ItsYourDomain Deleted My Domain
ItsYourDomain, one of my domain name registrars, deleted one of my domains without notification, blackmailed me into paying a fee to reinstate the domain, and then refused to allow me to transfer the domain to another registrar.
Naturally, I sent off a complaint letter to ICANN, the international authority that regulates domain name registration.
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN),
I wish to file a complaint about the registrar ItsYourDomain.com and its predatory business practices. I believe they violated terms of their registry-registrar agreement by not allowing proper notice of imminent domain expiration and subsequently fraudulently overcharging me for a service that was contrived and unnecessary. Furthermore, they violated the rule that states that I can view and edit the contact information for the domain at any time. They also violated their own published terms of service agreement.
I have owned the domain zoho.org since it was first created on December 27, 1999. For the last two years I have used the domain for an alumni website for the employees of the defunct Zoho Corporation (I was a founding employee) that closed its doors in June of 2001.
On January 3, 2004, I attempted to make a periodic update to the website only to find that the domain was inactive. Not remembering who the original registrar was, I performed a whois and discovered that the sponsoring registrar was R85-LROR, or ItsYourDomain.com, a wholly owned division of InnerWise (1005 West Wise Road, Schaumburg, IL 60193) — even though I later discovered by searching old email records that I had originally registered with domainstuffetc.com. I logged in with the username and password used when I created the domain and checked ItsYourDomain’s on-line domain management system. According to their system, my zoho.org domain had been deleted.
My understanding is that the registrar agreement allows them to delete domains after the registrant has been notified of the pending deletion. I did not receive any emails from them indicating either that the domain was about to expire or that it would be deleted, even though the email address they had for me was still valid and accessible. The policies on ItsYourDomain.com state “You will be notified via email that renewal fees are due at least thirty (30) days prior to the expiration date of a domain name registration. You will receive additional notifications as the expiration date approaches. All emails will be sent to the email address of the domain name account holder and the billing contact. You are required to keep the email address of the domain name account holder and the billing contact current. We are not responsible for the loss or misdirection of the email expiration notices, including but not limited to, emails lost due to an invalid email address in our system, a spam filter on the mail server, or any other impediment to delivery. Emails are sent as a courtesy only.” I fulfilled my part of the agreement that stated I would keep the email addresses current, but they failed to notify me at all. I do not have a spam filter installed on the mail server. This is not a case of lost or misdirected emails. They simply did not email me of the impending expiration, a violation of both the terms of the registry-registrar agreement and their terms of service agreement.
Furthermore, once I discovered that they had in fact deleted the domain without my knowledge, they charged me an unreasonable $100 to recover the domain name while at the same time denying me the option to transfer the domain to a more reputable registrar. Those people who refuse to pay the extortion will lose their domain names because someone else will register the domain name instead.
That seems like extortion to me!
They also did not extend a grace period in which to renew the domain registration. While that is neither against the law nor contrary to their new policies, I believe that it is unethical and deceptive to disallow a grace period when combined with the charging of a $100 “recovery” fee.
I firmly believe that ItsYourDomain intentionally did not send me a notice of expiration, as it is in their financial interest to surprise registrants with expired domains in order to profit from the $100 “recovery” surcharge.
Just as bad is that — even after I paid the total of $114.95 — they kept my domain in redemption status, refusing me access to changing my DNS information, not letting me view, verify, or change my contact information, or to change anything about my domain. They locked the domain, preventing its deletion, renewal, transfer, and update, without a mechanism to remove the lock. ItsYourDomain is denying the transfer of the zoho.org domain to the preferred GoDaddy.com registrar because GoDaddy cannot complete the transfer until ItsYourDomain provides me with an authorization code to give to GoDaddy, which ItsYourDomain has not done. There are no phone numbers for customer service and they aren’t responding to emails. The inabilities to make necessary informational changes and registrar transfers are violations of the terms of the registry-registrar agreement, and are also a violation of their own posted “terms of service” policies which state that “you may change any of the domain name registration information at any time.”
The zoho.org domain is active once again, and I am continuing to try to transfer the domain to the GoDaddy registrar, but I am angry and frustrated at ItsYourDomain’s unethical business practices.
Please take whatever disciplinary action necessary against InnerWise and/or ItsYourDomain to prevent this from happening to other innocent domain registrants. Also, anything you can do to help me both transfer my domain to GoDaddy and receive a refund of the extorted $100 would be appreciated.
cc: ICANN, Chicago BBB, InterNIC, InnerWise, Godaddy, Illinois State Representative Paul Froehlich
Do yourself a favor: avoid InnerWise, its registrar business arm known as ItsYourDomain, and all of its more than 6500 affiliates.
I have found that Brian Toon (itsyourdomain.com) has been quite helpful and has responded quickly to my emails. I recently did not renew my domain name on time, and was quite panicky about losing it, however, Brian extended my renewal date (twice) and has been very prompt in replying to me. Just thought it would be fair to add this comment as I felt it was a job well done.
How nice we can add our ramblings to the official RIP OFF REPORT. Go ahead, add your comments! These people should be put out of business.
Network Solutions is right there with them. Same story same problem. Their charge is $35.
Since the story continues on other pages, I’m closing out this page for comments. If you have anything to add, finished reading the rest of the saga, and then add your comments at the end. Thanks!