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

["Paul Stahura" <stahura@xxxxxxxx>]

I didn't know that number came from their website.  Obviously, *I*
believe it is inaccurate.  The purpose of my email was to contribute my
opinion which I believe more accurately states the magnitude of the
impact of this event on the registrant community, which is part of what
this GA email list is about.  

Knowing the number of names that remain in the registerfly eNom account
(yes, we recently terminated their reseller agreement, but this is after
approx one year since they've become ICANN accredited and moving names
out of eNom; there are now less than 90K names left), and knowing the
number of names in their ICANN accredited registrar, and a decent guess
of how many of those .info names are registered to registerfly itself
(or one registrant), the impact is still sizable, but VERY much less
than 2 million names.  300-400K customer-registered names?
If 1/12 expire per month, that's about 30K names in the next 30 days
(this does not count updates).  Unfortunately, the vast majority of
those are not at eNom so we cannot help those registrants.  

Regarding your valid comment about registrant confusion: eNom's customer
service dept is working overtime and diligently with any registrants we
can reach (or who reach us), and who have names in the registerfly eNom
account, to minimize the impact of the registerfly situation on those
registrants... and we have been for a very long time.  It's difficult to
directly reach all the registrants who would be potentially affected,
and I think it would also be appropriate to make a more detailed
statement to this list on this subject, so I will have our customer
service folks prepare one and send it out tomorrow.


-----Original Message-----
From: Prophet Partners Inc. [mailto:Domains@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Sunday, February 25, 2007 2:59 PM
To: ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ga] Registerfly loses approximately 75,000 customer
domains

Hi Paul,

The 2 million figure comes from Registerfly's own website.
http://registerfly.com/info/about.php
Quick Facts

  a.. Founded in 2000
  b.. ICANN Accredited
  c.. 100% Debt Free
  d.. Customers in all 50 states and 120 Countries
  e.. 1,000,000 paying customers
  f.. 300,000 + sites hosted on our Flyservers.com
  g.. Over 2 million names registered
>From what we understand, the 2 million figure includes names that are
directly registered through Registerfly's ICANN accreditation, as well
as
names registered through the eNom reseller relationship. As eNom only
recently terminated their relationship with Registerfly, many of the
domains
registered under this arrangement would appear to be in some type of
limbo.
Given the large number of registrants, it is axiomatic that some level
of
registrant confusion exists, especially regarding paid renewals that are
now
in redemption period or pending delete. As the President of eNom,
perhaps
you could clarify the situation and set the record straight.

Sincerely,
Ted
Prophet Partners Inc.
http://www.ProphetPartners.com
http://www.Premium-Domain-Names.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Stahura" <stahura@xxxxxxxx>
To: "Prophet Partners Inc." <Domains@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>;
<ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "John M.R. Kneuer (U.S. Department of Commerce)"
<jkneuer@xxxxxxxxxxxx>;
"Vint Cerf" <vint@xxxxxxxxxx>; "Anick Jesdanun (Associated Press)"
<netwriter@xxxxxx>; "Arik Hesseldahl (BusinessWeek)"
<Arik_Hesseldahl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "Paul Sloan (Business2.com)"
<psloan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "Scott Ard (c|net)" <sard@xxxxxxxx>; "Rachel
Rosmarin (Forbes)" <rrosmarin@xxxxxxxxxx>; "Adam Gaffin (NetworkWorld)"
<agaffin@xxxxxxx>; "Brian Krebs (Washington Post)"
<brian.krebs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "CNN News Tips" <ireport@xxxxxxx>; "NY
Times News Tips" <news-tips@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, February 25, 2007 4:24 PM
Subject: RE: [ga] Registerfly loses approximately 75,000 customer
domains


um, I do not believe they manage anywhere near 2 million domains.
Why does the 2 million number keep circulating?

According to Webhosting.info
http://www.webhosting.info/registrars/reports/total_domains/tld/REGISTER
FLY.COM/
they have 882K names in their cred, of which 563K are .info names.
I suspect the vast majority of those .info names are not registered to
customers (but to rfly itself).  Only about 300K are .com .net .info and
.biz names.  If each customer has on average 3 names, thats 100K
customers, that's still a ton of registrants but a far cry from 2
million.

-----Original Message-----
From: Prophet Partners Inc. [mailto:Domains@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 12:50 AM
To: ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: John M.R. Kneuer (U.S. Department of Commerce); Vint Cerf; Anick
Jesdanun (Associated Press); Arik Hesseldahl (BusinessWeek); Paul Sloan
(Business2.com); Scott Ard (c|net); Rachel Rosmarin (Forbes); Adam
Gaffin (NetworkWorld); Brian Krebs (Washington Post); CNN News Tips; NY
Times News Tips
Subject: Re: [ga] Registerfly loses approximately 75,000 customer
domains

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