've found that in general people usually only say one side of a story.
So to see how good / bad this registrar (Whiz.In) is. I just took an odd parked domain name and transfered it to whiz.in
1) I registered an account
2) I prepaid some 12 dollars into the account
3) Entered the domain name to be transfered
4) Entered the authorization key
5) Then I clicked transfer.
6) I then got the transfer authorization approval email from Whiz.in and clicked the link in there.
At this point something went wrong. Now lets see what hapened since then.
1) I click on my account which takes me to the control panel.
2) Then it asked me to add something called domain management to manage the domain for .35 cents per annum. No big deal so I did this.
3) Then I went into the management console and it says the following:
"This Domain Name is currently Locked in Processing"
" Action waiting for domain to be unlocked. "
and it stayed this way for a long time. It is still there as I am writing this.
Next comes the real test of a registrars integrity. What will they do in a situation that does not financially benefit them?
So to this effect I noticed that there is a button labeled Cancel Order and receive partial refund. Great test so I click this button.
Nothing happens besides the cancel order button not being available anymore.
So now I'm staring at the domain control panel and all that it tells me is:
"This Domain Name is currently Locked in Processing"
" Action waiting for domain to be unlocked. "
Ok so maybe there is some bug in the control panel software or something like that. Everyone here sings praises of TK's customer support who is supposedly the owner of Whiz.In so I figure lets test that out.
So I have just sent two emails to support at whiz dot in asking for the transfer order to be canceled such that the domain stays with the original registrar. OR if for some reason that cannot be done to give me the authorization keys such that I can transfer the domain somewhere else.
Both of the above actions are not financially beneficial to Whiz.in so lets see what happens. There can only be 4 possible outcomes:
1) I lose the domain entirely
2) The domain doesn't get lost but it gets stuck with Whiz.in
3) Whiz.in is a registrar with integrity and cancels the transfer order
4) Whiz.in is a registrar with integrity and gives me what I need to transfer the domain elsewhere.
Regarding the 12 dollars I've paid - who cares, a pizza costs more.
Relying on reviews alone doesn't work. At the end of the day there is only one way to really find out whether a registrar is good or not. Which is to register a domain with the registrar, evaluate their level of service, and then either cancel the order or transfer the domain away. This tests all aspects of the relationship which is:
1) How are they when you sign up
2) How are they when you are with them
3) How are they when you leave them.
For example some registrars are awesome for item 1 and horrible for the rest.
while some are unreliable for item 1, mediocre for item 2 and horrible for item 3.
Anyway lets see how Whiz.in performs with this test and what happens to my domain.
Will post an update as soon as I have something to add.
-- Update
It's been 4 hours (plus I live in a different time zone GMT+12) and I received the following response.
"
Hi
Referred this to my tech team. Will update you soon.
Thanks
tk
"
The reply to was sent to me at exactly 9:02 AM India time ( As per
http://www.worldtimeserver.com/current_time_in_IN.aspx ) . Which kind of translates to first thing in the morning for TK.
So far so good. Lets see what happens next...
-- Update
In addition looks like TK has sent me instructions on how to get the authorization keys for a domain registered with Whiz.IN. Looks like it's an automated process from within the control panel. I cannot test it yet cause the domain is in the stuck condition described before.
I must say so far Whiz.in is looking quite good. which is not quite what I was expecting (better paranoid than sorry).
The only qualm I have is that their control panel seems to be lacking the ability to pick your domain name from a list and then manage it. You have to type in the domain name and then click the manage button. Apart from that the control panel works fine.
So far so good. Lets see what happens next...
-- Update
Its about 24 hours later now. And I received a support email from TK stating that the transfer has been canceled. So from my experience my personal point of view would say that Whiz.in is a registrar with integrity.
I haven't had a standing relationship with Whiz.in so i cannot comment on how they would be in complex circumstances but my experience detailed in this post is as follows:
Pros:
1) The registration / transfer process was clean and hassle free.
2) The control panel is a bit different but it didn't lock me down with hidden gotchas in any way
3) They responded to my support requests within a matter of hours.
4) When I canceled the order they acknowledged my request and canceled the order.
Cons:
1) The current web interface as of 18 July 2008 is a bit different to what you expect and initially kind of threw me off. But once you figure out how it works it all makes sense. took me about 30 minutes to make sense of the interface.
2) As of today 18 July 2008 I could not find in the control panel a list of registered domain names where you can click on it and then manage that domain name. I had to type in the domain name and click manage. For someone that manages a ton of domain names this could end up being a bit cumbersome.
-- Update (Last one I think)
It's 48 hours later and something surprising hapened. Whiz.in has credited the full amount of the canceled transaction to my account at Whiz.in. I placed the order, then I canceled the order, and I got a full refund. Granted the money is credited to my account at Whiz rather than back to paypal. But in any case Paypal refunds and CC refunds carry rather annoying penalties for the merchant anyway. I would say that this is more than I expected.
Disclaimer:
This purely describes my personal experience with Whiz. It does not constitute any kind of endorsement of Whiz or negative criticism of Whiz. You should always evaluate a registrar yourself and reach your own conclusions before you decide to do business with them. When you do business with a registrar you choose to do so at your own risk. This post is purely my personal point of view and constitutes nothing more than my personal point of view.
