Hosts.com - How Name.com defrauded me out of a great backorder

[GoWebnames.com]

Ok, here is a recap of what happened in short in last 10 days:

1) I was checking expiring names at Name.com and saw Hosts.com available for backorder since the original owner didn't renew it for some reason best known to him. Couldn't believe someone would let it expire, it's registered since 1998

2) Since Name.com accepts only 1 backorder per available name, I placed a backorder immediately and double checked to make sure if backorder was not available to anyone else. Soon as I placed a backorder, Hosts.com said it was not available for any other backorders.

3) The backorder was SUCCESSFUL and CONFIRMED to me by Name.com on my email (see screenshot)

4) 4 days later, I saw my backorder change to not available in my name.com account and when I checked Hosts.com again, it showed to be available as a PREMIUM NAME with Name.com

5) When I enquired with Name.com, they gave a vague answer saying backorder is only possible when Name is available.

6) I enquired through their interface, they gave me a BIN price of $175,000 for Hosts.com

Can you believe it? Name.com just defrauded me out of a great backorder and kept the name for themselves.

I am trying to talk to them , let's see what comes up.

Is there any possibility of a law suit here in case they don't transfer the name?

Here are the screenshots:

 

[AEProgram]

Have you even bothered checking your account? Maybe they put the name in there for ya

 

[pranker]

Name.com had until today to respond to ICANN's inquiry on this. Did they ignore it? should be interesting.

 

[Keith]

ICANN responded to my complaint. I am not the previous owner, therefore, my complaint is tossed.

 

[GoWebnames.com]

ICANN responded to my complaint. I am not the previous owner, therefore, my complaint is tossed.

Guess, they aren't interested even in genuine complaints except those that suit their own interest.
What a bummer. Seems like ICANN is hand in glove with the big registrars.

 

[Jasonn]

ICANN responded to my complaint. I am not the previous owner, therefore, my complaint is tossed.

track down the previous owner and get them involved. better they have the domain than name.com..

 

[chickenfillet]

ICANN replied to me too, and this is what they had to say:

"On 30-Sep-2014 08:05:06 PM, ICANN notified you that further information was required in order to process your Domain Renewal complaint concerning hosts.com.

As this information was not provided by the requested due date, this ticket has been closed.

Sincerely,

ICANN Contractual Compliance"

Is ICANN saying that I needed to provide further information, or Name.com? So because Name.com didn't respond, they just closed the ticket? Huh?

Am I understanding this correctly?

track down the previous owner and get them involved. better they have the domain than name.com..

I have the previous owners domain name contact details, including address, phone number and fax number. If anyone wants them, I can either post them publicly here as an image, or can PM them.

 

[Michael R.]

I'm carefully reading every post since the beginning, with a lot of interest. What is happening is absolutely inequitable regarding the family of the previous owner.

IMHO, if the previous owner passed away, like some of you are supposing, his family must recover the domain name, since it's part of the inheritance. Considering the price of such a name, the family can clearly intend a legal action.

 

[chickenfillet]

I'm carefully reading every post since the beginning, with a lot of interest. What is happening is absolutely inequitable regarding the family of the previous owner.

IMHO, if the previous owner passed away, like some of you are supposing, his family must recover the domain name, since it's part of the inheritance. Considering the price of such a name, the family can clearly intend a legal action.

Like I said, I have the previous owners phone number, fax, address, etc. I can't call him myself because I have a stuttering problem, and can hardly fork out the words I would like to say.

I hope it's not against the rules, but below is attached the contact details for the previous owner Dan Sheley.

Could someone try calling him at least, and see if anyone picks up?

 

[Name Trader]

@chickenfillet - You could always send them a fax.