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Years ago when I first started grabbing dropping domains I got many domains at DotRegistrar.com. They had a great system for getting expiring domains. I had no script yet so it was all by hand at 5:30 am, it was tense and exciting. At that time I was basically broke but I was sure I needed to invest everything I could afford on generic domain names so I would go through lists and lists of expiring domains, pick out the best, pawn and sell anything I had of value, and get as many domains as I could afford. I was doing business with Kevin Ham – his DNSIndex.com put together lists of expiring domains (when I met Kevin neither of us knew how to grab an expiring domain – we just knew they were expiring and Yun Ye and a few others would magically and mysteriously get them all. It was driving Kevin and I crazy – we finally figured it out but that’s another story).
So, DotRegistrar.com was an important part of this process because good dropping names come and go QUICK… No time for approving funds and accepting agreements and checking boxes. At DR you would just put in a list of names and keep hitting “register if available” – if the name became available it would just grab it – no confirmation, no “are you sure you want this?” buttons to click – you would just look later and see what was in your account – what you got, what you SCORED. This was before sites such as SnapNames and Namewinner got in the game.
The problem with this system and being broke is if you have a list of 100 good domains dropping on a given morning that you are going for – knowing that you will be lucky if you even get only 3 – you had to fund the account with enough money to get all 100 names. So even though you only might score 3 domains for $30 you had to have $1000 in the account to get them – I didn’t even have a credit card at the time, lol – but that is also another story – how I begged, borrowed and ??? to get 3000 decent domain names. Most of my friends and family said I was nuts and I actually spent a few months $1200 mortgage payment money to buy domains – but by then I was reading what Rick Schwartz had to say about it and I was hooked and sure there was something to this – Rick was as “crazy” then as he is today and I believed him then and I believe him today…
Anyway many mornings I would only get 2 or 3 good names out of a list of 100’s – Yun Ye and a few others got the rest and the best but I was still getting some great domains like HighPerformance.com, JobInterview.com, 4Aces.com, FluShots.com, TravelTips.com, etc. – and I was getting most of these at DotRegistrar.com. I loved DR. Then one day some years back DR sold and now all my domains were getting moved to this new registrar – this new platform – it was MyDomain.com (aka Dotster.com aka Domain.com). I did not like this registrar like I liked DR. I did not like the control panel – I did not like that half of the registrant contact information got all screwed up in the transition, I did not like that a good percentage of my names now had mydomain.com nameservers that I had to go check and change, I just wasn’t happy with them like I was DR. But their prices were fair enough and they were OK as a registrar so I kept my domains there, and that is how I ended up with 1000’s of domains at MyDomain.com.
But now – arghhhh. I am really frustrated and unhappy with them. They have redesigned the site and migrated all my domains to a new platform that I don’t like. It has been a nightmare for the last 6 months. Every time I need to do something it doesn’t work. So I have to call them and hold for hours – literally hours. They have an online chat but that is just salespeople – no tech support – and the support ticket system is slow to respond.
What kind of things do I need tech support for? I can’t change nameservers. I get an error page when I try and renew my domains. I sell a domain and talk the buyer into opening an account at MyDomain.com (or Dotster.com or Domain.com) for an easy push but MyDomain.com does not have a new account sign up at this time – so I call them and hold for hours and they tell me if the buyer calls this same number they will set them up an account – I can’t ask a buyer to call these people and hold for hours to set up an account. Also all the domains I have sold or transferred out in the last year or so started showing up in my account again – how confusing is this? LITTLE things like this have me frustrated.
So I have spent literally hours and hours on the phone with them in the last months. It has been a nightmare. I am on hold right now (Friday 1-11-13) and have been on hold for 48 minutes (they just answered so 48 minutes on hold) and I had to call and hold for about an hour this morning. I am now calling back to see if the issue that I needed dealt with earlier has been dealt with because the support ticket I created has not been responded to and the tech support guy I talked to this morning couldn’t deal with the problem properly and said he would have to get a higher tech support to deal with it – and that would be later – it is now later and it has still not been taken care of so I am calling again.
Why am I calling today and holding for hours and hours? Because I sold a domain that it is in Escrow.com and the buyer has put in a transfer request but his registrar says the Authorization Code is invalid. Why does his registrar say this? Because the Auth Code MyDomain.com is generating IS invalid. It is generating an Auth Code LLN – and it generates this same Auth Code on every name I want to transfer out. They are having a glitch in the system and the Auth Code for the domain my buyer is trying to transfer is not a legitimate Auth Code. So I have been on hold for hours again today trying to get a legitimate, acceptable Auth Code generated. This is crazy right?
So after 48 minutes on hold a tech guy answered the phone and understood immediately what my problem was and that something was not right and that my account should not be generating an Auth Code LLN – and he actually fixed the problem and got me a correct Code while we were on the phone and said he would get the problem fixed so my next Auth Code would not be LLN – great – somebody that understands. So I send the correct Auth Code off to the buyer and he starts another transfer and it accepts the code and gets the transfer going, finally, buyer and seller are happy. And with this the inexperienced, end user buyer actually goes to Escrow.com and prematurely OK’s the transaction.
But – and there is always a BUT with MyDomain.com these days – I wake up the next morning with another new completely different Auth Code in my email that has been generated for the same domain and an email from the buyer that the 2nd transfer request now has also been cancelled because the code is not correct and that although he OK’d the transaction at Escrow.com things are not OK and now he is getting nervous about this whole fiasco – and so am I. So the good code I finally got yesterday after being on hold for hours to get that was good yesterday when we put in the transfer request is no good anymore because now MyDomain.com has generated another? So now I have to call MyDomain.com and hold for about an hour AGAIN to ask them to please stop sending Auth Codes on this domain. And then I have to call Escrow.com and let them know that the transaction is not OK – I have to ask Escrow.com if they can NOT send me the payment they are ready to send me until I can get all this transfer BS figured out at MyDomain.com…
So, the buyer puts in a 3rd transfer request and the domain finally got transferred and the buyer was happy – and I was happy knowing that this problem was fixed. Or was it? I sold another domain a few days later and when I went to get an Auth Code sure enough – I get the same LLN code again on this domain. So guess what I was doing all morning? Holding on the phone for about an hour with MyDomain.com trying to get a correct Auth Code for the next domain transfer. Here we go again…
Has anybody else had to deal with Domain.com migration issues lately?
Reading you the conclusion looks logical:
Transfer all your domains to another registrar ASAP!!!
I am too busy whining and complaining, lol.
Seriously though I am working on this but when I cannot get a correct authorization code generated without calling or opening a support ticket it gets time consuming to transfer 2000+ domains.
Well, you are right, I imagine the hassles.
Except I make a MEGA (it’s very popular these days) bad advertising to Domain.com and you will see how their move their ass, because what they are doing with you is simply a true shame.
Keep us posted if they continue putting barriers to transfer domains out or if they act like pros.
I do not think they are intentionally making it difficult to transfer domains out. And I have talked to a few tech support people that are really helpful and say they are trying to fix these things. They are just all messed up with this migration thing.
Loved the first part of your story and how you got your domains. Don’t know why you put up with such hardship at a registrar, Godaddy does all that stuff easily and quickly! I’m sure there are other registrars that could do better too. I used to use MyDomain for url forwarding, but that was years ago, before all registrars started doing it.
Thank you for the comments. I am really not crazy about GoDaddy.com. I know everybody loves them but I get tired of all the bells and whistles they offer and pop-up whenever I have to do anything.
And MyDomain.com was OK until they weren’t. This is all only related to their migration to Domain.com which is a recent issue. I would have never put up with this kind of stuff if it had been happening since the beginning.
@Godaddy Agreed!!
I’d try Dynadot.com and with 2K plus domains you’d qualify for “super bulk pricing” too like I do. It’s got one of the cleanest easy to use interfaces of all the reg’s, you can do everything in bulk and there’s a built in search mode to locate any of your domains. Auth key transfer is to the right on page too.
Agreed!! I have 1000 or more domains at Dynadot.com already and I agree with you 100%. They are actually my favorite registrar right now and they are extremely responsive and very helpful.
“Great minds think alike!!” ..lol 😉
Yes, the support level ay Mydomain.com is the worst I have ever seen! The do not reply to support tickets, had one open now for 7 days and counting!! I have all the same problems you mentioned. Support does not answer, however if you call for “sales” they pick right up! I have complained about this before, still the same problems. Mydomain.com get with the program and answer your support tickets and fix your new broken platform!!
I’m really sorry to see you are also at MyDomain.com Jamea. I don’t even have the energy yet to post what I went through today with this registrar. But I can tell you it took up most of my day. Ridiculous…
Was difficult even to sign up with them. And had wrong pricing for .tv and .me. Crap!
yup, id say there are too many issues with them, this is the new registerfly
the dont really have the registrar integrity to know whats in your account. watch out for the elevation of your issue to a level 2 teahcnician, this means weeks of waiting and no solution. i will say they are nice, but ineffective and its a management issue. they really dont understand the value of each name to the holder, thwy think well you should just think like us, and were a hosting company so the hosting issues dominates everything, not the domain registration.
page howe
bestgeos.com
LOL Page. I remember registerfly…
they simply delete inactive accounts it seems ?
i tried to login and it says invalid and says again invalid for reset password
Why not try domainka.com,I’ve tried it too and all things work out according to my will.
Try namecheap.com. They are one of the best around!
How ironic that I had to spend all day dealing with another nightmare issue at MyDomain.com and am running out of time to get domains transferred to namecheap.com for their $3.99 today only transfer special pricing…
We buy a lot from Snapnames. Domain.com is the only Registrar that will create a new account for every purchased name (instead of consolidating them all into a single account), and then send out an email with wrong login and password for managing the domain. Every time.
We then try to recover the correct login and password, but no luck – the reset password function doesn’t work! Email Domain.com about the problem, no luck either – they never respond!
When we finally get control over the domain, it shows up in the control panel, but guess what? It doesn’t let update nameservers or contact information, and it display the cryptic message “The domain is registered at another Registrar that we do not support”.
Neither do I.
Man o man, seeing this update in my email this morning brings back raging memories…
I acquired a domain that was already regged at domain.com so I created an account to receive the free push from the previous owner. Fast forward 16 months and I have a developed and earning site that I sold at auction. The new owner wants to transfer to GoDaddy… this process took probably 15 phone calls, 25 emails, and 2 weeks of my life. Their entire website is broken and customer service is a joke. I am so lucky to have one of the most patient buyers I have ever dealt with, because if it was me I would have probably asked for a refund and walked.
I will never ever use domain.com or any of their other companies again no matter what happens, and I suggest everyone else stay as far away as possible.
Which is the problem, MyDomain.com or Domain.com?
I believe all the registrars that Dotster owns will have the same issues.
It’s MyDomain.com, Dotster.com and Domain.com.
Watch out for GoDaddy! I finally convinced my brother to buy domains and when he bought his first GD stole it from him days after the transaction using a BS excuse that they did not believe he was who he claimed he was. The CC went through no problem but GD took the name and refunded the money. Total garbage! Can’t trust them.
hey Dee thats crazy man! I’ve heard of godaddy horror stories before but this really is scary. Thanks for posting this cause I was thinking transferring some domains to them @ $8.28 a piece but now no way!!!
Yeah I could not believe it Ron. I had to see the emails for myself. I had been having problems when I’d try to buy a domain, I’d get bumped off at payment Then the name was mysteriously gone when I’d get back on. Strange stuff!
It is true that some will have issues with domain registrars but for being the largest registrar, Godaddy is great. Problems will be encountered somewhere down the line,after all they have almost 35 million domains registered on their platform. It’s inevitable that some users will experience issues. Ultimately it is the ratio of users with problems that counts.
I feel for you brother. Myself also had problems since they changed the system. I am not sure why they did it. The old system was much better in all aspects. I think the new one is some canadian piece of crap software because netfirms which is a canadian registrar has exactly the same system. Anyway its a huge step back for mydomain.com not to mention that their new registration prices of $11.99 for a dotcom from $9.99 makes them even less competitive. So, crappy system, higher prices and waiting times longer that the government….I am not sure what their business plan is but I guess that Murphy’s law reigns over there…
It’s so true. The old system was fine. Whatever they are doing now should still be in beta. I wish I could access the old control panel.
Mark, I absolutely understand your pain … I’m also having lots of issues after the migration! Little problem in the past … now it’s really a mess.
Thanks Mark for your article. Sorry you’re having problems. I’ve been buying domains since 1995 but just now started selling. Your article gives me some insight to some of the speed bumps up ahead.
Thank you for your feedback Dee…
I spent hours on the phone with them, when they tried to move my 800 names I have to the new platform it did not go well. Many names that make money were redirected to there ppc landing page not mine. I spent over a week calling everyday at 7:00 am so I would only need to wait for 10 min. for a tech. I will be moving my names when I find a new registry.
“I will be moving my names when I find a new registry”
I found a new registry – I will be moving names when I can get a correct transfer authorization code, lol…
Hi Mark, where are you moving the names?
Probably Dynadot.com. I like their system alot and they are very responsive and helpful when I need something.
Many thanks so much! That is actually nice to hear!
These domain transfer and phone horrors are only part. Their hosting transferred to the new “platform” (BS term) left files behind on old servers they only have partial access to. URL forwards and hosting pointers are screwed up. Subsequent repairs once their techs answer sometimes break working sites. TIME TO BAIL. The Namecheap sale was limited to 50 per individual or business but so far the auth codes work.
UPDATE: Mydomain generated wrong auth codes causing transfers to be canceled.
I feel you…
Here is more. Much of my day yesterday revolved around MyDomain.com again. I am almost embarrassed to admit it. I have been trying to renew some expiring domains for days with no success. The javascript is not working for me and everything on the new platform is javascript. So I can’t get NS changes or the “renew domain” option to work. Nothing works for me. My javascript is the latest version and I am not having any problems on any other sites. This has been going on for a while and I kept thinking it would get fixed so would I try again the next day but it still does not work. I have already called about this problem but they were no real help – the guy said it worked fine for him but he WOULD have somebody look into it anyway – gee thanks. This was weeks ago.
Yesterday I go determined to renew about 60 names, some of which have actually expired by now and are going to MD nameservers, but I still can’t get it to work. So I can’t renew 60 names like Flabbergasted.com and FunkyClothes.com – good names that I have had for years.
So I fire up my wife’s computer and try with her old outdated browser – and it works. The outdated javascript on her computer is not a problem apparently? I put these 60 names in my shopping cart, there are no bulk options at this new system so I have to manually check how many years I want these renewed and also UNCHECK the default $8.99 privacy option – how convenient.
I do all this and click “submit” and it goes to an error page – arghhhh. So I go back and do it all again and it goes to an error page again – a real prozac moment for me. So I give it one more try, I go again and manually choose how many years and UNCHECK privacy again on 60 names and click “submit” for the 3rd time and this time – HURRAY – it goes to a checkout page. I click on the pay with paypal button and wait a few minutes and nothing happens? Nothing. No “twirling icons” no “please wait while the order is being processed” no “things are happening so do not hit this button again” – nothing. I give it a few minutes and hit the pay with paypal button again, still nothing. Now I go a little postal and click a bunch of times and still nothing. Nothing ever let me know that payment was taking place or had taken place. I get all mad and shut down my wife’s computer and go back to mine and check my email and I see that MyDomain.com has charged my paypal for six $516.73 transactions? WTF, well at least my domains got renewed.
So I call paypal and put in dispute resolutions on 5 of the charges. I call MyDomain.com and hold for a good hour – the guy that answered the phone was very nice and seemed helpful and said they will attempt to cancel these extra 5 transactions.
Today I called my bank and sure enough, 6 paypal charges of $516.73 are charged to my account. I call MyDomain.com again and hold for an hour (thank god for speaker phone but now I hate smooth jazz), the guy today is also nice and helpful and he tells me the nice helpful guy that helped me yesterday put the support ticket priority as “low” and never sent it to the billing department? WTF is wrong with these people, seriously? So this guy today sets priority to high and goes and talks to billing while I was on the phone and finally I now see Paypal will be cancelling these transactions and refunding my money.
Update: I got my refund of $2583.65 that I was inadvertently charged when I went to renew some domains. I also uninstalled my new updated javascript and reinstalled an older version (I actually had to install and uninstall about 5 or 6 old versions of javascript til I found one that worked on their site – so the latest versions of javascript do not work on their site apparently). Finally I have access to the site using my computer instead of my wifes.
On a funny note my wife told me this weekend she was going to click to update something on her computer and I said NOOOO – don’t do anything. Her outdated browser was the only access I had to my 2000 domains at MyDomain.com, lol.
Anyway I went to renew about 30 more domains and I clicked proceed to payment options and it just went to a page that said thank you for the order? Normally it goes to a page that gives me payment options like credit card or paypal etc. Not now? So now I am not sure what is getting charged to renew these domains that apparently DID get renewed? I checked my paypal (especially after the last fiasco) but no charge there. I checked my credit cards I have on file at MyDomain.com but no charges on them yet, but the domains did get renewed?
JobInterview.com is a good domain name. Do you still own it? If so, can we have a conversation?
Thanks
Jason
I wish I still had it because I spent that money already and need a job now, lol…
I think that happens a lot. I have been buying and selling job and recruiting domain names since 1997. There are a couple I wish I never sold either. My wife though always says to me you can’t tell people you are in the domain name business if you never sell anything.
I move my big list to Godaddy within 1 week without problem.
Because they not support IDN domain name registration, but Godaddy full support – i buy more and more name every week at Godaddy .. until not have over 400 nice name for Thai people at nametomoney.