Registrar went under

[davidpearce]

Strange thing happened -- I have a domain registered at Alice's Registry and their login page has been down for months so I am unable to transfer it out. I phoned the contact details on the whois, wrote to all known email contacts, etc. I can't get in touch with anyone. ICANN still has them listed as a valid registrar! Has anyone had this happen and what is the appropriate process to follow? I need the auth code to xfer the domain out.

 

[usernamex]

Hi @davidpearce - welcome to NP : smile :

Sorry you are going through this, here's the ICANN complaint form
https://forms.icann.org/en/resources/compliance/complaints/transfer/form

They don't have an option that is an exact match, I would go with the first choice
Please select the applicable option: *
My registrar does not allow me to transfer my domain name
My domain name was transferred without my authorization
The Registrar must have denied the transfer, but it was allowed to proceed
My registrar does not allow me to change the registrant’s information
My registrar allowed a change to the registrant’s information without authorization

 

[davidpearce]

Thanks, I will give it a go! I thought we tried contacting ICANN but never through this form so that looks promising. It is sort of an interesting experience actually as we have 1000s of domains for decades but never experienced this issue before.

 

[usernamex]

OK in the meantime, just for fun I signed up for an account at Alices Registry, and yes the login page cannot load. We'll see if I get any email confirmation either.

Here is the CEO at LinkedIn - Hilariously, he was part of ICANN committees for many years. Maybe we can lean on him there as well, if the ICANN form goes too slow
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-wesson-a99291

Here's another company he runs
http://www.support-intelligence.com/about/

My hope is you have most of your domains elsewhere, correct? And when does this domain expire?

 

[davidpearce]

Yea, this is the only domain there I believe. We are in the process of consolidating all of them. It expires 2017-08-01, analgesia.net, but I don't remember renewing it for a long time! Very strange. Nice find with the LinkedIn profile. I saw the support-intelligence page and it looks unmaintained.

Interestingly enough I was able to reset my password on their lost password page. The email headers are interesting but wasn't really able to determine much from them.

 

[davidpearce]

PS I previously wrote ICANN on 9 December 2016 but I must have used the wrong form. At that time IIRC the entire Alice's Registry website was down. This really is an oversight on ICANN's part. I wonder how many domains are there.

Also checked all my old emails and I can't figure out how the domain is even being paid for. I think we won it at auction on a site like Pool and they kept it at that registrar for us.

Their NS is NS1.AR.COM and AR.COM is owned by "Esqwire.com P.C. Domain Escrow" which I wrote but no reply.

 

[Kate]

Actually it's the whole site that doesn't work in SSL. The login page cannot be forced to http.
They sold AR.com a long time ago right.
Looks like the site is on autopilot and you'll have to get Icann involved.

 

[usernamex]

@davidpearce - I was guessing you ended up there because of a won auction. It was last updated Aug 2, 2016 so the only thing I can think of is check all your credit cards/paypal? Yet what would still be valid after all these years? Wow, $29 renewal LOL At least you have time on your side. FTR I never received any welcome email for signing up

They only hold a total of 1550 domains - breakdown below. Hardly a profit even at $29, they make ~$20 per name, ~30K minus yearly registrar ICANN fees ~$4000-12000, no wonder support is AWOL.

Spoiler: Big Image

 

[davidpearce]

Nice analysis. Yes, I think you are right. No word back from anyone yet. Sort of crazy!

 

[usernamex]

@davidpearce - any progress yet? It's ICANN so proly shoulda waited a full week to ask ya, didn't want to forget.

Does ICANN have to abide by their own 5 calendar days to reply policy? : grin :

 

[davidpearce]

hah! Thanks for checking in. No word yet from anyone.

 

[davidpearce]

ICANN wrote back with the below which I replied to. I wonder how long for the issue to be resolved.

Dear David Pearce,

Thank you for submitting a Transfer complaint concerning the domain name analgesia.net.

ICANN reviewed your complaint and requires additional information. Please provide ICANN the following before 7 March 2017:

- Please provide evidence (such as emails, customer service tickets, or date and time of telephone calls) that you have contacted the registrar of record to request a transfer (including requesting the AuthInfo code and/or unlocking the domain name) and did not receive assistance within 5 days from the date of your request.

- Please provide copies of any and all communications you have had with the registrar(s) regarding this matter, so that ICANN can determine whether your concerns can be addressed under the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) and ICANN's Consensus Policies.

- Please confirm your permission for ICANN to forward your complaint below and any attachment you may provide in your response(s) to the registrar of record and any other party with whom ICANN may consult in order to address your complaint.

Please send the information and records requested above via reply email (no more than 4 MB total) and do not change the email subject heading. Please provide records as attachments in .TXT, .PDF, or .DOC(X) format.

If you do not provide this information before 7 March 2017, ICANN will close your complaint.

Sincerely,

ICANN Contractual Compliance

 

[davidpearce]

For completeness, my reply, without attachments:

Please find attached emails going back several months in are.txt. I have never heard back from them. Their automated system did send me login details to the site but the URL to the login does not work! Otherwise I have heard nothing from them. Take a look yourself on alices-registry.com. This is a clear case of zero customer support. I also wrote the CEO on LinkedIn and I called the phone number, +1.4158618500, listed as their contact on Feb 13th 2017 and October 30 2016 but have never heard back despite leaving messages. I have also attached a screenshot of those call logs as gvcl.png.

The domain was always unlocked but I am unable to get the transfer auth code. I have also attached gdc.txt which is a record from GoDaddy showing I was refunded for the transfer as it was unable to complete.

I confirm my permission for ICANN to forward my complaint below and any attachments to the registrar of record and any other party with whom ICANN may consult in order to address my complaint.

Thanks!

 

[usernamex]

Thanks for the update, I am certain this will come in handy for more members in the future too. Will be interesting what kind of time frame it will take, and if they really are contacting the registrar and they get zero response if they have some kind of override capacity to generate the code for you.

Always been curious about how the Auth Code system works : smile :

 

[davidpearce]

Yea, I have been curious about that as well! I think I see some TLDs use different formats or at least complexity characteristics for the auth codes.

Here is my orig. complaint:

Applicable option: Registrar does not allow to transfer domain name

The reason why the transfer of domain name was not successful: Other.

Action performed regarding the authorization code (auth-code): I asked the registrar to provide me the auth-code, but it was not sent within the 5 days following my request.

Action performed regarding the lock status: I already tried to unlock the domain name myself.

Comments: The registrar seems defunct. I tried calling them on all their contact details and left messages but I have not heard a reply. I do not get a reply to emails. If I go to their website and click Login it redirects to an https site which does not exist. There is no way to retrieve the auth code. This is alices-registry.[removed]. I want to transfer this domain away to GoDaddy.

The whois at the time of processing is:


REGISTRAR WHOIS:

 

[davidpearce]

Finally heard from the CEO of AR last night and this morning he emailed the authinfo code. I put it into GD and they seemed to accept it so the transfer seems to be pending although the epp status is still ok. Today I also go an email from ICANN with a link to the public notice of breach they have filed against AR. I can't post a link because of an account restriction -- do you know how I can get it removed?

 

[domaindroid]

Finally heard from the CEO of AR last night and this morning he emailed the authinfo code. I put it into GD and they seemed to accept it so the transfer seems to be pending although the epp status is still ok. Today I also go an email from ICANN with a link to the public notice of breach they have filed against AR. I can't post a link because of an account restriction -- do you know how I can get it removed?

You may replace the . with DOT.
Or you may put some space in between

 

[davidpearce]

https://www.icannDOTorg/uploads/compliance_notice/attachment/913/serad-to-wesson-30mar17.pdf

 

[usernamex]

Hooray, more than likely you will just have to wait out the full transfer time, I can't imagine AR has any expedited options

Wow, it seemed like ICANN took forever yet the PDF shows the exact multiple warnings

This is great info, I put it as an attachment here for posterity, in case ICANN removes it later

PS The EPP status = OK is what you want for transfer to proceed, means the domain is not locked or prevented from transfer by losing registrar.

 

[davidpearce]

Thanks usernamex! Sometimes it says pendingTransfer, but I guess that is an expedited option?

 

[usernamex]

Thanks for sharing your steps @davidpearce - this will come in handy as a reference thread. And very happy your issue was resolved : smile :

All complete now - they really dilly dallied the full seven days there
Registrar: GODADDY.COM, LLC Updated: Thursday, April 6, 2017

Next time I have to transfer out of a slowpoke registrar that does not offer expedited options I will pay attention to exactly when the status updates from OK to pendingTransfer
Uncertain if it is when the gaining registrar makes the request or when the losing registrar finally releases the domain for transfer. my guess is the latter.

 

[davidpearce]

Thanks! Interestingly enough I have two domains transferring today, greenrd.org and nickbostrom.com. The latter is still #ok but the former is #pendingTransfer. Although I'm not sure exactly what has been completed on the gaining side as there are other parties taking care of those steps. But perhaps different registries have different ways of going about it. I notice .org auth codes are rather different than .com auth codes for instance....