Yea! My domain is Godaddy-free!

[Chicken]

Some of you may recall my GoDaddy Canned Response (http://hosthideout.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12430) thread, but I am happy to report that I managed to transfer the domain away from Godaddy, just in time. The deal was that I bought a domain off a member here, but apparently Godaddy doesn't let you transfer the domain for 60 days with a change of ownership. I figured an email would solve the problem, but (as you can tell by the thread), it didn't.

:bs:

So topping it all off, 60 days was just 3 days before the expiration date and I figured I'd have to renew for another year at GoDaddy.

:banghead:

Amazingly, I remembered to try to slip in a transfer request :usehead: and voilą! The domain is now away from their evil clutches!

Me = :dchick:

[HostDaemons]

LOL congrats on getting out of their communist grasp. Godaddy has many flaws and things they need to take care of. Good thing they approved it.

Best Regards
HostDaemons

[markblair]

Good to here Chicken. I never like it when registrars use tactics like this to keep you with them. At least you don't have to worry about that anymore. :)

[Andrew]

Nice Squeeze play !

Now, if you could just convince CIRA that not allowing domain owners to switch registrars for their .ca's is a bad thing - Id buy you a beer :)

[Adam]

Heh, that's great news :) Congratulations Chicken! :chicken:

[nameslave]

Originally posted by Chicken:

Some of you may recall my GoDaddy Canned Response (http://hosthideout.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12430) thread, but I am happy to report that I managed to transfer the domain away from Godaddy, just in time.
CONGRATULATIONS! :party: It's sad that GoDaddy WAS once a good option (with good prices and responsive support). I too am GoDaddy-free now :proud: unless they catch me the expiring domain with my last backorder there in the next couple of weeks, which I don't think will be even remotely likely. :D

Originally posted by Andrew:

Now, if you could just convince CIRA that not allowing domain owners to switch registrars for their .ca's is a bad thing - Id buy you a beer :)
If you mean CIRA does not allow registrar transfer, I'm afraid that is not really the case? :confused:

[Andrew]

Originally posted by nameslave:

If you mean CIRA does not allow registrar transfer, I'm afraid that is not really the case? :confused:

:) - I wouldnt have thought so either - In fact - you can imagine my surprise when I tried transferring my .ca's to enom (as well as all my godaddy .com's, .net's, etc....) and enom informed me that as per CIRA regulations, .ca's cannot be moved - I assumed somebody was just confused - but sadly, CIRA is up to their usual standards and getting a stright answer is impossible - If you have any information on how to move .ca's, Id appreciate it - because eNom is simply bot allowing it and staing "New CIRA Regulations" - whatever the heck that means

[nameslave]

eNom is simply not a good place to register .ca domains. I have successfully transferred dozens of them (mostly from Domainsatcost.ca to either Tucows/OpenSRS (EasyHosting) or BareMetal with no problem at all. You may want to browse through CIRA's own documentation:

http://www.cira.ca/en/faq-menu9.html#q70

5 - Do dot-ca registrants have portability of their domain name registrations between CIRA certified registrars?
Yes. When a registrant changes its registrar, its registration period for a domain name registration will not be changed or lost. Under CIRA's rules, a registrant is permitted to change its registrar of record at any time. CIRA will charge the new registrar a fee pursuant to the Fee Schedule for a change of registrar. The old registrar is permitted to charge the registrant an administrative fee, which cannot exceed $20.00 irrespective of the number of registrations.

Registrars are required to enter into an agreement with each registrant. However, no such agreement shall contain any terms that prevent a registrant from changing registrars at any time.
Hope this helps.

[Andrew]

It most def does !!! thanks - will have to send this off to eNom and see what they say - I have no option but to use eNom as they are the only "good" one that integrates with Hsphere and offers .ca...

Thanks for the info, it is much appreciated...

[GordonH]

You can definitely change registrar for a .ca
We handle quiote a large number of .ca transfers (both in and out).
It is a commonplace procedure.

[swiftdomain]

Good to hear chicken. I have been godaddy free myself, a pitiful company

[linux-tech]

I've got some 25 domains, all registered through godaddy, and I keep adding more at a rather alarming (at least to me) rate.

While, admittedly, the canned response issue need to be dealt with, I've never really had a problem with them. I mean, go figure, I pay $7-$8 per domain, get decent support (when I call, they're allllways there;)) and manage numerous domains all in one spot. Where else can one do such magic I ask you? I've yet to see such a place ;)

Admittedly, I haven't had to contact their support often (2x in the past year, once for a customer, once to get a domain out of my hands), but each time I was easily able to ge ahold of someone on the phone within 10 minutes and had the problem resolved in no time flat.

[Chicken]

I think it's personal preference, I'm a Ford truck man (Enom), while you like Chevy (GoDaddy). I just like the management features of Enom, and also having all my domains in one place.

[linux-tech]

There I agree, having your domains all in one place is good, especially when you have a decent number of them. That's actually one of the reasons I went with godaddy a couple years back.

What about pricing, they'er both about similar, no?

[alex042]

We have about 60 or so domains at godaddy even though we have an enom account and have rarely had a problem with godaddy.

[Chicken]

Originally posted by twhiting9275:

What about pricing, they'er both about similar, no?
You mentioned $7-8, and Enom is just under $7, so it would seem so. I have been using their DNS servers as well, so it's just nice to have everything in the same place, working the same way.

[nameslave]

Originally posted by alex042:

We have about 60 or so domains at godaddy even though we have an enom account and have rarely had a problem with godaddy.
You'll never know until things get really bad. :knock on wood:

I didn't know NetSol was *that* bad until they screwed up my Admin Contact by assigning my very nic handle to another person TWICE within a month or so. If you are old enough, you'll know how a nic handle there actually controlled ALL its domains (incl. those of my clients).

I didn't know NameBargain (Register.com) was *that*bad until they messed up with my transfers, making me pay hundreds extra.

I didn't know GoDaddy was *that* bad until they messed up THEIR databases when trying to "integrate" them. I had to fax them my documents in order to prove the ownership of MY domains, which were wrongfully transferred to somebody else's account BY THEM. And they NEVER apologize.

Now, I'm with Tucows/OpenSRS. And if you guys are sensitive of prices, EV1 (one of their resellers where I manage most of my domains) charges only $6.49 per name year.

[drmike]

Originally posted by nameslave:
Now, I'm with Tucows/OpenSRS. And if you guys are sensitive of prices, EV1 (one of their resellers where I manage most of my domains) charges only $6.49 per name year.

I didn't know that EV1 was *that* bad until I handed them my credit card information. :)

-drmike

(So that's how they paid for all those limos....)

[nameslave]

Originally posted by drmike:

I didn't know that EV1 was *that* bad until I handed them my credit card information. :)
LOL! Nice touch. But is this just a punch line or could you point me to the details?

[drmike]

Originally posted by nameslave:

LOL! Nice touch. But is this just a punch line or could you point me to the details?

Actually that was the punch line. EV1 and I have a history that I've mentioned here before (ie: they're prospam or at least they used to be, they're still trying to bill my credit card after over a year after leaving them, etc.)

-drmike

[alex042]

You mentioned $7-8, and Enom is just under $7, so it would seem so. I have been using their DNS servers as well, so it's just nice to have everything in the same place, working the same way.
It's cheaper for us to use godaddy at $7-8 than enom which is closer to $10 for us even though we are an ETP. In fact, our wild west domain account through godaddy is cheaper than either even though the plan was to drop that account.

We also have all of our domains at one location, just not the same as some others. It's possible our domains could be set to expire at the same time and any remaining at that time all moved to enom at once to possibly hit a lower pricing bracket.
You'll never know until things get really bad. :knock on wood:
I take it you haven't had any issues with enom since you didn't mention them?
I had to fax them my documents in order to prove the ownership of MY domains
What kind of documents are you referring to? Do you keep copies of whois info or something else?
Now, I'm with Tucows/OpenSRS.
We had considered this also, but like with paysystems, they had a lot of extra paperwork that most others doing the same thing didnt have. We weren't exactly planning on setting up shop as an actual registrar which is how their system is structured, but would rather go through a registrar at this time and found enom easier to get started with. This gives us more domain extensions we could offer with less hassle and paperwork for about the same price.

Overall though, I think everyones experiences with registrars will be different depending on what they do with their domains. For some, it's an easy process whereas with others, it's more difficult because of the circumstances.

[linux-tech]

Alex:
Have the pricing structures through WWD been more beneficial than going directly through Godaddy itself? I've actually thought of doing that, reselling their domains, but their pricing structure is a bit complicated.

[GordonH]

Lets face it there is not a lot can go wrong with a registrar.
Either the domain name is registered or it is not registered and as long as you can change the name servers there should be no real need to use the registrar for anything else.

[alex042]

WWD is basically godaddy's reseller so pricing is similar give or take a buck or two. wwd provides domain resellers with a way for their customers to buy domains, but its setup so resellers can sell domains directly from wwd's site. Basically, wwd gives you a minimum cost and sell price with their commission being a certain percentage of the resellers 'profit' so if they say a domain will cost you $7 and you have to sell it for at least $10 and say they make 1/3rd of that for themselves, you're selling a $7 domain for $10 and giving wwd $1 and keeping $2.

A lot of other places like enom are different. i.e. enom says a domain will cost you $7 but you have to buy like $100 at a time for your account and you can sell it for whatever you want so you can sell it for $5 and lose $2 per domain or $10 and make $3 per domain or whatever. This system is more flexible but requires the reseller to pre-purchase their domain 'credits'.

One of the reasons I didn't particularly like wwd was that they didnt have an affordable api for any billing system to interface with so customers could buy through our website. I dont like the idea of sending customers to someone else to get something and hoping they come back to our site to buy the rest of the purchase.

[GordonH]

Unless you are going to add value to domains or give them away for free, getting into the domain name business is a mugs game these days.

People want domains for under $9 retail and here is no way to compete with that and make enough profit to cover chargebacks even if you are ICANN accredited actually our projected profits after accreditation would be lower than they are as a reseller due to the software costs!).

To stand a decent chance of making a business out of selling domain names you need to have at least 33% profit per domain name sold (1 year domains) or you simply will not be able to cover the costs of running the business.

If you are just doing them as a sideline to web hosting then its stil better to keep them as your customers and not send them anywhere else.
Apart from anything else it gives you more control over the situation. For example, if its done through your reseller account you can probably do the name server registrations for them if they have a reseller account.

I think everyone knows I am a great advocate of Tucows over Enom (I actually use both regularly) because of the reliablity of their systems and the speed of support.

[nameslave]

Originally posted by alex042:

I take it you haven't had any issues with enom since you didn't mention them?
The truth is I only use eNom when I buy "used" domains from speculators most of whom just LOVE eNom; or for names caught by their Club Drop.

And the single thing that I don't like them most is their 5-day wait for registrar transfer without the option to acknowledge and therefore accelerating the process.

Originally posted by alex042:

What kind of documents are you referring to? Do you keep copies of whois info or something else?
I do print out a hard copy of the whois whenever I first register a domain, or when I modify critically important info re: clients' domain, mainly for reference. But GoDaddy actually asked me for my ID, like business registration and driver's license.

Originally posted by GordonH:

Lets face it there is not a lot can go wrong with a registrar.
Either the domain name is registered or it is not registered and as long as you can change the name servers there should be no real need to use the registrar for anything else.
Aren't the "incidents" I posted earlier in this thread about NetSol messing up my handle and GoDaddy that of their databases good examples of what registrars can go wrong? In those 2 instances, I was a totally innocent victim.

Moreover, when you have to modify e.g. nameservers (like I often do for new hosting clients), the quality level of registrars is put into tests. I also had REALLY bad experience with e.g. Domainsatcost.ca, which for a prolonged duration (of more than 12 months) simply could not fulfill at least 50% of the requests I sent via multiple accounts at their user interface.

[GordonH]

Thats what I mean.
As long as they have the basic functions RELIABLE then that is the main thing.