Cheaper or Service?

[Harry]

I'm just wondering about a topic I was thinking of earlier. What do most of you look for in registering domains? Do you usually go for the cheapest priced one? Do you look for service more? Or do you not really care about the price, as long as it's within a certain budget?

I'm just curious to see what people think about the matter.

 

[ldcdc]

What do most of you look for in registering domains?

Enough recommendations from people I trust. Price is not a factor in my decision, provided that I don't feel like I'm overpaying.

 

[Lesli]

I'd say: 1) decent price; and 2) hassle-free purchasing and management.

I've been with GoDaddy since 1999. Before that, I was with Network Solutions. I originally noticed GoDaddy in 1997, but waited for a little while to see if I noticed anything incredibly wretched before moving to their service. The only service of theirs I use - or want to use - is their registrar service. (I've heard not-so-wonderful stories about their other services, and I'm really big on not putting all my eggs in one basket.)

GoDaddy's recent practice of rampant upselling is also a bit irritating. When I check out, I don't want offers of this, and that, and everything under the sun. It just ticks me off. To that effect, I'm looking at gradually switching to a different registrar. Yes, it might not be the rock-bottom lowest prices. But GoDaddy's behavior is beginnign to annoy me - and fortunately, they're not the only game in town.

 

[Harry]

I'd say: 1) decent price; and 2) hassle-free purchasing and management.

I've been with GoDaddy since 1999. Before that, I was with Network Solutions. I originally noticed GoDaddy in 1997, but waited for a little while to see if I noticed anything incredibly wretched before moving to their service. The only service of theirs I use - or want to use - is their registrar service. (I've heard not-so-wonderful stories about their other services, and I'm really big on not putting all my eggs in one basket.)

GoDaddy's recent practice of rampant upselling is also a bit irritating. When I check out, I don't want offers of this, and that, and everything under the sun. It just ticks me off. To that effect, I'm looking at gradually switching to a different registrar. Yes, it might not be the rock-bottom lowest prices. But GoDaddy's behavior is beginnign to annoy me - and fortunately, they're not the only game in town.

This is one of the reasons why I'm thinking of opening my own registrar. In other words, getting a reseller account and moving my domains in there and/or selling domains. I'm thinking of starting the 1st month off with a discount such as $7.50 for new domains and $6.50 for transfers.

But I agree with you there, a good price range, easy access/registration and good support is something we all look for. I've noticed though, so far I haven't had anyone email me over issues. The only issues I can think of, that any domain registrar would have is billing errors or transfers that didn't go through properly.

 

[G_om]

But I think if you want to avoid any billing errors you have to read their TOS very thoroughly. But what are they?

 

[ANMMark]

On the original topic, you must ask yourself this question with every service you subscribe to, in any industry.

Let's look at an example:

Cellphones:
One company seems expensive, but another is pretty cheap. So, since you're looking to save some money, you go with the cheaper company. While in the store, you test the phone by making a call, etc, and the call goes through great, etc. So you buy, and enter into a 1 year contract.

You leave the store, happy with your purchase, and happy with yourself for saving money. So now, while in your car, you decide to call your friend up, and tell him all about your new phone, only to find that in the parking lot of the store, you have no reception. You strike it up to location, and decide to wait until you're out of the parking lot. You get a little way down the road, and try the call again to find you still have no reception. In fact, you're starting to think that the only place you had reception was within the store itself.

You turn your car around and head back to the store to complain, and they tell you..."Yes, we are on a brand new network, and there are still a lot of areas where we do not have coverage." They hand you a coverage map, which has one little red dot on it, which appears to be the location of the store itself. So, you immediately ask to cancel your service. They reply with "No problem. There will be a $250 early contract cancellation fee."

This is the typical scenerio when choosing cheap over service.

 

[bandboy]

I go for pricing, support and ease to move domains in and out of the registrar.

Pricing though plays crucial role but not the only criteria for me to worry about.

 

[Mabus]

i usually go with reliable over cheap, look at what happened with everyone at registerfly, that is a perfect example. Everyone that had a domain with them knew they were not reliable, but they were cheap and still went with them. Enom dropped their reseller account due to their inability to be a reliable company and everyone has/had been left with no idea what was happening.

(I have not checked on the situation in like a week so, not sure if things have changed with them or not.)

 

[Dev4vip]

I'd say: 1) decent price; and 2) hassle-free purchasing and management.

GoDaddy's recent practice of rampant upselling is also a bit irritating. When I check out, I don't want offers of this, and that, and everything under the sun. It just ticks me off. To that effect, I'm looking at gradually switching to a different registrar. Yes, it might not be the rock-bottom lowest prices. But GoDaddy's behavior is beginnign to annoy me - and fortunately, they're not the only game in town.

I too had several domains with Godaddy, and been lately they been charging extra when you chekout, for an example if they say the domain is $8.95 and when you check out it will go upto $10.95 with all the bogus tax's and everthing and they even charge for pvt registration which is actually a free service hmmmmmmm

 

[webfreak08]

I too had several domains with Godaddy, and been lately they been charging extra when you chekout, for an example if they say the domain is $8.95 and when you check out it will go upto $10.95 with all the bogus tax's and everthing and they even charge for pvt registration which is actually a free service hmmmmmmm

$8.95 flat .com registration fee
+ $0.22 ICANN fee
__________________
$9.17 standard registration fee for .com domain names at GoDaddy.

Private registration is not a free service. The standard rate for that from GoDaddy is $6.99 and is free when you register or transfer three or more domains. Private registration costs GoDaddy money in the sense that they must maintain the records. Even though they display DomainsbyProxy, they must keep a note of which private registration matches up with which domain.

Of course, you can use a $6.95 .com coupon code, which will bring the final price to $7.17 after adding the $0.22 ICANN fee. If you read what you are purchasing, then there would not be any surprises at checkout.

 

[Dev4vip]

$8.95 flat .com registration fee
+ $0.22 ICANN fee
__________________
$9.17 standard registration fee for .com domain names at GoDaddy.

As i can remember there were no ICANN fee sometime back, and it was just 8.95 and i wonder why they came up with ICANN fee out of no where, coz there are many other domain registrars who sell the same domain extensions for 8.95 or even less without the ICANN fee

and abt the pvt registrations, maybe domain by proxy charge for it, but like i said there are may others who provide the same service for free

And as someone mentioned earlier on in this thread or another one, the person who buy the domain name has the legitimate rite to decide whether to disclose his/her contact details or not and no one can forcibly make them to disclose their contacts details or to come up with some crazy idea to make money out of another persons contact details. Coz i don’t think we hv to get so low to earn money. you should always practice ethical business strategies rather than using unethical means to generate revenue

 

[webfreak08]

the person who buy the domain name has the legitimate rite to decide whether to disclose his/her contact details or not

You are incorrect. It is ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED for someone to provide accurate contact information or have a privacy service of some kind.

no one can forcibly make them to disclose their contacts details

You are incorrect. Have you heard of a court order?

Coz i don’t think we hv to get so low to earn money. you should always practice ethical business strategies rather than using unethical means to generate revenue

I completely agree with you. However, I fail to see how selling private registrations is "so low" and unethical.

It is possible you are misinformed on some issues because you are from a different country. Where are you from?

 

[Dev4vip]

You are incorrect. It is ABSOLUTELY REQUIRED for someone to provide accurate contact information or have a privacy service of some kind.

You are incorrect. Have you heard of a court order?

Yes i have heard of court orders coz it happens pretty often, your not getting wot im saying Mr. webfreak08 and its the domain registrar job to maintain accurate information and provide them when it is needed for legal issues, i agree with that. wot im saying is that, there's no need to charge additionally to keep the records, i mean itz anyways there when you become a customer, and you pay for it already. So in this case you have to pay for the product and then again for keeping your records. As a customer i only intend to pay for wot i purchase and not for anything else.

and your point is that it takes lot of money to maintain these records so therefore you have to charge for those as well, and if thats the case, there are many other ways that you can cover up those costs, without putting the burden on the customer. And now don’t ask me wot are those ways coz its upto the company and it can be anything depending on their business goals.

 

[Blue]

and your point is that it takes lot of money to maintain these records so therefore you have to charge for those as well, and if thats the case, there are many other ways that you can cover up those costs, without putting the burden on the customer. And now don’t ask me wot are those ways coz its upto the company and it can be anything depending on their business goals.

So why don't you offer your products for free?
You can cover the costs many ways.
Don't ask me what those ways are but they exist and they should be built into your business plan.

 

[Dev4vip]

So why don't you offer your products for free?
You can cover the costs many ways.
Don't ask me what those ways are but they exist and they should be built into your business plan.

Yes of course,....we do not charge for Pvt registration, its free for all our loyal clients and We even offer free domain names provided the fact that certain conditions are met and it certainly is built into our business plan :thumbsup:

 

[bandboy]

Yes of course,....we do not charge for Pvt registration, its free for all our loyal clients

You are reselling Directi domains and Directi offers free WhoIs protection, so its built into reseller programme from Directi. I bet, if you wanted to curtail whoIS protection of any of your so called *NOT so loyal* customers, you can't. Point is you are reselling what is being passed to you, so in a way presenting as if the service is free for loyal clients, makes me guess, you have few clients who are not loyal to you or may be use of word loyal is misleading. What is meaning of word 'loyal' and what criteria do you have for labelling a client as 'loyal'? Does that depend upon annual prepayment of hosting plans? So, if someone was to buy a month's hosting, can you disable their whois protection, because as per criteria they wouldn't be loyal and since they aren't loyal, they don't get free whois protection.

 

[Dev4vip]

You are reselling Directi domains and Directi offers free WhoIs protection, so its built into reseller programme from Directi. I bet, if you wanted to curtail whoIS protection of any of your so called *NOT so loyal* customers, you can't. Point is you are reselling what is being passed to you, so in a way presenting as if the service is free for loyal clients, makes me guess, you have few clients who are not loyal to you or may be use of word loyal is misleading. What is meaning of word 'loyal' and what criteria do you have for labelling a client as 'loyal'? Does that depend upon annual prepayment of hosting plans? So, if someone was to buy a month's hosting, can you disable their whois protection, because as per criteria they wouldn't be loyal and since they aren't loyal, they don't get free whois protection.

There are limitations when it comes to everything my friend, We are running a business not a charity, but we are still committed to provide the best for our clients. Its always better to offer something as an incentive rather than giving it away for free and expect notrhing in return, Coz there's an opportunity cost in everything so you have to balance it. :thumbsup:

 

[bandboy]

there's an opportunity cost in everything so you have to balance it. :thumbsup:

Impressive to say the least and well said. Anyways, you still bypassed the query- "What is the criteria for labelling a client loyal"?

 

[Mark07]

Obviously it should be in the budget as it matters with the domains but at the same time service is also vital in this case.