Taking Domain Control Back from the Registrar? 101
Patrick Clinger asks: "I run a large community Web site, and today I woke up to find that one of my domain names (proboards21.com) was disabled by my unnamed registrar -- my name servers were changed to NS1/NS2.SUSPENDED-FOR.SPAM-AND-ABUSE.COM and I no longer have access to that domain in my control panel. I am in no way involved in any spam activities, and the registration for my domain expires in 2007. I would expect at least a courtesy call or an email letting me know what happened, but neither was provided by the unnamed registrar. What can you do when suddenly a registrar goes off and takes control of your domain when there was no violation of your agreement with them? What is to prevent any registrar from taking over any domain when they feel like it? Right now my domain is in limbo, waiting for them to hopefully restore it to the correct name servers."
do a domain transfer (Score:3, Informative)
GoDaddy is register with the BBB (Score:3, Informative)
Hate to karma whore, but... (so don't mod this up) (Score:2, Informative)
Give them a call! (Score:3, Informative)
Did you read this? (Score:5, Informative)
suspicious (Score:3, Informative)
seems to be working fine now. 7pm PST 2/25
Who to contact, and why to stay with 'em. (Score:5, Informative)
I must say that I'm very surprised by this response. I've had an extraordinarily positive experience with them, particularly BECAUSE of their anti-spam policy. They are very serious about complaints, but when I filed one, were definitely very careful about not arbitrarily shutting the spammer down just because *I said* they were a spammer. They contacted the spammer first, went back and forth with them and myself for a few days, and then shut them down when they would not stop.
Based on my experience from the other side of the equation, you should have been contacted first. I'm surprised that you weren't. I would suggest contacting the President, Bob Parsons' office. When I called, I was told that he kept his number fairly easy to access because he prefers to be more hands-on and accessible to customers. I'm sure that he doesn't take the calls personally (I got voicemail when I called), but was told later that the issue had been referred by him personally to the abuse dept manager, who called me back.
The " Office of The President" number is (480) 505-8828, and the e-mail address is president@godaddy.com [mailto]. Give 'em a call, and a chance. Everyone has given some variation of "you get what you pay for", but this customer has gotten far more than that in the past.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Possible reason (Score:3, Informative)
Example
Example
Example
My guess is that complaints about the spammer went to GoDaddy rather than you. Did you receive complaints? Do you, I hope, have an abuse@proboards21.com address set up...
A quick trip to http://www.proboards.com/, his main web site, shows that he is giving away free sub domains. My guess is that a spammer screwed him, and his registrar helped. Goes to show you, no act of kindness goes unpunished.
transfer it (Score:3, Informative)
Just transfer the domain to another registrar - you won't lose anything other than a registrar you aren't happy with (i.e. the existing time on the registration is extended by a year).
(Shameless plug: We offer domain name [omegasphere.net] registration for $10.95/year.)
Re:More Details (Score:3, Informative)
I highly recommend directNIC.com [directnic.com]. They have a great interface, great customer service, good prices and most importantly, they don't pull crap like that. There is a reason why so many adult companies register their domains through them. Of course, they are great for anyone, but they certainly don't shut off your domain because of a few spam complaints.
Re:Umm, call them? (Score:5, Informative)
It looks like you've allowed Go Daddy a lot of room to screw you. INAL, so I don't know how much of that contract is actually legal, but if they were acting on spam complaints, you're probably going to have to spend a lot of money to get much out of them. Did you call them yet?
Re:More Details (Score:4, Informative)
You appear to be listed [openrbl.org] on four blocklists.
You might want to keep a closer eye on your customers in the future...
Manage your own DNS servers (Score:1, Informative)
1. I set up a DNS server 2. Transferred ALL domains to www.register.com 3. I changed all the DNS records for those domains to my DNS server. Cheap, easy and if you ever want a MX change or whatever, you don't have to wait ages for you provider to change and replicate. Not ment as advertisement for register, there are many like them, but that is what I did 2 years ago and I never want to go back.