Heads Up! Things to watch out for

[Bob Hawkes]

I thought I would start a thread that I hope will become a common place for sharing "heads up" about products. This could be anything from an easily overlooked, but important, item in terms of service, to procedures at certain companies, etc. While many people create a new thread every time they are upset about something, I wondered if it might be more effective to have one thread that has them all in one place (if this already exists, and I just did not find it my apologies).

So please share "heads up" advice to other domainers here.

If your post involves a company represented on NPs, ideally tag them so that they can have an opportunity to respond. This is only fair.

Bob

 

[Bob Hawkes]

As you probably guessed, I started this thread because I have one to share. Most of the time when you transfer a domain name to a new registrar the transfer fee you pay also adds a year to the registration. It is important to realize that this is not always, true however. I was in a position that I had a .pw domain name fairly near (but before) expiration, so I looked at TLD-List at where I could transfer it to save some dollars on renewal. The rate looked good at Gandi, and I transferred it (smoothly) there. But then I discovered no year was added! This was not in any way indicated as part of the transfer process.

If you transfer a .pw domain name to Gandi they do NOT add a year to the registration.

I asked their customer support why no year added, and they referred me to two links. One of them was .pw rules that as far as I can tell does not actually clearly answer if a year is added or not. Their wording "Create or transfer your domain name in .pw for $xx per year all included." That implied to me that the year was included, as it is at a number of other registrars. Customer service also referred me to a site called oldwiki.gandi.nete that had the rules re domain name transfers to Gandi. Now it would seem confusing for me to even seek out something called oldwiki, but the really surprising thing? While the table does clearly indicate which extensions have the year added, it does not have .pw in the table! Really, Gandi customer support as justification for why no year was added sent me to a site called oldwiki that does not even list .pw!

I would tag Gandi, but they don't seem to have a rep on the NPs reps list. If anyone knows please do add a tag in this thread. I have been debating this with them on Twitter, so they do know of my concern. Their argument on Twitter is the registry does not add a year, so to give their customers more choices, they offer transfer without adding a year. Maybe that makes sense, but only if they are clear about it (which they admit they are not currently, and say they will improve).

Now the $3.51 I spent for the transfer won't break me but I do feel that their policies were at the very least unclear. It would not be so bad if their .pw renewal rate was competitive but it is not. They charge $26.88 for renewal vs $9.00 at Google Domains and $9.88 at Namecheap, for example. So they now have my domain locked for 60 day transfer, took a transfer fee, and my only option is to let it expire or pay their high renewal fee.

So, if looking to transfer a .pw make sure the registrar that you are going to use does add a year! (a number do).

Bob

Added Note: The oldwiki they referred me to does list some other extensions where a year is not added at Gandi, including .at, co.uk, cz, .im, .la, .li, .pl, .pt.,.se and .vg.

 

[HotKey]

Heads Up!

If you ever need to change your account email address at Uniregistry, you can't! The only way is to create a NEW account, and then push all your domains from your old account to your new account.

**

Heads Up!

You may be declared a winner on GoDaddy Auctions. Except, you might not be the winner..

It is a known bug. HotKey's Recommended Solution: DO NOT USE THE SERVICE UNTIL FIXED!

**

 

[HotKey]

Heads Up!

Registrar: Enom

Department: Name servers. There are two places one may enter their domains name servers, either in the custom section, or the default section

Task: You want to change the name servers for your domain name from custom name servers to Enom's default ones

Problem: Enom's name servers are already inputted, however, they are in the custom name servers section, rather than the Enom default name server section. So now, your domain is stuck in resolving nowhere, in perpetuity, for days, months weeks and even years. No matter how many times the domain is saved into using Enom's default, it simply won't.

Solution: Update your custom name servers with ANY bogus name server other than Enom, save it. Then, go and update the domain to use Enom's default name servers. Voila!

Make sense? I know, right. And, if I hear the word "name server" again anytime soon...