WARNING: BuyDomains.com Snatching up Customer's Expired Domains?!?

OnlineBusiness.com · Feb 8, 2016

Ok so I've already wasted a good few hours trying to convince BuyDomains.com to fix the extremely unfair situation they've put me in. Things are still unresolved so I'm here with my warning. I just wanted to inform others to be careful about BD and after you purchase domains, make sure to TRANSFER your domains out of any registrar they place the domain initially.

I bought a domain SiteXXXX.com in 2014. After purchasing I received the welcome email along with the registrar details. In that email the registar they required me to use was BuyDomainsRegistrations.com.

So I continued to develop a site on my purchased domain, sitexxxx.com. I developed a simple wordpress site and then left it alone for the next year or so. Now just a few days ago I checked on the site since it'd been quite some time since I worked on it.

I checked the site and it was down. Then I checked whois and noticed that the registrant was BuyDomains.com again! I was somewhat relieved since I was hoping that it was in redemption or maybe they were holding the domain for me since I'd originally purchased it over a year ago.

So I contacted my sales rep there and asked if they could do a one time exception. He said no but was willing to give me a reduced rate on a 2nd sale. What!?! I mean they were trying to sell back a name that I purchased from them? Ok not cool but not too big of a deal.

What I did next was checked my email account to see if I received any domain expiration emails or any emails about the domain expiring. I checked and there was NOTHING. Not one email at all notifying me of the domain expiring nor the domain being expired.

So this is when I started to get suspicious. So the domain registrar that they required me to use was directly related to their company and is apparent since the registar url is http://www.buydomainsregistrations.com. I had brought this up to my sales rep and he still denies that the registrar's related to their company. How could it not?? Look at the site, it even has their logo on it.

Anyway, I asked them why I never received any renewal emails and they emphatically deny that the registrar is related to them so they have no idea. Hmm..that doesn't sound right at all.

So as I last request to get my name back I asked them if they could lower the price again..they denied my request and here I am warning others about their shady tactics.

It would've been completely fine if the domain registrar they forced me to use upon buying the domain was an external registrar like GD, ENOM, etc. And if that were the case I'd most definitely received email expiration notifications.

But that did not happen and that's why I feel sorely mistreated. Anyway, I'm staying away from BD from now on. My advice is if you're going to buy domains from them, ALWAYS transfer your domains out from whatever registrar they place your domain at.

TRY · Feb 9, 2016

Abdullah Abdullah said:
Well that is bad but you should also blame yourself there. You said you got the domain a little over a year ago and then didnt renew it regardless of the renewal notices. I think in this case , it was your fault cause as you know if you dont renew your domain then each registrar has a way to deal with your domain. Some auction while others hold you as long as you are eligible to get it back.

Also trying to lower the asking price is not.possible if you are no longer eligible to claim the domain by paying the redemption fee. All registrars send an email specifically stating how many days you have to renew or transfer away your expired domain(s) before you will have to pay a redemption fee or even have your domain sold.

I would just say in the future just stick to the wellknow domain registrars and if you get any nice deals to reg domains in any registrar that you dont like thwn just transfer out long before it is time to renew.

.. "and then didnt renew it regardless of the renewal notices".....
I thought the whole point of the thread was he didn't get any renewal notices?

Jen-Sin · Feb 9, 2016

BrandStarters said:
yes, it's true it's my responsibility to make sure when my domain expires. However, at the same time it is the registrar's responsibility to send out expiration notices and notices of expired domains. There are no if, ands about this. I would go as far as to say it is a legal requirement for domain registrars to do so.

And there are NO emails in my inbox nor spam folder regarding expiration. So it just feels a little fishy that the domain registrar they required me to use did not send out any notices, and they just conveniently picked up the domain as it expired. Hmmm..sounds really odd and that's why I'm bringing it to public attention.

What email provider are you using?

Kate · Feb 9, 2016

Brandingtheweb.com said:
I thought the whole point of the thread was he didn't get any renewal notices?

The registrar may have sent the notices.
However the destination mail server could reject the incoming mails for plenty of reasons: eg no PTR, invalid MX etc. They won't even make it to the spam folder, because they won't enter the server at all.
You just cannot rely on the reminders.

The global percentage of E-mail non-delivery is pretty high and a fact of life.

frank-germany · Feb 9, 2016

BrandStarters said:
So the domain registrar that they required me to use was directly related to their company and is apparent since the registar url is http://www.buydomainsregistrations.com. I had brought this up to my sales rep and he still denies that the registrar's related to their company. How could it not?? Look at the site, it even has their logo on it.

Domain Name: BUYDOMAINSREGISTRATIONS.COM
Registry Domain ID: 1682836406_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.domainadministration.com
Registrar URL: http://www.domainadministration.com
Updated Date: 2015-12-03T11:03:17.00Z
Creation Date: 2011-10-19T00:04:30.00Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-10-19T00:04:30.00Z
Registrar: DOMAINADMINISTRATION.COM, LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 996
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: [email protected]
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1-781-373-6840
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: Inventory Managaement
Registrant Organization: Buydomains.com
Registrant Street: 10 Corporate Drive
Registrant City: Burlington
Registrant State/Province: MA
Registrant Postal Code: 01803
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.7818392800
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax: +1.7818392801
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: [email protected]
Registry Admin ID:

frank-germany · Feb 9, 2016

BrandStarters said:
Anyway, I'm staying away from BD from now on. My advice is if you're going to buy domains from them, ALWAYS transfer your domains out from whatever registrar they place your domain at.

thank you for your warning.

Its a shame that you need to check your domains at many registrars
to ensure they are autorenewed

you may have not taken actions to prevent that situation
but in my eyes the company you bought the domain from
in the first place should have made every effort to prevent your misfortune

it speaks loud and clearly about their working ethics

Abdullah Abdullah · Feb 9, 2016

Brandingtheweb.com said:
.. "and then didnt renew it regardless of the renewal notices".....
I thought the whole point of the thread was he didn't get any renewal notices?

Yes indeed but still you are responsible for managing your domains' expiry dates and any info that is related to and as you know any email can land in junk folder so that is another reason to always check your emails.

To avoid this you can also add all the emails of your registrar to your whitelist so they can always be delivered.

......off topic.....

I sold domains before two or more months and I received the renewal notices because the buyer simply didnt change the contact info and I informed him but hw never replied.

Now if some of those domains expire or get dropped and regged by someone else he will then blame his registrar saying he never received notice. Of course this happens though it is not related to this topic.

frank-germany · Feb 9, 2016

Abdullah Abdullah said:
I sold domains before two or more months and I received the renewal notices because the buyer simply didnt change the contact info and I informed him but hw never replied.

Now if some of those domains expire or get dropped and regged by someone else he will then blame his registrar saying he never received notice. Of course this happens though it is not related to this topic.

so how would you proceed in that case?

Abdullah Abdullah · Feb 9, 2016

frank-germany said:
so how would you proceed in that case?

Well if I am the owner and I failed to change the contact info and all emails went to previous owner and I lost the domains then I will only blame myself and move on and if I get thw chance to get the domains back and if they are valueable then I will buy

tha-she · Feb 9, 2016

If or if not it was he`s fault that he didnt renew should not matter here, what matters is that BuyDomains.com Sold this person a domain, MADE him y use the registrar of THEIR CHOICE, which failed to send out messages about the expiration of the domain....

Now if or if not they are required to do so, i DONT know.....

but this 100% looks like a scheme they do, and probably NOT the first time, to sell domains more then once.

frank-germany · Feb 9, 2016

Abdullah Abdullah said:
Well if I am the owner and I failed to change the contact info and all emails went to previous owner and I lost the domains then I will only blame myself and move on and if I get thw chance to get the domains back and if they are valueable then I will buy

I wasn' thinking of you as a buyer but a seller

Abdullah Abdullah · Feb 9, 2016

tha-she said:
If or if not it was he`s fault that he didnt renew should not matter here, what matters is that BuyDomains.com Sold this person a domain, MADE him y use the registrar of THEIR CHOICE, which failed to send out messages about the expiration of the domain....

Now if or if not they are required to do so, i DONT know.....

but this 100% looks like a scheme they do, and probably NOT the first time, to sell domains more then once.

They failed?

how? What if the emails went to the owner's junk folder? How many of us check the junk folder? We cant just blame the company , allthough them denying to admit that they own that company when they might own is not good...then a again a good lawyer or thinker..can argue maybe the sales rep was new or didnt know about that? Too many maybes can be made from this.

Abdullah Abdullah · Feb 9, 2016

frank-germany said:
I wasn' thinking of you as a buyer but a seller

As far as being seller is considered , it is not my responsibility at all and it is the responsibility of the buyer but as a favor I can remind him

Recons.Com · Feb 9, 2016

I have bought over 60 names from BD, they have moved my names into 3 different registrars. BuyDomainsCentral (obviously their own via eNom reseller program), Hover and Annulet (I am guessing, it is their own as well). I had an issue where they transferred already expired name and near expiring one. Thanks god I checked, would have lost it or they could have some how kept them for themselves, maybe.

LucidDomains · Feb 9, 2016

Rules of thumb:

If you ever buy a domain from anyone, make sure to transfer it to your preferred registrar as soon as you are allowed to.

Make a spread sheet of all your domains which includes expiry dates and check it regularly.

Don't expect expiry emails from any registrar, if you get them its a bonus.

Turn on two factor authentication at all registrars and on your email accounts.

Name Trader · Feb 9, 2016

Look Folks. This thread really is not about the registrar not sending out renewal notices. It's about the fact that the OP approached BuyDomains about his domain 7 months after the renewal date. It then became about the emails because the OP went looking for excuses. Whether they were sent or not. Which nobody can prove.

If I received these complaints from a buyer 7 months after the renewal date, I'd tell the buyer to FO. Which is what Buy Domains have done. And the OP didn't like it. Now. Are BuyDomains an honest broker with their modus operandum? I think not, because they have been caught out in at least 2 lies about this case. Sufficient evidence for many of us to say "I don't ever want to deal with a shady company like BuyDomains which employs these shady practices". But we all know, if they have a domain that we must have, at the right price, we will buy it from them. Even knowing they employ some shady practices, like lying to their former customers.

I am actually on BuyDomains side in this dispute. It is not their responsibility to wet-nurse their customers to renew their domains. It is entirely the responsibility of the customer to renew their domains. And not for them to go bleating about it 7 months after expiry. End of story.

OnlineBusiness.com · Feb 9, 2016

@stub you got it right and I agree with you

Just didn't appreciate them lying to me. I would rather had them told me to F*ck Off then lie about it.

As they continue to claim, BuyDomains Registrations.com has no association with BuyDomains.com, Really?

And they picked up the name on an auction drop, Really?

No, not really. Both are lies.

I'm wrong cause I didn't renew my names. However, they never sent out renewal notices and they lied about how they acquired the name. So while I accept my faults I don't think they're spiffy clean here...far from it. End of story.

Thanks all for chiming it. Now lets all go make some money with the coming bull market on short liquid names

Cheers!

Name Trader · Feb 10, 2016

@BrandStarters - I never, ever, leave my domains with registrars I have no experience with. I always transfer my domains out to my preferred register, immediately, or at the first opportunity. I even transfer away from GoDaddy (which I have a lot of experience with) at the earliest possibility to my preferred registrar. Perhaps you should think about using a similar strategy.

LucidDomains · Feb 10, 2016

Perhaps changing the title before putting this thread to rest. It wasn't really the warning you made out initially. Anyway live and learn.

OnlineBusiness.com · Feb 10, 2016

@LucidDomains - Actually I still would warn and advise against BD so changing it wouldn't make sense.

But yea let's put this thread to rest. Cheers!

bill786 · Feb 10, 2016

Very unfortunate what happened to you. We have used buydomains too in the past.

After reading your post, I'm going to be very careful when dealing with them.

Gobinath · Feb 12, 2016

Thanks mate for alerting us.

Message to all other friends, he didn't asked yours suggestions , he just shared his bad experience.
Appreciate him !

BrandStarters said:
Ok so I've already wasted a good few hours trying to convince BuyDomains.com to fix the extremely unfair situation they've put me in. Things are still unresolved so I'm here with my warning. I just wanted to inform others to be careful about BD and after you purchase domains, make sure to TRANSFER your domains out of any registrar they place the domain initially.

I bought a domain SiteXXXX.com in 2014. After purchasing I received the welcome email along with the registrar details. In that email the registar they required me to use was BuyDomainsRegistrations.com.

So I continued to develop a site on my purchased domain, sitexxxx.com. I developed a simple wordpress site and then left it alone for the next year or so. Now just a few days ago I checked on the site since it'd been quite some time since I worked on it.

I checked the site and it was down. Then I checked whois and noticed that the registrant was BuyDomains.com again! I was somewhat relieved since I was hoping that it was in redemption or maybe they were holding the domain for me since I'd originally purchased it over a year ago.

So I contacted my sales rep there and asked if they could do a one time exception. He said no but was willing to give me a reduced rate on a 2nd sale. What!?! I mean they were trying to sell back a name that I purchased from them? Ok not cool but not too big of a deal.

What I did next was checked my email account to see if I received any domain expiration emails or any emails about the domain expiring. I checked and there was NOTHING. Not one email at all notifying me of the domain expiring nor the domain being expired.

So this is when I started to get suspicious. So the domain registrar that they required me to use was directly related to their company and is apparent since the registar url is http://www.buydomainsregistrations.com. I had brought this up to my sales rep and he still denies that the registrar's related to their company. How could it not?? Look at the site, it even has their logo on it.

Anyway, I asked them why I never received any renewal emails and they emphatically deny that the registrar is related to them so they have no idea. Hmm..that doesn't sound right at all.

So as I last request to get my name back I asked them if they could lower the price again..they denied my request and here I am warning others about their shady tactics.

It would've been completely fine if the domain registrar they forced me to use upon buying the domain was an external registrar like GD, ENOM, etc. And if that were the case I'd most definitely received email expiration notifications.

But that did not happen and that's why I feel sorely mistreated. Anyway, I'm staying away from BD from now on. My advice is if you're going to buy domains from them, ALWAYS transfer your domains out from whatever registrar they place your domain at.

clasione · Feb 14, 2016

Recently expired. Saw on drop list.
http://whois.domaintools.com/buydomains.com.co

RU · Feb 14, 2016

clasione said:
Recently expired. Saw on drop list.
http://whois.domaintools.com/buydomains.com.co

buydomains is a TM

SuperDomains.com · Feb 14, 2016

How could they possibly say that buydomainregistrations.com is not related to their company? The WHOIS information has the same registration contact.

They may be saying that they use a reseller service to register domains which could be accurate. Nevertheless, they likely do profit from registrations, etc.

You should definitely dig further.

clasione · Feb 14, 2016

I believe a different company owns this one.
http://whois.domaintools.com/buydomains.co.com

WARNING: BuyDomains.com Snatching up Customer's Expired Domains?!?

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