More on the ItsYourDomain Complaint
I split the flurry of emails between domain name registrar ItsYourDomain and me into two posts.
Ted Cucci, Executive VP Operations for ItsYourDomain.com replied to my request to honor his own statements, obviously with no intention to do so:
Richard, your request needed to come before the name was deleted. It is offered as a courtesy when asked. You did not ask and you were granted automatically a 5 day grace period. You were sent 7 emails regarding your renewal. Also, did you not notice that your email and web page were down (if you had them) during the last 5 days before deletion. This is another safeguard we implemented so people would take notice and call to see what happened. We do everything possible to notify the customer short of doing the renewal for them, which by the way we do have an auto renewal feature in the management section you could have applied. All IYD customers were notified of the new feature over a year ago. This does not sound like a company that as you say “actively rapes” it’s customers to me. This arguing is pointless. ALL REGISTRARS PAY A FEE FOR REDEMPTION. It is not just some far fetched thing we implemented. Anyone who owns a domain name from any registrar is subject to a redemption fee.
Brilliant! Our safeguard is that we remove your website and email just to see if you notice anything different. My reply:
Ted, Executive VP of Operations
I can see that you’re willing to sacrifice customers and the company’s good name just to save a few bucks. All for the bottom line, eh?! Rather than refund some poor sucker’s money that should never have been charged in the first place, you put blinders on, holding on to the company’s rapacious ideals with all the fortitude you can muster!
You personally unconditionally promise that the company offers a 30-day grace period past expiration upon request, yet you personally deny that request. Instead you attach additional previously unmentioned conditions.
You say you always send emails notifying customers of imminent domain expiration, yet you apparently do so using a different company name than the one the domain was originally registered under, a seemingly deceptive practice in itself. Oddly, I have received every email that you personally have sent to me in the last few days, all to the same email address under which my domain is registered, yet I never once received an email that stated my domain was expiring — from ANY company.
You defend your actions, citing as example the ridiculous “safeguard” that you employ: requiring people to watch their websites every day to “take notice” when their domains have been deleted. How generous, especially when in my case you activated that “safeguard” during the Christmas to New Year holiday period when (according to you) everyone is expected to be watching their websites rather than spending time with friends and family.
The really stupid thing about all this is that I wouldn’t even need the grace period had I known that the domain was going to expire! And you also deceptively neglected to mention that ICANN offers you, as a registrar, a 45-day grace period. I get all my emails. You didn’t send any notices. I didn’t get any letters in the mail from you, either. That’s how the other registrars notify their customers. How dumb is your policy?! Shut down someone’s ability to receive email, then send them an email, knowing that it will be undeliverable, and sit back and wait to see if they even notice. Last month, GoDaddy registered 7.3 times the number of domains you did. I have 20 domain names registered with them and have never had a customer service problem with GoDaddy that was not solved to my ultimate satisfaction. Unlike with your company, I do get emails AND mail from GoDaddy when my domains registered with them are about to expire. Their service is far superior to yours.
Apparently, letting you know of my concerns and issues as a customer is of no importance to you whatsoever. You are obviously not a customer-oriented executive working for a customer-oriented company. I doubt you personally will hear from me again, because corresponding with you is not much different than having a conversation with a brick, apart from the fact that bricks don’t lie. Instead, I will pursue other avenues in attempting to resolve this particular issue.
There comes a time when a business must take a loss on an individual customer basis in order to maintain goodwill. As a customer of yours for the last two and a half years, I feel that you have wrongly gouged $100 from me. Unfortunately, you have not recognized that this is your one opportunity to correct a bad situation in which you have an incredibly angry Internet professional who is very active in the Internet community, and who has nothing better to do with his time (now that the holidays are over) than spend it spreading this awful experience far and wide, reaching as many potential customers as possible.
Fix the problem you created, or don’t. Your choice.
The gloves are off.
