new gtlds Domain Name News That Will Spook You!

[eenmakkie]

Imagine registering a new domain, at he moment you registered the new domain, it was not a premium top level domain. So you pay a fair price for it.
You think it is yours and every year you have to pay the same renewal price.

That is what I did by godaddy.com
I bought a new TLD domain when they came on the market.

started offering it for sale.

Now when the next renewal is coming close, I went to my godaddy.com account and suddenly they wanted 499.99$ to renew the domain for a year. A huge multiple increase compare to the price I paid to register the name.
I called help desk and they told that the domain has become top level domain name as they have seen the value of it.

what?!!!!!

So you buy a domain, spent a lot of money and work on the website, make a business around it, it becomes big on the market, you start to earn millions and suddenly the registrars can ask you what ever they want to renew your domain as they have seen the value of your domain now?

And if you do not pay the extravagant renewal price they ask, it becomes there's? So then they can sell your hard work?

Is this legal?

So what google.com or facebook.com they bought there domains for 1000 years upfront to avoid that the registrar can ask them a couple of billions to renew their domains?

 

[brindle123]

Everyone says they have to give you notice of the price hike and that you can renew at current price, but I don't think they will honor the original price!

This is going to be a big problem dealing with greedy registries. What extension was it? We need to get this out in the open right now!

 

[MisterSoft.com]

Agree, this kind of desperate and disgusting behavior suggests that these ngtlds registries are bound to be doomed...
If our friend ennmakkie has time and energy to file a lawsuit and I'm 100% sure he would prevail. This would be the beginning of the end of these scumbag registries who are behaving like vultures...

 

[Kate]

This is not the first time such a thing happens.
Makes me think that the registries are not in for the long haul, they are trying squeeze as much as they can before they fall into oblivion.

I wonder if the FTC has jurisdiction over the domain name industry at least in the US ? What's going on here would not be allowed in other industries.

 

[dommmain]

This is really nasty power abuse of registrars. That is just crazy.
I specially made an account at this forum to be able to react on this post.

This news should be widely spread around big forums like this. I think if things like this happen, a gltd should be put on a blacklist somewhere here. @eenmakkie (Nederlander zo te lezen) Please fight this in court, as it threatens the business of domainers like you and me.

What gives them the right to do that? Where are these rules stated? Why does .com not have this problems, as I just read ? What about other (new LTD) extensions ? This should not be accepted.

 

[doubleU]

This is not the first time such a thing happens.

I have never heard any seasoned namePros members report this before and this is @eenmakkie's first post, kind of hard to believe.

 

[alcy]

Unfortunately, the concern over no regulation in pricing (increases) was voiced many times here at Namepros. That fact alone should have made anybody think twice about using/investing in a new gtld.

exactly. like was said a few times on this therad and countless times elsewhere. stick to .com and couple other oldies, and let the others self destruct and die and go to hell where they belong. cheers.

 

[brindle123]

I don't think that notice is happening at all.
I haven't got a single email with price increases.

http://www.thedomains.com/2015/09/2...-in-the-new-gtld-space-goes-to-mind-machines/

All new gTLD registries have the basic same contract with ICANN

New gTLD registries, including Donuts can raise renewal prices, but they have to give a registrant a 6 month notice and give them the opportunity to renew the domain at the current rate for the remainder of the 10 year term

Thanks for posting that link. I read that article by Michael Berkens about his domains suddenly becoming "premium".

One thing I noticed was that it wasn't just one domain that changed to premium, it was 20 domains in different extensions.

I could see maybe one pricing being wrong on one domain but not 20 different domains in 5 different extensions. Something very fishy going on.

I think it was Mr. Berkens that just announced his retirement from domaining. I wonder if this is what set him off. He is also a lawyer so you would think he could go after the registry.

Here is a good quote from George Kirikos "If highly sophisticated individuals like Mike are seeing their investment turn to dust, imagine the fate of *unsophisticated* domain name buyers…."

Let's keep after this. Call out the registry reps if they ever show their face to help domainers.

 

[wwwweb]

I don't think that notice is happening at all.
I haven't got a single email with price increases.



Thanks for posting that link. I read that article by Michael Berkens about his domains suddenly becoming "premium".

One thing I noticed was that it wasn't just one domain that changed to premium, it was 20 domains in different extensions.

I could see maybe one pricing being wrong on one domain but not 20 different domains in 5 different extensions. Something very fishy going on.

I think it was Mr. Berkens that just announced his retirement from domaining. I wonder if this is what set him off. He is also a lawyer so you would think he could go after the registry.

Here is a good quote from George Kirikos "If highly sophisticated individuals like Mike are seeing their investment turn to dust, imagine the fate of *unsophisticated* domain name buyers…."

Let's keep after this. Call out the registry reps if they ever show their face to help domainers.

Yes, another thing I noticed was that they only need to give notice to the registrar, and not the registrant of the new price increase, which is mind boggling in 2015 legal contracts you would not provide full disclosure to the person who has to pay the bill?

 

[Squekee]

One observation I just made...I attempted to renew one of my GTLD's but my registrar would not let me add more than one year to the renewal. Very disturbing. I smell class action litigation.

Okay so I just registered icannlawsuit.com. Now we need lawyers and petitions. Unfortunately, I don't have the time as I already run a full time business of my own.

 

[Squekee]

I am writing my regsitrar as I speak in an effort to document their reasoning behind the 1 year max renewal on my NGTLD. Okay maybe I was wrong. it is working now on the dropdown and giving me up to 9 years.

 

[brindle123]

Did you see the domain I just registered? We need a collaborative web development team on this one guys.

i like that! Did you edit your post or are my eyes failing me.

I think that domain will come in handy very soon ICANN doesn't get their shit together.

 

[brindle123]

I am writing namecheap as I speak in an effort to document their reasoning behind the 1 year max renewal on my NGTLD.

Yes. Document everything. This will help prove the crap we are subject to at the hands of the overlords.
Namecheap will blame the registry, who will blame the registrar, who will blame ICANN, who will u-turn it back on the registry.

What a web they weave.

 

[wwwweb]

I was still waiting to hear from @Colin Campbell about the pricing of renewals for LLL.Club as it looks like from the 15th June pricing will be increasing $300+ for LLL.Club domains just unsure about renewal costs with current domains?...

I'm a long term investor so I renewed my VR LLL.Club domains today until 2025...

After that & then what will the renewals be and will it be still attractive to an end user???

I've planned ahead an not planning be stung with outrageous renewal fees from the registrar in the coming months just in-case things do change....

IMO .Club is one of the few nGTLDs that I think will survive and do well in the future...

Show attachment 26882

Club doesn't do premium renewals, they just do a higher upfront fee on purchase, but always good to double check.

 

[Wannabean]

Yes you are correct no one is forcing anyone to reg adasdfasdfa.whatever but these reg fees will kill the extensions when they were supposed to provide affordable alternatives to all of the "overpriced" .coms.

I believe your right. Think I said earlier in the thread premium pricing on ngtld's just promotes hyphenated .com's.

 

[candomain]

Probably not forever but making new gtld's as expensive or more expensive than the .com equivalent won't help the new gtld uptake at all.

 

[eenmakkie]

This is really nasty power abuse of registrars. That is just crazy.
I specially made an account at this forum to be able to react on this post.

This news should be widely spread around big forums like this. I think if things like this happen, a gltd should be put on a blacklist somewhere here. @eenmakkie (Nederlander zo te lezen) Please fight this in court, as it threatens the business of domainers like you and me.

What gives them the right to do that? Where are these rules stated? Why does .com not have this problems, as I just read ? What about other (new LTD) extensions ? This should not be accepted.

yes I am Dutch. I have no time to fight it in court as they will win if it is in there right. I am stupid enough to invest in newTLD's and not knowing my rights. For sure it should be somewhere in the small print. But that is my question to the registries of the newTLD's. Just please come out with it and tell us our rights and your rights. So we all know upfront what to expect.

Probably my comparison with Google.com and Facebook.com was stupid as those are .com and probably under different rules set up years ago. Anyway, the Godaddy support, told me they have probably bought the renewal years ahead when I asked him what about Google.com and Facebook.com .
He told that also godaddy.com doesn't own the domain and just renting it. Maybe he also did not knew how the laws really are.
For that reason I made this post, so someone could come out and tell us exactly our rights and the rights of the registries. So we are not just playing Russian roulette in this game.

 

[VaibhavA]

A perfect example of cutting the branch on which you are sitting

 

[wwwweb]

Ok, what is the damn domain, seriously both godaddy, and donuts are trying to help you.

You keep talking nonsense, maybe an error occurred, but they are trying to help, and maybe it is a glitch that can help others.

If you don't want to accept it, mods need to close, and delete this thread.

One statement concerns me where you said you recently changed accounts, and domain cannot be transferred out?

 

[eenmakkie]

thanks @LucidDomains for the good tip about namesilo, do you have any discount codes for them?

 

[eenmakkie]

@brindle123 check the questions and answers. Also here the printscreen.it happens as written
@doubleU @wwwweb @SiteMachine

 

[Joe Styler]

Just a quick note to let you know I am still looking into this. I am working with the domain team to get some answers on what happened with this domain.

On the question about raising prices and notifying you as a customer I can only answer what I have said. I am not a lawyer and do not want to comment on the agreements which is why I point you to ICANN to read and interpret them.

I CAN speak to the customer service side and have said that we have a history of providing excellent customer service and that we do what we can to help make small business successful which includes domain investors. I can only point to our track record on what we have done. I cannot make statements about what can happen in the future as no one knows the future. I will say that we have been through an ownership change and have gone public over the 10+ years I have been here. Meaning we have had three different owners, each came with changes, however, one constant has always been our focus on providing excellent service. I do not see that changing any time soon. I think that providing customers with advance notice of price increases would fall into that category. We have always allowed customers to renew domains for 10 years in advance as long as I have worked here. I also do not see that changing.

I will figure out what happened here with the price increase error and report back. I have notified a Vice President who is helping me look into it.

 

[bluebox]

The whole nGTLD "experiment" is such a (unregulated) clusterfuck.
But are we even surprised? - blind greed always trumps reason (and the little guys always gets scr**ed because they can't really do anything about it)

 

[eenmakkie]

This is as much as I understand right now.

I can renew any domain I own for up to 10yrs at the current renewal price. Once that price has gone up, I will have to pay that new price. There is no going back to renew at old price.

Example #2: XXXX.villas is $20 to renew. The renewal price went up yesterday for just XXXX.villas domain not just all .villas domains, but they could have gone up also. So the new renewal price for just the XXXX.villas is now $200. This is what the registry is now telling the registrar to charge for XXXX.villas domain. Other .villas could be higher or could be lower than XXXX.villas To register any new .villas is only $25, but renewal for XXXX.villas is now $200. I can not go into my account and renew it at the old $20 price or the $25. Since the registry is telling the registrar what to charge me, I have to now pay the $200.

I hope you could follow those examples and I explained it clear enough.

This is what I think can and is happening. If someone has proof otherwise or knows something different, then please explain.

The registry can tell the registrar what to charge you.
The registrar can charge you that amount or any amount over that amount.

The registry can say to charge you $200, but the registrar needs their share so they charge you $300.

Once the price increase has gone into effect, you have to pay that increase. You can not pay the old price.
No notice at all has to be given to the registrant.

If you can prove that this isn't or can't happen, then please do.

Yes, that is what I understand also. Donut says it is not there "normal practice of doing business" but we have no guarantee that it won't happen in the future.
So now the registrars should step up and defend there clients by informing them of an upcoming price increase and give them that opportunity to renew at the current price for 10 years.
My native language is not English, so I could not completely understand Joe Styler answer on that. Maybe you could study his answer above and let us know.

Best would be if @Joe Styler himself would explain if Godaddy would inform us (registrants) about the same, with a clear written language so also not native English can understand it.

expl. of a clear text "yes we (registrar Godaddy will inform all our clients (registrants) about an upcoming renewal price hike 6 months later for any of there specific domains they hold with the start date . (not if it is a general price hike for the whole extension GTLD) and give the registrants the opportunity to renew at current price for the next 10 years."

Ofcourse they can not let us renew at the old price, but if the registrar informs us 6 months upfront, the "old price" is still the current price and then there is no legal problem of offering it for 10 years renewal.

It all comes to informing the client (registrant) upfront or not.
If no upfront notice is received, then yes there is a legal problem offering it to the client at the "old price" as that price is not available any more.

We (included me) where all speaking about the "old price" but that is the wrong legal term to use.

If the expl. domain of @brindle123 XXXX.villas (actually a cool domain if it was only 3 xxx can be sold good) will have a price increase of current 69.99$ to 200$ starting at 1-sept-2016 (so 6 months later) and the registrar (Godaddy or others) would inform the registrant NOW or within the next 7 days that his/her domain will have a substantial price increase to 200$ starting at 1-sept-2016, but the registrant has still the option to renew that domain at CURRENT price of 69.99$ for the next 10 year if they wish to.

Then all should be ok, and we can close this threat.

It all comes to informing or let the registrant find it out them self.
But they can't, as as far I know, there is now way to check what a price renewal will do 6 months later.
Other then each registrant sent an formal letter to there registries asking if there domains have an upcoming price hike within the next 6 months. And repeating that each 4 months to give you self at least 2 months the time to renew at current prices.

For meself: I hope Godaddy as my largest registrar can give me that security with a clear written declaration or link to a text where that is written, that they will inform me 6 months in advance of any price hike related to my specific domains.

 

[SiteMachine]

If anyone is interested in the app I built that will keep track of your new gtld domains and notify you if any of them get designated as premium as soon as the registrar knows feel free to PM me, I have it working in beta.

I am considering having the ability to add domains for free just without any guaranteed personal notifications, that way if a lot of names start to go premium I can notify the community. Weekly or daily notifications will be a paid service.

 

[SiteMachine]

Thanks @Joe Styler for clarifying. It is good to hear that goDaddy makes an effort to refund its mistakes (although it would be better for everyone and the collective reputations of the new gtlds if these overcharges never happened in the first place).

I have to be honest though I will still go out of my way to avoid goDaddy solely because they supported SOPA. Because of this I will never trust them, it might be worth bringing this up as well at the meetings so the PR team is aware of exactly how much damage this decision did to your brand (I know dozens of other developers who are also boycotting goDaddy permanently).

When goDaddy took the side of SOPA namecheap decided stand up for privacy rights online and come out against SOPA, because of this they have gotten all my domain registrations since and every time someone has asked me where to get a domain name (at least a weekly occurrence) I suggest namecheap, often citing SOPA as the main reason (although price certainly plays a role).