Register.com requires $35.00 for me to renew toddsingleton.net with them for one year. For those of you not familiar with domain registration, that’s a ransom right now. For example GoDaddy.com charges $6.99 for a new registration and usually less for a renewal. So tonight I went to transfer my domain to GoDaddy. Part of the transfer process requires providing GoDaddy with a domain “Authorization Code”. I went to Register.com to get this as required. I was told I would have to “speak to a special customer service representative to handle that request” who is only available from 8am to 6pm EST. Funny, every other registrar I know of will send the authorization code to the administrative email on record for the domain (mine).
Well, here’s the problem: this domain expires at exactly midnight tonight. See the situation that’s forming? I called GoDaddy for help since I already paid them $7.99 for the transfer (which coincidentally includes a FREE one year domain registration extension). The rep laughed at the notion that I had to speak to a “special customer service rep” for an authorization number from Register.com. He then offered to refund the transfer fee if I ‘d like. I said no. I’ll have to pay the freakin’ ransom to Register.com and then I’ll move this domain straight to GoDaddy to get my free one year extension giving me the domain for 2 years. Register.com offered two years for $49.95. Wow, do their prices suck or what?
In the meantime I have another domain currently registered through Register.com, southeasternrea.com. I will begin the process of transferring that domain to GoDaddy immediately for $7.99 so I won’t have to pay over FOUR TIMES as much to renew it for one year. And what does this accelerated pricing buy you? Limited domain management tools in the web interface requiring you to have to call a “special customer service rep” to manage your own domain. That’s about as weak as it gets.
If you have a domain about to expire with Register.com here’s my advice: Transfer it to GoDaddy for $7.99 at least 10 days before the expiration date and get yourself a free one year renewal. This is the best way to let Register.com know their prices bite ass. And for those of you who are wondering why I don’t just let the domain expire and then renew it with GoDaddy for $6.99 I will detail the lifecycle of an expired domain.
- Once a domain expires the previous registrant has 12 days to renew the domain at the regular price (DNS is disabled).
- After 12 days the registrant can renew the domain for the regular price plus a surcharge of $80 for up to 30 days.
- After 30 days the domain is put up for auction for 30 days.
- After 60 days the domain is returned to the previous registrar (Register.com in this case) who can put it back into the public registry as available. I don’t know if there’s a time frame in which they’re required to do this.
I hope you are having fun at godaddy with your domain names.
Are those long distant charges piling up, how about those extra fees, oh what about the soft porn commercials and let the domains expire and see if you can get them back without paying a premium.By the way every company out there gives you a “free year” when you transfer a domain name to them.
Maybe you should do a little more research before spouting off.
Oh and I almost forgot.
Why can’t godaddy go public?
Check it out.
I’m going to copy Sergei’s email address with this response. I can’t even tell if the above comment is spam or not.
“Are those long distant charges piling up?”
What in the hell are you talking about? Are you still on dial up?
“how about those extra fees, oh what about the soft porn commercials”
Again, is this some kind of spam message? What “extra fees”? Never had an unexpected fee from Go Daddy. And I don’t run from women in bikini’s either dude. Are you offended by the “soft porn” Serg?
“By the way every company out there gives you a “free year” when you transfer a domain name to them.”
Ya, and Go Daddy did too. So what’s your point?
“Maybe you should do a little more research before spouting off.”
OK. Done. 21 years of registering domains all the way back to before Network Solutions even existed and registration was required through InterNIC. Want me to hold a class just for you?
If you did your research before “spouting off” you would know the process for reclaiming an expired domain is the same for every single registrar: They have to be back-ordered once they expire. The registrar will put it in Registrar Hold status for about six days after their renewal grace period expires. After this hold is released someone else can back order it before you and send it to an auction. That’s all part of the process guy. Moral of the story: Don’t let your domain expire.
This is a bazaar little rant against Go Daddy and I’m not sure what spawned Segei’s grievance because all his points are without any merit.
Do you work for Register.com Sergei? The absolute worst registrar in the business IMO. That’s saying a lot verses Network Solutions who just recently added free text fields to their available domain records after they claimed no one needed them and I, among others argued that in fact they are required for SPF records. Do you even know what an SPF record is Sergei? I mean without Google.
As far as your last comment “Why can’t Go Daddy go public”.
I don’t care enough to look into it. But I do know they pulled the IPO in 2006 because Bob Parsons couldn’t keep his mouth shut during the required “quiet period” between the filing and the public offering. He went on the radio. I bet your reason has something to do with the women in bikini’s you’re scared of. Are you some hyper-christian nutcase Serg?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHa man you are funny, fuck you make me laugh, god I am glad you are a expret in the world of domain names we need someone like you. For one everyone knows if an agent tells you that it can’t be done now ask for a supervisor (you ever call microsoft its the only way to get things done). Second of all you can transfer an expired domain so theres something you didnt know would you like me to help with the class you are going to teach Sergei? I do agree the prices are higher than others but its nice to talk to someone that is trained in there job and not just given sheets to read off. But I do give you that you sound like you know what you are doing so what the hell would you need with technical advice and help you can do it yourself. Not all of us tho can do it or afford tech’s to help so teh price is nice to knwo you have teh help. As far as Godaddy goes don’t love don’t hate ( well being in my 20’s love the girls on the site) but I have talked to 5 of there agents and I should have just talked to my 4 year old nephew god they are dumb, it just reinfocred what I thought of Americans and its not much. I m not saying they are all bad and that registers are all good by no means. But what I am saying is grow up stop bitching on the internet (wait thats what I m doing hmm) and go watch your porn on your registrars site I am. Oh and leave poor Sergei alone.
Can anyone read the incoherent shit above?
All I could make out was “you can transfer an expired domain so theres something you didnt know”…ass-clown punctuation and all.
You can transfer an expired domain name if, and only if, it is still in the registrar’s grace period. Grace periods differ by registrar and by domain name extension.
During the registrar’s grace period, you can renew your domain name, and then follow the procedure for transferring it to your new registrar.
Note the “you can renew your domain name” Sir Chris of the Ass Clowns. That is what the original post was “bitching” about.
I had until midnight to initiate the transfer or the domain would expire and have to be renewed with Register.com. I could not get the transfer authorization code from Register.com (unlike other registrars) because I would need to “speak to a special customer service representative to handle that request who is only available from 8am to 6pm EST.”
No other registrar does that you little know nothing, smart-mouth, shitbag.
You’re right, I do know what I’m talking about and I will not give you credit for knowing dick you little 20-something fuck. No credit for you’re internet savvy, you’re ass-poor grammar or your plea to stop picking on fuck-tards who believe they know something about web related technologies while sitting at their mom’s house pretending they could “teach” professionals earning a living at this stuff.
Don’t bother replying. Your last post was almost too stupid for approval. I just wanted to make an example out of you.
Register.com requires $35.00 for me to renew toddsingleton.net with them for one year. For those of you not familiar with domain registration, that’s a ransom right now. For example GoDaddy.com charges $6.99 for a new registration and usually less for a renewal.
– That’s about the normal fee for a premium domain registrar. Not for everyone, but it’s well worth it for a small business or someone new who needs the support, or the consultations needed to get their business online, marketing to search engines etc. Not nearly as outrageous as you make it sound. The toll free number alone would more than make up for it for the customers who need all the support they can get.
I was told I would have to “speak to a special customer service representative to handle that request” who is only available from 8am to 6pm EST. Funny, every other registrar I know of will send the authorization code to the administrative email on record for the domain (mine).
– Not that big of a deal. Getting an auth code is hardly a “9-1-1 emergency situation” Simply e-mail Register.com’s customer support. Call them during normal business hours, instead of waiting to get things done “last minute”. Like the poster above said, even if you procrastinate as long as you did regarding transfer, a simple supervisor request would have been sufficient. You should take ownership on this one, it’s common knowledge to initiate a transfer at least a few weeks prior to the name expiring, you should have followed your own advise. As far as having to speak with an agent, a lot of customers request their auth codes because their hosting provider, designer etc simply requested them to do that. They don’t know about changing the DNS. They aren’t educated in the fact they can keep the domain name in their own account under their own name as opposed to relinquishing control of it to someone else. A lot of customers have lost their domain names to defunct hosting companies, designers, simply because they didn’t fully understand what they were looking to do.
Well, here’s the problem: this domain expires at exactly midnight tonight. See the situation that’s forming? I called GoDaddy for help since I already paid them $7.99 for the transfer (which coincidentally includes a FREE one year domain registration extension). The rep laughed at the notion that I had to speak to a “special customer service rep” for an authorization number from Register.com. He then offered to refund the transfer fee if I ‘d like. I said no. I’ll have to pay the freakin’ ransom to Register.com and then I’ll move this domain straight to GoDaddy to get my free one year extension giving me the domain for 2 years. Register.com offered two years for $49.95. Wow, do their prices suck or what?
– This may seem expensive but keep in mind the cost for a company like Register.com to secure a domain name with the registry is approximately $8.00 per year. How can a company that charges $10.00 or less afford to provide decent support without making up that cost someplace? Yes Register.com is more expensive but there are no surprises down the road and their policies make it very easy to manage your domains. I have been with Register.com since 2002, and I haven’t had any major problems with Register.com. Not to mention, I renew my domains with them for $10.00 a year. Granted I do maximum term renewals as opposed to year by year.
And what does this accelerated pricing buy you? Limited domain management tools in the web interface requiring you to have to call a “special customer service rep” to manage your own domain. That’s about as weak as it gets.
– Your only complaint about Register.com’s system is that the authorization code is more of a hassle than other registrars. It’s a slight inconvenience. This does not make Register.com the worst tier 1 registrar like you claim. Full zone file modifications are available, A, MX, PTR, SOA, C NAME, DNS registrations, SPF, TXT all modifiable. Not all registrars give you this ability. My experience has been quite the opposite. I’ve called Register.com on billing issues and ended up also getting tech support from the same representative, and vice-versa. Nearly every rep has adequate training in all services they provide. Other than technical hosting inquiries, you may need to ask for their hosting specialist dept. They have won the J.D Power customer support award 6 or 7 years in a row. Obviously not everyone is as bent out of shape as you about retrieving auth codes.
If you have a domain about to expire with Register.com here’s my advice: Transfer it to GoDaddy for $7.99 at least 10 days before the expiration date and get yourself a free one year renewal. This is the best way to let Register.com know their prices bite ass. And for those of you who are wondering why I don’t just let the domain expire and then renew it with GoDaddy for $6.99 I will detail the lifecycle of an expired domain.
– It seems the underlying theme of your rant is that Register.com makes transfers away difficult. On the contrary, I am a domain reseller, and GoDaddy is probably the worst in this regard, yet it’s the company you’re bragging up to be the best registrar in the world. What other company places a 60 day lock on a domain name for renewals of a domain name, contact modifications etc. The only 60 day lock Register.com places on your domain is the mandatory lock set by the registry for new domain registrations. If your situation had been reversed, you would have had to wait 60 days after your renewal to move to GoDaddy. Your opinions seemed biased. Are you an employee for GoDaddy? I just found your post odd, of all the terrible registrar’s out there, Register.com is the worst due to a few hoops involved getting an auth code?
“Full zone file modifications are available, A, MX, PTR, SOA, C NAME, DNS registrations, SPF, TXT all modifiable. Not all registrars give you this ability.”
The only one I am aware of that did not offer this ability was Network Solutions. At one time they did not offer TXT records required for SPF. SPF entries are TXT record entries. They are not a type of DNS record such as MX and CNAME. As of last year Network Solutions added TXT record support.
“I just found your post odd, of all the terrible registrar’s out there, Register.com is the worst due to a few hoops involved getting an auth code?”
Nope. My complaints (plural) were that register.com is hard to work with due to policies they put in place such as the “hoops” involved with getting an auth code AND more importantly, how expensive they are compared to everyone else.
I could change the part about “If you have a domain about to expire with Register.com here’s my advice: Transfer it to GoDaddy for $7.99 at least 10 days before the expiration date and get yourself a free one year renewal.” Really the domain could be transferred to just about any other registrar, get a free year and save a ton of money. There is nothing I’ve seen offered by register.com that makes them worth 4 times the price of anyone else. Unless you just don’t like to keep your pesky money hanging around.
I had the misfortune to be with Register.com and their sister company Namebarga in.com from 2000 to 2005. The MONEY I wasted ! I owned (at that time) appx 150 domains. I had one website. In addition to $35.00 per year fee, if I wanted the domain forwarded to my website it was a premium of another $100 per year. Renewal time was a nightmare. Every domain had to be renewed INDIVIDUALLY. They promised a bulk management program but never produced. I found GODADDY in 2005 and have been a happy guy ever since. All my domain names forward to my website FREE OF CHARGE at GODADDY. Whoever threw the monkey wrench in your blog is probably a grunt over at Regiser.com trying to slander the number 1 contender. I have nothing but good to say about GoDaddy !! Excellent, excellent, excellent. Register.com flat out SUCKS. Oh, 4 years after transferring my domains out I had to let 2, .ws websites expire as they could not be transferred. A year later I bought them at GODADDY. Now, I own them 3 years at GODADDY at the time, and I get a charge on my Amex card (the last amex card on file with Register.com had expired years ago and had been replaced as lost / stolen 3x since then in a dispute with LAFitness kept charging for a full year after I properly resigned / stopped my membership .. ANYWAY … Amex allows REGISTER.COM to charge $85 (apx) on my Amex (now expired by 3 years and replaced 3x) for these 2 .ws domain renewals that had been expired at Register.com for 4 years and long since been RE-Purhcased (after expiration) at GODADDY, now owned at GODADDY for 3 years. I had 3 card replacements with NEW account numbers since then yet Amex required that I call Register.com. I was furious at Amex already about the LA Fitness thing that ultimately never got resolved so I called Register.com. The rep required that I submit my request in writing etc. I blew up. Told them I’d fall the US Division of Banking and FInance as well as the Federal Trades Commission and the FCC (not knowing who had authority) He then reversed the charge. How desperate is Register.com? The thing is … they do this in hopes that most people won’t catch it nor care. If it is caught … it is reversed in the sake of :”oh it was a mistake” and no legal charges would then follow. This is a FACT. No fluff, no BS and no exaggeration. GoDaddy is great. If the owner is a multi billionaire, he deserves it. They provide great service and prices. The writer of this blog … feel free to write me or I’ll check back again. Just would like to reduce the chances of spam from this post.
@Todd, Register.com is such a joke. You have to pay $40 something just to renew your domain which costs $6-8 on Godaddy.
I lost 20 domains recently, as they wouldn’t let me transfer them to Godaddy. Someone at Godaddy named John laughed at me when I told them they are asking me to call them to transfer the domain. Good thing I got refund for 20 transfer that I initially paid in godaddy.
It has not changed a bit, you wrote this piece in 2006 and its 2010 today and now they charge $70/year for renewal.
It’s 17 April 2011, and register.com still sucks indeed!
When one of my domains recently expired, their “auto-renew” feature was supposed to automatically renew the domain by charging from my PayPal account.
It happily renewed my domain for 24 hrs, then expired it. I received an email stating “there was a problem with your payment”, and that I had to renew again. I did so, it renewed the domain, and all was fine for another 24 hrs.
Then I got another email saying “there was a problem with your payment”. I renewed it a third time, then immediately called them to make sure it went through. The guy on the phone, Tom, admitted that they were having problems with PayPal payments. He also confirmed I had auto-renew enabled. He asked if there was enough money in the account at the time of the auto-renew. I told him there most certainly was, and on top of that PayPal will deduct funds from my bank if necessary (which wasn’t in this case).
I noticed they had tacked on a $25 admin fee for renewing the domain after expiry. Since this was their mistake, I asked him to remove the fee. He said he’d get a supervisor to decide, who’d email me back.
He, not his supervisor, emailed me back stating that since I had no way of proving I had sufficient funds in my PayPal account, they would not refund the fee!
It is a fact that if a payment won’t go through because of NSF, the transaction is recorded as such. There was no activity on my PayPal account until the third time I attempted to renew my domain, which I should never have had to do in the first place!
Bottom line: register.com are thieves. They stole $25 from me and despite the obvious fact that they have been caught doing it, still refuse to return the money.
Is it incompetence or criminal? I would argue it’s either both, or very criminal. They were incompetent by failing to auto-renew the domain, and have used their incompetence to steal. IMO they are being purposely incompetent to allow them to steal from their customers. Does it get any more sick than that?
These scum need to be sued out of existence ASAP. And don’t even get me started on the several DDOS attacks on their name servers which ended up causing my users to lose connection to my sites for days at a time while they denied there was even a problem! No doubt the DDOS attacks were made by disgruntled customers…
Currently I am researching how to transfer my domain names to GoDaddy, but it’s going to be quite an expensive call for me as I live outside US or Canada so I cannot use their free toll number.
I remember that the auto-renew feature could be disabled by the customer from the website, however nearing the expiry date it automagically was being enabled, thus charging my card. This happened for 2 years in a row. It seems I cannot get rid of the domain that I do not want anymore.
And yes I tried calling them, waited for about 15 minutes on hold and had to hang up as the call was too expensive.
Wish me luck in getting my transfers done… I obviously need it!
Man, the Register.com Dbags are shilling hard.
Register.com is friggin terrible.
Register.com’s website takes about 5 minutes per “cart” update to load. Dial up websites were faster in the 1990s.
Register.com’s website does not work in Firefox.
They also make you wait 3-4 days for your code. I’m transferring 30+ domains to name.com. Because I’ll no longer be held hostage by their shitty website, shitty support (where you have to call to do 1/2 the things you want).
Network Solutions was better back in the 90s.