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domains Waiving redemption fees on .COM and .NET for 60 days. Can we #DoMore?

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Rob Monster

Founder of EpikTop Member
Epik Founder
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Verisign and other registries are starting to step up to the plate and empower the industry with new incentives designed to help domain investors avoid losing their nest eggs.

There is news this week that Verisign will waive restore fees on .COM and .NET until June 1. This is a great step in the right direction. This becomes active on April 2 at 0400 UTC.

Although we don't know what policies other registrars will set, Epik will pass through 100% of those savings. Redemption fees will be set to ZERO for .COM and .NET during the program.

What more can the industry to to empower domain investors and digital entrepreneurs who are navigating a time of exceptional economic pressure where many are trying to #DoMore and #PayItForward?

More commentary here along with a video statement:


Kudos to all who are staying positive and hanging in there!
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
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That is helpful but it is very limiting and only applicable at certain scenarios...

I was having this doubt..I saw many online businesses and blogs started giving for free are waiving subscription for couple of months...

I thought there will be no such thing Domain industry...
But I saw Namecheap announced they will help and they can do that in their hosting and other products which are not tied up with registries.

I think some other registrar/marketplace offered something like this..

Thanks @Rob Monster for sharing the information and opening the discussion...

I am in very bad position...and this present crisis making me drop more and more names.

I can't suggest anything which can be helpful.. because Epik is already offering at lower costs...

This discussion definitely bring some good points here.

Best regards,
Ravi
 
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That is helpful but it is very limiting and only applicable at certain scenarios...

I was having this doubt..I saw many online businesses and blogs started giving for free are waiving subscription for couple of months...

I thought there will be no such thing Domain industry...
But I saw Namecheap announced they will help and they can do that in their hosting and other products which are not tied up with registries.

I think some other registrar/marketplace offered something like this..

Thanks @Rob Monster for sharing the information and opening the discussion...

I am in very bad position...and this present crisis making me drop more and more names.

I can't suggest anything which can be helpful.. because Epik is already offering at lower costs...

This discussion definitely bring some good points here.

Best regards,
Ravi

Ravi -- there are a lot of hardship stories. ICANN, registries and registrars are hopefully stepping up to provide as much relief as possible. We'll pass along as much as possible. If you are having some unique situation, I invite you to check in with @Sufyan Alani , VP Operations, and we'll see what we can do!
 
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Thanks Rob.

I think these situations will get even worse before getting any better.

Staying positive is always needed...but being scared also makes us to be prepared.

I am just saying that there should be more discussion on domain industry...so that can benefit all.

I know you will try your best to help whatever you can...
And you also need some support from registries.
 
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I hope registrars won't take negative advantage. Lots of them have at end of expiration auctions, and ask for renewalsat en of grace period or 10 days before grace period lots of money or a redemption fee.
@Dynadot @Joe Styler @namesilo
I sincerely hope these registrars will overlook what they'll do
I also hope that other registries will follow : .co-registry, tv-registry, and of course .org .info, .top, .vip, ..energy and others a.o.
etc......

WOULDN'T IT BE BETTER THAT EVERY DOMAIN THAT IS REGISTERRED GETS FREE EXTENSION OF 3 month of expiration date ???
Kind regards.
 
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Thanks Rob.

I think these situations will get even worse before getting any better.

Staying positive is always needed...but being scared also makes us to be prepared.

I am just saying that there should be more discussion on domain industry...so that can benefit all.

I know you will try your best to help whatever you can...
And you also need some support from registries.


Agreed here.

We also need support from ICANN -- they are in a position to step up and waive ICANN fees on registries and registrars. The supply chain can and should pass those savings through.

ICANN has a large warchest from gTLD auctions and now that there are no longer any face to face meetings, they will have huge cost savings. They can pay that forward for a quarter or two at least.
 
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I hope registrars won't take negative advantage. Lots of them have at end of expiration auctions, and ask for renewalsat en of grace period or 10 days before grace period lots of money or a redemption fee.
@Dynadot @Joe Styler @namesilo
I sincerely hope these registrars will overlook what they'll do
I also hope that other registries will follow : .co-registry, tv-registry, and of course .org .info, .top, .vip, ..energy and others a.o.
etc......

WOULDN'T IT BE BETTER THAT EVERY DOMAIN THAT IS REGISTERRED GETS FREE EXTENSION OF 3 month of expiration date ???
Kind regards.

Below is the response from @Dynadot. Did VeriSign waive or reduce fees? Can anyone clarify?

“Hello,

We are not waiving late fees or restore fees. Verisign the backend for .com has lowered their restore fees. So, their TLD have discounted restore fee currently.

If you have any further questions please feel free to contact us.

Best Regards,
Harper Johnson
Dynadot Support Team”
 
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ICANN has their rainy day fund, since no more 5 star exotic confrences, why not start using those 18 cents per registration, and renewals to help registrants WHO NEED IT.

Not someone like Huge Names who has 7 million names, and are still spending crazy money buying everyday, as they would get a large bulk of it, but actually people who have hardships.
 
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Below is the response from @Dynadot. Did VeriSign waive or reduce fees? Can anyone clarify?

“Hello,

We are not waiving late fees or restore fees. Verisign the backend for .com has lowered their restore fees. So, their TLD have discounted restore fee currently.

If you have any further questions please feel free to contact us.

Best Regards,
Harper Johnson
Dynadot Support Team”

Hi Neal, just wanted to follow-up and let you know there was some confusion with our team. Verisign did not lower their restore fees, they waived them for .com and .net so we have also waived the restore fees on our end. We are only charging the renewal price for the domain and the $10 late fee during this time.
 
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Hi Neal, just wanted to follow-up and let you know there was some confusion with our team. Verisign did not lower their restore fees, they waived them for .com and .net so we have also waived the restore fees on our end. We are only charging the renewal price for the domain and the $10 late fee during this time.
Why would you charge a $10 late fee if verisign has waived the redemption fee, insult to injury? So your still charging essentially a redemption fee, but keeping it internally.
 
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Why would you charge a $10 late fee if verisign has waived the redemption fee, insult to injury? So your still charging essentially a redemption fee, but keeping it internally.
We set the pricing to match the pricing at the end of the renewal period, but we do appreciate your feedback and have forwarded it over to the team.
 
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I like @Page Howe idea to just stop expired auctions actually.
 
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Registries should cut the price of registration/renewals to half ASAP.
 
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Registries should cut the price of registration/renewals to half ASAP.
I think verisign wholesale rate is like $7.60 to $7.80 on .com, so they really can’t unless they give first.
 
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I think verisign wholesale rate is like $7.60 to $7.80 on .com, so they really can’t unless they give first.
Said Registries so Registrars can pass it on to domainers.
 
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We set the pricing to match the pricing at the end of the renewal period, but we do appreciate your feedback and have forwarded it over to the team.

there was once upon time a time where you did not have this $10 fee... then I guess you just got greedy? I mean how else can you explain the fact you charge people $10 if they decide to renew a name between days 30 and 40 aftr expiry...? i mean does it cost you extra when they renew it then??? is there some extra work for you then or some more administrative tasks to complete? why do you insist on wishing to be known among your clients as the only greedy company to do this around? and how many emails and "forwarded suggestions" will it take for you to realize this?

plz, just do like everyone else and wave this fee. why so much greed.
why aren't other registrars trying in such evident obvious ways as this one to just increase their profits? they all could do it. but none of them do. what does this say... about them.. and you.

you have a great registrar... and this fee just puts dark nasty stain on it.
 
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I like @Page Howe idea to just stop expired auctions actually.

Restore fees is applicable to redemption period. But in fact most of the domain owners lose their domain during expired domain auction before their domains fall into redemption period.
In reality, the 'actual ownership' transfer to new buyer was happened far before the redemption period.

If the registrar really want to help, I think the best way is to postpone their .com .net expired domain auction date accordingly or stop them temporary. So companies will not lose their domains just because someone have to renew their companies domain but failed to renew it in time.
 
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So companies will not lose their domains just because someone have to renew their companies domain but failed to renew it in time.
How this is a contingency measure not a negligence on the owners part?
 
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How this is a contingency measure not a negligence on the owners part?


In normal situation, I think it's OKAY to use the excuse of original registrant negligence to renew in time to further justify we grab their domains legitimately. Even in registrar level they took away registrants opportunities to have a redemption period and cut their renewal grace period substantially if you compare it with 10 years ago.

Think about the business owner get infected during COVID-19 pandemic. After he recovered, his online business's domain gone. I am sure domainers / seo expert will place their bids on every traffic domains listed on expiring auction and therefore developed domains will never go into redemption period.

In worst case, it's foreseeable that a group of business owners lost their domains during COVID-19 pandemic and bring up class lawsuit against registrar. They may also sue the new owners to get their domain back. If it's bad enough to make government step-in, expiring auction will become history.

Expiring domain auction is a big business and many registrar survived by it. IMO Verisign can handling it a lot better by giving free extension on expiration date, but they don't want to take the loss so they decided only to waive the restore fees for registrant only. They acted they knew nothing regarding the expiring auction and they pass the responsibility to registrar level.

Registrars and domainers now have to make their own choice and decided if they are going to take an advantage or take a loss over COVID-19 pandemic within a hunger game society. Good luck
 
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Why would you charge a $10 late fee if verisign has waived the redemption fee, insult to injury? So your still charging essentially a redemption fee, but keeping it internally.
Agreed, well said.
We set the pricing to match the pricing at the end of the renewal period, but we do appreciate your feedback and have forwarded it over to the team.
Keep us updated.

Sound like tricks, beneath you, grab last dollar.
You guys 2nd favorite, do everything right :xf.frown:
“forward to the team” sounds like bureaucracy

to what pleasure does @wwwweb owe talk to?
 
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there was once upon time a time where you did not have this $10 fee... then I guess you just got greedy? I mean how else can you explain the fact you charge people $10 if they decide to renew a name between days 30 and 40 aftr expiry...? i mean does it cost you extra when they renew it then??? is there some extra work for you then or some more administrative tasks to complete? why do you insist on wishing to be known among your clients as the only greedy company to do this around? and how many emails and "forwarded suggestions" will it take for you to realize this?

plz, just do like everyone else and wave this fee. why so much greed.
why aren't other registrars trying in such evident obvious ways as this one to just increase their profits? they all could do it. but none of them do. what does this say... about them.. and you.

you have a great registrar... and this fee just puts dark nasty stain on it.

We do understand your concerns, the late renewal fee was introduced in 2017 to help balance the outcomes of our expired domain auctions. We try to be fair to both the original registrant of the domains and our auction users by giving the registrant their full grace renewal period even if the domain is purchased at auction. Unfortunately this did result in a large number of cancelled auctions and unhappy auction users, and as a result of feedback we received at the time we introduced the late renewal fee to encourage the renewal of domain names before they are listed for auction.

We have passed the feedback on to the team regarding the current cost of the restores, at this time the decision has been made to retain the fee to keep the cost of domain restore orders in line with the cost of renewing a domain during the expired auction period.
 
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