Am I being taken for a ride ?

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vrmanoj

New member
I was having a website ( www.vrmanoj.com ) hosted by one company for over five years. I got an offer letter from another company and sent my payment to them, misunderstandig that this was a renewal letter and the company had changed. My older hosting company has pulled down my site and says that :

"Since the domain vrmanoj.com has not been renewed on time and also has not been renewed within renewal grace period of 30 days; the same has pushed to redemption period by the domain registrar now. In this case; we will not be able to renew this domain at normal domain renewal charges. Also we will not be able to provide any domain management control panel details for the same.

The site www.vrmanoj.com was down from 05th Sept. 08 onwards due to non-renewal of domain. You should have contacted us earlier about the issue at least via email; so we could have helped you for renewal of site."

Upon asking the rate of renewal for my site, they have quoted a sum that is very high for the renewal of my domain name. Is what they claim true ? I ask this because when I did a whois on my domain name (vrmanoj.com), I can see that it is validated to me till september of 2009 !!!

The tragic thing is I have lost my login details and password for the domain control panel and don't remember who my domain registrar is. How do I make a proper decision to get my domain name back ?
I have requested my earlier hosting company for details of the same but doubt that they would give it to me. Please help !

Or is there a way to directly contact my domain registrar and get the details from them ? I don't know how to find them using a whois ! :crash::help:
 
Your domain registrar seems to be www.enom.com Your name and contact information is listed in domain's Whois as well.

Have you registered the domain through the web hosting company or through a separate entity?
 
If it is enom as Artashes mentioned then see if you can recover the password. There must be some information that you can provide to allow them to email you something back.
 
Please help !

I registered the domain through a web hosting company. I contacted them again and they told me it was enom indeed. I contacted enom and they told me the following :

"Hello,

Thank you for contacting us about your domain. Please be advised that this domain's registration has expired, and the initial grace period during which time it could have been renewed at the regular rate has passed. However, the domain is now in the redemption period and can be recovered for an additional fee to the previous owner only.

This domain is currently registered through one of our resellers (information below). You will need to contact the reseller for account information and domain assistance as you do not have a direct account with us.

You and your reseller will need to work together outside of this ticket as they do not have access to our ticketing system. This ticket will now have a closed status.

We appreciate your extra efforts to resolve this issue. "

The mailing address of the reseller that enom has given me exactly matches with that of the hosting company, except for the name of an individual. This is what the hosting company had to say in an earlier mail :

"Once the domain gets expired; the management control panel details provided
earlier stops working. This is because this control panel do not have link
to renew domain. You need to get in touch with domain provider to renew the
domain and get the domain & related management control panel activated.

Anyways the original domain registrar for your domain vrmanoj.com is Enom
Inc. "


The annual cost the hosting company claims is needed to remove the block is very high for me as a research student to pay up. I have been their customer for over five years ( since 2003) and this is how they respond to me for defaulting just once !!!

Are they trying to milk me because I now know that the address of the reseller and the hosting company is the same ? Can they just quote any price higher than the earlier low price ? Is there a legal recourse for such issues ? What can be done in such cases ?

Please help ! :help:
 
They are probably not lying in regards to the cost of redemption.
As soon as a domain goes into redemption the registrar, in this case Enom, charges an exhorbidant price to recover it. Most likely in the hundreds of dollars.
Unfortunately this is now out of your hands and there is nothing the host can do to lower the price.

Your old company really should have alerted you about the domain name expiry.
 
still doubtful !

Then why do they (Enom) say the following :

"However, the domain is now in the redemption period and can be recovered for an additional fee to the previous owner only."

and

"You and your reseller will need to work together outside of this ticket as they do not have access to our ticketing system. This ticket will now have a closed status."

Does this mean that the reseller has to pay this higher price to Enom to reactivate the domain name ?

or

does it mean that the reseller has set the high price to me, the customer ?

and

why does the whois display of my domain "vrmanoj.com" still say the expiration date is not till September 2009 ?

If what both parties say is true, then the domain name would be released to the domain pool on the end of the expiry date after which it can be purchased again ?:crash:
 
The expiration date is September 2009 because Enom renewed it in their own name in order to try and make money from traffic. Notice the holding page your site now directs to. This is an Enom traffic revenue page.

Your reseller does not set the price. Enom does so the reseller has to pay whatever price Enom asks.
 
In a way I think you are being taken for the ride, but its seems that the mistake is on your hosting provider shoulders. If you registered the domain with them and they have been managing the domain for you, it was their responsibility to email you in advance notifying of domain expiration.

The price your hosting company is asking is probably the price Enom asks of them, so they are not trying to cheat you - it just what it costs to get the domain back now. However, as Blue mentioned, and I agree, the hosting company (whether its new or old management) should have contacted you about this before.

My suggestion is that if the name is important to you - pay the price, THEN request credit for this from your hosting provider. If the circumstances is how you describe and they acknowledge their fault, there is a chance they might credit you for their mistake.

Good luck.
 
They are so evil !

I had no idea that a simple delay in payment could be so completely exploited by a domain registrar :devil:! Such a pity that nothing can be done about this as a student customer like me simply does not have the money power !

I can't blame my hosting company either except that they could have reminded me properly with a snail mail ! But surely they would never accept their mistake.:agree:

I have decided to host my website with the same company under a different domain name as my content is with them.:sad:

This totally sucks !:crash:

Thanks so much for all your advices !:agree:
 
That is usually the best plan unless the site generates considerable revenue.

Eventually that domain will become available again because it will not generate revenue for the registrar.
When that happens you can register it again and redirect it to your new site.
 
It's always a good idea to register domain names through well known companies with a good reputation. I know that there are even some hosting companies who offer free domains with their hosting plans and afterwards blackmail their customers into staying with them.

Always pay for your domain name and make sure you own the domain name. Well known ICANN accredited registrars like ENom or Godaddy are good choices.
 
This is shear bad luck and carelessness on your hosting companies part and even your part.
Enom are known to charge very high rates for domains that are left by their owners and want to be reclaimed.
 
Cut your losses

I think you should put this down to a bad experience and move on - there are plenty more domain names out there although I do understand that it is disheartening to lose one you have hosted for so long.. Good luck with whatever you do!
 
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