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Has anyone else had domains removed from their account? I unfortunately missed payments (my fault - bad email - no excuse) but when I logged back in I saw the invoices waiting so I naturally paid them all in full. But regardless of that now wont release my names nor refund my $ - at first they claimed they didnt even know what I was talking about, asked me "what names?".

Its not just the names I failed to immd pay (yet subsequently DID pay for) , there are several names that had been long ago paid for on time and those too have been removed.

Its terribly difficult for me to not be extremely angry about this. These wernt very valuable names by any account, I was still testing them out. But for any registrar to be like this just should happen. I'm sure its only coincidental that the owner, Tan Tran (aka "Gorilla Bob") also happens to be a .tv investor. No potential conflict there.

If you read this and still use them dont say you wernt warned.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Has anyone else had domains removed from their account? I unfortunately missed payments (my fault - bad email - no excuse) but when I logged back in I saw the invoices waiting so I naturally paid them all in full. But regardless of that now wont release my names nor refund my $ - at first they claimed they didnt even know what I was talking about, asked me "what names?".

Its not just the names I failed to immd pay (yet subsequently DID pay for) , there are several names that had been long ago paid for on time and those too have been removed.

Its terribly difficult for me to not be extremely angry about this. These wernt very valuable names by any account, I was still testing them out. But for any registrar to be like this just should happen. I'm sure its only coincidental that the owner, Tan Tran (aka "Gorilla Bob") also happens to be a .tv investor. No potential conflict there.

If you read this and still use them dont say you wernt warned.

Tan Tran makes a LOT of money from Pheenix,he doesn't need to steal domains from you to make a few hundred dollars.The only names he goes after are premium domains and that shouldn't bother you as you aren't allowed to place backorders for premium names through his platform.And he's made it clear from the very beginning.Maybe you should change strategy and start paying more attention to the contact details you provide for registration.I'm tired of finding you in the whois records with different names,email addresses... It's obvious that you don't want to get tracked down but at least you should make sure that you're reachable through those email addresses.So don't blame him for something that is clearly your fault.
 
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i dont really give a crap if YOU are tired of finding my contact info to be indecipherable. maybe you should pay more attn to your own holding and not be so concerned about what me and others own.

and if i screwed up and missed an email thats on me - yup. and that is NOT my issue with tan tran, not at all, and i've already made that clear, and i would appreciate it if you did not try to obfuscate that fact.

i'm blaming him for the fact that i did pay. he could have locked me out of the account long before but i did find the account still open and apparenty active. i was given the opportunity to pay all the invoices and so i did. but they didnt release the names. so i asked cust svc about it. they claimed to not know what i was talking about. "what names" is the reply. i said "well cant you see them from my invoices". like really, why would they have to ask "what names" when they knew clearly what the account was. and the next thing i get from them is a bunch a crap and they lock me out of the account.

not only did they not release these names they also had removed names that i had paid in full several months before.

so thats not a "rip off"? if it isnt i dont know what is.
 
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Gr8trfoo,

I had a chance to review this ticket in depth. I think there is a disconnect that can be resolved. However, here are the facts and concerns we have towards the case.

1. Your invoices were over 2 months late. We had tried to contact you numerous times to pay the invoices and never heard back. These were invoices totaling hundreds to thousands of dollars.

2. At some point, we had to assume that this account was fraudulent and that we had to liquidate the domain names that were unpaid for as well as the domains left in the account.

3. After several months, you paid for the invoices. Upon opening a ticket asking where were the domain names that you paid for we had not first noticed that this was a banned/fraudulent account.

It was upon reviewing your account further did we see that this could potentially be a fraud account.
It was at this time that we asked to perform a routine security check to make sure that the account belonged to a legitimate member.

4. Here are the concerns we have and why the check was necessary:

a. Some of the domain names have already been liquidated for previous non-payment.
b. Some domain names are kept in our escrow account and can be moved to your account. However, there is a risk that the card used was stolen or a chargeback can happen. As the domain names are older than 60 days now, if we release these domain names to your account, there is no stopping you from transferring them out and then doing a chargeback. This is a big concern due to the non-payments of the large invoices in the past.

For the above reasons, we had initiated the security check.

I'm hoping that you see our side as well and that we just got caught up in the middle of this due to the invoices not being paid and now it has come to a very weird situation where noone is winning.

We are more than happy to figure out a way to resolve this, but how are we compensated for loss on our side for the domain names that we ordered for you but since they left unpaid, we had to foot the bill for the registrations?

I'm willing to work to move forward on this, but we need to come to an equitable solution.

Thanks.

Tan Tran
 
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ok- so i literally just woke up right now to see that you have replied and appear ready to find a solution. thats positive news. frankly i was in a state of shock yesterday, i've never had a registrar situation remotely like this.

i do recognize that i was in error for having missed the payment. i'd last checked the account in may and i thought the card on file was sufficient to cover whatever came up - obviously i was wrong. maybe it did cover some but i thought it had funds enough to have covered a lot more. again its my responsibility to make sure of that and i dropped the ball there. yes indeed. to top it off there was a problem with the email acct and so thus was created a "perfect storm" scenario. again- not your fault.

the point where i took issue is being allowed to pay and then being told to "hit the road". if i had tried to log into the acct only to have been blocked this situation would have stopped there. i would have gotten in touch w you guys and everything would be different now for sure. instead its just as youve seen, i logged on saw my invoices and said "oh crap, i gotta get these paid" without even thinking there might be a problem. in fact this acct was about 2 years old and as i recall early on i missed the payment on a few caught names, but then, as now, i was able to log on and pay for those and get caught. the difference is this time there was a problem.

i've been on this forum 10 years and no matter what anyone thinks about me the one thing no one can say is that i ever cheated on a deal. i always pay my debts, even if belatedly. sometimes things happen, like in this instance, but the lack of rapid payment was not intentional. there was and is zero chance of me initiating a chargeback.

anyway, i'll take you at your word sir that you stand ready to find a fair solution. i do appreciate that. we can discuss the details privately.

thank you
 
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I've done business with Gorilla_bob on several occasions. My experiences have instilled, in me, the highest level of trust and respect for Gorilla_bob and for his company. He is a man of honor and integrity and is a pillar of the domain name community.

Claude
 
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the issue has been settled satisfactorily. many thanks to gorrila_bob for swiftly making it right.
 
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I am extremely displeased with the way Pheenix does business and its customer service in particular.

I hadn't used Pheenix in a few months and logged in for the first time yesterday. Noticed the site was redesigned but had no idea they switched to an open auction system and that you no longer needed to pre-order to bid on a domain.

The website's login system errored out twice. Eventually it presented me with a list of auctions with a LOG IN button in the top right corner, which to any rational person would mean that you are NOT logged in. I tried clicking on one of the auctions to see the list of bidders but wasn't able to do it, which I assumed was because I was logged out. I clicked on one of the other buttons, and the site confirmed that I had placed a bid!

So Pheenix placed a bid for me while telling me I was logged out, without me entering a bid amount, and without any confirmation screen whatsoever. I emailed them immediately and asked to cancel the bid because I wasn't aware that the bid was being placed on my behalf, and they flatly refused, copying and pasting the same answer twice. When I told them the bid was invalid, they asked for a scan of my passport because of "suspicious activity" (complete BS, obviously), which I refused to send out of principle, and they froze my account, including my registrar account.

I now have no access to the domains in my Pheenix account and cannot so much as change a nameserver, presumably without sending them my passport, which is not going to happen. Whoever froze the account did it just to give me a hard time for telling them the bid was invalid.

I am filing a grievance with ICANN about this registrar first thing Monday morning and will also call my personal contact at ICANN to make sure this is followed up on. If Tan Tran would rather get drilled on his ICANN accreditation instead of making his website work so it stops collecting invalid bids, so be it. I have not seen this kind of amateur behavior from a U.S.-based registrar in many years.
 
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