Shady Registrar Renewal Practices?
Submitted
by
pagley
pagley writes "Today, I recieved yet another "Gold VIP Renewal Notice" from Network Solutions with an ominous warning "SERVICES DUE TO EXPIRE: 3", with three of my domain names boldly listed as "EXPIRED". And, the ramifications of not renewing were quite clearly detailed in the statement "Please Note: For expired domain names, unless you renew immediately upon receipt of this notification, the expired domain name(s) listed above will be deleted from your account and we may, in accordance with our service agreement, attempt to renew and transfer this domain name(s) to a third party on your behalf."
In other words, pay us right now, or we will delete the domain from your account and/or sell it to a squatter.
All three domains were up for renewal on December 9, were not set to auto-renew, and were manually renewed for two years on December 5. They all currently show the correct expiry date via WHOIS, and are perfectly safe from being snapped up by a squatter.
This last renewal email comes exactly one week after the domains were renewed, and states that "This information is current as of 12/4/07" — a day before the renewal took place.
The curious part of all of this is that:
1) The information in this email is a week old — an eternity in Internet time, particularly for a company who is responsible for replicating huge chunks of DNS zone information across the Internet several times a day.
2) The tone of the email is threatening, to say the least.
3) The timing of the notice conincides identically with other past notices from NetSol regarding domains which were near expiry, had been renewed, only to recieve another expiration notice a week after the fact.
I doubt that any of this is coincidence, and feel the timing and tone of the notices are intended to provoke an instinctive knee-jerk reaction to renew immediately when it's not necessary. Granted, the CYA "accurate as of" statement probably insulates them from legal issues, but I feel this is essentially a borderline legal phishing scheme.
What other registrars and what other scare-tactics have you seen employed in an attempt to get you to renew or transfer a domain name that has already been renewed or otherwise in no danger of expiry?"
In other words, pay us right now, or we will delete the domain from your account and/or sell it to a squatter.
All three domains were up for renewal on December 9, were not set to auto-renew, and were manually renewed for two years on December 5. They all currently show the correct expiry date via WHOIS, and are perfectly safe from being snapped up by a squatter.
This last renewal email comes exactly one week after the domains were renewed, and states that "This information is current as of 12/4/07" — a day before the renewal took place.
The curious part of all of this is that:
1) The information in this email is a week old — an eternity in Internet time, particularly for a company who is responsible for replicating huge chunks of DNS zone information across the Internet several times a day.
2) The tone of the email is threatening, to say the least.
3) The timing of the notice conincides identically with other past notices from NetSol regarding domains which were near expiry, had been renewed, only to recieve another expiration notice a week after the fact.
I doubt that any of this is coincidence, and feel the timing and tone of the notices are intended to provoke an instinctive knee-jerk reaction to renew immediately when it's not necessary. Granted, the CYA "accurate as of" statement probably insulates them from legal issues, but I feel this is essentially a borderline legal phishing scheme.
What other registrars and what other scare-tactics have you seen employed in an attempt to get you to renew or transfer a domain name that has already been renewed or otherwise in no danger of expiry?"