Desperately need help with domain registration

[baliblue]

Hi,

I am an Australian living in Bali and badly need some assistance. I have been learning internet marketing for a few months and have built a few sites. I have been purchasing my domains from 1&1. I have three accounts with them but most of my domains are in one account.

Recently I discovered that the account with most of my domains was not accessible, and had "delete" next to it. I questioned them and their original response was that I canceled it. After many emails they stopped replying to me, then two days ago all my sites went down.

Their latest advice is that "we never managed to capture payment". They have my credit card, and have used it before.

Situation is - I have a number of sites that I am working on. They are down because my domains have been deleted. I cannot get any reasonable or timely response from 1&1. I would like to take my domains elsewhere, but not sure if this is viable.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Greg

[Jesus Perez]

It sounds like your card was declined. Have you contacted your bank?

1and1 will probably hold on to your domain silently for another 45 days or so (if I remember ICANN law correctly).

Nutshell: call your bank, find out why the card declined, contact 1and1 and get it rolling. If you let these domains expire, you may never see them again.

[Amanda_Moon]

I tried using 1 & 1 and one point. I don't think I will ever go back. I have some really horror stories with them. Personally I do not recommend their services to anyone. There are much better registrars out there.

Another company should be able to transfer the domains over but you will have to contact 1&1 first most likely.

[RebeccaL]

Don't use 1&1.... from now on. Use Namecheap.

As for the domains that are stuck there, I'm not sure what to do besides keep contacting them and eventually just transfer them out of there to another registrar.

[baliblue]

I don't think the bank are the problem. Everyone else is getting paid. 1&1 have managed to use the card on every other occasion.

I expected that if there was a payment issue, some form of contact would have occurred before wiping someones business off the planet.

[Mike Hill]

I have a horror story with 1&1 from when they first broke onto the scene and offered free domain names and hosting. Boy what a mess and not to mention the rude guy yelling at me on the phone, threatening me like a gangster and saying things like "You still don't get it do you a@# wipe? Chalk it up to a cheap lesson learned!".

Needless to say they did this to thousands of people.

If I were you I would check with the banks to be sure, then you have some ammo when you call them back. Before you explain your situation with them and even tell them who you are get them to say their name to you and then tell them the conversation is being recorded in case you had to pursue this issue further.

That will get them to sit up in their chair for sure...

Mike Hill

PS. After you get your domains back request to have them transferred immediately to Name Cheap...

[zen_affiliate]

They are one of a number of registrars and hosts that I use and haven't had a complaint in 5 years. I must just be lucky.
(note to self; buy more lottery tickets, you so bloody lucky)

Are you sure there isn't something else that you haven't told us?

Bluesquares is correct about the 45 days and having investigated this myself before canceling domains I had no more use for, it's very unlike their billing folk(who are slightly less helpful than their tech people who have been very helpful to me, the few times I've needed them ~I'm very lucky, though. Anyone know if they still sell Irish Sweepstakes tickets?) to act in such a manner.
I get emails and PMs on my dashboards when I cancel domains, too, making me double opt out, to make certain I mean it, though perhaps those are just "lucky affiliate" rules.
(perhaps I should change my name?)

You got none of this though you've been working on sites residing on these servers? Very curious. If you tell them that you have a valid card and actually want the sites, most billing departments are more than happy to take ones money. It's part of the job.

[JWB]

One of the best places to register domains is Name Cheap.
I have always used them and they are very reasonable.

Never had a problem with them. You can even deposit funds
with them and use that when registering domains in the future.

[mikeyman120]

I like to use the best and have had no problems at all in years. I use godaddy for domain names, hostgator for hosting and aweber for autoresponder.

Glad I never tried the same place as you.

Mike

[baliblue]

Zen Affiliate there is a lot that I have not told you, but nothing that would change the facts. There have been about 15 emails exchanged, but they have provided me with few answers and absolutely no solutions. I don't want to fill this forum with all the details although you would definately get a good laugh from it.

The facts are - They have my credit card which manages to get debited from dozens of other people on a regular basis. They have taken payment from the card on at least 3 occasions. They did not advise me of any payment issues. I have nine domains (all the important ones) in the account they have deleted. I have not requested the cancellation of any of my accounts. They will not give me a solution to the problem.

From the recommendations received from friends and this forum, I am going to use Namecheap. That is providing they do not have an issue dealing with me living in Indonesia.

I have asked them what time frame could be expected to have the domains transferred and back on line.

Can anyone give me an answer to how long this might take.

Oh.... thanks everyone for the replies to date.

Greg

[geolt7]

Namecheap is definitely the way to go.

I have done a few domain transfers from Godaddy to namecheap previously and the whole process (if it is SMOOTH) will take at most 3 to 4 days.

Having said that, I believe you will run into some problem doing the transfer. This is because 1&1 is not responding to you. When you initiate a transfer, you will be required to enter an authorization code. I am not sure whether there is another way to obtaining that but I had to login to Godaddy (the domain registrar that I want to move my domains out from) and get it. This is your first barrier.

Assuming that you somehow managed to get the authorization code, the 2nd issue comes when transfer is initiated by namecheap and 1&1 receives the request. When I did the transfer, I had to login to Godaddy to acknowledge and approve of the request to transfer and the loop is completed. I hope there is another way around this for you.

What you can do is probably talk to 1&1 nicely and say that you would like to initiate a transfer of domain and ask them if you can obtain the authorization code and help with the subsequent processes. If they request for some money, if it is not very much, just give them. It is better to save your domains rather than to argue with them and waste your time. In my opinion of course. This is what I would do.

I hope to be more of help but this is what I can suggest.

[baliblue]

Thanks for all that have offered suggestions.

I have just received a reply from Namecheap (about 1 hour from submitting request). It took 11 days for a reply from 1&1.

Namecheap advise that the domains need to be active. Unfortunately they are not active, they are deleted.

I guess that takes me back to where I started. I will have to continue dealing with people who don't care, and offer no solution.

I hope they will reply to me a little quicker than 11 days.