Thank you for the prompt and detailed answer
@Cyril.Best and for your offer that people can approach you individually with any errors that there are.
This may seem like I am saying the same thing, but just to be totally clear, is my statement below correct?
A .best domain name with a registration date after Feb 5, and that it was registered at the standard discounted rate of a few dollars retail, should not now be designated premium and should have the standard renewal rate.
It is the use of the word standard in your statement. I understand some names are sold at premium and carry premium renewal rates. I now understand that some legacy registration carry their $70 renewal. What I am not clear on is
whether a domain we could recently register as standard can have that designation changed before it expires.
Thank you once more for being acting on NamePros. We are so fortunate that a number of domain industry representatives and leaders are active on NamePros and available to clarify and assist with issues.
Thank you.
Bob
Thanks Bob,
"
A .best standard domain name with a registration date after Feb 5, and was registered at the standard discounted rate of a few dollars retail, should not now be designated premium and should have the standard renewal rate." : 100% correct !
So if you have domains
with a registration date after Feb 5, it should show a standard wholesale renewal price of $15.
= Means $15 + a few $ for you as the final retail price at your preferred registrar.
If it's not the case for some of your domains, it's an error (shit can have happened during the price transition) but don't worry email me directly your list of names, dates of registration + registrar name and I will make the necessary correction with our backend as soon as possible so that that you can renew them at the standard registration price.
Now, to answer your question on the status of a domain:
"Why a domain
registered as standard can have that designation changed before it expires ?"
First, don't mix the status of a domain and the price of a domain. These 2 things are not necessarily correlated.
It's not because a domain has a premium status that it is necessary more expensive.
Premium just means that the domain is now identified and part of a special category.
We are allowed to change the status of a domain because we DID NOT AND WILL NOT increase the price of any registered domain.
Once again WE DID NOT and WILL NOT !
I mean all the domains that was put in this premium category at $70 were all domains sold before our price change notification to registrars and even acquisition of the .Best.
This means that those domains were sold and renew at $70 wholesale for many years already and will continue to be renewed at $70 the same. The only change for those domains is their status category NOT price.
Now, to be 100% transparent, this is due to the fact that we made the acquisition of the .Best in 2018 with domains that were already sold and renewed by registrars at $70 wholesale during many years before our acquisition.
So, we had no real choice according to our registrar relationship to keep the domains sold before our acquisition or price change notification, at the same price.
But "Only" almost 3K domains are concerned by this change of status and once again NOT price.
No single registered domain has its renewal price increase during the pricing transition.
I hope it's now more clear for everybody and sorry again for any confusion our price transition could have caused.
Don't hesitate to email me (
[email protected]) for any pricing correction on domains or errors that could happen (I know that shit can happen in that kind of technical transition).
All the .Best
Cyril
as I need arguments to convince your registrar 
