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The Internet

Recovering Domains from Negligent Registrars? 430

Posted by Cliff from the customer-is-always-screwed dept.
Mousit asks: "I am curious on how fellow Slashdot readers have dealt with negligent and unresponsive registrars. For a few years or so now, I've been using Jump Domain as my registrar for the domains I own and maintain. This was originally by choice, but for the last year or two it has been by force. I lost a domain to them early last year when I attempted to renew it and the automated process failed, putting it into a 'pending' status in wait for 'manual intervention' as the message told me. This intervention never happened, support tickets about it were never answered, and on top of it my money was never refunded. The domain simply lapsed, expired, and nothing was done about it. Have others experienced similar problems with Jump Domain or any other registrar, and what did they do to recover their domains? Is it even possible? Short of getting a lawyer, the options seem rather slim when a registrar decides to simply ignore you and eat your domains (and your money)."
"Attempts to transfer my domains to other registrars failed for nebulous reasons which were always attributed to Jump Domain's fault and never satisfactorily explained, at least for the .com domains. Since I can't get JD to answer their support tickets, I have never been able to obtain the EPP codes needed for transfering .org domains. I am effectively trapped in Jump Domain's service, and I am losing domains one by one. The story is currently in repetition, with two more domains now stuck in "pending" status. Support tickets are again unanswered, and this time I even have a couple telephone numbers. One simply rings endlessly, while the other answers with a machine for Jump Domain Hosting support. My messages there have gone unanswered. One domain has already lapsed into expiration as of Saturday, the other will go this Thursday.

It's worth noting that Jump Domain used to be a reseller for TUCOWS, but they appear to have been dropped. They are now reselling for the sometimes infamous eNom instead. Considering even TUCOWS couldn't get a response out of JD during the previous lost domain episode, I'm not surprised they had to change. I have contacted eNom but was summarily told I need to deal with Jump Domain, and was given no further help from them."
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Recovering Domains from Negligent Registrars? More

Recovering Domains from Negligent Registrars?

Comments Filter:

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @04:38PM (#12216356)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:The Three Point Plan (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @04:46PM (#12216433)
      Slashdot Parse Error, Paragraph 1: Option #3 of business plan not literal "Profit!". Re-enter.
    • 3) Therafter, as an example of them doing good, they would give you whatever you wanted as a publicity stunt to get their credibility back.

      Also known as suing your socks off in a defamation suit. Even if you're right, it'll cost ya.

    • Re:The Three Point Plan (Score:5, Funny)

      by Otter ( 3800 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @04:48PM (#12216457) Journal
      4) Mend fences with them by submitting a new story about how they made things right with you.

      5) Hemos posts a dupe of your original complaint.

    • Re:The Three Point Plan (Score:5, Informative)

      by Mousit ( 646085 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @07:20PM (#12218171)
      Considering I'd all but exhausted all the other options, yes, getting it out on Slashdot was actually an intentional plan. It also worked, though not with JD itself.

      On calling again, I was able to talk with eNom's Transfers and Registration Manager, whom actually connected my story as related over the phone, to this article. Imagine that! I was provided EPP codes, and my .com domains were unlocked, including the expired one. Under eNom's system, an expired domain that is not in hold or lock, can be transferred. Thus, provided these transfers go through, I get everything back.

      Jump Domain doesn't get their credibility back, but I still win. Hah.

    • Jumpdomain is one man: Scott Ison (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @08:58PM (#12219049)
      Jumpdomain is my former registrar. I too lost a domain to Scott Ison's bullshit. he runs Jumpdomain himself, as an easy way to make cash. it's an easy way to watch cash roll in because he does not perform any support for the domains he sells.

      anyway, if you have a problem with his policies, you should call his home phone number: (816) 228 - 1901. his home address is unlisted but he lives in Blue Springs, MO.

      sorry to post this anonymously, but Scott Ison is also a lawyer.

      • SCOTT ISON'S ADDRESS (Score:3, Informative)

        by lorcha ( 464930 )
        SCOTT A ISON (Born Sep 1973)
        400 JOY CT [google.com]
        BLUE SPRINGS, MO 64014-3980

        I was also able to turn up another phone number for him: (816) 228-1998. No idea if it works, though. A reverse directory lookup [google.com] shows that that number is for Jump Domain, LLC.

        Dear Scott: This info was retrieved from the public records. Your privacy was not violated in any way shape or form. Have a nice day.

    • Re:The Three Point Plan (Score:4, Informative)

      by wayne ( 1579 ) <wayne@schlitt.net> on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @09:13PM (#12219192) Homepage Journal
      1) get a front page article on Slashdot slandering said registrar with negative publicity.

      Truth is a 100% defense against charges of slander and libel. I can't speak for the submitter, but I am very willing to testify in court that almost the exact thing has happened with me and jumpdomain.

      See this slashdot post [slashdot.org] for more details of my case.

  • Registrar vs Registrar (Score:5, Interesting)

    by fembots ( 753724 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @04:39PM (#12216359) Homepage
    From my experience, it's quite effective if you find another registrar to take over the domain hosting. They're in the same business, and will go the extra mile to secure new clients.

    Most of the time it's because we don't know what/where to ask, that's why you need lawyers to defend even the most obvious case.
    • RTFA:

      "Attempts to transfer my domains to other registrars failed for nebulous reasons "
      • I think the grandparent is suggesting that the article's poster actually pose the same question to a third-party registrar (rather than slashdot), which isn't a bad idea at all.

        In other words, rather than just trying to transfer the domain using automatic means, he might try getting in touch with a third party registrar's service line. They might know the best way to get this resolved, and might even have certain mutual contacts that could easily put them in touch with Jump Domain.

    • Re:Registrar vs Registrar (Score:5, Informative)

      by Zocalo ( 252965 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @04:54PM (#12216521) Homepage
      As an addendum, I'd suggest making that other registrar Verisign. While they are expensive and have quite loathesome business practices of their own, they *are* the ultimate power for the .com and .net gTLDs. That should give them a little more leverage than other registrar in extracting your domains from Jump Domain's grasp.

      Once you've hopefully got all your domains moved over to Verisign you can then transfer them out to another, more cost effective and ethical registrar, at your convenience. While Verisign isn't the best at this, they have cleaned up their act considerably since their recent fiascos like sex.com, so you should be OK. You might have to pay a little over the odds for Verisign's services, but that's got to be preferrable to losing your domains altogether, hasn't it?

      Oh, and on the subject of sex.com, you should at least talk to a lawyer about this. You've lost several domains through the negligence of Jump Domain, and the sex.com owner made a killing (on paper) from a similar situation. While you are probably not in the same territory as that, that case might be enough incentive to convince a lawyer to take the case for you in order to wet his beak in a potentially lucrative damages claim.

      • Theres a couple differences between this and sex.com:

        1) The original of sex.com is quite wealthy in his own right (porn king) and was able to pursue years of litigation and

        2) The sex.com domain was immensely lucrative, worth over a million dollars a year in advertising revenue. Payment for this lost money was the majority of the damages the original owner received.

      • Re:Registrar vs Registrar; how about restricing (Score:4, Insightful)

        by davidsyes ( 765062 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @05:49PM (#12217193) Homepage Journal
        registrars.

        Who the hell even had the power to create a lease/lien situation on domains for these entities?

        It is now time to change by FORCE the model in which site name registrants own and control their names.

        For example, motorists in NO WAY surrender ownership of their to a toll booth operator when their car breaks down or runs out of gas on the road. The vehicle has a license, and it is allocated, issued, and annually or every two years checked by a DMV.

        For registrars to have a mafioso grip on domain names is insane, thievery, and unctuous. It ought to be ILLEGAL for a registrar to take the name of a defunct site operator or to sell it.

        However, the registrars will cry foul, and will also say they invest time, energy, research, and other resources into setting up and activating domains for users. Well, to me, that's no justification for locking an account.

        But, this BS stance can be alleviated simply by charging the applicant/registrant $10 more for an insurance fee that their domain will NEVER be locked, blocked, or obstructed and that the registrant can change to any registrar at any time, without any DNS-excusing mumbo-jumbo.

        Registrars should be forced to operate under a "toll road analogy" in which derelict or broken-down or abandoned vehicles (sites/domains) are tagged, warned, then towed, but NOT owned by the registrar. However, as is typical in modern corruption, sometimes tow companies are as unctuous as rogue and self-serving policy makers can be. SO, we need an electronic grave yard or tow yard which the site's owner can come to reclaim their site. SO, the boneyard/graveyard/towyards also are prohibited, under this model, from hijacking and extorting or bulk-selling off domain names.

        Yet, there IS the problem of cybersquatters and of those who don't in timely fashion reasonably respond to questions by other companies and domain holders about potential infringement of name or likeness. If people would be more reasonable about being a "player in the field" instead of impeding competitors who are doing a legitimate, fair job of competing, and if instead of unfairly sidling up to a domain name for unfair purposes people would cease or desist their acts, the registrars would by default be rightfully stripped of some of the inexplicable and far-ranging powers they wield over domain holders.

        I would propose that anyone registering for a domain would need to show intent or proof to use the domain imminently (as in under 10 to 20 days time). If they need more time, they could PARK the domain, provided it is for marketing or tactical reasons and not for mere cybersquatting or extortion purposes.

        I would propose that the domain contact details require that an identifiable person be physically cataloged if that person can appear before a local office. Otherwise, the business or non-profit or research entity registering a domain should be electronically tied to a city, county, state or federal employer/business registry. This would make it possible for legit companies to establish fair-play appearances.

        Individuals, or entities not actually doing business but intending to later convert to profit or non-profit business status, such as bloggers, certain reporters, and information sites should be required to personally register the domain via some utility-like office in their community (unless facial anonymity is a paramount requirement, in the case of authors or publishers of factual but contentious/controversial intellectual material/stories).

        That said, some measures may make my above suggestions irrelevant or partially covered. But, there also needs to be an implemented method to deter individuals and business or marketing entities from just making up and registering a warchest/ database of names that never get used, never get surrendered, and clog up the domain registration systems. Maybe an activity counter (possibly Google could do this but ONLY for a country in which that government ALLOWS Google to do this:) to in

  • Call the DA (Score:5, Informative)

    by EmagGeek ( 574360 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @04:40PM (#12216371) Journal
    Personally, if a registrar took my money with the understanding that they would be providing me a service in return, and then did not provide that service with obvious willful abandon and intent to remove my intellectual property from my possession (my domain is my IP), I would consider that an egregious act of fraud...

    But that's just me.. Your DA may or may not believe otherwise...

  • File a complaint, maybe? (Score:5, Informative)

    by d2_m_viant ( 811261 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @04:41PM (#12216381)
    Try filing a complaint [internic.net] with ICANN

    • Re:File a complaint, maybe? (Score:5, Funny)

      by EmagGeek ( 574360 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @04:42PM (#12216394) Journal
      Why has this not yet been modded +5: Funny?

    • Re:File a complaint, maybe? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Lendrick ( 314723 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @04:48PM (#12216462) Homepage Journal
      Yeah, 'cause ICANN definitely gives a fuck about the little guy.
    • I would hope that Icann would jump in and help out even if he is a little guy. I mean that's what they exist for right?

    • I am also a burnt customer of jumpdomain (Score:5, Informative)

      by wayne ( 1579 ) <wayne@schlitt.net> on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @09:08PM (#12219142) Homepage Journal
      Wow.

      I am *JUST* *NOW* managing to get my last five domains away from jumpdomain after a 6 month process. I'll post the messages I've sent at the end, but I'll give you a quick run down now.

      • I tried contacting jumpdomain many times via many different methods, including email, filing problem reports and phoning. Every such attempt failed to reach a human. The problem reports were never responded to and eventually they were deleted.
      • I have filed a complaint with internic earlier this year. It didn't do any good.
      • The contact point for eNom on the internic website is an email address that now bounces and used to go into a black hole.
      • I have *JUST* *TODAY* gotten good response to transfers@enom.com. Jason Cluphf was most helpful.
      • I had problems contacting tucows also, but fortunately the domains that I registered via jumpdomain that ended up at tucows were all .com and .net, and there is a new rule that by default, the transfers have to go through. The domains that I had with jumpdomain/enom were .org domains.
      Ok, the following is an email that I've sent in various forms to about a dozen different emails over the last 4 months.

      To: matt@enom.com, transfers@enom.com, abuse@enom.com
      Subject: I am having problems with your reseller, jumpdomain.com
      From: wayne
      Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2005 16:05:17 -0500
      Message-ID:

      Help!

      I got your email address from http://www.internic.net/registrars/registrar-48.ht ml

      Your eNom reseller, jumpdomain.com, appears to have dropped off the face of the earth. I have been using jumpdomain.com since the mid 90's, but now I'm having big problems with them.

      I need auth codes to transfer the following domains: elgin-watches.org elginwatch.org libspf2.org trusted-forwarder.org

      This is the second time this year I've tried to transfer these domains away from you and your reseller. The last time, I not only didn't get any response from your reseller, but I didn't get any response from you and the transfer timed out.

      I *WAS* able to transfer my .com domains away from you last January because when you didn't respond, the transfer went through by default. Unfortunately, there is no such policy for .org domains (yet).

      *** PLEASE DO SOMETHING ***

      On Oct 2, 2004, I renewed several domains, including elginwatches.org. All the other domains went through fine, but elginwatches.org remained in a "Pending" status. I didn't notice this until late Oct, but that wasn't a problem elginwatches.org didn't come up for renewal until Jan 11, 2005.

      On Nov 10, the domain still hadn't finished the renewal process, so I filed a trouble ticket with jumpdomain's support system. Nothing happened, but hey, there was still a couple of months. On Dec 02, I updated the trouble ticket pointing out that this needed to be fixed, but still nothing. No response from jumpdomain, and elginwatches.org was still "pending".

      On Dec 8, I still had no response from jumpdomain, so I filed another trouble ticket with a higher priority. On Dec 11, I got a 30-day warning about my From jumpdomain that and I replied to that message, filing another trouble ticket. Still no response.

      Unfortunately, I was busy during the holidays and didn't file another bug report until early Jan. A couple of days later, I notice that the bug report hadn't shown up, so I filed another one on Jan 8, this time marked as "urgent." I tried calling the Jumpdomain support line, even though they said that for domain registration, I was only supposed to use the web forms. Even during their limited support hours, I never was able to reach anyone.

      On Jan 10, I tried transfering my domains away from jumpdomain, but I am unable to complete the transaction because I can't get the "auth codes". Jumpdomain has no place on the their website to request them, and they haven't responded to my request for them via their web support system.

      I have continued to try and contact jumpdomain.com, but have still had zero luck getting *any* response from them.

  • Backordering? (Score:5, Informative)

    by iosmart ( 624285 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @04:42PM (#12216390)
    Depending on if anyone else is out there trying to grab your domain, I guess you can just let it fall and then buy it back through someone else. Or maybe you can try godaddy's back ordering system [godaddy.com]. This would also depend on if someone else is out there trying to grab it.

  • related question (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RelliK ( 4466 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @04:42PM (#12216393)
    What are the good/bad domain registrars? Is there a comprehensive list with feedback somewhere?

    • Domain Registrars (Score:2, Insightful)

      by some_yahoo ( 686674 )
      I have had no trouble at all with AllDomains.com. They notify me by mail and email when action is required, and they allow me to lock and auto-renew my domains brainlessly if I want. I'll give them a thumb's up, mostly because I just don't have to think about them - ever.
    • I've been pleased with 123reg.co.uk. They are relatively cheap, give competent access to update DNS entries, let you use your own DNS server (theirs as a secondary if you choose), and provide a simple mechanism for transferring a domain to another registrar if you should need to.
    • I use internic.ca [internic.ca] and I've never had a problem...
    • www.reg.ca

      Great service, good prices. They go the extra mile, and have real, live people answering questions.

      Funniest story was after I'd transfered a domain to them; I got an email from one of their techs asking about my DNS servers (which are named Lister, Kryten, and Rimmer) - he was apparently a big Red Dwarf Fan.

    • Re:related question (Score:4, Informative)

      by MythoBeast ( 54294 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @07:15PM (#12218133) Homepage Journal
      Avoid anybody who goes through Joker.com. Several IPS's have been using them as their registrar, and I have had to let a couple of my domains lapse and be re-registered in order to get them out of their clutches. They require a verification code in order to transfer .org domains, but won't tell you how to go about getting such a thing.

  • Always check beforehand (Score:3, Interesting)

    by flawedgeek ( 833708 ) <karldnorman.gmail@com> on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @04:42PM (#12216399)
    Sorry to hear about your plight, but unfortunately usually the only option left when the company does not respond is to seek legal action. I'm hardly a lawyer, but you might be able to recoup some of your legal costs by suing the company for them, but might not be such a good idea against today's armies of corporate lawyers.

    This sort of thing is exactly why I only use domain registrars and hosting companies that either have independent, positive feedback or ones that my friends use. One should always do their homework before going into something like this.
    • If there are uncontactable they proably *don't* have an "army of corporate lawyers", but rather it's "Bob" working out of his mother's basement who have no attorney at all.

      The good side of this is that you'll win your case and get your domain name back. The downside is that they are most likely judgement proof and you won't actually recover any damages.
    • Actually if he sues them for his money in small claims court, they can't send armies of lawyers.......

  • Small Claims Court? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @04:46PM (#12216439)
    OK, I'm assuming this is all occurring in the USA. If so, might it be possible to file a small claims action against them? The money is not large, but at least then you would have a legal decision on your side and perhaps help from the local prosecutors office (or sherrif) to enforce the judgement. It doesn't cost much to have a case heard in small claims court.

  • Try eNom again (Score:2, Informative)

    by GafferFish ( 852750 )
    Try contacting eNom again, and explain that you have made multiple attempts to contact the registrar but have not received a response. Detail your attempts. eNom surely has a procedure for transferring domain names to themselves when a reseller goes out of business or is uncontactable. They may also be more willing to help if you can find some sort of proof that Jump Domains is no longer in business.

  • Jumpdomain has fallen off the face of the earth (Score:5, Informative)

    by Johannes ( 33283 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @04:49PM (#12216476)

    I and and some friends have had the same problems described by you and others.

    Jumpdomain is not a registrar and is simply a reseller for OpenSRS (older domains) and eNom (newer domains). This is good since it means you can end run around them to get your domains transferred.

    There have been three problems I've had transferring domains:

    1) The admin email address is setup to be an auto@domains.jumpdomain.com (or something similar) which doesn't end up being delivered to the actual admin of the domain. This causes all of the automated transfer emails to not get delivered. You can update this information through OpenSRS at www.adminchange.com [adminchange.com]. I haven't needed to do this with eNom, but I'm guessing they have a similar process.

    2) Domain is locked. This is done specifically to prevent the transfer of the domain and is usually a good thing, but in this case, it's preventing you from using your domain. The Jumpdomain admin interface worked for a few domains, but others I had to contact OpenSRS or eNom directly.

    3) No way to access the EPP code needed for EPP registries (like .org and .us). I had to contact eNom directly and after explaining it was for Jumpdomain, they immediately sent the codes out to me.

    I highly suggest doing all of this before your domain expires, since you'll need to rewew your domain before you can do any transfers (you might be able to get away with a reseller to reseller transfer with OpenSRS if it's expired, but I don't remember for sure).

    Good luck!

  • IANAL, but it sounds like you have a fraud case at the least (paid for the service, but not received). If they're business domains you may be able to collect damages due to their negligence. If you can't afford a lawyer, just threaten one. Frequently a lawsuit will get a company's attention real quick. If they've done it to a number of people (likely), they should realize it could easily turn into a class action. It's a good way to be put into bankruptcy/liquidation by the court, given they probably do
  • I just started as web master for my law school's website, and we're having a similar problem.

    We can't get any help from our hosting provider, so I figured I'd go somewhere else. (The former webmaster was using frontpage to post stuff and doesn't have a valid control panel login. We're looking at adding some PHP and a bulletin/discussion board. I don't think we've been billed for hosting for a couple of months)

    The problem is a couple of uears ago, someone registered the domain for 5 years. The person w

  • Honestly -- (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gru3hunt3r ( 782984 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @04:52PM (#12216503) Journal
    Have a lawyer write them a letter, send it certified.

    Explain in the letter that they either need to respond to you in writing how to transfer your domain name or you will be taking them to small claims court for the amount of the domain, along with the value of your time ($100/hr). Explain you would like to solve this amicably.
    If they respond - you win!

    If they don't, then take the letter to a judge and get a judgement against them.
    If they show up - you win!

    If they don't, You also win!
    File the appropriate paperwork to the court and let them know you intend to place a lean on the companies assets.

    Now, write Tucows/e-Nom a letter explaining that you have a court order to liquidate their assets.
    Ask if the account is in good standing and if it has any values (your attorney will be able to put this into legalease for you) .. tell them you intend to sell their reseller account. At the very minimum this will get the attention of somebody at those respective registrars.

    If it doesn't -- hire a company to seize and sell their reseller account and liquidate their assets, then you buy it on eBay! Whoohoo! Now you get your domain back and you've got your own registrar. Hurray!

    ps> if all this seems like too much work, then try finding another tucows reseller who can contact somebody at tucows to get the domain transferred to them. Tucows sucks, but they suck less if you're a reseller.

    • Re:Honestly -- (Score:5, Informative)

      by WebHostingGuy ( 825421 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @06:26PM (#12217597) Homepage Journal
      While this looks good in theory, it isn't.

      First, a draft of a letter from an attorney will cost $100 minimum. Want to spend $100 chasing $10?

      Then if they are like most people they will ignore the letter as it really means "nothing" in the business world. (I should know because as a former attorney I used to draft these all the time).

      Just taking the letter to a judge will not do anything. You will have to file a lawsuit in at least small claims court (here that is about another $100; now down $200 for $10).

      And if they show up most likely it will an attorney representing them, not a person who could do anything for you. The attorney will just be there to fight you.

      And if they don't show up you will get a judgment. Big whip; it doesn't mean they have to pay. If they don't have assets in the state you are in they you need to file the judgment in their state (more cash to do this).

      Then so what? They have a judgment against them; do you know how many people and companies have judgments against them and don't pay and you still can't get the cash? Lots. And this assumes you did everything correctly and did not miss a step AND that the court in the other state accepts the judgment without review (they are supposed to but if the defendant makes an argument that there wasn't due process they could reject the judgment and force you to litigate there). (Another $100 for filing fees, plus plane ticket, plus expenses).

      As for the forced liquidation that doesn't happen. And even if you could do this you are not going to do it without an attorney who is going to charge $150 per hour which will take about $10,000 in fees, usually around $1000 upfront non-refundable.

      Of course all of this assumes they even have any cash to begin with. If they are a corporation and the corporation has no cash left in it (or any assets) then you have your judgment and you are out how much?

      $100 lawyer letter
      $100 filing fee
      $100 filing fee, second state
      $200 plane ticket to litigate in second state
      $1000 non-refundable retainer new lawyer

      At a minimum $1500 cash out for a domain...

      Look, while hiring an attorney seems to be a good idea for small amounts it isn't. When I was a practicing attorney if someone had a case which dealt with an amount less than $10,000 it usually wasn't worth it for them to hire an attorney at all. They needed to go to small claims court and if the amount was really small suck it up and move on. You can spend a lot of money chasing principle but you have to weigh that against what your time is worth. If it is worth more then drop it.

      Oh, did I mention that at any time you have a judgment in small claims court you can invalidate it and retry the case again in the state I am in? That means after $1500 the defendant can make you start all over again.
  • This isn't the wild wild internet anymore. Domain names are highly regulated legal holdings. When things turn sour you have few choices aside from getting lawyers involved. If you have _any_ problems with your domain names and can't afford a lawyer, then you can't afford the domain.

    Its the american way.
  • Administrative Contact:
    Domain, Jump hostmaster@jumpdomain.com
    790 W 40 HWY #197
    Blue Springs, MO 64015
    US
    831-305-6918 Fax: 831-305-6918

    Or maybe hire some thugs and have them pay a visit?

  • Parent Co.? (Score:2, Informative)

    by Valiss ( 463641 )
    I would contact the parent company. In this case it's TUCOWS, at least according to NetSol (unless I am mis-reading this):

    Domain Name: JUMPDOMAIN.COM
    Registrar: TUCOWS INC.
    Whois Server: whois.opensrs.net
    Referral URL: http://domainhelp.tucows.com
    Name Server: NS.JUMPSERVER.NET
    Name Server: NS2.JUMPSERVER.NET
    Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK
    Updated Date: 28-dec-2004
    Creation Date: 23-jan-2000
    Expiration Date: 23-jan-2006

    TUCOWS has a help page here: http://domainhelp.tucows.com/

    Or c
  • Register.com will keep a domain for 70 days after it expires in case the owner wants to reclaim it.

    Have you tried reporting them to the Better Business Bureau?
    • What exactly is this supposed to accomplish? The only thing it will do is let anyone who contacts the BBB BEFORE choosing a registrar that there has been a complaint against them.

  • Better Business Bureau (Score:5, Informative)

    by Captoo ( 103399 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @04:58PM (#12216569)
    The BBB says that Jump Domain has an unsatisfactory record due to unanswered complaints. It lists the contact information as follows:

    Jump Domain
    740 W 40 Hwy Ste 197
    Blue Springs, MO 64015
    Telephone: (816) 550-2376
    Fax: (816) 550-2376

    If any readers live near Blue Springs, perhaps they would be kind enough to go knock on Jump Domain's door and see if anybody's there.
    • Better try the "Office Address" (which is listed as not open to the public) than the masked PO box.

      Jump Domain, LLC
      1700 W 40 HWY
      Blue Springs, MO 64015

      Amusingly enough, from their site:
      "The ownership of Jump Domain still vests in it's founder. He is active in the day-to-day operations handling most communications with customers. He holds a Bachelors Degree and a Jurist Doctor (Law) Degree." (Bolding mine.)

      You'd think he'd realize this kind of stuff can get him sued.
      • It's always weird when you see news that's near you. That address is just down the street from where my parents live. It looks like it's a ceratin block of non-descript office buildings if I remember correctly. There are no houses on that section of 40 highway in Blue Springs. I'll have to drive by there the next time I visit my parents.
    • GoDaddy.com has been mentioned several times in other posts. I have used them myself and I am quite pleased. I looked up Go Daddy with the BBB and they have a satisfactory record. Also, Go Daddy has been a BBB member for the last five years. (Jump Domain is not a BBB member.)

    • Re:Blue Springs Info (Score:3, Interesting)

      by kcdude ( 875604 )
      I live in Blue Springs. The 740 W 40 Hwy address is a UPS Store (was a Mailboxes Etc.) I can't remember what is at 1700 W 40 Hwy. This search shows several businesses in the plaza. No Jump Domain is listed.
      http://www.411.com/10668/search/Reverse_Address?ho usenumber=1700&street=W+40+Hwy&city_zip=64015&stat e_id=MO [411.com]

      I can drive by tomorrow.
  • I'm having the exact same problem with Wazooweb, but I can't even figure out who the 'upstream' is. I thought it was hosting4u.com, but I can't contact them either. Anyone have any help?

  • Had much worse happening. (Score:3, Informative)

    by blang ( 450736 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @05:01PM (#12216606)
    I used to have my domain registered with a discount gig (think it was domainshop.com), that was later bought up by those crooks at Verisign.

    That started a short but very unpleasant relationship. I would receive countless amounts of spam, and when it was time to renew, the price had gone up A LOT, and it would cost me A LOT also to have the service tranferred to a competing service. I wonder hwo many of those customers stayed on with Verisign. Couldn't have been many.

    I chose instead to let my domain expire, and again Verisign was messing with me. It took much longer than the advertized amout of time for the domain name to be released, so I had to try and fail many times before I eventually could reclaim my domain.

    The moral is:
    If you find a cheap registrar, make sure you've subscribed for a long period. Even if they'd go belly up after the first year, you're probably better off than signing with Verisign. And if they get bought by Verisign, the renewal is not going to gobble your whole nestegg. And who knows, after 5 years, maybe even Verisign will have adjusted their prices to compete.

    Since I went with godaddy.com several years ago, I've not received a single spam mail, and they've been easy to deal with, and they even have a neat mail forwarding service.

  • Extortion? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Douglas Simmons ( 628988 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @05:03PM (#12216644) Homepage
    As a Valentine's day gift I bought my now-ex girlfriend her name dot com and threw up a little vanity site for her. Anyway, now that we're not together, she wants me to transfer the domain to her. I'm not sure why, but I refused, and she said that if I don't give it to her, even though (I think) I am safely the legal owner of the domain despite its being her first and last name, she'd "sick my dad's lawyers on you anyway."

    I've heard about more than one incident of people handing over a domain at the threat of litigation even when they know they're in the right simply because it would be necessary to hire lawyers either way and a cost-benefit analysis yields that they should just bend over and give up. The 2600 [2600.org] guys have had plenty of experience down this path. Have there been cases where people have counter-sued for being, I don't know the word -- extored, blackmailed, whatever -- in a situation where someone with a lot of cash muscles the other side into folding simply because they know the other side has neither the money nor, in other cases, the political capital to defend themselves?

    Parenthetically, I like the UK's system in which the plaintiff has to pay the defendant's legal bills if the suit loses. We should do that.

    • Re:Extortion? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by El ( 94934 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @05:10PM (#12216696)
      If you gave her the domain as a gift, then you should turn it over to her, regardless of how much she has pissed you off. Or do you normally make a practice of giving people gifts, then taking them back?

    • Re:Extortion? (Score:4, Funny)

      by Cobblepop ( 738291 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @05:27PM (#12216914)
      You made her a site for Valentine's day? No wonder she's an ex...

    • Re:Extortion? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Shalda ( 560388 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @05:35PM (#12217015) Homepage Journal
      Dude, you're a jackass. Just give her the damn domain and get on with your life. If it was a gift, which you admit, then you're just the technical administrator and she's in the right. As to your broader point, that's what courts and arbitrators (and apparently /.) exist for. Threatening to take someone to court is not extortion. It's presumed (whether true or not) that the courts will fairly and correctly determine who is right and wrong and issue a judgement accordingly. It's also common in the US for the courts to award legal fees in cases that are frivilous and without merit, as well as cases where someone has acted with malice and disregard for the law. Now, go back to your ex, appologize for being a jerk and do the right thing.

    • You're missing the point (Score:5, Funny)

      by ErikTheRed ( 162431 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @05:47PM (#12217174) Homepage
      As a Valentine's day gift I bought my now-ex girlfriend her name dot com and threw up a little vanity site for her. Anyway, now that we're not together, she wants me to transfer the domain to her. I'm not sure why, but I refused, and she said that if I don't give it to her, even though (I think) I am safely the legal owner of the domain despite its being her first and last name, she'd "sick my dad's lawyers on you anyway."
      Give her the domain - it was a gift, dude; even if she was a bitch, you're still being a dick by not giving it to her. Anyway, give it to her, then post this sob story again and again on Slashdot, along with the URL. Watch her bandwidth bills skyrocket or her site get shut down for exceeding quota. Have a nice day.

    • Re:Extortion? (Score:3, Funny)

      by ediron2 ( 246908 ) *
      Duh... just transfer your domain registration to Jump Domain (or google for negative reviews of incredibly-bad, incredibly-expensive registrars), then hand her the keys in return for a cashiers check for the transfer fee.

      I've got this Dell Inkjet 720 piece-of-shit whose refill cartridges are even MORE proprietary and spendy than Lexmark's (the printer's maker, uncoincidentally). Don't blame me, it came free with a cheap PC my mom bought. After weeks of plotting a way to kill it (catapult? Charcoal and

  • Repost of my response to poster at DNForum.com (Score:5, Informative)

    by Ron Bennett ( 14590 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @05:04PM (#12216646) Homepage
    Repost of my two replies regarding this topic at DNForum.com:

    Firstly, you're dealing with a seemingly shady company ... Jump Domain postal address, even in their corporate filings, is a MailBoxes, Etc. maildrop - 790 W. 40 HWY #197, BLUE SPRINGS MO 64015.

    Worse, the agent name may be bogus (or perhaps is a partial name [ie. middle and last]) ... agent is listed as Scott Ison.

    https://www.sos.mo.gov/BusinessEntity/soskb/Corp .a sp?621690

    With that said, Jump Domain does not appear to be an accredited registrar - your domains are very likely actually registered with Tucows ... contact Tucows and explain you want to transfer them out - either to another registrar, or at minimum, to another Tucows reseller so that you can administer your domains - no matter what Tucows tells you, get your domains away from Jump Domain.

    Become a real pest, if that's what it takes, and *call* Tucows a lot - hopefully their customer support will help you the first time, but sometimes persistance is how these things get solved - try email, etc first, but if no adequate response ... use the phone and tie up their staff - that way Tucows is forced to deal with the problem as opposed to putting it off indefinitely.

    Tucows Inc.
    96 MOWAT AVENUE
    Toronto, Ontario M6K 3M1
    Canada
    416 535 0123
    support@opensrs.org

    ** Follow-up/addendum to my above reply **

    My bad on the registrar - I based my answer on searching I did on Jump Domain.

    Still, the approach should be the same, just that he'll need to deal with Enom ... or perhaps Tucows too, since some of his domains could be registered through other registrars - certainly a possibility given what I've learned so far about Jump Domain. ...

    One point I didn't make clear is even if Jump Domain is no longer affiliated with Tucows, that does NOT mean the domains they managed automatically moved from Tucows; they're still likely there - in a nutshell, the registrant will need to check the registrar of record for each domain at the links below: .com / .net registry
    http://registrar.verisign-grs.com/whois/ .org registry
    http://www.pir.org/

    Ron
  • This is a bit off on a tangent, but if anyone is having problems accessing the Tokelau domain registrar (http://dot.tk [dot.tk]), try a new name server. There seems to be a problem with certain ISPs' DNS with regards to that site. It's not negligence, at least not on their part. :-)

  • One solution (Score:4, Funny)

    by nizo ( 81281 ) * on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @05:07PM (#12216671) Homepage Journal
    You could see if they will let you register jumpdomainsucks.com; perhaps that will encourage them to fix the problem?

  • An alternative idea (Score:3, Interesting)

    by j-turkey ( 187775 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @05:16PM (#12216766) Homepage

    You could just try dropping by their office, if you're anywhere near Blue Springs, MO (I assume that you are, since they're all about their local business).

    They list their address on their website:

    Office Address:
    (Not open to the public)
    Jump Domain, LLC
    1700 W 40 HWY
    Blue Springs, MO 64015
    Although they say it's not open to the public, I'll bet that popping by would yield better results than you've experienced previously. You probably want to be on your best, most diplomatic behavior; and most importantly, never show that you are angry (by raising your voice, calling names, making physical threats, wise cracks that can be misinterpreted). Ask the receptionist if you can speak with someone in support. If she gives you a hard time, politely ask to speak with her supervisor. Whomever you speak with, explain that your showing up there was a last resort, as your support requests were not being handled. This place sounds like a pretty small operation, so there is likely a single support person -- and I doubt that they'll just laugh in your face in person.

    In the unlikely event that he/she does give you a hard time, politely ask to speak with their manager. If the manager gives you a hard time, take down their name, and politely inform them that you will be disputing all charges with your credit card issuer, as well as disputing the issue with ICANN, and reporting them to the local BBB chapter. Then thank them for their time, excuse yourself, and be on your way. Most places don't want to deal with bureaucratic headaches, whether with credit card issuers, ICANN, or the BBB. Lastly, you can spend $100 and get an attorney to simply write a letter (you don't want to retain counsel, since that will be incredibly expensive compared to your potential returns, but a letter can have massive sway). Again, they probably just don't want to deal with the hassle. They'll give you what you want and you can part ways as pleasnatly as possible.

  • Only on Slashdot is this a problem (Score:4, Insightful)

    by pmancini ( 20121 ) <pmancini AT yahoo DOT com> on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @05:50PM (#12217214) Homepage
    Sue them. That is why we have the Goverment. You don't need a lawyer. Just take some time off, go to the local circuit court, fill out the paper work and figure out what your damages are. Put it at something reasonable like $500. If they even bother to show up, just present your paperwork and some screenshots of what your website looked like. The judge will likely find in your favor and you can move on. If he doesn't then who cares? They would have a HUGE legal bill fighting a $500 complaint.

    Offer to settle out of court first, give them time to respond to your complaint (30 days is normal) then submit the paperwork. Its a simple civil process.

    Why are people on Slashdot so afraid of exercising their rights and using the courts to protect them? That is what they are there for.

  • Jump Domain (Score:3, Informative)

    by wytcld ( 179112 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @06:40PM (#12217758) Homepage
    Jump Domain went to the dark side about two years ago. I had a similar experience with one domain - but it was an .org which was still with Tucows while they were transitioning, and Tucows' own DomainDirect.com was able to slip me the secret code required to confirm the transfer. Subsequently with a couple of other domains I did manage to get eNom to help. So you might want to try again to get through to the right people there by phone. Also, although ICANN tries to say they will not help, if you get an e-mail through to the right place, they did in the latter case send their own query to eNom letting them know that they were looking over their shoulder on this.

    I've had no problem with a couple dozens domains at DomainDirect so far. In past experience Network Solutions, Dotster, Register.com all suck, although none as badly as JumpDomain does now. Scott at JumpDomain used to be responsive, but I don't even know if it's his operation any more.

  • Better Business Bureau (Score:3, Informative)

    by Spazmania ( 174582 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @07:26PM (#12218241) Homepage
    The BBB local to the company is usually a good place to start. Letters from the BBB tend to make it to the upper echelon at the company in question.

    You won't necessarily get results, lots of companies fail to act on the BBB's letters. But they all read them. Its a good place to start, and its free.

  • Me too (Score:3, Informative)

    by erth64net ( 47842 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @10:12PM (#12219624) Homepage
    I manage 29 domains through JumpDomain, and have encountered the SAME issues. I know someone else who manages about 10 through JumpDomain, encountering the same as well.

  • Reading all these replies... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by porkchop_d_clown ( 39923 ) <<moc.em> <ta> <zniehwm>> on Tuesday April 12, 2005 @10:55PM (#12219948)
    I think almost everyone is assuming that the Registrar is actively ignoring support requests.

    I have a second opinion: I bet the company has long since dried up and blown away, and that all that's left is a bunch of servers running in some ISP's rack, unattended and unnoticed.

    When something happens to destroy a physical company (death, illness, corruption, whatever) you usually figure it out quickly - the shop isn't open, the paper isn't being picked up, whatever.

    If an internet business suddenly folds - how long before someone actually realizes what happened?

  • You Get what you Pay for... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by NatePWIII ( 126267 ) <nathan@wilkersonart.com> on Wednesday April 13, 2005 @03:05AM (#12221149) Homepage
    I laugh when I read horror stories like these, not because I wish this sort of thing to happen to people. But that people never learn. They always want something for nothing or "very cheap". I have been in the web hosting and domain business for 6 years now. I have clients who contact me on a regular basis asking me if we will match so and so's GREAT deal. I always warn them that if it sounds too good to be true chances are it is. I have had quite of few customers leave us only to return back in a month or two because of serious reliability problems or a total lack of service from these companies who appear to have these GREAT deals.

    Bottom line is, do a little research, don't always go for a deal that is the cheapest. Word of mouth is your best bet or actual reviews from current or past customers. We sell domains for $13.00 per year, which seems outrageous compared to some. But you will always get a person responding within 24 hours or less and usually by phone.

    All I can say really is be smart. Watch out for the shysters, there are plenty of them. Remember everyone has got to eat therefore if the deal seems almost too good chances are there is a problem with it.

    Just my two cents.

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