WARNING: AVOID INTERNET.BS

[misdemeanormsytery]

As there is a lot of talk online about Internet.bs being a registrar that looks after their clients, offers bulletproof domains, etc I would just like to share my recent experience with them:

My competitor sent them a fake complaint about my website claiming infringement (this has happened with other registrars before and it was communicated to me or resolved or I was able to transfer my domain name)

They disconnected my domain about 18 days ago, on the 5th of May without any communication or notice or anything. The first I found out about it was when I visited the site and saw it was dead.

I emailed them and ask them to resume my service of give me my EPP code so I could transfer to a new registrar. They requested a copy of my drivers license, passport & utility bill. I provided that to them 10 days ago - and guess what happens next?

They RE-ENABLE my domain name but point the name servers to their parked page so they can earn ad revenue from my traffic and customers, and that was the last I've heard of the situation.

So please avoid my mistake and go elsewhere - even GoDaddy, NameCheap etc are more reliable as "bulletproof" registrars because at least they give you the EPP code to go elsewhere.

 

[golan]

As there is a lot of talk online about Internet.bs being a registrar that looks after their clients, offers bulletproof domains, etc I would just like to share my recent experience with them:

My competitor sent them a fake complaint about my website claiming infringement (this has happened with other registrars before and it was communicated to me or resolved or I was able to transfer my domain name)

They disconnected my domain about 18 days ago, on the 5th of May without any communication or notice or anything. The first I found out about it was when I visited the site and saw it was dead.

I emailed them and ask them to resume my service of give me my EPP code so I could transfer to a new registrar. They requested a copy of my drivers license, passport & utility bill. I provided that to them 10 days ago - and guess what happens next?

They RE-ENABLE my domain name but point the name servers to their parked page so they can earn ad revenue from my traffic and customers, and that was the last I've heard of the situation.

So please avoid my mistake and go elsewhere - even GoDaddy, NameCheap etc are more reliable as "bulletproof" registrars because at least they give you the EPP code to go elsewhere.

Seems legit. The first (and the last) post of an user.

I've been using IBS for many years with not a single problem. One of my favorite registrars.

 

[trlg]

I'd like to add my case to this thread. Yes I'd like to get some help - but it seems like I should perhaps more be blasting my case onto the internet than working through the normal channels. Everybody at @Internet.bs that I've corresponded with seems to be thick. They either don't care... or keep spouting the same regular rubbish and nobody seems to actually have the mental capacity to try to understand (it's so simple!!! I've explained it so many freakin' times!!) my actual problem.

This is what happened (there are a lot more details, btw, but frankly even putting in this extra effort to get this down is pissing me off when I've already spent so much time on this already):

I transfer a .be domain over on Dec 14. I discover after transferring that to my horror, my whois and contact details are now wide open on the internet for some reason. I redact them.

Dec 18 I get an email from DNSBelgium that I have supplied incorrect whois details, and then Dec 20 I get an email from Lexie Kluss from Internet.bs support about the same issue asking me to "fix" the whois details - within 48 hours.

After some investigation on my part, I realize that what's happening on Internet.bs's end is that they have hard-coded my own personal name as the "company name" in their "update contacts (whois)" page, and then that is getting reported to DNSBelgium AS IF I were a company (and because of that publishing my whois details openly), and then sending my actual name to DNSBelgium as the company name. I reply back in a nicely-worde, detailed email explaining point by point the situation. I also send a screenshot clearly showing this problem.

I get several more back and forths with DNSBelgium over the next few days explaining the situation: that it is NOT my fault, I WILL supply the correct details but I need to be sure that Internet.bs does not totally "4-letter word" it up for me as they have done by keeping my registrant type as a company and therefore making my whois details public. DNSBelgium explains that all I have to do is "remove" the company name, and I will be recognized as an individual and then my details will not be public. All well and good, except that Internet.bs will NOT allow me to edit or remove the company name in their interface (as mentioned, it is hard-coded). God knows - I've tried various ways to see if I can fix this through their interface, and failed.

Internet.bs, through all of this, NEVER replies at all until the last minute on Dec 30. All this could have been resolved very easily (I've explained the situation already, with screenshots and all), but I had to take YET more time out of my days to try and grab somebody through the online chat, and again explain the situation to them.

Dec 30 I finally get a reply from Lexie saying that the company name has been removed, and then a separate email from Lexie again spouting the same regular cookie cutter message ("Please note that providing invalid/incomplete WHOIS information is a breach of our ToS and the Registry rules. So please update the WHOIS information as soon as possible to avoid domain revoke by the registry.").

I head on over to my "update contacts (whois)" page, and what do you know, I am STILL a company and my name is still there as the "company name", and should I update my details, I bet that "company name" field will get filled in again... and I'll be back all over again to square one.

Through all of this, I have patiently repeated, and repeated myself over and over again. There is no way for me NOT to be a company when updating my whois details. And yet through all of this, NOBODY from Internet.bs has bothered to even THINK for me, respond properly to me.. or even apologize to me.

This has been the worst first experience ever.

 

[Internet.bs]

@Trig Thank you for raising this, indeed our customer service team really did let you down on this occasion. I have asked for a member of our management team to reply to you to explain what actually happened with the domain and why the verification process was triggered, you should receive an email shortly, it is a little different to your understanding. I have also asked our customer support manager to address the issue of the support you received.

My apologies for the support and hopefully going forward you'll be happy with our service.

 

[trlg]

@Trig Thank you for raising this, indeed our customer service team really did let you down on this occasion. I have asked for a member of our management team to reply to you to explain what actually happened with the domain and why the verification process was triggered, you should receive an email shortly, it is a little different to your understanding. I have also asked our customer support manager to address the issue of the support you received.

My apologies for the support and hopefully going forward you'll be happy with our service.

Should I be getting multiple emails from different parties? I got just the one email from support (using "abuse @Internet.bs") and that's it.

The registrant type finally got updated in the interface to be an individual - this shouldnt have taken me posting here (I tried to work through the official channel for so long) to finally get it done. Please educate and update your staff about the details about the WHOIS update: if I transfer any more .be domains in, I don't want this to happen again.

 

[Mr. V.]

I will add my review to this thread.

I tried to transfer one ".lv" zone domain to internetbs.net.

Bought it via SEDO.

Guess what happened.

It has been almost a month and the domain is not yet transferred to internetbs.net!

They got all the details, registration number, contact information, etc. BUT they work as resellers and are unable to finish the procedure (or are not trained to do that).

I even contacted their partner registry and their staff said internetbs.net has to fix this at their side.

Support sends me a letter, that they will look into this, BUT they never do. Thus, every 2 - 3 days I ask again, and Internetbs.net Support Level 2 or chat support responds only with promises.

In the end it seems I will lose the domain, as SEDO has put a deadline.

Recommendation - avoid transferring non-.com domains to internetbs.net.
With .com transfer I never had problems.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Is it so hard to use the domestic registrars in Latvia?
Why this InternetBS was chosen at all???

 

[Mr. V.]

I had an account there for .com domains and they had an option to migrate .lv. Why bother creating a new account for each .tld? If I would have known that there will be such issues, would never have used them.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

The accredited registrar and reseller are different things.
And also prices with domestic registrars are significantly lower for their local TLDs, sometimes even a few times lower.

 

[Dr Grigorian PhD]

I was double charged by internetbs for the same invoice - 1st 19 April, 26 April.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

I was double charged by internetbs for the same invoice - 1st 19 April, 26 April.

Their LiveChat or @Internet.bs

 

[john-doe]

They (internetbs.net) scammed me too.

Took my money for domain renewal, then blocked my domain and refused to renew it, and eventually blocked my account.

I have provided documents to identify me as they requested and after that they refuse to respond via chat or email.

So my recommendation is to stay away from them. No wonder they have bs in their name.

 

[raenk]

We follow a standard process for handling abuse complaints which would be the same as most registrars, it very much depends on the activity on the website as to how we handle the report. In all circumstances we will notify our customer's of the complaint against them and give them a chance to respond so please DM your domain name so I can investigate if that has not happened in this case.

We don't usually suspend a domain because of infringement and I would be very surprised if that is the case here, as you have chosen to condemn us publicly it would be fair of you to give the full details so we can respond.

The only circumstance that we would unsuspend a domain and point it to our own servers is if it was past expiry date, in which case we are required to do so.

False. I have a domain on hold as of right now. It's been 24 hours and you don't reply emails explaining the reasons. I already filed a complaint at ICANN and will be moving my domains away ASAP.

 

[john-doe]

Good luck with that. It took me about 3 months of bad luck with their inadequate support (both by mail and live support through the site), answering the same questions several times, sending the same documents confirming my identity, etc. And I practically lost my domain because of them.

 

[YourBestTrader]

SHOCKINGLY BAD REGISTRAR, LET THIS SERVE AS A WARNING

As many of you know... I've been a domainer for around 12 years now. I've used pretty much every registrar at some point, and have done over 5,000 domain transfers in that time.

And I've NEVER had such a bad experience as I have now had with InternetBS.

InternetBS many years ago was an excellent registrar, offering low pricing and a decent domain management console.

HORRIBLE NEW EXPERIENCES:
1. I discovered that they are no longer the low cost provider... a TLD priced at $45 renewal elsewhere, which used to be around the same with InternetBS, was silently increased to over $100 this year.

2. I tried to transfer out 4 of my domains to 3 different registrars... InternetBS said for days that they saw no attempts to transfer. Very unlikely given that I've done thousands of transfers and this was three well known registrars who know what they are doing.

3. After significantly complaining on live chat several days in a row, they finally released 3 of my 4 domains.

4. Now comes the crazy part

• The fourth domain was bouncing at the new registrar due to an incorrect auth code. Even though I got the auth code directly from their back end.
• I tried changing the auth code on the back end.... and trying again. And again... and again. I even used simple text for the auth code to make sure there were no issues. It still didn't work.
• I started to get nervous because the domain was starting to get close to expiry and the "support" wasn't being at all helpful in fixing their technical glitch.
• Eventually the domain expired and support told me that I had to pay $26.33 if I wanted to transfer the domain out.

They are currently holding my domain hostage, even though I started the transfer prior to the domain expiring and it was THEIR faulty system and bad technical support that caused the domain to expire.

They have refused to allow the domain to transfer, or to cover the cost of reinstatement.

Additionally their chat support is non-helpful, and they have frequently "escalated" to their mysterious "Level2" support team. - The biggest problem with that... is that you never hear back from them unless you kick up a fuss... and even then it takes several days to get an unhelpful uncaring response.

TRUST ME FOLKS, IF YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR DOMAINS.... GET AWAY FROM INTERNETBS AS QUICK AS YOU CAN

ps: Did I mention that I've spent over $10,000 with them over the years and they still didn't care enough to help sort out this situation. Unacceptable.

 

[eCurrency]

Additionally their chat support is non-helpful, and they have frequently "escalated" to their mysterious "Level2" support team. - The biggest problem with that... is that you never hear back from them unless you kick up a fuss... and even then it takes several days to get an unhelpful uncaring response.

TRUST ME FOLKS, IF YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR DOMAINS.... GET AWAY FROM INTERNETBS AS QUICK AS YOU CAN

ps: Did I mention that I've spent over $10,000 with them over the years and they still didn't care enough to help sort out this situation. Unacceptable.

Hi everyone,
It's been 24 hours since I've paid for my renewal and wait till I come back to tell you the lies this company is telling me and how they are single handedly ruining my business. I've completely documented EVERYTHING with transcripts, email copies, videos of the lies in chat, paypal receipts and all.

I'm going to give them about 12 more hours to stop the criminal non-sense with my paid for renewed
domain and make this right, and then I'm going to continue my campaign to not only spread the truth about this company, but to start the steps towards legal action again them for criminal liability and civil damages.

 

[Internet.bs]

@eCurrency my friend, there is clearly an issue that needs to be looked at with the payment/domain, etc.; we are not a criminal enterprise and have very little interest in stealing from people $10 at a time. Can you please DM me the details of the domain/ticket number etc. so I can assist you.

 

[tonyk2000]

@Internet.bs - the issue is that your company routinely delays renewals. You renew them internally, and it sometimes takes literally weeks to see the renewal reflected in registry whois. Why is this?

 

[carob]

@Internet.bs - the issue is that your company routinely delays renewals. You renew them internally, and it sometimes takes literally weeks to see the renewal reflected in registry whois. Why is this?

I have also experienced this and I would like to know why.

 

[Internet.bs]

It definitely shouldn't be happening for all TLDs, but some TLDs might be processed manually at the Registry and therefore take a longer time. Would you mind sharing the TLDs you have seen this for?

 

[eCurrency]

@eCurrency my friend, there is clearly an issue that needs to be looked at with the payment/domain, etc.; we are not a criminal enterprise and have very little interest in stealing from people $10 at a time. Can you please DM me the details of the domain/ticket number etc. so I can assist you.

You know, the problem with the internet and your fellow man? They try to play people for stupid from behind the keyboard.

1st of all, don't come on here trying to play me.

I was going to simply be satisfied that my domains are back up, but you had to come here with this %^&*

2nd, you feel the need to monitor and reply. Thats says something, and I don't gather that the reasons are all good as it can be in some cases.

Your person/people, you, or "Ivan" (the same name mentioned in this thread before) came in chat and lied, stating the problem was one thing, and I was smart enough to doubt it, but gave him/you guys the benefit of the doubt.

Then, when given more than enough time, the stated thing IVAN promised did not happen. I contacted them and they switched it up and said HE (?) "knew" what the problem was, indicating it was technical and on your side and would refer it to this mysterious Level 2 (mentioned here) that never got back to me.

While my business falls apart, I asked some simple but important questions and he continued to stall in chat, not answer, and all out avoid the SIMPLE #$%^ questions (ON PURPOSE) because I directly informed him that I see that he was avoiding the questions. No comment to them.

He then gave me a URL to the Level 2 trouble ticket that did not exist (anyone else see that one before?). When pointed out it becomes an "incident #" that -> I <- have to use when "I" return and inquire. The hell?

I never heard from "Level 2", and only got a response from no one from "Level 2 Support" for an entire day with a stated "emergency" problem on my end because of this. After I emailed support that I had documented everything, reported to trustpilot.com, and would be contacting my Attorney (no matter where you are located), internet BS then replied to the email saying that it was being referred to Accounting.

After I posted on this thread, in less than 30 mins. I had received a Receipt and my domains were reactivated. Coincidence, right? I have a lot of domains with you guys and I've never had a problem EVER receiving a Receipt after payment. And for multiple Domains? And then they expire during this drama and don't go to a parked page?

Come on... As I said before, don't play me.

I'm not stupid enough to think you want to steal from people $10 at a time. Domains can be far more valuable than that in parked income over time, or resale. I already have plans to take action (negotiate or sue) someone sitting on a domain of my company for $25,000.

I don't appreciate the lies, the switches, and the games, and I don't appreciate one important question not being answered. I have the transcript and video of me asking the question at least 3 times and pointing out the fact that it was being avoided. If you want to, I'm sure you can figure out who I am. When I began to move my domains away, or have any other real cause to do so, I will use every resource at my disposal to protect and defend my business, my livelihood, and my interests, including returning here.