1and1 "autoRenewPeriod" Domain Status

[Jimmy Hoffa]

Hello NP fellows,

I'm new around here and I would like to salute you and thank you for the great resources that you provide around here!

Now, let's get down to business. I need your expertise on the following matter:

I'm stalking a domain and waiting for it to expire in order to catch the mo-fo. Unfortunately, the domain has a strange status. It's registered through 1and1 on the 9th of February 1997 and the whois shows this Domain Status: "autoRenewPeriod".

According to ICANN, the "autoRenewPeriod" status means: "This grace period is provided after a domain name registration period expires and is extended (renewed) automatically by the registry. If the registrar deletes the domain name during this period, the registry provides a credit to the registrar for the cost of the renewal."

Based on my understanding, the domain expired on the 10th of February 2016 and it was renewed automatically by Verisign (the registry) for another year. 1and1 (the registrar) should receive the payment from the customer (the registrant) for this additional year, otherwise it will drop the domain. The problem is that the domain has this status since the last domain update which happened on the 11th of February 2016 (more than 3 months ago) and the associated website is still live (the name servers are unchanged).

Also, the domain Registrant/Admin/Tech contact emails are actually the 1and1 generic email: privacy[at]1and1.com. Due to the private registration, there should be a private proxy email displayed in order to be able to contact the domain owner.

According to 1and1, they hold the domain for the customer as a Grace Period for 44 days and then this Grace Period is followed by the 30 days Redemption Period imposed by ICANN. So, after these 74 days, the domain should enter the 5 days Pending Delete Period. But it didn't, even though more than 100 days have passed since the expiration date, as of today.

Isn't this strange? What should I do? Please advise.

Here's a whois snippet:

Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.1and1.com
Updated Date: 2016-02-11T07:04:17.000Z
Creation Date: 1997-02-09T04:00:00.000Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2017-02-10T04:00:00.000Z
Registrar: 1&1 Internet SE
Registrar IANA ID: 83
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse[at]1and1.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.8774612631
Reseller:
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: autoRenewPeriod
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: Oneandone Private Registration
Registrant Organization: 1&1 Internet Inc
Registrant Street: 701 Lee Road Suite 300
Registrant Street: ATTN
Registrant City: Chesterbrook
Registrant State/Province: PA
Registrant Postal Code: 19087
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.8772064254
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: privacy[at]1and1.com
Registry Admin ID:
Admin Name: Oneandone Private Registration
Admin Organization: 1&1 Internet Inc
Admin Street: 701 Lee Road Suite 300
Admin Street: ATTN
Admin City: Chesterbrook
Admin State/Province: PA
Admin Postal Code: 19087
Admin Country: US
Admin Phone: +1.8772064254
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax:
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email: privacy[at]1and1.com
Registry Tech ID:
Tech Name: Oneandone Private Registration
Tech Organization: 1&1 Internet Inc
Tech Street: 701 Lee Road Suite 300
Tech Street: ATTN
Tech City: Chesterbrook
Tech State/Province: PA
Tech Postal Code: 19087
Tech Country: US
Tech Phone: +1.8772064254
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax:
Tech Fax Ext:
Tech Email: privacy[at]1and1.com

 

[deez007]

Hmm have you tried maybe getting in touch with 1and1 support?

 

[Jimmy Hoffa]

Hmm have you tried maybe getting in touch with 1and1 support?

I thought about this, but since I'm not the domain owner and not even their customer, I don't know if contacting support would help in any way.
I could also report to ICANN the whois inaccuracy if my last resort would be to try and buy the domain. But my desire is to catch it when it's dropped - the low cost solution. :D

I'm curious if this is common practice for 1and1, to hold the domain longer than what they officially state in their Help Center.

 

[deez007]

I thought about this, but since I'm not the domain owner and not even their customer, I don't know if contacting support would help in any way.
I could also report to ICANN the whois inaccuracy if my last resort would be to try and buy the domain. But my desire is to catch it when it's dropped - the low cost solution. :D

I'm curious if this is common practice for 1and1, to hold the domain longer than what they officially state in their Help Center.

Not entirely sure if this is common practice with 1and1, I have not seen it before. I do know that 1and isn't very popular around here ...I'm sure there must be a good reason for that their unpopularity....lol

 

[Kate]

This domain is already renewed until 2017. The status autoRenewPeriod should go away.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

What WHOIS-service is used?
Again 3rd-party with caching?

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

PM me the domain name...

 

[Jimmy Hoffa]

This domain is already renewed until 2017. The status autoRenewPeriod should go away.

The "autoRenewPeriod" status was set at the time of the domain update and, according to ICANN, it was set by the registry. If the owner decided to renew it after all, then it should go away. If not, the domain should've expired by now. This is why it's strange.

 

[Jimmy Hoffa]

What WHOIS-service is used?
Again 3rd-party with caching?

I tried multiple live whois services like DomainTools.com, etc. All of them showed the same status. I always do my homework before asking for help.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

DomainTools is NOT live.

Your mentioned WHOIS - is just a local WHOIS from whois.1and1.com server.
Also - cached.

.com/.net Registry WHOIS (by Verisign) doesn't use such autorenew-status at all.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Check it via https://www.internic.net/whois.html

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Or any lookup via Linux-terminal: whois example.tld

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

p.s. I even sold the one of my previous domains (it was dropped and available) due to 3rd-party WHOISes with their caching... Buyer contacted me - I registered it again and sold.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Or here: https://whois.icann.org

 

[Jimmy Hoffa]

Thank you very much for your input, Jurgen.
I forgot to mention that the whois snippet that I provided in the initial post is from the ICANN whois service.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

And again: this snippet was retrieved from whois.1and1.com (so-called "local/Registrar's database").
You may completely ignore any statuses that are displayed there.

Only at Registry-level you can check the actual status of your domain, and only this status matters.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Your domain is unknown for me, I don't know even your TLD.
So I can't help you.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

And if you have any concerns about the internal 1and1-database >>> support (AT) 1and1.com