Hi,
I was tracking a domain name from 5days now... we have been 3 bidders against that domain name.
I was told to wait until the last minute to make a bid, and keep checking for the countdown each minute.... but unfortunatly when it left exactly 1h20min, the page disappeared !
I contacted support service to know more, they said that the domain owner renewed it!
He had all the time to renew it... why the last hour?
Veru upset and disgusted about this matter.
Why the last hour ? Strictly speaking THE NORMAL PROCEDURE is that the grace period (for renewal at normal pricing and still be able to transfer out) is 40-42 days and afterwards the current owner gets a Registrar Redemption phase of 30 days where he can renew paying Registrar Redemption Fee. Then 5 days pending delete, and then free to the public.
But what do registrars do : they make it 30 days (Namesilo) and not being able to transfer out, and then they add a so-called auction, and depending from registrar to registrar the auctionwinner gets the domain, OR the auctionwinner doesn't in case the owner still renews the domain (at Dynadot : by paying renewal and add late renewal fee the domain).
At Namesilo it's 33 days to renew. But before already the auction starts, and at day 30 or 31 if somebody has placed a bid, the domain goes to the auctionwinnner. Unless the owner has renewed at the 30th day or sooner.
BOTH registrars DIDN'T HAVE AUCTIONS YEARS AGO. But viewing the profit, they disadvantaged the current owners, and began organising auctions.
All these auctions have been started by the registrars for the money the can earn with it. And Dynadot also wins money, on domains you renew later then the 29th day if you want to renew. If they are in auction, or not, doesn't matter, the late renewal fee has to be payed. The current owner who has to renew, gets 29 days, and not 39 like in the past, and has to pay a late renewal fee in the last 10 days.
This is disadvantaging for the owners, in comparison with the past when there was no extra renewal fee last 10 days, and ENORMOUS DISADVANTAGING in comparison with some more years back in the past, when there were NO auctions.
And for Namesilo : There are people who have to renew a lot of domains, don't have money to renew them all, in a particular month and of course some of them, wait till the last day for economical reasons.
Rich domainers will be able to renew even before expiration, but not everybody is rich.
And the big question is is if all such aftermarket auctions are complying with the ICANN-rules !!!
I do understand that it is sad that the auction-win has to be payed sometimes, before it is known if the current owner still can renew (what's not the case at Namesilo), and then have to get his money back.
