Please help - One.com is holding me hostage!

[Allysin]

I have transferred a few dozen domains to One.com over the course of last year (biggest mistake of my life). I will leave some with them and renew those (pay them). I may let some go (cancel) and I need to transfer 6 out. I've contacted them and asked for the auth codes for those 6 domains but what appears to be happening is - when I transferred all of my domains to One.com - they transferred them under the anonymized PRIVACY WHOIS = they have that name, address and Email of the Whois Privacy user as the owner of my domains. Now, when I ask One.com to unlock the 6 domains and send me the auth codes, they claim they are unable to do this as it goes to something like [email protected] (different Email addresses based on which registrar the domains were transferred from).

I've opened a ticket with them but they simply answered the following:

Greetings!

We need proof of your domain from your former provider so we can update whois as per our hostmasters. This will fix your email address in whois.

Please don’t hesitate to reach us again by replying to this email or by opening a chat message here at https://help.one.com/hc/en-us
Best regards

Has anyone have to deal with this? I mean that's total nonsense to tell me to 'give them proof of my domain from my former provider'!

I plan to file a complaint with ICANN but these domains expire on Monday (February 27th) and there is no telling what One.com is going to do if I don't pay them the predatory renewal prices they are asking for. I mean - they can't possibly think that the loosing registrars will provide me with any kind of 'proof'. What kind of crazy is this?

 

[bhartzer]

Are they domain names all in your One.com account? OR logged into your account at Joker.com (which is one.com or owned by one.com)?

If you own the domain names, and they're in your account at the registrar, then you should be able to change the contact details--which would then require that the domains be locked for 60 days.

Since you're trying to transfer them over to Porkbun.com, then honestly I would just call Porkbun and get them on the phone, tell them that you want to transfer the domains to them. They should help you through this, especially if the email on the domain is privacy@porkbun email address.
Talking to someone on the phone is the best option.

 

[Allysin]

same here -

One.com - Super terrific experiments to manage the domains​

I have the same (very) bad experience as you:

They asked me for $20 to correct my domain Owner information if I remember correctly. I asked them to waive the fee and this is their answer:

Sadly, I would like to inform you that as per our admin, they cannot waive the owner change fee, since the payment for the owner change of the domain will go to the Domain Registry.

Does anyone know WHAT they are talking about? Surely, the registry does NOT charge the registrar $20 for correcting the Domain Registrant/Owner information! Especially if it's One.com's fault for not transferring the real Registrant information instead of the Whois Privacy information? The loosing registrar told me they sent my real info along to One.com during the transfer!

This does appear to be a well-thought out scam I believe!

 

[forge]

Can you not change the contact(s) information yourself for those domains?

Generally that is readily done (at most registrars) provided the domain isn't expired.

 

[HotKey]

According to a support person on the ePik chat - I was meant to remove the Whois Privacy prior to my transfers to One.com. Is this true? And if so, why aren't customers advised of this in the transfer process? Not everybody lives and breathes domains...

Yes, never transfer to domains to another registrar without removing privacy first. Your contact details for the domains are what ties your ownership to them.

If you transferred domains under privacy (which, I'm even surprised the registrar allowed to begin with), how do you expect the winning registrar to know the true contact info for them?

Three golden rules for domain transfers to avoid complications:

1) unlock
2) public whois
3) more than 60 days registered

It's too late now so this won't help but use it for the future.

 

[Seventy]

I feel sorry for you, from what I understand is that you are not talking with the correct people that are going to solve this issue.

It's such a basic thing, they took over your information with whois privacy from pork bun and or other registers, and that's actually their fault as Bob said, I also transferred hundreds of domains with privacy on as well and the new register would use the information you added when creating your account.

The people you are talking with most likely follow the rules given and are unable to think outside of the given script, and or plain as simply have no understanding. Imagine signing up for this job having little to no knowledge and just some basic training that has the rule to never send the AUTH codes or anything that can compromise the domains to another email than listed under the domain.

I'm pretty sure if you get someone with a bit more knowledge this is just a huge misunderstanding, but with your renewals coming up, extra costs, etc it's just super stressful.

I came across this topic on Linkedin and would recommend you to TAG@ # the company and employees etc and try and bring this to light with at min "management".

One.com sounds like it should be avoided.

 

[PhongSGC]

same here -

One.com - Super terrific experiments to manage the domains​

 

[bhartzer]

OK thanks for explaining it all. You need to get a real person on the phone, and stop dealing with chat. Obviously the people on their chat are lower level employees (or it is outsourced) and they don't know what they're doing.

If the email address on the domain name does NOT go to you then that is a direct ICANN violation, as the email MUST go to the website owner. Period. Otherwise, it is a violation of ICANN rules for invalid whois data and the domain could be deleted. So, that's something that you could bring up with them.

One.com is actually owned by Joker.com, so if you cannot get a resolution quickly I actually recommend going directly to Joker and see if THEY will fix your issues (again, phone only and don't use chat). I would also open a support ticket with them, list all the domain names, and how you would like all of your whois privacy information turned off on all domains. You would also like the auth codes for the domains immediately. You should also email [email protected], who is the customer support manager there as well.

Regarding the $12, are you certain that that's not to transfer the domain and just to update your contact details on your domain name?

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I may not understand, and I have never used this registrar, but with some registrars I use that have domain privacy enabled the auth codes go to the privacy service, but they relay them on to me, and there is no issue.

The new registrar uses my contact information for the new data, and then move it to their own privacy service. I have transferred many hundreds of names from one registrar with privacy to another registrar with privacy, without issue.

Are you saying they have a privacy as contact (which is normal), but that email to that privacy address does not get sent to you as the 'real' owner?

Anyway, I hope that it gets resolved. It must be stressful.

-Bob

 

[HotKey]

@Bob Hawkes - Yes - that's exactly what is happening = they keep sending the auth codes to whatever the Email address of the Privacy Service is... for example [email protected] and they will NOT send it to my contact details I have on my account with them!

Your contact details on your account are for your account, not necessarily for your domains.

When it comes to domain transfers, the winning/losing registrars use the email that you have put into your domain contacts for approvals. So when the domains are set to privacy during transfers, any emails sent are in danger of being in limbo because they're basically showing "hey, the true ownership is private" and sent to that generic privacy contact.

A good registrar should be able to forward them to you but it's the one-offs that will cause headaches like what you're experiencing.

 

[Simbabve]

Absolutely the same happened to me; I could not believe the stupidity.
I transferred only 2 domains which I only moved because the price was reasonable, otherwise I would have let them expire. So I insulted them and got a refund and let the domains go. But under no circumstances would I do any business with them again. And I so should be anyone else.

I hope you were able to finally salvage some of your domains.

 

[DomainNature]

I will tell you why this is happened with many people.
This is intentional done, because they offer low transfer fees, you had probably to renew your domains at least once with them, but they see that you try to transfer out and they begin to complicate things, cause most domainers use registrars for cheap transfers, and such registrar as (one.com) decided to protect itself from such transfers.
But I think it's illegal and against ICANN rules to create such intentional blocks, they have to say directly what I mentioned.
As i have read in other topic you even can't manage for free simple things as NS change or redirect, this again is done so that you buy their services, and that is what you get for cheap transfers with them.
That is why stay away from such Registrars, other registrars to stay away are Doteasy and Zcom GMO, although Zcom might improved already a bit.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Greetings!

We need proof of your domain from your former provider so we can update whois as per our hostmasters. This will fix your email address in whois.

Please don’t hesitate to reach us again by replying to this email or by opening a chat message here at https://help.one.com/hc/en-u
Best regards

Has anyone have to deal with this? I mean that's total nonsense to tell me to 'give them proof of my domain from my former provider'!

Never heard of anything like this.
If you are in a pinch, and they are about to expire, would you consider transfer back to Porkbun? At least perhaps they could provide One.com with previous evidence of the transfer and previous ownership?

What you may not want to get into is the need to do renewals with One.com prior to the transfer, if that kicks in on Monday?

Sorry to hear that you are having such difficulty with what should be a simple process.

 

[forge]

Yeah, the info should have changed to whatever your default is at one.com.

 

[Allysin]

OK - things have taken a turn for the worse! (I didn't think that was even possible!). So finally, I resigned to paying them for the renewals. I have 4 domains that expire today, 2 more on March 1st and 2 on March 9th. Altogether, I have almost 40 domains with them and they all come up with:

• Redacted for privacy:
  some of the data in this object has been removed.

This appears for all Contacts on all of my domains with them:

- Technical
- Administrative
- Registrant

And they will NOT even let me renew the domains!

The interesting part about all of this is - they made me sign and send back to them a 'Domain Transfer form' for all of those domains before they would even initiate the transfer:

DOMAIN TRANSFER
The undersigned hereby requests one.com to transfer on my/our behalf the following
domain name under the .agency domain

Domain.extension

Registrant:
Full name: Allysin XYZ
Country: United States
Address:
Zip & City:
Phone:
Mobile phone:
Email:

In connection with the transfer of the above mentioned domain, I request the following
services to be set up through one.com: 0 GB web space.
I the undersigned hereby agrees to the above mentioned and that the usage of
the above mentioned domain name does not violate the rights of a third party. All prices are
exclusive VAT.

I have filled out and signed these forms for each of the domains I transferred to One.com.

Surely, this must now be stupidity on their end as they don't even want to take my money! They removed the domains from my Control Panel days before expiration (probably because I asked them to turn off auto-renewal) and now they said the only way for me to renew them will be to start a brand new One.com account with them for each and every one of those domains BUT I will need the authorization code which they are still sending to Email addresses such as:

[email protected]

Surely, this is not normal behaviour? I filed 2 complaints today with ICANN:

1. For the fact they don't let me update/correct the Owner information on the domain

and

2. Because they don't let me transfer a domain out.

I wonder if I should file a 3rd complaint about the fact they don't EVEN let me renew the domains?

I spent most of my day on chat with them today to no avail. They insist the previous registrar MUST certify that I am the domain owner! Finally, the person on chat says an invoice from the previous registrar might be enough to do this. I have screenshoted all the invoices I found in the Porkbun Control Panel but there are domains that came from other registrars as well and these people have no clue (he tried to tell me a specific domain came to them from Name.com which wasn't true at all! That specific one came from Porkbun).

He then made me fill out this form for each domain:

https://one-docs.com/forms/change-email-address-domain.pdf

And upload a copy of my passport.

I feel like this might require a lawyer really but I just can't afford one. I mean never in my wildest dreams would I think I would ever find myself in such a horrible horrible situation!

And the person I chatted with only submitted 4 of the domains to their Domain department (to change the Owner from Privacy to me) and would not submit anymore until they do it because he says they could ask for more documents! Like what? My mother's blood type and my future firstborn child???

This is beyond bad and I am so so frustrated with all of this! (I can't even sleep at night because of this).

What other steps can I take? Would submitting a 1-star Trustpilot review help or would that piss them off even more? Are there any other agencies I can complain to? Any other steps I can take? I'm just completely at their mercy and it feels awful.

Franky, ICANN should take their domaining license away! There is so much wrong with this company!

Would someone please help me find contact information for the CEO, COO, and other executives at One.com? I feel writing a letter to them might get things corrected for me. Please understand everything I am doing is 100% legit - this is in no way my fault whatsoever! They are the ones who screwed this up.

 

[forge]

This is not possible as One.com sends out an authorization Email (for the change of Contact info) which goes

...into the big blue yonder

Really sorry, all I can say is get away ASAP (by whatever means necessary) as well as from 1&1 -- the horror stories are almost legendary. I have some experience with the latter entity but I tread very lightly and cannot be more specific. I stay clear of their domain "services", however.

I hope that somehow you can resolve your numerous registrar issues.

 

[Allysin]

Hey you guys - get this:

I have gone through filling out the change of ownership form and on the 'Confirm change of ownership' page it says:

I accept to pay the change of ownership fee amount of 12.00 USD.

These people are going to make me pay $12 per domain (if it goes through at all) to change the details of MY domains from the totally screwed up where everything says:

Redacted for privacy
and it doesn't even have my Email on any of my domains (it has the Email of the Privacy service) to my own details! So that is 40 x $12 = $480 out the window for THEIR screw-up!

I used to think it was just a mistake, an oversight on their end... but now I think it is 100% clear that it is INTENT! I mean think about it:

- there are 40 domains that came from at least 3 different registrars

HOW is it possible that they are all screwed up with the same 'Redacted for privacy' EVERYWHERE on each and every domain???

I honestly think this is the definition of a SCAM and I wish someone would shut these people down as I'm sure they will burn many many other innocent people!

Is there nothing in the domaining world that can be done? I mean ICANN will probably just say - it's up to them what fee they charge for what and I don't know how I will ever be able to proof that they screwed this up!

I don't think leaving negative references on Trustpilot will make a difference honestly.

It's just so sad that companies like this are allowed to operate and scam people in this way!

 

[DomainNature]

And I was thinking to move my secret domains to this guys, no way, stay away from one.com crooks.

 

[GoodKindName]

One.com is pain

 

[redacted]

What a horror story to read.

Almost transfer my domain to them, since currently they have $1.99 reg and transfer promo for .com .net .org and maybe few others. Lucky tldes linked to this thread regarding whois privacy before transferring.

When other registrar automated these kind of stuff, changing owners is few button click away and for free, one.com with its manual signed pdf form, valid id and shits. Should've request blood of our firstborn too. And the audacity to charge for it? I'm avoiding one.com and putting them on my blacklist to never use.

 

[Allysin]

Can you not change the contact(s) information yourself for those domains?

Generally that is readily done (at most registrars) provided the domain isn't expired.

No - in order for me to change the contact information, they wills end some kind of a confirmation Email to the Email address they have on record which may be something like [email protected]

 

[Allysin]

Never heard of anything like this.
If you are in a pinch, and they are about to expire, would you consider transfer back to Porkbun? At least perhaps they could provide One.com with previous evidence of the transfer and previous ownership?

What you may not want to get into is the need to do renewals with One.com prior to the transfer, if that kicks in on Monday?

Sorry to hear that you are having such difficulty with what should be a simple process.

I would happily transfer back to Porkbun but I don't think there is a way, is there? (since they will NOT send me the authorization codes)

 

[forge]

https://help.one.com/hc/en-us/articles/6707215203473

 

[Allysin]

What is the normal process when you transfer a domain that is under Privacy Whois from one registrar to another? I would think that the Real Owner's information gets passed along in the transfer process? And if that is the case, how come these fools put the Privacy Whois on the domain record as the Owner Information?

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

I would happily transfer back to Porkbun but I don't think there is a way, is there? (since they will NOT send me the authorization codes)

You're absolutely right, that they can't send you the authorization codes. Only your current registrar can do that. But if they were the ones you transferred from, perhaps they would help sort this mess out? The Porkbun customer service has received much praise here on Namepros forum.

Your situation is very puzzling, and hopefully some of our old timers here have some suggestions. Regardless of whether privacy is on or not, the registrant of record should be able to obtain the authorization codes and use them.