IP: Network Solutions Blocking Transfers

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

>Date: Sun, 01 Jul 2001 09:47:40 -0400
>To: David Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>
>From: "K.Ellis" <guavaberry@earthlink.net>
>Subject: Network Solutions Blocking Transfers
>
>Network Solutions Blocking Transfers
>
>
>This is a post from one of my lists, dated Thursday 6/28... if anyone is
>doing work with domain transfers, this sounds significant:
>_____________________________________
>
>Network Solutions Blocking Transfers
>
>
>From: David Work
>
>I may have missed this discussion, but I thought everyone might like to know
>what Network Solutions is doing to discourage domain transfers.
>
>In the good ol' days, you could request a transfer from NSI to another
>registrar. The new registrar would make the request, the admin contact would
>approve the request, and the "losing registrar" couldn't block the request
>unless the domain owner owed money or the registration had expired.
>
>According to NSI, they used to send confirmations to the admin contact too
>(a needless redundancy, but harmless). If the confirmation was NOT responded
>to, NSI considered the transfer request to be accepted, and would make the
>transfer.
>
>About 20 days ago, NSI changed the process. If the confirmation was not
>responded to, NSI considered the transfer request NOT accepted, and would
>let the transfer time out. That is, NSI blocked the transfer if *their*
>confirmation was not responded to, regardless of the fact that the customer
>is the one who requested the transfer in the first place and had already
>confirmed the transfer with the "winning registrar".
>
>In my case, I have never (ever) received an administrative contact Tracking
>Number for domain transfers, so ... as of 20 days ago ... my domain
>transfers started timing out. Without notice. Until today, not a single
>support rep could tell me what was going on.
>
>Its actually worse than that. According to the rep, NSI's transfer system
>has been broken for weeks and transfers away from NSI aren't working very
>well, if at all!
>
>I believe that NSI hid this problem from its employees in an effort to put
>the screws to domain transfers. After all, if the domain expires, then you
>*have* to renew the domain registration with them. If you get confused,
>impatient or irritated, you'll probably just keep your domain registered
>with Network Solutions because its an incredible headache to deal with them
>and their ludicrous and complicated procedures.
>
>If this breakdown was a result of a problem with a new release/upgrade of
>their software, as the customer service rep suggested, NSI should have done
>what any competent provider would have done - roll back to the most recent
>version that still worked. I have to believe that they *are* competent, so
>the only conclusion is that the "problems" they've been having for the last
>three weeks have been deliberate.
>
>Here's the good news. According to the person I spoke with today, NSI will
>not charge for domains that can't be transferred and have to be renewed
>through them because their system is broken. All you have to do is call them
>(get put on hold for an hour, but we all have headsets and other things to
>do, right?) and request a credit. Time and effort will tell.
>
>My registrar is Tucows. This is what they have to say about this recent
>change: http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/registrars/Arc01/msg00706.html
>
>----end---
>
>
>I can attest to this, having experienced this very problem in June.  I
>began a domain transfer process, and NSI let the request time out despite
>the hours I spent on the phone (on hold) and emails to their customer
>support staff.  By the time the request timed out and we started the
>procedure all over again, the domain expiration date was looming, and in an
>attempt to protect my client's interest, I went ahead and paid the fee to
>NSI.  I received a confirmation email from NSI that the transfer has been
>approved, but I'm not convinced that the problem has been solved.
>
>Has anyone on this list experienced the same problem?  How can we, as
>(former) customers get restitution for this?  I never got to speak to a
>human being at NSI about the issue.
>
>Andrea Meyers <arm0110@yahoo.com>
>
>
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