Re: [ga] Registerfly loses approximately 75,000 customer domains

[Andy Gardner <andy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hows that data escrow going ICANN? Got it going yet yet?

No, I thought not.

The domain registrants get screwed again.

Taxation of the unrepresented.

On Feb 21, 2007, at 2:50 AM, Prophet Partners Inc. wrote:

> Hi Jeff,
>
> That's correct, no one on this mailing list sees this as being a  
> surprising
> event.
>
> Registerfly with an estimated 2 million domain names, is one of the  
> top 10
> domain registrars in the world, as measured by the total number of  
> domains
> under management. By their own admission in the court document  
> mentioned
> earlier, they recently failed to register or renew approximately  
> 35-40 %
> (75,000 / 200,000) of their customers' domains. Complaints are  
> rampant, with
> customers that paid for timely renewals later receiving  
> notification that
> their domains were expiring. To compound the problem, many people  
> complain
> that their domains are now locked at Registerfly, without the  
> ability to
> transfer out to another registrar. Customer accounts of customer  
> support
> being unresponsive or unreachable are also widespread. This is far  
> from
> being a small problem and certainly not representative of a secure and
> stable DNS.
>
> Given that Registerfly is ICANN accredited and ICANN's primary  
> objective is
> to maintain and ensure the security and stability of the DNS, what  
> has ICANN
> done and what should they do to protect domain registrants who are  
> customers
> of Registerfly? Note that Danny Younger's message was sent to Vint  
> Cerf,
> Chairman of ICANN's Board, nearly 3 months ago. What consumer  
> benefits are
> there to choosing an ICANN accredited registrar over one that is  
> not? What
> is ICANN doing to earn the $0.25 "tax" (without representation) for  
> each
> annual domain registration / renewal paid by domain registrants  
> (who have no
> influence on the shaping of ICANN policies)?
>
> ICANN wants to eventually gain autonomy from the U.S. Department of
> Commerce, but what have they demonstrated through past actions to  
> prove that
> they are capable of being autonomous? To the contrary, ICANN has  
> repeatedly
> shown that they do not act in the best interests of the public  
> community of
> domain registrants.
>
> Sincerely,
> Ted
> Prophet Partners Inc.
> http://www.ProphetPartners.com
> http://www.Premium-Domain-Names.com
>
> CC: John M.R. Kneuer (Assistant Secretary of Commerce for  
> Communications and
> Information, U.S. Department of Commerce - NTIA)
>     Vint Cerf (Chairman of the Board, ICANN)
>     Anick Jesdanun (Associated Press)
>     Arik Hesseldahl (BusinessWeek)
>     Paul Sloan (Business 2.0)
>     Scott Ard (c|net)
>     Rachel Rosmarin (Forbes)
>     Adam Gaffin (NetworkWorld)
>     Brian Krebs (The Washington Post)
>     CNN News Tips
>     The N.Y. Times News Tips
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jeff Williams" <jwkckid1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: "Prophet Partners Inc." <Domains@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: <ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 12:30 AM
> Subject: Re: [ga] Registerfly loses approximately 75,000 customer  
> domains
>
>
> > Ted and all,
> >
> >   Interesting, but not all that surprising.  On the surface it  
> > would seem
> > that the allegations are more based on poor expense reporting  
> > mechanisms
> > and even worse employee supervision or Registerfly is trying to cover
> > up some mistakes in registrar management.
> >
> > Prophet Partners Inc. wrote:
> >
> > > A February 12, 2007 complaint was filed by UNIFIEDNAMES, INC. d/b/a
> > > Registerfly and JOHN NARUSZEWICZ v. KEVIN MEDINA in the U.S.  
> > > District
> Court
> > > of New Jersey. It states that as of December 2006, roughly 200,000
> domains
> > > were registered on behalf of customers and that approximately  
> > > 75,000 of
> > > these customer domains were lost since January 2007, due to the  
> > > actions
> of
> > > the Defendant, which resulted in failure to pay the required  
> > > registry
> fees.
> > > The Plaintiff alleges that the Defendant wasted company money to  
> > > pay for
> a
> > > personal escort, rent on a Miami penthouse, personal credit card  
> > > bills
> and
> > > liposuction, in addition to withdrawing thousands of dollars from
> company
> > > accounts for personal spending.
> > >
> > > http://registerflies.com/docman/cat_view-2.html
> > >
> > > This would certainly explain the Registerfly problems addressed  
> > > by Danny
> > > Younger on November 30, 2006.
> > > http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/ga/msg05232.html
> > >
> > > However, ICANN's failure to act and protect Registerfly customers
> remains
> > > unexplained.
> > >
> > > Sincerely,
> > > Ted
> > > Prophet Partners Inc.
> > > http://www.ProphetPartners.com
> > > http://www.Premium-Domain-Names.com
> >
> > Regards,
> > --
> > Jeffrey A. Williams