Nowadays, various registrars try to auction off their expired domain registrations to interested parties before deleting them altogether. Many big-time “domainers” or other parties would participate in such auctions.
I just read in a forum of someone who acquired a domain name through auction site SnapNames. A few months later, he wrote that it was…taken away from him.
According to the guy, he originally bid for the domain name back in June 2008. He subsequently won it because he was the only bidder, was out $99, and the domain name was promptly transferred to this account with domain registrar Moniker.
The guy probably got one of the biggest shocks of his life when he received an email from SnapNames dated July 18, a month after he acquired the domain name. The email told him, in no uncertain terms, that the domain name was erroneously auctioned off and have been taken away from him.
The email said something about the domain name being returned. I can only guess it was to its last registrant, though again I’m just guessing.
On the other hand, SnapNames’ email to him at least said they’re refunding the full puchase price. The SnapNames agent, Jonathan, also apologized for what happened.
Naturally, the guy couldn’t accept what happened. He demanded answers, which I agree he’s rather entitled to.
One of the things he asked is how SnapNames would have the possibly legal right to do something like this. While he said he read their legal agreement and didn’t find anything to the effect that SnapNames can return a domain name to its last registrant, he probably didn’t know this term would apply:
https://www.snapnames.com/legal.jsp
You grant SnapNames, in our sole discretion, the right to refuse to register your chosen domain name through one of our registrar partners, to refuse to subscribe you for other SnapNames services, or to request deletion of your domain name at the acquiring registrar or cancel your services within thirty (30) calendar days from receipt of your payment for such services. In the event we request deletion of your domain name or cancel your services within such thirty (30) calendar day period, we may refund your applicable fees.
If that section isn’t enough:
Other than what is specifically stated in this Agreement regarding our registration of domain name service, it is the agreements between the particular registrar associated with a given domain name and the registrant of said domain name that will explain your rights and obligations when you register a domain name through SnapNames. By this Agreement, you acknowledge that you have read and accept the terms of these respective registrar agreements.
While I’m not a lawyer, I’ve learned from a couple of competent lawyers to understand that the term above means that you also agree with the registrar’s contractual terms other than SnapNames’. A lot of businesses nowadays impose certain terms of their contracts with other parties and apply them to the end user.
Recall that the domain name was transferred to the guy’s Moniker account. Well, here’s what Moniker’s agreement also says:
http://www.moniker.com/help/dtc.jsp
Furthermore, you agree that we may suspend, cancel or transfer your domain name registration services in order to: (i) correct mistakes made by us or the registry in registering your chosen domain name, or (ii) to resolve a dispute under our dispute policy.
The term above basically means you agree they can suspend, cancel or transfer the domain name from you to resolve a dispute or to correct any mistakes made. One can rather argue they made a mistake by allowing the domain name to be transferred to the guy’s account when it shouldn’t have been, but…they still had time to correct it.
I know a lot of people don’t like those things. I sometimes don’t like them, either.
However, I know that kind of agreement puts the provider in a stronger position than the end user. All the user could possibly do is not do business with that provider if they don’t agree with them on key things.
Hat tip to Bill Hartzer for blogging about it:
Unfortunately this is one risk when trying to acquire a domain name through an auction service. Then again, this is also a risk when you register a domain name to begin with.
I’ll be writing more about this soon.
Add-On 07/20/2008: I figured I’d add here a slight confession: in my past registrar life, we took the domain name from the auction winner and returned it to its registrant.
Can’t blame you if you’re suddenly shocked by this. Let me explain.
The registrar I worked with would try to auction an expired domain name if its registrant doesn’t renew it within the grace period. If it’s not sold off within that auction period, it gets dropped and goes into the standard Redemption Grace Period.
What happened was that the registrant renewed the domain name before it expired. But for some reason, the registrar’s systems didn’t recognize it, so it eventually placed the domain name on the auction block.
The domain name was subsequently won in an auction by a sole bidder and placed in his Network Solutions account, similar to what I described above. I forgot the amount, but it was no more than $100.
A few days later after the auction, the registrant contacted us and complained why we “allowed” it to happen. What made things harder is we weren’t able to verify even with our own billing records, so we asked him to fax a copy of his credit card statement verifying the charge.
Now, I know many people normally advise against that. I would too for the most part, but we needed him to fax a copy to “prove” he was indeed charged by us.
To protect him, we told him to block out the address and card number except for the last 4 digits and the specific date and charge. Sure enough, the faxed copy showed we billed him for that day to renew at the price.
At that point, we were rather stuck. The renewal price was many times lower than what the auction winner paid for, but we confirmed that we billed the registrant to renew the domain name before expiry.
We talked among one another, and we decided to make the inevitably tough choice. We emailed the auction winner explaining what happened, apologized, took the domain name from his account, and refunded his money in full.
Naturally, the auction winner called us and complained about it. I didn’t get to speak with the guy himself, but it was escalated to one of our executives who dealt with it as best as he could.
Needless to say, the guy wasn’t happy, we weren’t necessarily happy, and the registrant wasn’t happy what happened. I myself wasn’t happy about it, but…we made a choice.
I state this because what happened to Bill brought up this “bad” memory. Of course, it could be a different situation with Bill, but I figured I’d at least tell this so people would know this isn’t really “abnormal”.
I only wish there was a easier way to fix it. But…there wasn’t.
Just consider this as a possible risk, then try to prepare accordingly.
Update 07/22/2008: Kjel Holmes Holmberg from SnapNames replied in various forums regarding this issue. But I’ll post a short version:
A customer recently made a domain name available for sale at SnapNames. The name intended for sale was the .net version of the name; however, an employee mistakenly listed the .com version for sale.
Unfortunately that sort of thing does happen. I read of one domainer who made that same mistake, and it was “resolved” in a similar manner.
If the employee was SnapNames’, I’m sure lots of people would argue that SnapNames ought to do more than just refund Mr. Hartzer in full. Also unfortunately, whether to do more or not is SnapNames’ call.
Be sure to stay on top of your domain registrations, and be ready to take action if something out of the ordinary comes out.
Popularity: 56% [?]
No comments yet.