OT: Forced domain name renewal

[MarkPSU]

This might be one of the stranger requests for expertise on this board. Some history - I started my own company in 1996 and had someone set up a website for me. In 2016 I hired another firm to redesign/upgrade my site and take over "hosting" or whatever. My current provider did not renew the domain this March, and for whatever reason he's listed as the owner (I have no idea how that happened or why it was set up that way) Anyway, he's now in jail and not cooperating with anyone. I've gone round and round with domain.com and everyone associated with it....trying to explain that I am the business owner and the "domain owner" is in jail and can't or won't renew the domain. I've provided all sorts of documentation regarding who I am, etc.. My attorney has been in touch with his attorney to get the answer to his security question so we can go in and simply renew. Outside of a court order compelling him to provide that info or waiting until my domain expires and goes on the open market, I'm at a loss. My website is down, my email is down, and this is costing me business.

 

[LionDeNittany]

This might be one of the stranger requests for expertise on this board. Some history - I started my own company in 1996 and had someone set up a website for me. In 2016 I hired another firm to redesign/upgrade my site and take over "hosting" or whatever. My current provider did not renew the domain this March, and for whatever reason he's listed as the owner (I have no idea how that happened or why it was set up that way) Anyway, he's now in jail and not cooperating with anyone. I've gone round and round with domain.com and everyone associated with it....trying to explain that I am the business owner and the "domain owner" is in jail and can't or won't renew the domain. I've provided all sorts of documentation regarding who I am, etc.. My attorney has been in touch with his attorney to get the answer to his security question so we can go in and simply renew. Outside of a court order compelling him to provide that info or waiting until my domain expires and goes on the open market, I'm at a loss. My website is down, my email is down, and this is costing me business.

I believe that after a month or so of non-renewal the domain is free and you can relicense it on domains.google.com

Not sure how important the domain is... or how valuable it is to chinese hackers, but once the time is complete you can grab it.

Just to be clear. There's an end date. Then there's a sort of waiting period. Then free.

LdN

 

[Obliviax]

This might be one of the stranger requests for expertise on this board. Some history - I started my own company in 1996 and had someone set up a website for me. In 2016 I hired another firm to redesign/upgrade my site and take over "hosting" or whatever. My current provider did not renew the domain this March, and for whatever reason he's listed as the owner (I have no idea how that happened or why it was set up that way) Anyway, he's now in jail and not cooperating with anyone. I've gone round and round with domain.com and everyone associated with it....trying to explain that I am the business owner and the "domain owner" is in jail and can't or won't renew the domain. I've provided all sorts of documentation regarding who I am, etc.. My attorney has been in touch with his attorney to get the answer to his security question so we can go in and simply renew. Outside of a court order compelling him to provide that info or waiting until my domain expires and goes on the open market, I'm at a loss. My website is down, my email is down, and this is costing me business.

jebus...sorry to hear.

My company serves over 2,000,000 users. It was started ~ 2010 and the domain registered with GoDaddy. It was on the primary owners credit card. Last fall, we were acquired. When they changed payments over, someone forgot to set the payment up as recurring and GoDaddy shut it down. We found the problem and paid it in 20 minutes. However, we found that non--payment put us on the blacklist. This means anyone trying to use that domain name was blocked. This is done by Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Comcast, etc. Further, we found that because these are all conglomerates put together via merger, they all had different processes per region. I, and several others, spent three days calling them and their various affiliates, to get off the blacklist and get working again. For the most part, we were down for three days. (again, 2,000,000 users). It was the most painful experience of my professional career.

I don't have any helpful advice other than good luck with it. The system seems to be a black hole that is not easily navigated.

 

[slykens]

Has his attorney been cooperative in trying to help? The simplest solution would be to get the password to the domain registrar account and pay immediately through there then transfer the domain.

Unfortunately I don’t think there’s any quick fix to this because the process has been redesigned to prevent domain name theft. Any other process likely requires court involvement - suing for possession which you would likely win by default or asserting a trademark claim both will take a lot of time.

In the short term can you register a similar domain and point it to your email and websites so you can at least conduct limited business?

 

[ThePennsyOracle]

You could also go a totally different route and pay someone to "guess" the password.

 

[LemonEars]

This might be one of the stranger requests for expertise on this board. Some history - I started my own company in 1996 and had someone set up a website for me. In 2016 I hired another firm to redesign/upgrade my site and take over "hosting" or whatever. My current provider did not renew the domain this March, and for whatever reason he's listed as the owner (I have no idea how that happened or why it was set up that way) Anyway, he's now in jail and not cooperating with anyone. I've gone round and round with domain.com and everyone associated with it....trying to explain that I am the business owner and the "domain owner" is in jail and can't or won't renew the domain. I've provided all sorts of documentation regarding who I am, etc.. My attorney has been in touch with his attorney to get the answer to his security question so we can go in and simply renew. Outside of a court order compelling him to provide that info or waiting until my domain expires and goes on the open market, I'm at a loss. My website is down, my email is down, and this is costing me business.

I run a small website design company and know a little bit about this. I have never encountered your exact problem.

If your website and email are down, that tells me your domain name has expired. Each domain name needs to be registered every year for a modest cost (I pay $19.95 each year for each of my domain names. I use a company called Site5 Hosting for domain registration and for site hosting.) It is usual for the domain names to be registered in the name of the provider rather than the company. That is the case for the 10 or so active sites that I administer. The domain names are all registered to me.

Can't you just contact the hosting company (like GoDaddy, etc.) and explain your predicament? It must be common. They might just renew the domain for the nominal yearly fee and you would be back in business.

If this doesn't work you always have the option to pick a new domain name, register it, upload your current site files to the new domain name, and then you are back in business. If you do this, you will want to have an automatic redirect from your current domain name to the new one. If someone types in the current address they will be seamlessly transferred to the new domain name.

 

[UncleLar]

I run a small website design company and know a little bit about this. I have never encountered your exact problem.

If your website and email are down, that tells me your domain name has expired. Each domain name needs to be registered every year for a modest cost (I pay $19.95 each year for each of my domain names. I use a company called Site5 Hosting for domain registration and for site hosting.) It is usual for the domain names to be registered in the name of the provider rather than the company. That is the case for the 10 or so active sites that I administer. The domain names are all registered to me.

Can't you just contact the hosting company (like GoDaddy, etc.) and explain your predicament? It must be common. They might just renew the domain for the nominal yearly fee and you would be back in business.

If this doesn't work you always have the option to pick a new domain name, register it, upload your current site files to the new domain name, and then you are back in business. If you do this, you will want to have an automatic redirect from your current domain name to the new one. If someone types in the current address they will be seamlessly transferred to the new domain name.

If I were someone who hired you to design my website, I'd sure as hell changed this immediately. This is exactly the problem that the OP is describing. The business should be the owner of the domain, not you.

 

[LemonEars]

If I were someone who hired you to design my website, I'd sure as hell changed this immediately. This is exactly the problem that the OP is describing. The business should be the owner of the domain, not you.

I am personal friends with the owners of every business that I deal with. Thus, there isn't much hazard in my being the domain name owner. Also, the business owners tell me they don't want any part of dealing with a hosting company. They want me to handle everything.

I agree with you that the business owner should own the domain name if their website design team isn't personal friends with them. That would avoid MarkPSU's problem. Of course, Mark would have had to deal with the hosting company. He would be involved in picking passwords, paying bills, etc. My clients just want to have a website and don't want any dealings with the hosting company whatsoever. They are consumed with running their businesses and don't want to learn anything about website design or hosting.

One thing I have done is provided each client with "an emergency CD". This is in case I get hit by a bus or murdered by a renegade pitt fan. The emergency CD has all the site files and all the password info to get into their domain on the hosting company website. I use Dreamweaver for site design so I also have instructions on how to set up their site on Dreamweaver. The CD also has a file that tells them step by step what to do if I happen to vanish.

 

[UncleLar]

I am personal friends with the owners of every business that I deal with. Thus, there isn't much hazard in my being the domain name owner.

Right. No friendship has ever gone south.

It's a bad business practice period - no matter how friendly you are with all ten of them. There's absolutely no reason that a website administrator has to own the domain name. This is a problem waiting to happen.