ItsYourDomain? Apparently Not!
So here it is: June 28, three days after my domain name renewal period is over. Am I any closer to moving my domain from ItsYourDomain to a more reputable registrar? Absolutely not. In fact, I had no choice but to spend the $14.95 that ItsYourDomain charges for another year with them, or either risk losing my domain or be subjected to extortion well in excess of $100 like they initiated six months ago.
Avoid ItsYourDomain, its parent company InnerWise, and their thousands of affiliates at all costs. Anyone who says that IYD deals fairly is probably on the payroll, a shareholder, or just plain ignorant or stupid. I’d rather be paying the ridiculous $35 that Network Solutions charges than be associated in any way with the charlatans at ItsYourDomain. Their terms of service are deceptive, frustrating, extortionist, and should be illegal. Excerpts:
- “We reserve the right to prospectively change our fees or to institute new fees at any time, for any reason, at our sole discretion and you agree to be bound by any fee increase.” Without notice.
- “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.” Having gone through this nightmare six months ago, I carefully watched every email for the past sixty days to see if ItsYourDomain notified me. I DID receive one email on the evening of June 21 that was dated June 20, only four days before impending expiration — a far cry from the seven emails they claimed to have sent last time this happened. Four days does not equal thirty.
- “You will receive additional notifications as the expiration date approaches.” Nope.
- “5 days prior to expiration, your domain will be placed on hold status, in preparation for release. This will result in websites and email not resolving for those 5 days.” ItsYourDomain obviously designed this process so that the email notification sent four days prior to expiration would not arrive if your email address was on the domain for which they are the registrar.
- “There is no grace period and under no circumstances will ItsYourDomain.com be able to renew the domain after the automatic expiration.” They have removed the 30-day grace period given by ICANN, the governing body over all domain registrars.
- “Although you will no longer be able to renew your expired domain name, you can redeem it under the Registrar Redemption program. For a fee of $100.00 (plus the cost of your renewal), ItsYourDomain.com will attempt to restore your domain to its original status. This redemption program is valid for 30 days from the release of your domain.” This 30-day period is the grace period that ICANN provides to all registrars. ItsYourDomain has decided to immorally profit from this, charging for the otherwise free benefit.
- In the event of a credit card chargeback, “your user account will be suspended, rendering all other domains in the account subject to the same terms as the domain charged back.” A $200 reinstatement fee plus a renewal fee then applies to EACH and EVERY domain registered with ItsYourDomain.
- “You understand and agree that ItsYourDomain.com shall deny all initial requests to transfer a domain name registration to another Registrar.” That’s the clincher! This rogue registrar will do anything to extort money from its customers, including what should be an illegal practice of forced retention!
I attempted to transfer the domain five times during the three weeks before expiration. The first two accomplished nothing. Before the third attempt, I sent an email to Brian Toon, telling him that I intended to transfer the domain. It was not until this point that I began to receive emails from ItsYourDomain. The next three attempts were unsuccessful as ItsYourDomain intentionally sent emails acknowledging a response to my request at least two days after each attempt, causing the registrar to which I was attempting to transfer the domain to automatically time out due to lack of action.
Not only that, but since ItsYourDomain only allows transfers up to but not including 10 days before renewal (otherwise the transfer requests are automatically denied) they sent instructions with only 24 hours remaining that required notarization of an agreement that allows the transfer, but completely indemnifies them of every wrongdoing by requiring agreement that no law suits will be filed — ever! That agreement must be faxed along with a copy of your driver license.
Like I need these crooks to have any more information about me! It’s bad enough that they have my credit card number!
UPDATE: I found this interesting tidbit on dnjournal.com:
“ItsYourDomain.com apparently doesn’t believe the message conveyed by their company name. They seem to have decided the domains you register with them are their domains. If you don’t believe it you will when you try to transfer one of ‘your’ domains to another registrar. They will charge you a fee for leaving (that is higher than the fee to renew and remain a hostage there). If that doesn’t discourage you enough they will also demand notarized paperwork, a throwback to the bad old days of Network Solutions. In addition, requests for auth codes (needed to move .org, .info, .biz and .us domains out) are frequently ignored. We believe such tactics should not be tolerated and have to recommend avoiding ItsYourDomain.com and their resellers. A Google search on the company’s name yields multiple complaints against them starting on page 1 (one of their resellers, DomainsNext.com, is also a source of constant consumer complaints). We believe ICANN needs to step in and put an end to this kind of ‘domain kidnapping’ or at least require registrars stooping to this kind of skullduggery to put front page notices on their site telling customers they will be required to pay a ransom if they ever want to leave…”
I had spent several months with ICANN (who was not very helpful) to try to get ItsYourDomain.com & DomainsNext.com allow the transfers away from them. I have reported both companies to Better Business Bureau etc… no avail. The only time I was able to force them to let any of my domains go, was when an attorney & vice president of an organization owning the domain name called them. The resources, therefore the money lost due ItsYourDomain & Domainsnext (reseller) “hijacking” (as you called it) amounts to several thousands of dollars. Changing the rules to prevent transfers away, is preventing FREE FLOW OF COMMERCE. If a class action lawsuit is started against them, I am definitely in.
I came to the conclusion not to renew any names. I have more as 100 names with them.
I am trying to transfer 6 domains from itsyourdomain.com and they are saying they dont get the requests from Register.com. Noone will talk to me, nor resond to my emails. Another subcompany of there’s, domainofmyown.com is doing the same thing to me. Any help is greatly appreciated. Dont every do business with these companies!
I find this hard to believe. ItsYourDomain is very helpful. Never had a problem transferring in or out. There policy exists due to the NSI law suit. Brian in support has always been helpful. I reach him at 847-895-3601 ext-242. As per ICANN Richard, you don’t know a thing. There is no 30 grace period from ICANN. It is an election of the registrar to extend the names for a fee from the registry(Verisign)for a fee. Some do some don’t SO WHAT. They are among one of the best registrars out there. You should look at some of the crappy registrars out there where their site does not even work like Moniker. Domain Registry of America and Name Juice all DBA of Enom (talk about áššhølëš) are stealing names right form under people. They are just trying to protect their customers. If you find it too much to prove who you are for them to transfer a domain then you are an idiot. It looks like you are twisting the words to suit your needs. By the way flammer [sic], do you have a job or life???
I am at a loss as to why you would refer to me as a “flammer.” A Flammer is a trademarked name for a training aid for improving golf swings developed by World Record holder Mike Austin. If I can correctly infer from your comment that you are praising me for providing people out there with the right information and tools to succeed, then thanks! My “needs” are simply to get control of my domain name back. As for ItsYourDomain being helpful, then explain their policy of denying “all initial requests to transfer a domain name registration to another Registrar.” How is ignoring my request helpful? How is letting my emails to support go unanswered helpful? How is keeping my domain hostage helpful? To date, I’m not finding those policies helpful at all. Perhaps your definition is different. Despite your assertion that I “don’t know a thing”, ICANN specifically states that “deleted names [are] placed in a hold status for a thirty-day period, during which the registrant could reclaim the name if the deletion was unintended.” ItsYourDomain explicitly asserts that “under no circumstances will ItsYourDomain.com be able to renew the domain after the automatic expiration.” Those are conflicting statements, and I’ll take the side of ICANN any day. I acknowledge that there are worse áššhølëš than ItsYourDomain, which is why I stay away from them as well. But how great is a company that won’t let me move away from them? I still have a domain that I’ve been trying to transfer away for the last six months that is still registered with ItsYourDomain. That’s not helpful. Since you obviously have difficulty understanding grade school English, understanding arguments, and recognizing the truth, and you feel that I am “twisting the words to suit [my] needs,” let me put the entire situation as simply as possible: I have a domain name registered with ItsYourDomain. I would like to move the domain name to GoDaddy. ItsYourDomain has repeatedly denied the transfer. ItsYourDomain has repeatedly ignored emails. Brian Toon has repeatedly ignored emails. ItsYourDomain has lied to me. Brian Toon has lied to me. ItsYourDomain still has my gøddámn domain name. I want it back! Are you now finally able to see where the problem is, Mr. Bìtçhšláp? Yes, I have been a consultant for the past 13 years, I’m living a pretty darn good life, I’ve got this terrific, great-looking website, and I respond nicely to only the first comment left by an ignorant yahoo who has nothing better to do all day than post misinformation on my website. Have a nice day!
- RDL
On August 5th someone posted a comment in my name with my e-mail address without my consent. Although I had some initial problems with the transfer of my domain names from itsyourdomain to another company, those problems were eventually completely cleared up by Brian Toon and Nick Starai. It may have taken much longer than anticipated, with much more hassle than anticipated (having to re-request the transfer multiple times, faxing a copy of photo ID and multiple notarized transfer forms), once all that was done, all 7 of my domain names were released.
Since, we know that the real Sarah lives in Texas (based on her website), and that both Sarahs posted their comments from IP addresses located in Austin, Texas — well, I have no idea which one is which, so I’ll leave both comments up. At least the second Sarah has improved spelling, grammar and punctuation over the first. I’ll judge on that. - RDL
Through an independent and reliable regular reader, it was verified that the second posting was, in fact, made by the real Sarah. Regarding the first posting, what on Earth would make someone want to falsify the origin of a statement that essentially AGREES with the other posts. Usually those in disagreement are those who hide their identity. Perhaps it was a friend or acquaintance of Sarah’s who had some obviously correct insider information. - RDL
DomainsNext.com
Above is the informative comment left by the moron who called me in the middle of the night. Not only is he a dunce for leaving his IP address, now he’s a spammer, too! - RDL