Moniker Basic Renewal Delays?

[Charac]

Most recently I noticed Whois data failing to update after paying for a Moniker domain renewal.

Specifically this follows making payment a week ago. Upon contacting them, they tell me "they've always" done it this way.

When I have presented multiple Whois examples with my Moniker names recently that without question have updated the exact date I have made payment - their response has been , they will renew the domain in question 5 weeks post expiration at the last possible date. Saying they will make "immediate renewals" an option in the future?

What gives?

 

[DrJacoby]

Out of curiosity, why do you use Moniker for buying and renewing domain names?

 

[Charac]

Decent service over the years....reaches back to before Moniker.com was sold.

Around the time when Moniker did auctions in Florida as I recall. Got a Monte Cahn appraisal.

I just found them reliable.

 

[bmugford]

Most recently I noticed Whois data failing to update after paying for a Moniker domain renewal.

Specifically this follows making payment a week ago. Upon contacting them, they tell me "they've always" done it this way.

When I have presented multiple Whois examples with my Moniker names recently that without question have updated the exact date I have made payment - their response has been , they will renew the domain in question 5 weeks post expiration at the last possible date. Saying they will make "immediate renewals" an option in the future?

What gives?

What extension(s)? In general the domain should be renewed at the registry immediately after you pay.

Brad

 

[Charac]

What extension(s)? In general the domain should be renewed at the registry immediately after you pay.

Brad

All dot coms. - They've since told me this was a recent adjustment, to be fair. Right now I'm just looking for immediate renewals to return as an option. Letting things go beyond a normal expiration simply doesn't sit well.

 

[bmugford]

All dot coms. - They've since told me this was a recent adjustment, to be fair. Right now I'm just looking for immediate renewals to return as an option.

Sounds like the crap Epik was pulling, where they would collect money for renewals then process them at a later date (if at all).

I would not trust a registrar that doesn't apply the renewals right away.

Brad

 

[Future Sensors]

@Moniker.com
@MonikerMarc

 

[DrJacoby]

Sounds like the crap Epik was pulling, where they would collect money for renewals then process them at a later date (if at all).

I would not trust a registrar that doesn't apply the renewals right away.

Brad

Yep, sounds like they are having liquidity problems.

 

[MonikerMarc]

Hi Everyone,

The reason that this is happening is because in the past we had received requests from customers to delay applying renewals in order to allow reverting the renewal and refunding the order. If we have already sent a command to the registry to renew a domain, in most cases we aren't able to revert this. This means we needed to delay the renewals at the Registry. So as of right now if you renew and the registry allows it, we update our database with the expiry and apply the renewal at the Registry as late as possible without risking the renewal of the domain.

This development cycle (every 2 weeks) we are releasing the functionality for customers to choose to delay the renewal as part of the settings in their account. As we make this possible we will change our system to renew everything within 24 hours (where the Registry allows), except for those customers who want a delayed renewal and choose this option. After this is released all renewals will by default be processed either at 4:30UTC when we send the commands, or according to the Registry's autorenewal timing.

If anyone is concerned about our liquidity or trustworthiness, please know that Moniker is part of a publicly traded company in Team Internet Group, which is traded on the AIM market and has a current market cap of around $620m USD. As a result of being publicly traded we have a number of compliance and risk reduction processes that we need to follow to ensure business continuity, so you can be assured that we are not facing any cash flow issues. Our accounts are all audited and published quarterly.

Thanks,

Marc

 

[Charac]

(posted this prior MonikerMarc post - via long open window)


A registrar surprise of registering 5 weeks after payment & and then later claiming there is no risk at all after the customer has to discover everything on their own, after more than15 years of timely registrations and running, is a bit much.

 

[Charac]

Hi Everyone,

The reason that this is happening is because in the past we had received requests from customers to delay applying renewals in order to allow reverting the renewal and refunding the order. If we have already sent a command to the registry to renew a domain, in most cases we aren't able to revert this. This means we needed to delay the renewals at the Registry. So as of right now if you renew and the registry allows it, we update our database with the expiry and apply the renewal at the Registry as late as possible without risking the renewal of the domain.

This development cycle (every 2 weeks) we are releasing the functionality for customers to choose to delay the renewal as part of the settings in their account. As we make this possible we will change our system to renew everything within 24 hours (where the Registry allows), except for those customers who want a delayed renewal and choose this option. After this is released all renewals will by default be processed either at 4:30UTC when we send the commands, or according to the Registry's autorenewal timing.

If anyone is concerned about our liquidity or trustworthiness, please know that Moniker is part of a publicly traded company in Team Internet Group, which is traded on the AIM market and has a current market cap of around $620m USD. As a result of being publicly traded we have a number of compliance and risk reduction processes that we need to follow to ensure business continuity, so you can be assured that we are not facing any cash flow issues. Our accounts are all audited and published quarterly.

Thanks,

Marc

I was surpised when Moniker sprung this on customers, cutting off 24 hour renewals without any mention or indication of it. In a manner that was not transparent and violates good faith measures to say the least. Obviously raises cause for concern...

To be clear are you saying: Moniker will be reinstating 24 hr renewals as default and making a delayed renewal optional -- within 2 weeks time period from now?

Will you be communicating this to customers when doing so?

 

[MonikerMarc]

@Charac yes, you have it exactly. Of course, unexpected engineering delays could push it beyond two weeks but this is where it currently sits in our development roadmap and we aren't expecting any delays. Note, this is on the upgraded platform for which we will have completed migrating customers within the next two months.

We will be communicating it to customers once live. We have started a regular email where we update customers with all feature developments.

 

[DrJacoby]

Why would a customer want you to delay applying renewals when they have already paid for the renewals? It makes no sense.

 

[MonikerMarc]

Some customers might change their mind and not want to renew the domain later on. If it has already been processed at the Registry then we can't issue a refund, if it hasn't then we can.

 

[Charac]

@Charac yes, you have it exactly. Of course, unexpected engineering delays could push it beyond two weeks but this is where it currently sits in our development roadmap and we aren't expecting any delays. Note, this is on the upgraded platform for which we will have completed migrating customers within the next two months.

We will be communicating it to customers once live. We have started a regular email where we update customers with all feature developments.

Am asking since as of 1st week of July more of my renewals begin to creep around.

If I manually choose "Renew Now" option -- instead of "Auto New" feature-- then when does the domain actually renew at registrar as of right now?

Is this not on the same upgraded platform that is live currently? Or do you mean upgrading more features per same?

Hats off to NamePros: By which this is beginning to hash out and may have been stuck without!

 

[biggie]

Some customers might change their mind

Hi

yeah, and some "potential" customers might change their mind too.

get it together if you wanna be back on the map.

imo...

 

[MonikerMarc]

@Charac I mean the same upgraded platform that is live currently. Some customers are still to be upgraded so I wanted to be clear where the development work was taking place.

The Renew now button is for explicitly paying for a renewal right now. It will still go through the same process though and the renewal will be the last safe day possible with the registry. Using the autorenew option will mean that we take payment for the renewal just before expiry (you can actually choose how many days before expiry you want the autorenew to be processed, it is a setting in your account). Again, this then goes through the same process and renews at the latest safe opportunity.

Once we have developed the option to renew straight away at the registry by default, then both the renew now and autorenew will renew at the registry within 24 hours of payment being successful taken. If you renew now we take payment then, autorenew we take payment just prior to the expiry, according to your settings.

I'll drop the link to our Support FAQs here as well in case it helps. https://support.moniker.com/hc/en-gb

 

[MonikerMarc]

Hi

yeah, and some "potential" customers might change their mind too.

get it together if you wanna be back on the map.

imo...

With respect, I don't think this is a sign of us not having it together. This is a sign of us trying to take care of our customers by giving them additional options to hold onto their money. We had enough customers that we had to apologise to for not being able to refund them when they had changed their mind about the renewal that we decided to fix that by delaying our commands at the registry. We have since had customers tell us they preferred the renewal to be processed at the registry straight away, so we are developing a solution where customers can choose their preferred way.

 

[Sutruk]

Some customers might change their mind and not want to renew the domain later on. If it has already been processed at the Registry then we can't issue a refund, if it hasn't then we can.

So, a customer pays for a renewal, and you won't renew it because he might change his mind in future. So you will finally renew it "at the Registry as late as possible" and meanwhile you have collected your customer funds without applying them for what he paid, that is for a domain renewal.

 

[MonikerMarc]

I am sure that many of us would have had a domain autorenew that we didn't actually want to keep and didn't notice until a day or two later. At most Registrars you would expect the response to be "tough luck", with us we can still process a refund and allow the domain to expire. Our customers are still getting what they paid for and the expiry day/month is not affected by this so we see it as a bonus for customers.

As I have said, we are changing this in the very near future so that those customers who like this feature can turn it on, and it will be off as default.

 

[Daniel Owens]

I am sure that many of us would have had a domain autorenew that we didn't actually want to keep and didn't notice until a day or two later. At most Registrars you would expect the response to be "tough luck", with us we can still process a refund and allow the domain to expire. Our customers are still getting what they paid for and the expiry day/month is not affected by this so we see it as a bonus for customers.

As I have said, we are changing this in the very near future so that those customers who like this feature can turn it on, and it will be off as default.

What if you are selling a domain to buyer with terms that 1 free year of renewal is included, yet the domain expires soon and you can't renew for push, what tell buyer to wait for a couple weeks then you'll renewal will be processed?

 

[Charac]

@Charac ....

Once we have developed the option to renew straight away at the registry by default, then both the renew now and autorenew will renew at the registry within 24 hours of payment being successful taken. If you renew now we take payment then, autorenew we take payment just prior to the expiry, according to your settings.

Here is where you loose me.

Moniker has had this process to "renew straight away" in place for years. That has continued uninterrupted on the new platform until only most recent. You dropped it what, a couple weeks ago?

Now you say you have to develop the option?

 

[Charac]

What if you are selling a domain to buyer with terms that 1 free year of renewal is included, yet the domain expires soon and you can't renew for push, what tell buyer to wait for a couple weeks then you'll renewal will be processed?

Agreed.

And this does bring in a host of questions for domains being sold.

What if, for instance you need to transfer the name on approach of its normal expiration -- who wants to wait beyond the expiration when things don't go smooth?

What if does not execute at the last possible day, is always the big question (systems glitch, whatever). This is no minor point. Initiating this "new" auto renew process has attempted to commit domain owners to a 5 week open window period where domains don't get registered post payment.

Sounds like asking for trouble. I see the potential of a last ditch critical situation when there should be no reason to have to deal with this in the first place.

 

[Sutruk]

Our customers are still getting what they paid for and the expiry day/month is not affected by this so we see it as a bonus for customers.

No, your customers are not getting what they paid for, that's the problem.
They paid for a domain renewal, and you are not renewing their domains after the renewal payment. As plain as that.
A domain is renewed at a Registry level, not at an "in-house" database level.

When I renew a domain, I wanna see it renewed till 2028 if I want, in the public WHOIS database, not in your in-house database.

 

[Charac]

No, your customers are not getting what they paid for, that's the problem.
They paid for a domain renewal, and you are not renewing their domains. As plain as that.
A domain is renewed at a Registry level, not at an "in-house" database level.

When I renew a domain, I wanna see it renewed till 2028 if I want, in the public WHOIS database, not in your in-house database.

Ditto. Waiting till the last possible day should have been the added option. Not the other way around at the expense what is plain and customary for a reason.