Nameholder Ethics

[skiman10]

Good Afternoon-

I am a newbie and probably won't spend much time here as this is not my field, but wanted to share with you an experience I had in the last couple of days with Huge Domains and see if you feel that what was done was ethical.

I set up a payment program for a $2000 domain back in early 2016. At one point during the payment program one of my payments did not go through because the card I had on file expired. I went into my settings and changed the card at that point.

So, at the end of my payment program I was sent an e-mail acknowledging my last payment and showing that I had "0" payments left. This was February of 2017.

Flash-forward to three days ago when, at 5:59 PM CT I received an e-mail from Huge Domains stating that my domain had been "reclaimed". I went to check my site and, sure enough, my site was parked and for sale. I had paid over $1900 at that point for the site.

I tried Huge Domains customer service line for hours without help and then e-mailed them regarding the issue. I received a response reporting that they had done an "internal audit" and had found that I had missed a payment in 2016. A heated argument ensued over e-mail- they still will not pick up their customer service line.

I DID NOT RECEIVE AN INVOICE FOR THE OUTSTANDING BALANCE AT ANYTIME BEFORE THEY "RECLAIMED" MY DOMAIN. IT HAD BEEN 15 MONTHS SINCE MY LAST PAYMENT, WHICH SHOWED THAT I HAD "0" PAYMENTS LEFT, AND RATHER THAN CONTACTING ME TO CLEAR UP THE BALANCE THEY CHOSE TO "RECLAIM" THE NAME WHICH HAS DISRUPTED MY BUSINESS FOR THE LAST 48 HOURS.

Eventually I paid the outstanding balance but to date they don't even have the decency to reset my MX records to point back to my $20,000+ commerce site.

Does this seem like good business practice? Ethical? Moral? I'd like to hear any of your thoughts as you all seem to work in this industry.

Thank you for your time.

 

[creataweb]

I don't think that's ethical to do. If you paid the domain off you should have owned it.

 

[skiman10]

And yet, evidently I hadn't. But I didn't realize it after the payment period was finished and they had said I had "0" payments left.

My problem is with the idea that they wouldn't have sent me an e-mail invoice, giving me a few days or so to pay the balance rather than hijacking my domain (which I have paid to renew with Namebright more than once). I would have and could have looked back at the payments that I had made and come to the conclusion that they were right.

Isn't that what a normal business does, that would like to continue keeping you as a customer?

 

[Gray Wolf]

dude no question ask go contact your lawyer, this type of business practise should not be allowed. If you have invoice and documents that you paid, you need to sue them. good luck don't waste any more time.

 

[Galaxy Traveller]

We don't support it. If any help needed we are ready to help you.

 

[korganian]

I have given some of my customers payment plans of up to one year for their domain purchases. If the situation you describe had happened, I would have never dreamed of taking their domain back because of a minor mix-up like that. That is a shameful way to treat your customers.

Did you not wonder about why you did not have possession of the domain in this past 15 months after the payment plan was supposedly completed?

 

[Name Trader]

I would have immediately transferred the domain after the 60 day lock had expired. Not only for this, but including sellers taking their domain back WITHOUT any AUTHORITY from me TO DO SO. Most people are trusting enough not to do that. But not me. If something can go wrong. It will. I don't see what gives them any right to take the domain away from you, when they have admitted it was fully paid. I'm sure you can prove you have paid 12 payments, and this is an administrative snafu. But are they going to refund your lost income? This is why you need a lawyer. And your lawyers fees of course? You might eventually get this resolved by showing them the 12 payments. But they are NOT going to repay your losses without a good lawyer. They think we are all dumbass idiots.

It makes owning your own Registrar more attractive for other Domainers (which I understand you are not).

 

[MR Harrist]

I think not only you that hate HugeD biz practice and also they are very agressive on marketplace buy almost any domain! hopefully they will realize greed sometime are not good! because it disturbing other ppl biz!

and personally I think what HugeD do are bad biz practice! because giving notification before due date are very basic, in every biz! but if they don't notify you about payment, there's something wrong with their intention! I.e unethical

the only question left for you is, is it worth to call lawyer ? if not, just remember, if they can do once, probably they will do again in near future!

hopefully market will give good lesson, to them I.e Pig Get slaughter!

 

[skiman10]

"Did you not wonder about why you did not have possession of the domain in this past 15 months after the payment plan was supposedly completed?"

I thought it had been transferred to NameBright. In fact, I had renewed the site and SSL certificate through them in the last 12 months.

The site up and the owner did reach out to me today via phone and we talked it out. He recognized and acknowledged their error. I am not one to hold a grudge. He also bought some product

http://brainskinz.com

Thank you for all of your responses.

 

[bluemeteor]

They're greedy enough to seize every opportunity to take away customers money. Greed is in the nature of some big corps. People trust them for their marketing words until being scammed.

 

[Kenny]

"Did you not wonder about why you did not have possession of the domain in this past 15 months after the payment plan was supposedly completed?"

I thought it had been transferred to NameBright. In fact, I had renewed the site and SSL certificate through them in the last 12 months.

The site up and the owner did reach out to me today via phone and we talked it out. He recognized and acknowledged their error. I am not one to hold a grudge. He also bought some product

If you are in need of cool children's bike helmets try our site:

brainskinz.com

Thank you for all of your responses.

Above bolded by me

Welcome to NamePros.

Sorry, we had to remove your sales pitch.
Feel free to open a thread in:
https://www.namepros.com/forums/for-sale-advertising-board.15/

Now, concerning your problem with HD, are you saying you have worked it out with the new owner?
Please share the details because if that is the case, outstanding outcome and would be a positive story I'm sure the members would be interested in hearing.

Great idea for a product.
Good luck in the future.

Also there is information on our forum that covers SEO, Design, best hosting, etc., so please have a look around.

Peace,
Kenny

 

[Name Trader]

"Did you not wonder about why you did not have possession of the domain in this past 15 months after the payment plan was supposedly completed?"

I thought it had been transferred to NameBright. In fact, I had renewed the site and SSL certificate through them in the last 12 months.

The site up and the owner did reach out to me today via phone and we talked it out. He recognized and acknowledged their error. I am not one to hold a grudge. He also bought some product

http://brainskinz.com

Thank you for all of your responses.

That's great. Did the purchases compensate you for the lost revenue? Now would be a good time to transfer your domain to another registrar. Maybe it's not going to happen again to the same domain. But I'd make sure it doesn't by transferring my domain to a registrar who doesn't shoot first and ask questions later. You do realize it is an incestuous relationship between HugeDomains and NameBright?