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

[Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ted and all,

  Well it has been clear to me that ICANN itself cannot or will not take
responsibility for their own contracted Registrar or Registry's poor
management, Vint Cerf not withstanding.  Several  Registrars other
than Registerfly have been "Bad Actors" in their contracted responsibilities
to their Registrants as has been many times reported to this list forum and
directly to ICANN Bod and staff members.

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

Regards,

--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 134k members/stakeholders strong!)
"Obedience of the law is the greatest freedom" -
   Abraham Lincoln

"Credit should go with the performance of duty and not with what is
very often the accident of glory" - Theodore Roosevelt

"If the probability be called P; the injury, L; and the burden, B;
liability depends upon whether B is less than L multiplied by
P: i.e., whether B is less than PL."
United States v. Carroll Towing  (159 F.2d 169 [2d Cir. 1947]
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