Dynadot Changes Domain Expiration Policy Today

[Silentptnr]

Just got this in my email...

This notice is to inform you of an update to our renewal grace period policy. As you know, with many top-level domains (TLDs), we give you up to a 40 day grace renewal period that allows you to renew your domain at the same price after it has expired. Starting April 15 00:00 UTC, we will be reducing this period by 10 days for each TLD. During the final 10 days of the TLD's renewal grace period, you will still be able to renew your domain, but with an additional late renewal fee of $10.

For example, if you own a .COM domain that expires on January 1, 2018, you would be able to renew your domain at the regular renewal price until January 30, 2018. After this date and until the domain is deleted on February 9, 2018, you would be charged a $10 late renewal fee, so your total renewal cost would be $20.99 ($10 fee + $10.99 regular renewal price).

Please note that we do start sending renewal notices out 60 days in advance of your expiration date. We recommend you keep your account email up-to-date to ensure you receive these messages. We also offer the option to set a different renewal email address and set your domains to auto-renew.

If you have any questions, please email us at [email protected].

Best,
Team Dynadot
dynadot.com

 

[Dynadot]

Hi all. Thank you for your feedback. We realize this is a big change. We're hoping this new fee will help reduce the number of expired auction orders we see cancelled due to renewal. When we set up our auction system, the cancellation rate was at 6%. That has grown greatly in recent years. It seems some Registrants would use the auctions as a way to appraise their domains before renewing.

 

[championshipforum]

Jason Newby dislikes this.

 

[Name Trader]

That extra 10 days used to be very useful when you were in a cash crunch. Now it's going to cost an extra $10 to renew from 31 to 40 days. This is still a fair price for not renewing your domains on time. Better than most companies. IMHO. I'll just have to adjust my strategies. I'd have preferred the status quo. But it's a fair policy.

 

[Silentptnr]

I really loved the 40 days grace period. That's too bad.

 

[Kate]

But this is not a reason for trampling on the rights of registrants... just because vulture domainers are waiting to snag their assets.

 

[italsat]

uhm , i need change my usual renew , i renew all at -38 -39 day , need go to -28 -29

 

[dr manos]

Dynadot guarantees the full expiring period (40 days) in favor of owner, but not the 30 days redemption.
If name has bids at auction, owner will not have the redemption period, if not, owner can renew it for 30 days more with the redemption fee.

So the auction timetable is like this:
Auction starts at end of 30th day of expiration (at this time +$10 fee for owner applies).
Auction is for 6 days.
At the end of 6th day auction ends and winner has 2 days to pay (if no payment then 2nd bidder has 2 days to take it).
Owner has a time window from 37th day to end of 40th to renew it (as dynadot guarantees the whole 40 day expiration period) so at this case auction is cancelled and auction winner is refunded.

 

[usernamex]

Honestly, this is fair warning, and still a better policy than some others, by doing it this way my guess would be it will save @Dynadot issues overall.

If a customer renews on day 31, for example, they could make the choice to waive the $10 fee, yet if under the current policy a customer waits until day 41 they are beyond the limit of where Dynadot can help.

 

[Arca]

Hi all. Thank you for your feedback. We realize this is a big change. We're hoping this new fee will help reduce the number of expired auction orders we see cancelled due to renewal. When we set up our auction system, the cancellation rate was at 6%. That has grown greatly in recent years. It seems some Registrants would use the auctions as a way to appraise their domains before renewing. For those that simply forgot, or maybe did not have the available funds, we can manually waive the fee.

Almost all domains I've bought at DynaDot expired auctions got renewed afterwards.

So an auction win for an expired domain will go to the winner no matter what from now on? Or can the owner still reclaim it post-auction by paying the $10 fee?

 

[dr manos]

40 days expiring period is the time space ICANN made as rule and at this time space owner can renew at normal fee. At most registrars can renew or transfer out till 40th day, also at some like hexonet dns are alive till 40th day, opposing to dynadot that 1 second after expiration put their dns for parking with their ads, fact that can cause problems to owners .
Of course we understand that dynadot as all companies do their best to have profit and for sure dynadot at least send early emails with new rules, on the other hand i think that many customers will leave.
Just my point

 

[UmerK]

Honestly speaking, I think it is a fair change and it should help people a lot who are often found snapping at expired domains, 30 days mind you is still reasonable time to renew the domain.

 

[italsat]

yes , the domain go to auction at he end of the 40 days that the owner have for renew it a expired domain.
After the dynadot auction end , the owner have other 3 days for renew the domain.
Dynadot a year ago have introduce a fee of +$10 that add at renew price when the domain go to auction.
The owner for renew the domain need pay renew fee + $10 if want renew the domain.
Godaddy work similiar but charge a $80 fee that add to renew fee.

 

[Silentptnr]

That extra 10 days used to be very useful when you were in a cash crunch. Now it's going to cost and extra $10 to renew from 31 to 40 days. This is still a fair price for not renewing your domains on time. Better than most companies. IMHO. I'll just have to adjust my strategies. I'd have preferred the status quo. But it's a fair policy.

Exactly.

 

[Name Trader]

40 days expiring period is the time space ICANN made as rule and at this time space owner can renew at normal fee. At most registrars can renew or transfer out till 40th day, also at some like hexonet dns are alive till 40th day, opposing to dynadot that 1 second after expiration put their dns for parking with their ads, fact that can cause problems to owners .
Of course we understand that dynadot as all companies do their best to have profit and for sure dynadot at least send early emails with new rules, on the other hand i think that many customers will leave.
Just my point

I don't think it's enough for any serious domainer to transfer their domains out of Dynadot. They are a domainer friendly registrar generally. I just will focus my attention on 30 days after expiry rather than 40 days. Of course there will be the occassional slip up. Just like there was at 40 days. But at least those slipups can now be rectified for $10. I wouldn't do this for all my expiring domains of course. I'm talking about the ones which fall through the cracks. In many ways 30 days makes it easier to count the days, than 40. If you want to see something good in this change

 

[Aboutdomains]

Hi all. Thank you for your feedback. We realize this is a big change. We're hoping this new fee will help reduce the number of expired auction orders we see cancelled due to renewal. When we set up our auction system, the cancellation rate was at 6%. That has grown greatly in recent years. It seems some Registrants would use the auctions as a way to appraise their domains before renewing.

I think that you can increase the cost for "the 10 days" to be $80 as Godady to limit the domain owners to play with the auction.

 

[Kate]

But this is not a reason for trampling on the rights of registrants... just because vulture domainers are waiting to snag their assets.

 

[Aboutdomains]

According to ICANN, original registrant has 40 days expiring period to renew the name with normal fee and 30 days redemption period when can renew with bigger fee, this is the established life cycle of domains.
Asking for bigger fee during expiring periods or auction the name does not seem so legal to me.

Godaddy charges $80 for "the day 19"!
https://www.godaddy.com/help/what-happens-after-domain-names-expire-6700

 

[dr manos]

Godaddy charges $80 for "the day 19"!
https://www.godaddy.com/help/what-happens-after-domain-names-expire-6700

Nop, i have transferred many times away from godaddy at 40th day

 

[usernamex]

The actual ICANN policy is Auto-Renew Grace Period UP TO 45 days. Technically, no registrar has to give you any Grace time at all, they can have zero days Auto-Renew Grace Period and throw you right into Redemption Grace Period (which is 30 days mandatory), where the registrar does actually have to pay a recovery fee to ICANN which they pass on to you.
https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/expired-2013-05-03-en

Seriously, how many other businesses let you pay late with little to no penalty? Utility companies, credit cards, rent? Try going 30 days late with any of them and see how far you get.

This change is a resonable compromise by Dynadot - current owner still gets 40 days, just extra motivation to get it done in 30, and likely reduce auction tasting as well.

 

[offthehandle]

Hi all. Thank you for your feedback. We realize this is a big change. We're hoping this new fee will help reduce the number of expired auction orders we see cancelled due to renewal. When we set up our auction system, the cancellation rate was at 6%. That has grown greatly in recent years. It seems some Registrants would use the auctions as a way to appraise their domains before renewing.

There was a domain that expired and went to auction a year ago, the auction was cancelled and the person renewed it and I wasted my energy. I was frustrated. Completely forgot about Dynadot auctions.

So this year, the same domain comes up, I would never have cared to know actually but this time I receive an email from Dynadot notifying me of the 3 day "Auction".

So I place a bid and watch it, it's supposed to be a 3 day auction. There were several bidders (Who knows if they were real even, no ID's shown) and the amount was bid up, and at the last moment before the 3 days it was cancelled and renewed by registrant.

I thought from this thread they might have fixed the system and that it was past the due date for renewal before auction start. Am I missing a new policy change from this thread? Or am I incorrect?

Now, I reviewed the whois and know who it is- and it's the same domainer from last year gaming the system, and they are on this forum.

What is this?

I would rather not have received any notice at all, unless it was a true auction. Why are you sending me notices for your fake auctions? I simply assumed it was available, free and clear this year. I was wrong.

 

[Name Trader]

@offthehandle It is my clear understanding that the $10 extra renewal fee which is payable between 31 and 40 days after expiry, EXCEPT whilst the domain is in auction from days 31-37 (I think). Then if nobody bids on the auction, you can renew with this extra $10 again from days 38-40.

Earlier I have tried to place a bid on a domain in auction, I was dropping, and was told I needed to renew the domain. Which I did. But I haven't seen that option recently. I think since they blocked you being able to renew whilst the domain is in auction. Which I think is a fairly recent addition to their ToS (maybe 2 months tops?)

This has been my experience, and interpretation. Not that I am one to usually renew after the 30 day regular renewal period. But it happens. It would be much better if @Dynadot could confirm this. But he does seem to have been AWOL recently.

What I haven't checked is whether they changed their ToS so you could bid in the auction for your own domain. Which would make some sense to me.

 

[CrazyTech]

I'm confused on this as well.

I watched several names in auction only to see them disappear with a few hours to go. I've had several domains that were renewed after I won the auction as well. Not quite sure how it works.

 

[offthehandle]

offthehandle, is the domain in question also on your watchlist?

I got mixed up with your company last year bidding and my credit card was charged $XXX.XX not offered a refund, I didn't read the TOS refund terms before bidding, my fault. I posted this last year and nobody from your company responded.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/dynadot-auction-terms-question.1015659/

I understand there is some balance, but this change you made didn't fix the problem from the bidder perspective. I don’t count days until expiration or game the system, as others choose to do, and now I know who the person is that did this 2 years in a row. I feel like posting their ID actually.

After this last minute renewal happened last year and I complained above, I decided to ignore all non-absolute platforms auctions. I learned fast. But then I read this thread and incorrectly assumed these were real auctions, and that was the only reason I bid when I received an email. Reducing the dates, might appease some but does not solve the problem of a last minute renewal game. Hence my frustration with most all “auction” platforms, and it is not just yours. Sorry, but my definition of an "Expired Domain Auction", is that it expired, and that it is absolute auction, and it cannot be cancelled. You might change this to the truth that it was a "pre-sale review", that way I would never have paid any attention, until it went to auction.

This domain industry like eBay suffers from not applying standard auction industry practice rules and the TOS state things like "We are not auctioneers", "We are simply a sales platform" and other such nonsense excuses.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_auction

Yes, I recall noticing “watch” something on the deleted emails, but I believe only by default in your interface since I bid on this other persons domain last year, and you kept my money.

But I never “watched” my own domain (See screenshot below) to see if there are any bidders after it expired. I forgot about it but your company sent me like 3-4 emails encouraging me to take action- which said to bid on my own name.

I never clicked it to discover what that action was if I clicked on "Place your bid now". I imagine the other guy received those same emails and watch the price climb and decided to renew.

Here was your "ONE HOUR LEFT" "Bid on your own name" email I received. I ignored the 60 day renewal and all the other emails before and during the auction.

 

[Name Trader]

What happened when you clicked the “Place your bid now” link?

It says you "need to renew the domain".